A comprehensive discussion of research and interregional competition logically includes three major components: (1) a review of the overall need for the research results and a clear delineation of the differences in information requirements across types of clientele; (2) a description of the characteristics of the needed research methodology, as related to the specific clientele needs; and (3) the resulting data requirements, consistent with both the methodology and with the research objectives. Furthermore, in addressing a research-oriented audience, there should be emphasis on identifying “bottlenecks” that currently exist either in developed methodology or data bases, or both. Of course, the idealistic objectives are to stimulate the assembled audience, first, to return home with an enthusiasm for developing new and more appropriate analytical methods; and, second, to begin lobbying for better and more extensive public data resources.

The marketing system for cattle in the United States has evolved with shifts from delivery to large terminal centers, to more decentralized markets. Because of innovations in transportation and processing technology, these structural changes have created a need for greater vertical coordination between different stages in the cattle marketing channels (Rhodes, p. 174; Sporleder, p. 101). Improved coordination requires appropriate market information about product supplies and the form of cattle preferred by buyers (Purcell, 1973, 1980).

The spatial trend of manufacturing industry toward smaller towns and rural areas, particularly in the South and West, appears to be continuing into the 1980s (Haren, 1980). Economic research has been undertaken to examine the reasons for this national shift (Haren, 1970; Beale; Lonsdale et al.), the influence of community decisions on the location process (Smith et al.; Klindt et al.; Kuehn et al.), and various facets of industrial impact on rural communities (Summers et al.; Reinschmiedt and Jones; Deaton and Landes).

Wood fuel is becoming increasingly more important as an alternate energy source because of price and shortages of fossil fuels. Furthermore, energy prices are expected to continue to rise in future years (U.S. Dept. of Energy, pp. 56–72). As a result, agribusiness firms in the Southeast are investigating the feasibility, of utilizing wood residues or whole tree green chips for their fuel supply. Some industries may continue to rely partially on their present gas- or oil-fired systems and add a wood-fired boiler as a backup system. The availability of wood as an industrial fuel at a competitive price is one of the major concerns of these firms.

The beef cattle industry in the Southeast is dominated by the cow-calf enterprise. Considerable discussion and research has addressed the economic potential of producers in the Southeast carrying calves longer on pasture rather than shipping them to other regions for stockering and backgrounding. Some have suggested that the region has a comparative advantage for increased grain and grass finishing of animals (Farris and Dietrich). At the firm level, the decision to retain calves must be based, among other things, on the availability of forage and on current and expected prices. The longer calves are kept, the greater the competition between cows and calves for available forage.

Transportation is a vital element in our daily lives. Access to jobs, shopping, and other services depends upon some form of transportation. The principal means of transportation in the United States continues to be the automobile. Census figures show that in 1975, 84.7 percent of all workers in this country and 84.5 percent of the workers in non-metropolitan areas used the automobile to get to work (U.S. Bureau of the Census).

Variability in commodity prices and yields, together with greater financial obligations for highly leveraged farms, have added much uncertainty about farmers' debt servicing capacity (Barry and Fraser; Hanson and Thompson). As a result, financial responses must come more to the forefront in farmers' risk management, through emphasis on fuller development and application of the financial control process; and development of specific financial programs and instruments for dealing with random variations in debt servicing capacity (Baker; Lee). An example of the second response is the variable amortization payment plan VAPP suggested by Baker and tested empirically by Stone for use in farm mortgage lending.

The market for farmland has often been a subject of interest to agricultural economists, as evidenced by numerous studies that have investigated factors determining rural land values (Aines; Reynolds and Timmons; Ruttan; Sco-field). Despite the wealth of literature concerned with land values, little is known about who owns and exercises entrepreneurial control over land resources in the U.S. Consequently, there is a lack of understanding concerning the decision to purchase farmland. Lewis has suggested that better understanding of landowner investment decisions is important in determining and implementing effective land-use policy. Also, Wunderlich has noted the importance of understanding land ownership with regard to land-use decisions. Long et al. (p. 44) have suggested that “if policies are to be designed to influence private landowners’ decisions, then it seems imperative that the factors affecting landowners’ decisions and the decision process be better understood.”

Income-expenditure relationships are important components in many economic models used to project food expenditure and to understand food-expenditure behavior. The empirical estimation of income-expenditure relations has concentrated on the effects of income in explaining the variations of the household food expenditure. However, the problem of structural or parametric homogeneity for Engel curves in the analysis of household food expenditure behavior has received less attention in the applied demand literature.

Dynamic, recursive simulation models for the national livestock-feed sector have been designed by agricultural economists for the specific purpose of making long-run projections and evaluating alternative agriculture policies (Reynolds et al.; Yanagida and Conway). While these models are useful for describing the workings of the national grain and livestock sectors, they are incomplete for policy evaluation purposes at a subnational or state level (Knapp et al.; Maki et al.). In these situations, unless state or regional production and marketing patterns are represented as a constant percentage of the national model solution values, the impact of changes in a state's crop or livestock production relative to other states and alternative policy decisions cannot be considered (Ratajczak). Consequently, a state model must be able to reflect the impact of national and international policies and events to be effective and functional (Colyer and Irwin).

Since publication of Popkin's work on price determination by state of processing, cost-push models of “inflation” have provided the theoretical structure underlying much of the empirical analysis of food price behavior. The general premise of such models is that the price (usually a component of the Consumer Price Index) of a commodity can be expressed as the summation of that commodity's price in a less processed form, plus the cost of all resources expended in the physical transformation of the commodity to its current form. Then, if the costs of raw farm produce or other factors of production used by food processing firms increase, cost-push models predict that retail food prices will increase at some future date. It is argued that price increases at the retail level occur because market power of processing and retail firms permits them to “pass through” increased costs of production by increasing the prices of their output. Or, “because of their oligopolistic structure, these [food manufacturing] firms are able to select the prices at which they sell” (Lamm, p. 119). Similarly, Heien (p. 11) states that “an operationally more realistic theory is one where store managers apply a markup over costs for each product in order to arrive at a price.”

Various classes of models possess characteristics essential for commodity analysis. One class, input-output (I-O) models, can complement more widely used ommodity models, such as econometric and mathematical programming, which are often directed at a few specific production and use markets for the commodity under analysis. I-O models either formally linked with, or used independently of, these other models provide an analytical framework for examining macroeconomic adjustments to commodity market shocks. Further, I-O allows the tracing of resource flows to and from the commodity market and among all secondary markets. These characteristics suggest that a commodity-oriented I-O model ought to be a component of a package of models designed to provide complete coverage of a commodity for economic analysis.

Recent trends in the southeastern states toward increased use of irrigation in agriculture may be attributed to risk aversion management by farmers in response to recent drought periods. Despite ample annual average rainfall in the Southeast during the growing season, the vicissitudes of rainfall patterns provide sufficient reason to consider irrigation for field crops as well as for vegetables and fruit (Ganguly). Increased use of irrigation additionally results in new demands for water in rural areas.

It is also well documented that nonmetropolitan areas are experiencing substantial rates of positive net immigration (Wardell and Gilchrist). In the Southeast, there is a trend for new manufacturing plants to locate in rural areas where wages, taxes, and union activity are at low levels. As growth occurs in these nonmetropolitan regions, industrial, residential, and commercial activities require additional supplies of water.

Agricultural economists have long recognized pest populations as common property resources, and, as such, pest control through chemical pesticide application involves a tradeoff between increased crop yields and reduced environmental quality (Carlson; Regev et al.). Integrated pest management (IPM) attempts to minimize this tradeoff by substituting pest information and management skills for chemical pesticides. In part, IPM involves monitoring pest populations in order to utilize beneficial biological interactions. Weather patterns, stage of crop growth, and natural biological enemies of pests are among the factors included in IPM. In addition, entomologists have extended the integrated control concept to include selective rather than nonselective pesticide application that is applied only when pest populations exceed the “economic threshold” level (Hall and Norgaard). In an earlier economic analysis of IPM, Hall concluded that the major advantages of IPM are: (1) a substantial reduction in overall pesticide use, (2) no significant reduction in profits, (3) no significant loss of yields, (4) an overall reduction in pest management costs, and (5) a reduction in risk for the producers.

An important objective of Japanese agricultural policy since the early 1960s has been to increase farm incomes by raising the farm price of rice, the country's principal agricultural crop (Hayami). This objective was accomplished through a two-tiered pricing scheme administered by the Japanese Food Agency, the country's principal purchaser and seller of rice, which maintained producer support prices at levels higher than the consumer equivalent. However, in recent years, the accumulation of excess rice stocks has forced Japan's policymakers to implement major changes in rice policy to reduce persistent overproduction. These policies include diversion payment programs that provide incentives to divert paddy land to production of priority crops such as wheat, barley, and soybeans, as well as surplus disposal programs that subsidize the disposal of accumulated rice stocks for export, industrial, and feed use. Other policy changes include adjustments in the wholesale (resale) prices of rice and wheat to favor rice consumption, and adjustments in producer support prices to promote production of competing crops. This study analyzes the impact on trade of recent changes in Japanese rice and wheat policy.

Cattlemen have expressed concern about wholesale beef and fed cattle pricing and have antitrust lawsuits pending against supermarkets, meatpackers, trade associations, and a meat price reporting firm. Lawsuits allege manipulation of wholesale carcass beef prices to artificially depress spot prices for fed cattle (General Accounting Office, 1977). Congressional and administrative investigations have focused on wholesale carcass beef pricing and price reporting and their effects on fed cattle pricing (Committee on Small Business, General Accounting Office, 1978; National Commission on Food Marketing; Packers and Stockyards Program, 1978). Cattlemen also have expressed dissatisfaction with live cattle futures markets before congressional and administrative committees, alleging that futures market prices adversely affect spot prices for fed cattle (Leuthold and Tomek; Meat Pricing Task Force). However, economists have not empirically studied the impacts of wholesale carcass beef and live cattle futures market prices in short-period pricing models for fed cattle, that is, impacts on individual transaction prices.

Rapid fuel price increases in 1979 and early 1980, along with concern about further rises, have led to speculation that Florida, a net calf exporter but net importer of finished cattle and beef, will be increasingly competitive in finishing cattle to slaughter weight. This hypothesis is strengthened by recognition of significant structural changes in the Florida cattle feeding industry since the late 1960s, as large-scale feedlots were developed and smaller-scale feeders declined in importance (Simpson and Baker). Furthermore, yield improvements and new techniques, such as the use of bagasse for silage and feeding of high-moisture corn, have been adopted in the production of Florida feedstuff s. There is no crucial evidence showing differences in investment or operating costs between Florida and the major cattle feeding areas because of the relatively large size feedlots in Florida that allow them to take advantage of substantial economies of size (Simpson, et al.). This paper evaluates the potential effect that increased transportation costs, as a result of higher fuel prices, might have on Florida's competitive cattle feeding position.

Agricultural economics occupies an unique position in most agriculture programs because it and rural sociology are the only social sciences among a broad array of plant, animal, and technical disciplines. As economic and technological changes have added to the complexity, of U.S. agriculture, the relative importance of agricultural economics has increased. The demand for individuals possessing knowledge of the technical aspects of agriculture and the ability to evaluate the social and economic ramifications of alternatives is increasing.

Cycles in beef cattle inventories and prices have been documented as far back as 1880 (Breimyer). The inability to identify optimal herd management strategies in response to fluctuating cattle prices is frequently blamed for the low historical returns received by cattle producers (Farris and Mallett). Cattle producers typically react to rising prices by increasing the size of their breeding herd and liquidating a portion of the herd when prices decline. Long lags between the time a cow is bred and the time her calf is weaned and ready for market make it difficult for cow-calf operators to make optimal long-run production plans. And because a cow has a long productive life, several years are required to evaluate the decision to invest in a larger breeding herd by adding more heifers. During this period, prices may fluctuate drastically, so that with hindsight, the decision to increase the investment in the herd may have been a poor choice. The same problem occurs when the herd is liquidated because of dim prospects of earning an immediate profit from the intact herd. The use of other resources probably does not fluctuate much over the cattle cycle. Bebout discovered that land committed to calf production remains fairly constant even in periods of low profits.

Public concern has been expressed in most states over the adequacy of present allocative mechanisms to guide land and water use effectively. Private land and water use decisions are seen to have effects far beyond those intended by the decision makers. People intuitively recognize that society's natural resources are not being used to the greatest good when these “spillovers” occur. Ervin et al. (p. 4) have described the situation: “… given our (society's) broader viewpoint where impacts are taken into account which do not enter a firm's profit calculations (or a consumer's), the decision may well be socially inefficient.” The concern about these “spillovers” has led to calls for increased government intervention by way of regulation (Healy and Rosenberg). The implicit assumption is that government action can improve the efficiency of land and water use.