Agricultural producers have used futures markets to manage price risk, confident that 1) cash and futures prices move together over time, 2) cash and futures prices converge as the contract approaches expiration, and 3) funds held in margin accounts as a performance bond were secure in...

The wool and mohair industries have been in a period of radical transition over the last few years. A number of issues have adversely impacted wool and mohair producers. These include loss of milling infrastructure, world economic events that have severely damaged export markets, increasing...

This study evaluates how the availability of animal tracing affects the cost of a hypothetical Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in the Texas High Plains using alternative tracing scenarios. To accomplish this objective, the AusSpread epidemic disease spread model (Ward et al., 2006) is used...

With the 2009 milk prices still fresh on everyone’s mind, there has been increased interest in ways to limit milk price volatility. Using SERF, this paper determined some dairies are willing to pay for limited milk price volatility and found a value they are willing to pay using risk premiums.

For more than thirty years, studies about the effect of the exchange rate on exports have been conducted. However, few have considered the combined effect of the exchange rate on imported inputs into the agricultural system and the exports of final agricultural products those inputs produce. A...

Foreign labor has become increasingly important component of U.S. agriculture. Disruption in the supply of agricultural labor has been argued to significantly affect agricultural production. This study analyzes the impacts of foreign labor shortages on the dairy industry using national survey...

Ground beef consumption in the United States accounts for over half of total beef consumption and is included in a variety of products from tacos to chili to hamburgers (Greene 2012; National Cattlemen’s Beef Association 2009, 2012; Peel, 2012). The importance of ground beef to U.S. consumers is...