This study evaluated implications of increased bollworm problems in a 20-county area of the Texas High Plains relative to cotton yields and economic impact. Results did not indicate a serious effect of bollworms upon lint yield when insecticides were used for control. However, estimated annual reduction in farmer profit due to the bollworm for 1979-81 was over $30 million. Yields were estimated to decline about 300,000 bales without insecticide use and about 30,000 bales with insecticide use. This decline suggests potentially serious implications for the comparative economic position of cotton in this region if insecticide resistance were to develop among insect pests.

Practically all major speeches on the agenda of farm policy issues have listed the problems of non-commercial farmers as a major item. Operators of non-commercial, or marginal, farms are a very heterogeneous group. They include: (1) operators of medium sized, undercapitalized farms, (2) farm operators who work part-time off-farm to supplement farm income, (3) operators of small, inefficient farms who, because of age, education or handicap, have limited prospects of becoming fully self-supporting either in farming or non-farm occupations, and (4) rural residents who own farms which provide some income; the owner works full-time off-farm.Farmers in this group generally gross less than $10,000 from agricultural production. This is normally considered inadequate for providing an acceptable level of living.

Each year, heads of agricultural economics departments meet to discuss mutual issues related to our teaching, extension, and research programs. A major continuing issue is our portion of research and extension funds— with a natural suspicion that we are not being allocated our “fair share.” An additional, and perhaps larger, concern has arisen in the last few years as we recognize the apparent movement toward increasing use of competitive grants for funding agricultural research. It is not the grants idea that concerns us as much as it is the research areas which have been developed and/or may be developed within which we must make our proposals.

Each department in a university draws its sustenance from the same pie. Each is concerned with the size of the pieces devoured by animal science, crop science, and the others. The following comments relate to both share and “pie enlargement.”

There has been some perplexity among economists over the failure of interregional wage differentials to approach zero over time in an economy characterized by labor mobility. Johnson [7], and Sjaastad [14], among others, have hypothesized declining wage differentials among regions and have puzzled over contrary empirical results. It has generally been assumed that labor will flow toward regions paying the highest wage rate. This equilibrating framework has dominated economic thought on this problem area and has directed research along narrow market-oriented lines.

The hypothesis of this paper is that nonmarket considerations, specifically psychic costs, are a major force in preventing a market-directed flow of human resources. Moreover, “nonoptimal” allocation of human resources results from differences in workers' perceptions of utility between various regions.

The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), established by Executive Order in 1933 and granted a federal charter in 1948, is authorized to extend nonrecourse loans to farmers who use agricultural commodities from the most recent harvest as collateral. The loan program was designed to foster a more orderly marketing procedure and stabilize agricultural prices and income, but farmers also use this program as both a residual market and a speculation and marketing aid. The amount loaned to a farmer equals the quantity of the commodity pledged as collateral times a fixed per unit value (loan rate) which is announced prior to the production period. Eligibility of a farmer for a CCC loan may require compliance with USDA allotment or set-aside programs and storage of the commodity in a CCC approved facility. The CCC's commodity demand via the loan program is perfectly elastic at the loan rate and farmers can supply as much as they desire. When the loan matures the farmer can either repay it with interest or default on both principal and interest, in which case the CCC assumes ownership of the pledged commodity.

Little research has focused on developing a model which farmers can use to make yearly machinery replacement decisions. This paper contains an optimizing replacement criterion and then demonstrates the results of alternative rules of thumb used to implement the criterion in a real world situation.

The economic life of a machine is here defined as the interval of time during which that machine reaches its minimum average yearly cost. If a machine is replaced by an exact duplicate with the same annual costs, replacement occurs when the currently owned machine attains its economic life. When average cost reaches its minimum, marginal cost and average cost are equal. This is the same as saying that when economic life is reached, the actual yearly cost (marginal cost) is equal to the average yearly cost of the machine. Theoretically, replacement should occur when marginal cost first crosses average cost from below.

The beef cattle investment decision provides an excellent opportunity to increase the economic efficiency of beef cattle production. The investment questions that face beef cattle producers are of interest to beef cattle producers, educators, and financial institutions involved in lending to beef cattle producing firms. This study develops a decision support aid utilizing expert system technology to assist beef cattle producers in making well-founded investment decisions with respect to the firm's beef cattle herd.

Recent interest in thin markets and rapidly advancing technology has focused increased attention on electronic marketing (Henderson et al.; Russell; Schlei), with particular emphasis on computerized trading systems. Decreased costs of access and increased reliability of computer hardware, software, and communication systems are increasing the likelihood that computerized trading systems will be a viable marketing alternative.

Food processing accounts for a large part of the total energy consumed in the food and fiber system, second only to household preparation. Havlicek and Capps emphasized that processing and distribution of food and fiber require 12 to 17 percent of the total U.S. energy budget. Thus far, research on energy use by agriculture in the southern region has concentrated on production of raw products at the farm level (Debertin and Pagoulatos) and consumption of food in the home (Lovingood and Goss; Rhee and Drew). The large processing and distribution network has been generally excluded from analysis because of a lack of information on energy used in these industries. Comprehensive data bases on energy use in food processing have been relatively limited because of the imperfectly competitive nature of food processing industries and because of unfavorable costs and benefits of compiling such information. Because of a lack of accurate and reliable data, little is known about the behavioral relationship of energy use in food processing and distribution.

This study investigates the relationship between household utilization of food services and retailers and the healthfulness of purchases using data from the 2013 Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey. Overall, our findings suggest that the associations between food service or retailer utilization and the healthfulness of purchases are limited. Thus, interventions may need to be targeted to specific households based on patterns of utilization. We also find evidence for an interdependent relationship between food at home and away from home food shopping behaviors with implications for the healthfulness of purchases.

The Florida orange juice industry has experienced great challenges—declining orange juice consumption and a domestic supply shortage that has led to increasing imports over the past decade. As growers look for a foothold, the question remains whether it is better to continue promoting orange juice (OJ) sales by focusing on the Florida “brand” or whether orange juice, in general, should be promoted using a federal marketing program. This study aims to identify the value of promoting “Florida” on OJ products to help the industry understand the potential benefits of enhancing the image of “Florida” in consumers’ perceptions of OJ.

This study connects Mexico’s imports of U.S. broiler meat with its imports of feed products. Two demand systems for Mexico are estimated: a two-stage Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model for broiler meat and a demand for feed derived from a translog cost function representing the production of Mexican chickens. The models are estimated using data from 1997 to 2016. Given a change in policy where Mexico completely replaces U.S. broiler meat imports, the imports of U.S. feed products will increase. If Mexico does not completely replace U.S. imports with domestic broiler production, our model suggests that Mexican imports of U.S. feed fall.

Crop rotations in the United States increasingly involve few crops dominated by corn frequently combined with soybeans. We assess factors tied to corn acreage intensification over the past two decades. Using state-level data of 11 U.S. Corn Belt states from 2000 to 2021, we applied a panel fixed effects instrumental variable modeling approach to investigate these linkages. Findings suggest Conservation Reserve Program acreage releases, crop prices, ethanol demand, farm size, productivity, and genetically modified varieties positively impact corn acreage intensity. These results imply crop planting decisions are complex and are not uniquely attributed to biofuel considerations.

Pesticide applications are essential for peanut production to control insects, weeds, and other plant pathogens and for a profitable operation. We use a stochastic frontier analysis/primal system approach to test the hypothesis of the overuse of fungicides among peanut farmers. With nationally representative data available from the Agricultural and Resource Management Survey, we find evidence that U.S. peanut growers used excessive amounts of fungicides to prevent fungal infections. If those farmers adopt a new cultivar resistant to fungal pathogens, they could reduce the total cost of chemicals up to 36.2%. The reduction in fungicide use would have spillover environmental benefits.

Rural industrial development is advocated as a means of improving the economic status of residents in lagging rural areas. A recent USDA report stated, “One of the main problems in Rural America is the lack of employment opportunities. With advances in agricultural technology, farm-related jobs are decreasing and other forms of employment must be found”.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic impact of industrial expansion in rural areas. The specific emphasis will be the potential effect on locally disadvantaged people – the poor and underemployed. The question is not are jobs and income opportunities created, but for whom are they created. Ideally, those who benefit are the underemployed, poor and near poor; but this need not be the case.