Optimal hedge ratios are estimated for various weights of feeder cattle in four cash markets based on CME data from 1992 to 1999. Three-month uniform hedges are simulated for every weight, contract, and cash market combination. Hedging effectiveness is compared empirically across locations to...

Recent legislation has cleared the way for subsidized livestock price insurance. Such programs could increase production. Expected feeder cattle prices with and without subsidized insurance will be analyzed using E-V and Stochastic Dominance. Results will highlight the potential effects of the...

Quality related yield and price losses have had significant impact on producer income and risks, and in some instances exceeded yield and price losses covered by conventional insurance instruments. However, there are no effective third party quality risk transfer mechanisms especially for barley...

Biofuels, as alternative transportation fuels, are now being used globally. Taking advantage of in-state feedstock supply is an efficient way to stimulate in-state biofuel industries and the local economy. This paper uses the mean-variance model of utility maximization to estimate supply...

White corn garners a premium over commodity corn, but suffers from additional price risk and yield drag. Using a simple bootstrap procedure, this research considers whether white corn premiums compensate for yield drag and evaluates the relative merits of various pre-harvest marketing...

The curvature properties of the indirect utility function imply a set of refutable implications in the form of comparative static results and symmetric relations for the competitive firm operating under uncertainty. These hypotheses, first derived and empirically tested under output price...

Quality uncertainty is of considerable interest to the grain industry. In this paper, uncertainty is incorporated in a model of grain blending decisions. A mixed-integer, nonlinear optimization problem is developed. Simulations illustrate the effect of crop quality on blending decisions, and the...

Easily accessible county data produced frontiers which substantially underestimated the reduction in risk by enrolling in the CRP. Furthermore, the county yield data portrayed an unattainable level of utility for a moderately risk averse farmer. Farm level data predicted CRP enrollment similar...