The full impact of an investment in a management information system (MIS), such as precision agriculture (PA), comes from improved managerial decision making throughout the whole farm and not just from improvements in a specific part of the farm. This study was conducted to determine whether the...

The majority of farm families have not named a successor nor developed an up-to-date farm business transition and estate plan. This program effort was designed to enable these farm families gain a better understanding of the process required and thus develop and implement a farm transition and...

Changes and trends in farm productivity have been of intense interest to many involved with agriculture. This study used data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the output-oriented Malmquist total factor productivity (TFP) index from panel data for 1993-2006 for farms in Southern Minnesota....

Inter-firm differences in economic efficiency are major factors explaining differences in firm survival and growth and changes in industry structure. Thus, factors explaining differences in efficiency are of major interest to many involved in or affected by the industry. This study was...

The state of Minnesota seeks to reduce phosphorus loading to the Minnesota River by 40% from current levels. The state agency charged with achieving this reduction has indicated each watershed should reduce its current phosphorus loading by 40%. We hypothesized that policies targeting specific...

When all strategies received conventional market prices, 4-year cropping sequences had greater net returns than 2-year sequences, and the organic input, 4-year strategy had the highest net return. Adding 50% of the estimated organic premium, the 4-year, organic strategy dominated all low- and...

The effect of marketing uncertainty due to consumer opposition over genetically modified (GM) grain is modeled in the context of a producer's decision to plant GM. The model shows that a tendency to plant less GM acreage and obtain premium prices for Non-GM grain is tempered by increased price risk.

Since its first detection in the North Central region in July 2000, the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsamura) has caused considerable loss in soybean (Glycine max L.) yield, bean quality, and producer income. Discovered first in Wisconsin and then in adjoining states, it is currently...