When earnings decline in the face of rising production costs, farmers may find leasing and renting more attractive than owning their equipment. This-study provides information to cooperative machinery dealers and production credit associations on the benefits, drawbacks, and potential of leasing...

To meet the volume requirements of new markets like restaurants and supermarkets, trout growers in the Southern Appalachians are considering forming a cooperative to process and market the fish. The growers say they would commit up to 1,260,519 pounds of trout to a cooperative. That volume will...

The food and fiber system accounted for 20 percent of total U.S. business activity in 1980 and nearly 24 percent of total U.S. employment. Farmers' net cash income of $32.6 billion in 1980 declined 15.2 percent from 1979. Net farm income dropped 39 percent. Mainly due to drought conditions,...

New food product introductions fell sharply in 1996. The number of new plants, consumer advertising expenditures, and common stock prices reached new highs in 1996, as did the number of mergers in the foodservice industry. Profitability from food manufacturing and retailing was higher due to...

The gross soybean processing margin (the gross return per bushel of soybeans processed) is the main decision variable that processors use in deciding when and if to make binding commitments to process soybeans on future dates. Understanding how processors choose processing margins for future...

The U.S. dairy industry, many segments of which supported dairy policy changes in the 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act, is much different than it was 20 or even 10 years ago. This report provides a historical overview of the industry, more detailed examinations of the fluid...

Economic change and market dynamics have fundamentally altered the structure and performance of agricultural markets in the United States, Canada, and Mexico within the last 25 years. Many factors have helped shape the current North American food and fiber system, including technological change,...

Generic advertising raised fluid milk sales about 6.0 percent, or 18.1 billion pounds, between September 1984 and September 1997. Sales of cheese rose by about 6.8 billion pounds (milk equivalent) in the same period because of increased generic advertising. An assessment of 15 cents per...