We investigated whether diversification and/or structural change would improve Norwegian agriculture. Using a flexible technology approach to account for different technologies, we assessed economies of scope and scale of dairy and cropping farms, including regional differences. We fitted translog cost functions to farm-level panel data for the period 1991–2014. We found both economies of scope and scale on the farms. Dairy farms have an economic incentive to integrate dairying with cropping in all regions of Norway, and vice versa. Thus, policy makers should eschew interventions that inhibit diversification or structural change and that increase the costs of food production.

Ex ante analyses of agricultural practices often examine stated preference data, yet response behavior as a potential source of bias is often disregarded. We use survey data to estimate producers’ willingness to rent public land for rotational grazing in Wisconsin and combine it with information on nonrespondents to control for nonresponse and avidity effects. Previous experience with managed grazing and rental decisions influenced who responded as well as their rental intentions. These effects do not produce discernable bias but still encourage attention to this possibility in other ex ante contexts. Land rental determinants and willingness-to-pay estimates are also related to grazing initiatives.

Anaerobic digestion systems can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while turning waste products into energy. Past U.S. economic research on anaerobic digesters has studied dairy farms, but limited economic information is available on anaerobic digestion systems for swine. Net present values (NPVs) were calculated for biodigesters and covered lagoons under different coproduct and policy scenarios. With no government intervention, covered lagoons are more promising for swine operations than more capital-intensive biodigesters. As there is interest in subsidizing anaerobic digestion systems, subsidies equal to a $38/t social cost of carbon would provide positive NPVs.

The Great Plains is the most important wheat producing region in the United States. Dwindling returns and changes in government farm programs have reduced wheat acreage, raising concerns over its future viability. Small farms and marginal areas are particularly vulnerable, including the western Great Plains (WGP). To assess the technical and economic viability of wheat farms, the efficiency of 141 wheat farms in the WGP was estimated. Results found substantial inefficiency among all producer types. The largest source of inefficiency was input use among smaller farms. The smaller farms were the most scale efficient, reducing concerns over their future viability.

This article examines the effects of ocean-related decadal climate variability (DCV) phenomena on climate and the effects of both climate shifts and independent DCV events on crop yields. We address three DCV phenomena: the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), the Tropical Atlantic Sea-Surface Temperature Gradient (TAG), and the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP). We estimate the joint effect of these DCV phenomena on the mean, variance, and skewness of crop yield distributions. We found regionally differentiated impacts of DCV phenomena on growing degree days, precipitation, and extreme weather events, which in turn alter distributions of U.S. regional crop yields.

The farm-gate price of raw milk in Iran is determined annually in negotiations among representatives of dairy processors, milk producers, and government officials. This study estimates the average bargaining power of dairy farmers and processors, through applying the generalized axiomatic Nash approach in a bilateral bargaining model. We employ annual data from 1990 to 2013 to estimate econometric representation of a bilateral bargaining model using a Monte Carlo expectation maximization algorithm. Results imply a higher bargaining power of 0.69 for processors, compared with 0.31 for farmers. This asymmetry of bargaining power causes unequal allocation of gains in the milk market.

The objective of this research was to evaluate producers’ perspectives of four key precision agriculture technologies (variable rate fertilizer application, precision soil sampling, guidance and autosteer, and yield monitoring) in terms of the benefits they provide to their farms (increased yield, reduced production costs, and increased convenience) using a best-worst scaling choice experiment. Results indicate that farmers’ perceptions of the benefits derived from various precision agriculture technologies are heterogeneous. To better understand farmers’ adoption decisions, or lack thereof, it is important to first understand their perceptions of the benefits precision agriculture technologies provide.

The CIF NOLA “river market” represents an important but opaque forward market that serves Gulf exporters and elevators. CIF NOLA bids function similarly to traditional forward contracts; however, like a futures market, firms can offset their forward contractual obligations by offsetting positions in a liquid off-exchange paper market. Analysis shows grain sellers pay a risk premium for fall harvest delivery contracts. However, outside of fall harvest, contract liquidity, coupled with a good institutional balance of long and short market participants, mostly removes the pricing bias commonly found in farmer forward contracting in corn and soybeans.

U.S. live cattle markets have experienced dramatic shifts in marketing methods over the past two decades, changing the way live cattle prices are discovered. We identify relationships between prices of the five major live cattle marketing regions using Granger causality and directed graph analysis. The two approaches complement each other and reveal that interweek and intraweek price discovery roles for given markets differ. Evidence indicates that Colorado, though a minor market in terms of relative volume, has become an important source of interweek price information to other markets.