New Generation Cooperatives (NGCs) are undergoing several structural changes with the acceptance of non-farmer investor equity and demutualization or transformation into investororiented ownerships, Limited Liability Companies (LLCs), to ameliorate perceived financial constraints for high...

Bread producers are taking advantage of healthy feeding habits by developing new "low carbohydrate" products to entice customers. These low carbohydrate breads are generally more expensive than conventional types. This study tests the hypothesis that consumers are willing to pay higher premium...

U.S. production of six-rowed malting barley has declined sharply over the last several years. Further, the quality of U.S. malting barley has suffered repeatedly due to disease. This has left the U.S. malting industry dependent on a single-desk seller of malting barley, the Canadian Wheat Board....

Precision agriculture has been practiced since the early 1990s, but the adoption rate of this technology has been slower than experts had predicted. This study explores the role of public- and private-sector financial assistance in the adoption of variable-rate fertilizer application. Public-...

"This study uses a Cox parametric bootstrap test to select between two specifications of the von Liebig hypothesis, a switching regression (SR) model, and a linear response function with a stochastic plateau. Specifying the production function as a linear response function with a stochastic...

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...

This document contains the PowerPoint presentation given by the author at the 2002 WCC-72 meetings, regarding his experience regarding Ph.D. Agribusiness curriculum at the University of Illinois. Topics covered include: background, a brief biography, Ph.D Curriculum, teaching needs, flexibility...

The problem of declining wheat prices and excess supply has been the subject of recent economic studies partly because it coincides with the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996, and partly because efforts to decrease supply domestically have led to increased imports...

Reasonably high stocking densities generally lead to high profit for steer grazing enterprises. However, higher stocking densities result in high microbial counts, creating food safety concerns, especially with the advent of BSE in recent years. This study explores the impact of production and...

Variety development and release decisions involve tradeoffs between yields and characteristics valued by end-users, as well as uncertainties about agronomic, quality, and economic variables. In this study, methods are developed to determine the value of varieties to growers and end-users...