Kernel size uniformity is an important physical quality attribute in terms of processing efficiency, quality control, and milling yield. This study developed optimal grain sorting strategies for elevators to use to increase kernel size uniformity and determined the size of potential benefits...

This study uses data from a survey of wheat sellers and buyers in five different exchanges in Turkey to gain a better understanding of seller and buyer satisfaction with the current exchange system and factors that influence exchange participants' decisions to choose exchanges over other ways of...

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...

This paper determines the effects of cattle feeders' risk aversion on feeder cattle prices using pen data of Kansas feedlots. Higher profit risk results in lower feeder cattle prices. The elasticity of feeder cattle price with respect to profit risk was small (-0.013). The risk elasticity...

One frequently proposed policy is to consolidate rural school districts in order to save money by obtaining economies of size. The effects of school district size on both expenditures and standardized test scores are estimated for Oklahoma. Results indicate that economies of scale with respect...

An equilibrium displacement model is developed and used to estimate the welfare impacts of government and industry-funded promotion programs, country of origin labeling (COOL), and the disease-driven, international bans on U.S. beef. The model goes beyond past studies by including the U.S....

Tobacco is notorious for being one of the most difficult commodities to grade. Here, we determine the implicit prices of various tobacco characteristics using a hedonic price model. The factors affecting the price received for burley tobacco include reputation of the producer, month of auction...

Training a neural network is a difficult optimization problem because of numerous local minimums. Many global search algorithms have been used to train neural networks. However, local search algorithms are more efficient with computational resources, and therefore numerous random restarts with a...

Price asymmetry in spatial fed cattle markets is investigated for three large markets (Texas Panhandle, Nebraska, and Colorado) and one small market (Utah). Little support is found for the notion that equilibrium prices for fed cattle are asymmetric between locations. However, adjustments to...