US agriculture operates in a market driven economy, although government policies can have influence on what farmers produce and how they produce it. As with other businesses, agricultural producers respond to economic incentives and disincentives, and make decisions to maximize their welfare;...

This investigation addresses a practical question from an agricultural planning and management perspective: are the NOAA/CPC seasonal climate forecasts skillful enough to retain utility after they have been downscaled to field and daily scales for use in crop models to predict impacts on crop...

While no-till (NT) cropping systems can provide conservation benefits in the northern Corn Belt, adoption has been low due to concerns about potential yield reductions and economic risk. Strip-tillage (ST) systems have been proposed as an alternative that may provide many of the conservation...

Estimation of uncertainty using agronomic models typically requires a Monte Carlo study with a large number of simulations. Parallel computation dramatically speeds repetitive computation of this sort. The use of a Beowulf cluster parallel computer offers a low cost method of parallel computing...

Regression analysis of repeated-measures data from plots in large experiments is both labor intensive and time consuming. When duration estimates characterizing each individual repeated-measures series are of interest, numerical integrations are possible alternatives. This note evaluates a...

Rangelands and pastures are found in every state and cover 55% of the land surface of the United States. Taken as a whole, from Western deserts and grasslands to meadows and woodlands, rangelands comprise some 364 million ha or 80% of the land in the 17 Western states. The vast expanses and...

Agricultural production responds to social, political, economic, environmental, and technological drivers that influence producers' decisions and shape the individual systems through modification of management practices, crop and livestock mix, and marketing strategy. We use an interview and...

With the recent development of technology to classify beef for tenderness, it is now possible for packers and retailers to market brands of beef known to be consistently tender. The present experiment was conducted to determine consumer impressions of Tender Select, a model beef brand comprised...

The abundance and spatial dispersion of Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) were studied in 34 grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macfad.) and six sweet orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck] orchards from March to August 2006 when the pest is more abundant in southern Texas. Although flush...

Recent soil and crop management technologies have potential for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions; however, these management strategies must be profitable if they are to be adopted by producers. The economic feasibility of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions in irrigated cropping systems was...