Production theory suggests that average profits would be greater with more variation in prices, if farmers correctly adjust use of inputs and outputs to changes in prices. We provide an empirical nonparametric analysis of farmers' profits under price changes over 12 years using an unbalanced...

Technical and allocative efficiencies of 26 academic departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University are computed using Data Envelopment Analysis over 2004/05. Allocations of faculty time between teaching, research, and extension vary by department and are used...

Combinations of futures and options contracts on milk and feed were simulated to determine their influence on a representative dairy farm’s ability to meet cash flow requirements and reduce the variance of net income. Compared with the reference scenario of selling milk and procuring...

Stochastic dominance was used to group 112 dairy farms based upon 10 years of returns to equity capital. Debt strategies of farms partitioned by first-degree stochastic dominance were similar. Second-degree efficient farms were consistently less indebted. Compared to 1974-1978, debt management...

Books Reviewed include: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Role of Risk in US Agriculture by Just Richard E., Rulon D. Pope; Providing Global Public Goods: Managing Globalization by Inge Kaul, Pedro Conceicao, Katell Le Goulven and Ronald U. Mendoza; Agricultural Policy Reform-Politics and Process...

The objective was to compare the performance of farms that have more than one self-identified manager to the performance of similar farms with only one self-identified manager. The question to be answered is whether more managers enhance the performance of the farm. The technique used is a...

The regional impacts of technical change on the U.S. dairy are assessed in terms of production and income distribution through a dynamic equilibrium model. Productivity increases are projected to raise the national market share of the Northeast, Lake States and Pacific regions at the expense of...