Contract grazing feeder cattle is an arrangement where cattle owned by one party graze forage produced on land owned by another party. The forage producer is paid a fixed price per pound gained. Stochastic dominance analysis is used to compare contract grazing and the more traditional system in which the same individual owns both the cattle and land.

In the article, stochastic frontier analysis of peanut-production efficiency in the Southeastern region of the United States is conducted with a view of assessing the likely farm-level impacts of the 2002 Farm Act. Results indicate that, although quota ownership did not significantly impact inefficiency, it is likely that limitations on the quota's transferability to areas with better growing conditions were a significant cause of inefficiency. The acreage shifts and improved yields following the passage of the 2002 Farm Act support this conclusion. Certain farm characteristics, such as farm size and operator's education and age, were also important for efficiency.

Because level and variability of the basis at the time a hedge is lifted affects level and variability of returns from hedging [1, 4], an understanding of the determination of basis values is important both to hedgers and to those with regulatory responsibilities. This analysis focuses on the determination of par-delivery-point basis values during the delivery period of a live-cattle futures contract; i.e., on determination of the difference between futures price and cash price for a lot of live cattle that meets all futures contract specifications (including place and time of delivery). Results of the analysis suggest that, during the delivery period, par-delivery-point basis values for live cattle frequently differ from zero by more than the transaction costs associated with arbitrage, and that fluctuations in basis values may be partly explained by trader expectations and by risk associated with returns to arbitrage.

Perhaps the degree of accuracy with which migration has been recorded and studied in the U.S. is unique to the relative youth of the nation in historical terms. However, many of the phenomena associated with migration that have economic significance are still very poorly understood. One of these is the functioning of the rural-urban labor market in the migration process. This particular aspect of the migration process is examined in this paper.

Specific information on the job research process of 396 migrants from Eastern Kentucky is reported and compared with previous research findings - with subsequent generalizations regarding the policy implications of observed patterns of job search activity.

The historical development of Agricultural Economics as a field of applied economics has been well-documented in books and journals by scholars within the profession. The relationship of Agricultural Economics to other social, biological and natural sciences has changed as the discipline has emerged and as forces of science and technology have been brought to bear on problems of our society.

The objective of this paper is to define or establish the parameters of Agricultural Economics but offer personal views on how economic forces within our economy have influenced program development in research involving many disciplines. In this process I will emphasize some of the areas where Agricultural Economics has made a major contribution and, in my judgement, can play an important role in the future.

This article tests the efficiency of the hog options market and assesses the impact of the 1996 contract redesign on efficiency. We find that the hog options market is efficient, but some options yielded excess returns during the live hogs period but not during the lean hogs period. Our findings indicate that the hog options market is efficient and is consistent with the new contract improving the efficiency of the market. However, other market conditions such as lower transaction costs during the lean hogs period can also contribute to reduce expected option returns during the latter period.

This paper examines the impacts of alternative management strategies for the production of alfalfa within the context of a total farm plan. A linear programming model is used to represent a 600-acre farm which can grow either grain crops or alfalfa. Alfalfa production competes with the grain crops for available land, labor, machinery, and field time over a calendar of tillage, planting, cutting, spraying, and harvesting activities. The profitability of an acre of alfalfa and the contribution of alfalfa to net returns for the farm varies quite widely depending on the particular alfalfa management strategy selected.

The effects of cropland slope, distance to surface water, farmers' risk attitudes, and farmers' nitrogen (N) fertilizer applications on potential N delivery to streams and costs of reducing N delivery were evaluated for a representative Virginia peanut-cotton farm. Target MOTAD and generalized stochastic dominance were used to select preferred plans for different levels of risk aversion. Costs of reducing N delivery were lower on farms where fields were located close to surface water, where N was overapplied relative to extension fertilizer recommendations, and where the operator was risk averse. Cropland slope had less effect on cost of reducing N delivery relative to other factors.

The present paper examines the importance that efficient resource use may have for cotton growers under the current EU policy regime. To that end, input-oriented technical and scale efficiency scores for a sample of 172 cotton-growing farms are empirically quantified. The results suggest that cotton farms in the sample are not efficient mainly due to the nature of the policy regime governing the sector throughout EU. By becoming efficient, the co-responsibility levy will be reduced by 18.3% and farms may increase their profits by 50.1% on the average.

The 1986 Tax Reform Act established a first year $10,000 expensing option and, for most farm equipment, a 7-year depreciation schedule. Under a profit maximization criterion, these tax law features can lead to multiple optima dependent upon discount and marginal tax rates. For example, the economically efficient time to reinvest under a 2 percent after-tax discount rate is at 4, 8, and 30 years for the grower in a 33 percent tax bracket. Thus, the profit maximization behavioral rule needs to be supplemented with knowledge about a farmer's objectives in order to select the “correct” optimal reinvestment interval.

An adaptive regression model is employed for estimating pre- and post-boll weevil eradication cotton-acreage response. Results indicate cotton acreage becoming more inelastic to own- and cross-price changes. As a result of this shift in acreage response and yield increases from eradication, net producer benefits on average are $88.73 per acre.

Determining appropriate topics and target audiences is essential to design effective educational outreach programs. Based on landowner responses to a mail survey, we determined both the importance and the availability of wildlife and forest management information topics to Mississippi landowners. Combining this information clearly identified the appropriate subject matter for outreach programs—topics important to landowners and for which information was relatively unavailable. The importance of wildlife and forest management information relative to its availability depended on the region, land use patterns, and landowner characteristics, thus demonstrating which segments of the population should be targeted to maximize program impact.

In this paper, we present an econometric analysis of the effects of a price floor on price dynamics and price volatility. A price floor (implemented as a part of government pricing policy) provides a censoring mechanism for price determination. We specify and estimate a dynamic Tobit model under time-varying volatility. The model is applied to analyze the effects of a price support program on price dynamics and price volatility in the U.S. American cheese market. The econometric analysis provides useful insights on price dynamics in the presence of a government-determined price floor.

Seale and Fairchild cover an ambitious array of issues in their paper on “Trade Agreements, Competition, and the Environment”. Perhaps it is this ambition that leads their discussion to be too generalized in some areas. Their paper is organized into several sections: (1) a review of trade theory and generalizations about resource use (“GATT or NAFTA, Does it matter?”); (2) issues that link trade and environmental policy; (3) observations on shifts in U.S. trade policy behavior; and (4) perspectives on the changes and adjustment facing southern agriculture. I would like to challenge some of their assertions about regional trading blocs, and the environment and resource use.

Three economic opportunities are presented for rural areas in this invitedpaper session: self-employment, investments in broadband infrastructure, andagritourism. Self-employment has shown growth in rural regions at theexpense of wage and salary employment in the long-term. Productionagriculture interests by themselves are unlikely to provide sufficientfunding to expand infrastructure for broadband in rural areas. Agritourismapproaches appear to be very wide ranging with many educational demandsneeding to be met to maximize its diversification possibilities. Researchand extension faculty should be careful to focus on explaining the tradeoffsof these opportunities so that rural stakeholders do not fall victim to thelatest academic economic development fad.

This article develops a market timing decision rule for cattle feeders based on profit maximization. We then compare it with the “status quo” strategy of feeding cattle to a targeted carcass end point. We estimate individual nonlinear dynamic growth functions to derive each animal's value of the marginal product in relation to days on feed. Given individual marginal factor costs, our results indicate that the use of a profit maximization rule could have increased average profits by $16.56 to $21.09 per head for the cattle of known age, and $7.67 to $11.32 per head if age was unknown.

Pesticide handling is a critical component of many food supply chains yet labor markets for pesticide handlers are little studied. This study uses data from the U.S. national survey to show that relative to other farmworkers, pesticide handlers get paid 15% more. To understand this premium, matching techniques are used to identify workers who are observationally equivalent in every way except pesticide handling. Using these methods, approximately half of the wage premium can be related back to observable characteristics, including crop type, geographic location, legal work authorization, education, experience, and other personal characteristics.