A brief review of the beef and cattle market following the diagnosis of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada and U.S. in 2003 is conducted. The focus is on the recent changes in the beef market experienced by major exporting and importing countries with special emphasis on the beef...

The benefit of changing to Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) from uniform application methods needs to be assessed for technology adoption. Precision irrigation involves water application in optimum amounts. Results indicate that feasibility of precision irrigation depends on field variability,...

Production budgets for dryland crop and crop/livestock systems are developed to estimate yields, costs and returns for dryland wheat and sorghum and for alternative dryland crop/livestock systems. A crop simulation model aids yield estimation. The yield and return distributions are used to...

Beef cattle enterprises for the 91% of Texas producers with less than 100 cows represent secondary or supplemental enterprises. In most cases the operator is depending on surplus or discretional labor and the alternate use of the physical resources is limited due to topography or environmental...

Production data provided by commercial producers of grain sorghum is used to estimate response functions for three alternative management decision models. The evaluation of yield to the total water availability, irrigation, and water application as a percent of potential evapotranspiration. The...

Agricultural producers in the Texas High Plains are facing the worst comparative economic conditions since 1913. Under these circumstances it is desirable to evaluate which programs are beneficial to agricultural producers and which ones are not. The concept of Integrated Pest Management was...

The declining availability of irrigation water from the Ogallala aquifer combined with increasing energy costs make irrigation strategies much more critical. Irrigation strategies that maximize returns to irrigation require less water and achieve higher returns than strategies aimed at...

The declining availability of irrigation water from the Ogallala aquifer combined with increasing energy costs make irrigation strategies much more critical. Maximizing yield reduces profit by between $22 and $158 per acre depending on the combination of corn and natural gas prices.

An economic optimization model was developed using available groundwater resources in the Oklahoma Panhandle to estimate value of water for irrigated agriculture in the area. The model will serve as policy tool to analyze alternative water management strategies and conservation programs to...

The Texas Panhandle is one of the most unique and diversified agricultural areas in the world. Production agriculture contributes $3.41 billion in value-added production and more than $6.32 billion in economic activity annually. Eighty-five percent of the states fed beef, 45.8 percent of the...