Development and organization of procurement strategies have escalated in importance with maturity of the food processing industry, as well as with the prospect of greater choice attributable to variety development and information technology. Conventional alternatives for procurement range from...

Optimal hedging strategies are analyzed for a cooperative operating a price pooling system in the presence of price and quantity risk. A three-period model, accounting for default risk and storage, is developed. Hedging allows the cooperative to increase the pool price offered to farmers by 2.8...

The purpose of this study was to forecast grain and oilseed shipments through the Mississippi River system and to analyze impacts of delay costs. The focus is on the world grain trade and expected changes in response to a multitude of evolving competitive pressures and structural changes. The...

One of the impacts of higher prices along with greater volatility in futures and basis is thatthere is pressure for an escalation in cash contracting for grain. This volatility has resulted inan unprecedented level of contracting with growers in recent years. There is a wide array ofcash...

The grain trading industry has changed radically during the past two decades. This report describes these changes in detail. First, dynamics of the major fundamental changes are described. Second, the extent and nature of structural changes in the grain handling industry are analyzed. Changes in...

This article estimates factors that impact location decisions by new ethanol plants using logistic regression analysis and spatial correlation techniques. The results indicate that location decisions are impacted by the agricultural characteristics of a county, competition, and state-level...