Nonfarm investors might benefit from diversifying their portfolios by investing in the agricultural sector. Such diversifying investments could include investments in agricultural stocks or long-only futures positions through index funds. The papers in this session investigate the...

Two methods were used to estimate the cost of forward contracting hard red winter wheat. One hundred days before delivery, the estimated cost of forward contracting ranged from six cents/bu. To eight cents/bu. Thus, further evidence is provided that the cost of forward contracting grain is not zero.

In an inverted market, current prices are higher than future prices and thus the price of storage is negative. Market inversions as measured with futures spreads rarely occur during early months of the crop year. However, market inversions frequently occur across crop years and near the end of...

The impacts of generic dairy advertising on retail, wholesale, and farm dairy markets are estimated in this study at the national level. The results indicate that generic dairy advertising had a major impact on retail, wholesale, and farm markets for the dairy industry. The main conclusion of...

This article examines whether the assumption of perfect competition in the U.S. dairy industry biases the findings of economic impacts of generic dairy advertising. An imperfect competition model based on an approach similar to that of Appelbaum is developed and used to evaluate generic milk...

Annual seasonal advertising expenditure allocations were estimated for the national generic advertising programs for fluid milk and cheese with the use of price and advertising elasticities of demand that varied over time. Significant variation in optimal allocations existed both across products...