For many decades, fresh fruits and vegetables enjoyed a reputation as the healthiest products full of essential vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial substances for a balanced diet. However, numerous recent food outbreaks associated with fresh produce have raised concerns on the mind of the...

Recent increases in commodity prices have led to calls for the regulation of speculators. These calls have come from many reputable quarters including leading agricultural and food policy institutions such as International Food Policy Research Institute as well as different members of the U.S....

The relationship between publically reported weekly grid premiums and discounts for specific carcass characteristics and the percentage of those characteristics reflected in total weekly slaughter volume (i.e., proportional slaughter volume) is investigated. Granger Causality and multi-lag VAR...

The objectives of this paper is to use the large depth of existing literature on portfolio theory and apply it to rice varietal selection for 6 counties in the Arkansas Delta. Results based on 1999-2006 data suggests that combining available varieties using portfolio theory could have increased...

This research examines the economic effects of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) on backgrounding and finishing phases of cattle production. This research measures the effectiveness of using serum haptoglobin (Hp) concentration to predict BRD occurrence and the impact of multiple treatments for...

The cotton harvesting industry is in the beginnings of its next technological advance, cotton harvesters that form cotton modules inside the machine then deposit them off the rows. These new machines eliminate the need for extra labor and equipment, but are more expensive than conventional...

Cotton price relationships between major cotton producers and New York cotton December future price are investigated by the regression model, the VAR model and the error-correction model, the error-correction model generates the hedge ratios that display the largest value in size in most of the...

A survey of Oklahoma farmers was conducted to determine characteristics of farms across three tillage categories: conventional tillage exclusively; no-till exclusively; other (combination of systems). The seven percent that use no-till exclusively crop more acres, rent more acres, and use more...

With the production and cropping efficiency gains from adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) corn, the number of acres planted has increased steadily over the past decade. Also, the adoption of GM crops in general has an impact on the labor allocation decisions of farm operators. Using a large...

The continued decline in the availability of water from the Ogallala Aquifer has led to an increased interest in conservation policies designed to extend the life of the aquifer to sustain rural economies in the Texas Panhandle. This study evaluates the effectiveness of five policies in terms of...