Social and Behavioral Sciences | Open Access Articles

Conterminous United States Crop Field Size Quantification From Multi-Temporal Landsat Data, Lin Yan Dr., David P. Roy Jan 2016

Conterminous United States Crop Field Size Quantification From Multi-Temporal Landsat Data, Lin Yan Dr., David P. Roy

GSCE Faculty Publications

Agricultural field size is indicative of the degree of agricultural capital investment, mechanization and labor intensity, and it is ecologically important. A recently published automated computational methodology to extract agricultural crop fields from weekly 30 m Web Enabled Landsat data (WELD) time series was refined and applied to a year of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 7 Enhance Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM +) acquisitions for all of the conterminous United States (CONUS). For the first time, spatially explicit CONUS field size maps and derived information are presented. A total of 4,182,777 fields were extracted with mean and median …

Go to article

Energy In The Corn Belt: Is Maize Production Sustainable?, Matthew Bernau Jan 2013

Energy In The Corn Belt: Is Maize Production Sustainable?, Matthew Bernau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technological and scientific innovation has transformed agricultural production. Corn production methods changed from a sustainable, nutrient recycling production system to one reliant on imported fossil energy inputs. Located in the Western Corn Belt, Union County, South Dakota was chosen as the study area. Changes in production methods are represented by four technological epochs: 1) The Draft Horse Epoch, 1890-1920; 2) The Tractor Epoch, 1920-1950; 3) The Fertilizer Epoch, 1950-1980; and 4) The Biotechnology and Precision Agriculture Epoch, 1980-2010. The energy budget method was used to measure the energy sustainability of corn production. The findings show that the volume of corn …

Go to article

Evaluating Women In Agriculture Training Programs In South Dakota, Carol J. Cumber, Barnabas Sugutt Mar 2011

Evaluating Women In Agriculture Training Programs In South Dakota, Carol J. Cumber, Barnabas Sugutt

Economics Commentator

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Evolutions Of Institutions In China, Sun He, John Sondey Feb 2003

Evolutions Of Institutions In China, Sun He, John Sondey

Economics Staff Paper Series

Economic reforms in rural development are of special significance to the future of agriculture in China and hence the Chinese economy. This paper follows the trend of changes in agricultural institutions in China, and explains the reasons why those reforms should occur and the direction they would give the Chinese economy. Unlike many articles which have described China's reforms as a process of the government's self-selection, this paper considers the variety of forces pushing Chinese reforms in agriculture forward; not only government's policies but also farmers' reactions to and their interactions with farm policy. Since 1978, many policies directed at …

Go to article

A Comparative Review Of Structural Changes In South Korea And South Dakota Agriculture, Larry Janssen, Yong Kwon Oct 2000

A Comparative Review Of Structural Changes In South Korea And South Dakota Agriculture, Larry Janssen, Yong Kwon

Economics Staff Paper Series

Structural change is an ongoing feature of economic development around the world. Despite vast differences in the structural organization of South Korean and South Dakota (U.S) agriculture, many structural changes are similar. This paper includes a comparative review of selected structural changes in Korean and South Dakota (U.S.) agriculture and the relative impact of forces affecting structural changes in both nations. Reduced economic impact of farm sector, farm population and farm size trends, full-time vs. part-time farming, changing food consumption, imports and exports are some of the major structural trends examined. Implications of changing agricultural structure in South Korea and …

Go to article

Impact Of South Dakota Agriculture 1991-1995, Martin K. Beutler Aug 1997