With the 2009 milk prices still fresh on everyone’s mind, there has been increased interest in ways to limit milk price volatility. Using SERF, this paper determined some dairies are willing to pay for limited milk price volatility and found a value they are willing to pay using risk premiums.

Higher commodity price expectations have led to increases in cash lease rates nationwide. This study evaluates the farm level impacts of higher cash lease rates. Current levels of cash rents along with land tenure arrangements of specific farms are instrumental in determining the impacts of...

This paper examines the impact of sex-sorted semen adoption on dairy farm level economics. Representative dairies are used to simulate the financial impacts of moving to this new technology. Key economic, financial and herd dynamics will be compared among dairies to show how the uses of...

This paper examines the profit maximizing share arrangement for both landlords and tenants producing grain in the Texas High Plains (based on risk preference), and determines whether the results are affected by input costs and market prices. Results of the analyses show that tenants and...

This study evaluates how the availability of animal tracing affects the cost of a hypothetical Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in the Texas High Plains using alternative tracing scenarios. To accomplish this objective, the AusSpread epidemic disease spread model (Ward et al., 2006) is used...

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) beef grading system plays an important role in marketing and promoting of beef. USDA graders inspect beef carcasses and determine quality grade within a few seconds. Although the graders are well-trained, the nature of this grading process may...

The 2002 Farm Bill provided the one time opportunity to update base acres and counter-cyclical payment yields to more closely reflect their current crops, rotations and yield levels. This paper discusses the available options and provides case study examples to illustrate the complexity of this...

The 1996 and 2002 farm bills moved government support toward decoupled tools rather than support coupled to production and/or prices. This paper analyzes whether areas with more production risk would prefer decoupled or coupled support. The results indicate areas with more yield risk would...

The 2002 Farm Bill affects economic activity of farms and ranches in the southern United States. Using stochastic simulation techniques, key financial variables were projected for 39 representative farms and ranches in ten southern states. Results indicate 24 of 39 farms studied have more than a...

Explaining the details and the impacts of government program provisions to agricultural producers can be a challenge for extension educators. This paper introduces a visual interactive tool that demonstrates the calculations of government payments established in the 2002 farm bill. Additionally,...