Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Irrigation Pumping Costs, Roger Selley

Cornhusker Economics

Energy prices have risen dramatically in the last two years, with changes also taking place in relative prices between energy sources. Representative prices paid for three major energy alternatives over the last five years are reported below in Table 1. Actual prices paid have also varied considerably depending upon when the fuel was purchased during the year and the supplier. The cost of natural gas (not reported here) and electricity, are complicated with total energy supply costs that depend upon both consumption and annual connect charges. Electricity rates also depend upon the frequency of interruption of service selected. The total …

Platte River Policy Preferences, Ray Supalla

Cornhusker Economics

The Platte River system consists of the North Platte and South Platte Rivers. The North Platte begins in North Central Colorado, passes through South Central Wyoming, crosses all of Nebraska and joins the Missouri River at Omaha, Nebraska. The South Platte begins in East Central Colorado and joins the North Platte River at North Platte, Nebraska. The Platte system provides irrigation water to over one million acres, supplies 300 MW of hydroelectric power, supports in excess of two million visitor days of recreation each year and provides critical habitat for fish and wildlife. The reach of the Platte River between …

Is There A Chance For Crop Prices To Rise?, Lynn Lutgen

Cornhusker Economics

By the time USDA released its August 10th report, a large portion of the U.S. had already suffered under several days of 95 plus degree weather. Crop conditions tend to deteriorate under these conditions, and several of the hot days are not reflected in the August 10th report. Corn production is forecast at 9.27 billion bushels, which is down seven percent from last year. Remember, these crop conditions are based on an August 1 date, and will not have the impact of the later days of hot weather in them. Based on the conditions of August 1, yields are now …

Pumpkin Creek Surface-Groundwater Dispute, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Pumpkin Creek, a tributary of the North Platte River, historically flowed from eastern Wyoming into the Nebraska Panhandle through Banner County, and joined the North Platte River in Morrill County near Bridgeport. Over 20 years ago, Pumpkin Creek was closed to the issuance of new surface water rights by the Nebraska Department of Water Resources (now the Department of Natural Resources or DNR), due to streamflow reductions. In March 2001 the North Platte Natural Resources District (NRD) established the Pumpkin Creek Groundwater Management Subarea and closed the subarea to new well drilling. Existing wells must be metered in 2003 and …

World Dairy Product Trade: Analysis With A Mixed Complementarity Problem Formulation, Charles F. Nicholson, Phillip M. Bishop

Agribusiness

World trade in dairy products is being transformed by trade policy liberalization and technological change in dairy processing. The mixed complementarity problem formulation to modeling product-specific dairy trade can overcome a number of the limitations of existing optimization models, and can facilitate desirable extensions to previous analyses.

Carbon Emissions The Problem: Carbon Storage The Solution?, Gary D. Lynne, Colby Kruse

Cornhusker Economics

A recent newspaper story line reads “178 Nations Reach Climate Accord; U.S. Only Looks On” (New York Times Interactive Edition, July 24, 2001). The underlying Press Release from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) affirms that indeed many governments have adopted an agreement on Kyoto Protocol rules, including economic powers represented in Japan and the European Union, as well as our neighbors in spirit as well as proximity, Australia and Canada. The UNFCCC is the entity that organizes the meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COP), with 4,500 participants representing 180 nations at the recent July …

Characteristics Of U.S. Farms, Richard T. Clark

Cornhusker Economics

The Economic Research Service (ERS) of USDA recently issued a report about the structure and financial characteristics of U.S. farms. The report used several data sources to compare and contrast U.S. farms. A primary source of data was the 1998 Agricultural Resource Management Study (ARMS). The ARMS collect financial data from a sample of U.S. farms. These surveys are jointly designed and conducted each year by ERS and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Farm Bill Moves To Fast Track, Roy Frederick

Cornhusker Economics

Time to fish or cut bait with respect to a new farm bill. Six months ago, I would have bet on bait-cutting. Now, I’m not so sure. We just might go fishing before the year is over.

History is on the side of tardy completion of farm bills. In 1985 and 1990, bills were signed into law just days before the December 31 expiration of the old legislation. Then, in 1995, deliberations lagged even more. That year’s farm bill was not completed until April, 1996. (Subsequently, it has come to be known as the 1996--not the 1995--farm bill).

Current legislation …

Internet Access In The United States, Matt Spilker

Cornhusker Economics

The rapid expansion of Internet has changed the business landscape throughout the United States. But as Internet becomes a larger part of everyday life, do we all have equal access to its resources? How does Internet access differ across categories such as geography, race and ethnicity, income and education?

Consumer Perceptions Of Three Food Safety Interventions Related To Meat Processing, Christiane Schroeter, Karen P. Penner, John A. Fox

Agribusiness

A focus group study with 37 residents of Manhattan, Kansas, was conducted to examine consumers' risk perceptions of foodborne illnesses from eating beef. The four focus-group sessions were designed to determine (1) relative preferences for alternative combinations of public food safety measures (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points [HACCP], carcass pasteurization, irradiation) and private protection (home preparation of rare, medium, and well-done hamburgers); (2) how who is at risk (children vs. adults) influences preferences; (3) whether consumers would pay a premium for increased product safety arising from the adoption of three different innovations in processing plants; and (4) how to improve …

Federal Court Rules Missouri Livestock Price Regulation Statute Is Constitutional, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

In 1999 South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri enacted statutes limiting price differentials being paid by packers to livestock producers. The South Dakota statute was ruled unconstitutional in August 1999 for interfering with interstate commerce. The Nebraska Attorney General ruled in 2000 that state packer price restrictions were preempted by October 1999 federal livestock price reporting requirements. The Missouri statute was upheld as constitutional in 2001. This newsletter issue will contrast the three decisions, and consider what legal options are available to the Nebraska Unicameral should it wish to re-establish limits on livestock price differentials paid by packers.

Inventorying Nebraska’S Irrigation Acres, Bruce B. Johnson, Peter Brummels, Lance Kuenning

Cornhusker Economics

With much of the state lying over the Ogallala Aquifer, Nebraska has a valuable irrigation endowment. According to USDA’s 1997 National Resources Inventory, Nebraska has more than 7 million acres of irrigated cultivated cropland. Only one other state, Texas, has more cultivated cropland; and that state has been experiencing a steady decline in irrigated acres over the past quarter century.

While the economic significance of these irrigation assets to the state’s economy seems obvious, it is somewhat surprising to find no clear consensus as to how many acres are really under irrigation. Nor has there been any definitive information on …

Information Technology Diffusion Among Businesses In Nebraska: What Does It Mean For The Future?, John C. Allen

Cornhusker Economics

In the past decade, there has been a convergence of computer and telephone technologies that has created the Internet, arguably the most rapidly embraced technology in history. Using a benchmark of rapid diffusion as the time required to reach 50 million users, the public Internet, which took four years to reach 50 million users, is spreading more rapidly than radio (38 years), the personal computer (18 years), television (13 years) or any other modern technology. The result has been that the Internet has already reached “mass market” status ( Burgess, 1999).

South Dakota Agriculutral Land Values And Rental Practices: 2001, Burton Pflueger, Larry Janssen

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

South Dakota Agriculutral Land Values And Rental Practices: 2001, Burton Pflueger, Larry Janssen

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

A Somewhat Skeptical Look At 2001 Tax Relief, George Pfeiffer

Cornhusker Economics

Perhaps it is the best one could hope for from a government directed by a President selected without a plurality of the popular vote, a closely divided House of Representatives, and a Senate whose majority party is in the process of changing for the third time in 6 months. In any case, the Senate and House have agreed on, and the President will soon sign the first major federal tax reduction bill since 1981. What a difference two decades make! The tax reductions and the massive restructuring of the tax system that were passed in the Reagan revolution of 1981 …

Dynamic Pricing Of Genetically Modified Crop Traits, Richard K. Perrin, Lilyan E. Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

The issue considered here is the retail pricing of patented crop traits such as Roundup Ready herbicide resistance or Bt insect resistance. Our concern is not with the price of the seeds in which the traits are embodied, but rather with the implicit or explicit price for the traits themselves. Intellectual property rights are now available for traits, and while monopoly pricing of them has received some limited consideration in the economics literature1, no one has yet examined the possible implications of the durability of these traits as a factor in determining such monopolists' pricing behavior.

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Developments 2000-01, Bruce B. Johnson, Peter Brummels, Lance Kuenning

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Reports

Despite turbulent economic conditions in the state's agricultural sector, Nebraska's agricultural land values and cash rent levels remain on a generally stable course. In the February 2001 UNL Nebraska Farm Real Estate Developments Survey, the all-land average of $709 per acre was up 1.5 percent from year-earlier levels. Together with all-land average changes of the previous two years, the 2001 level is essentially unchanged from early 1998 value levels.

While the overall value level has been steady, the "choppiness of economic waters" is reflected in modest value movements in both directions across various land types and regions of the state. …

What’S Ahead For Farm Programs?, Roy Frederick

Cornhusker Economics

At a family gathering over the long Memorial Day week-end, a shirttail relative used this for a conversation starter: “So, have you got the new farm bill figured out?” My response was a quick and unequivocal “no.” In fact, the whole process becomes more uncertain as the Democrats assume majority control of the U.S. Senate.
The House Agriculture Committee originally had planned to complete at least the commodity titles (sections) of a new farm bill by July 11, 2001. More recently, the House target date has been pushed back to August. The leadership on that panel still holds out hope …

Nebraska’S New Generation Agriculture, Sam Cordes

Cornhusker Economics

Aggregate net farm income in Nebraska in 1999 was $1.66 billion. While this is a substantial dollar amount, it is also misleading in two important ways. First, 1999 aggregate net farm income was nearly 20 percent below the average for the 1990's. Second, a whopping 80 percent of the aggregate net farm income, or $1.32 billion came directly from Federal Farm Program payments. As recently as 1996, government payments were only 11% of Nebraska’s aggregate net farm income (Johnson and Burkholder). In other words, very little of today’s net farm income in Nebraska comes from the economic marketplace. This situation …

Power Deregulation: Blessing Or Curse; South Dakota's Hog Market, Gary Taylor, Matthew A. Diersen

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Power Deregulation: Blessing Or Curse; South Dakota's Hog Market, Gary Taylor, Matthew A. Diersen

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Is Farmland A Good Investment?, Glenn A. Helmers

Cornhusker Economics

It is frequently questioned how farmland as an investment can maintain its value while seemingly generating such low returns per dollar invested. Often a parallel is drawn between investing in farmland vs. a relatively riskless but higher return investment such as U.S. Treasury notes. Risky investments are expected to require a risk premium (higher returns) compared to a less risky investment. Yet it often appears that farmland returns are less than the return from relatively risk free opportunities. Further, farmland and other real estate investments are generally considered less liquid compared to other investments.

The investment market is complex. However, …

Production Ag Profitability Report, Gary Bredensteiner

Cornhusker Economics

For the past 6 years, Nebraska Farm Business Association (Cooperative Extension) and Nebraskaland Farm and Ranch Management Educational Program (Community Colleges) have combined data into a single “Production Ag Profitability Report.” The 2000 Report, recently released, contains average data from 156 Nebraska production ag operations enrolled in one of the two programs. Data is monitored and reconciled for accuracy prior to inclusion in the report.

An Added Cost Of Production, Larry L. Bitney

Cornhusker Economics

Agricultural producers typically consider death loss when budgeting costs and returns for a livestock enterprise. But, the cost of disposing of the dead animals has not typically been considered. In the past, rendering companies picked up animals free of charge. They received value from the hides, meat and bone meal, and other by-products.

Technical Change And Welfare In An Open Economy With Distortions, Richard K. Perrin, Lilyan E. Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

'Iraditional measures of technological change, such as the rate of technical change, are based on producer-oriented prices. Here, we employ a general equilibrium analysis of an open economy to examine how the consumer welfare gain from a technological change, measured as Hicksian equivalent variation, is related to the rate of technical change, the biases of the technological change, and tax distortions in the economy. An analytical solution shows these relationships in a readily computable framework, and demonstrates that the rate of technical change will equal the rate of welfare change in only very unrealistic cases.

Random Walks, Lemmings, And Behaviorism: Looking For A Market Lodestar, John Sondey

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Random Walks, Lemmings, And Behaviorism: Looking For A Market Lodestar, John Sondey

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

The Mcdonaldization Of American Agriculture, Jeffrey S. Royer

Cornhusker Economics

In his best-selling book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001), journalist Eric Schlosser takes aim at the fast food industry, leveling a broad array of charges against it. According to Schlosser, the success of the fast food industry has transformed the American diet, landscape, economy, workforce and popular culture, and is responsible for a national epidemic of obesity, the propagation of an unskilled and poorly paid workforce and the exploitation of teenagers and minorities. It also has contributed to the restructuring of American agriculture.

Basis Changes In The Pork Pricing Structure, Al Prosch

Cornhusker Economics

In December 1998 hog prices fell to unprecedented levels. Adjusted for inflation these were some of the lowest prices received by pork producers. The basis relationship (the difference between a futures contract price for a commodity and a local cash price for that commodity) between the cash markets and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures contract on lean hog carcasses increased to record proportions as well. Was the record wide basis a one time event, based on the futures markets inability to drop as quickly as the cash bid, or are there underlying fundamental changes in the basis for hogs?