This article analyses the risk-return efficiency of limits to which loan pricing accounts for credit risk in the Australian-farm sector. A key issue faced by banks is the trade-off between raising returns through higher risk premiums and the possibility of impairing credit quality. The...

An optimal stochastic control model of grazing that incorporates both pasture and livestock dynamics is presented. The model is solved numerically using Markov chain approximation methods. Markov chain approximation methods have a number of advantages as a means of solving stochastic optimal...

In New Zealand the Resource Management Act 1991 has put standards in place regarding surface and ground water quality. Nitrogen leaching from dairy effluent compromises these standards; consequently the nation-wide aim is to have all dairy farms operating land-based effluent disposal. An...

The central-west region of NSW accounts for a significant proportion of the states’ livestock numbers and cereal crops but production is constrained mainly by a lack of water available for plant growth. Water availability for this region is characterised by low annual average rainfall, which...

The pig meat market in Australia is characterized by generic (fresh pork, bacon etc.) advertising. These advertising expenditures are funded from collective levies from pig producers. At the same time, there are extensive brand advertising activities in the pig market. Impact of advertising on...

The main purposes of this study are to quantitatively investigate the production structure and the pattern of technical change in Thai agriculture for the period of 1972-94. A translog variable cost function framework is used to estimate a system of the cost function and the associated cost...

In the 1980s and early 1990s, wheat imports accounted for about four-fifths of China's import of cereals, and imported wheat accounts for about 30 percent of wheat supply. As a result of the many recent developments in Chinese government’s policy on wheat production and marketing as well as...

Feed grains researchers have abundant technical opportunities to select various options for improvement of nutritional characteristics of feed grains. Choosing between those opportunities is a difficult issue for research funding organisations. In this paper, efforts to address the relative...

Sugarcane farmers in many districts are considering on-farm water storages (OFWS’s) as a means of countering ongoing water shortages. OFWS’s are attractive because they can be used to capture runoff and tailwater, and for the temporary storage of surplus water from other irrigation sources...

The area of the imported weed Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius) is steadily expanding and eliminating natural ecosystems and their habitats of rare and endangered species in Barrington Tops National Park. A research project, funded by the CRC for Weeds Management Systems, has commenced to provide...