Roger A. Dahlgran

Cross-hedging the cottonseed crush: A case study

This article reports, without breaching confidentiality agreements, on a cross-hedging consulting study performed for a cottonseed crusher. This articles objectives are twofold. First, it examines how futures markets should be used to hedge cottonseed crushing. The soybean crushing spread is applied in a cross-hedging context with a portfolio-risk minimization objective to develop the desired hedge ratios for a variety of cross-hedging portfolios and for several hedge horizons. The hedge ratios and hedging effectiveness statistics resulting from this analysis are reported. Second, based on follow-up discussions, this article reports on whether the recommended hedging strategies were adopted, how they were applied, the difficulties in implementing these strategies, and differences between managerial and academic perceptions of hedging strategies. This will lead to the conclusion that the economics of hedge management are as important as the underlying risk aversion in determining hedging behavior.

Online Homework for Agricultural Economics Instruction: Frankenstein's Monster or Robo TA?

This paper describes the programming required for online homework, evaluates its use, and presents methods for student identification and for processing student input. Online homework applications were evaluated in a real class setting. Generally, online homework is cost effective for large classes that have numerous assignments and repeated usage. Online homework appears to increase learning through increased student study-time allocations. Students felt that online homework made course website interaction more productive. They also indicated that online homework increased their perception of the value of lectures and that its use in other courses would be welcome. All findings were highly statistically significant.

Imputing Values for Directly- Or Contractually-Transferred Feeder Pigs

The feeder pig industry is a significant part of the U.S. hog industry. A decade ago, roughly one-fourth of all market hogs slaughtered in the United States were bought as feeder pigs (Van Arsdall and Nelson). More recently, the hog industry has become increasingly industrialized with contract hog production becoming more prevalent, yet the feeder pig industry does not seem to have diminished in importance as specialization in feeder pig production is still common (Rhodes 1990, 1995). The pricing of feeder pigs takes place under a variety of market mechanisms. Roughly one-third are sold in traditional public auctions while another 8 percent are sold in electronic feeder pig auctions (Van Arsdall and Nelson). The remaining sales take place via direct transfer from pig producers to finishers with much of this direct transfer done under contract.

A social accounting approach to analyzing agribusiness competitiveness

The social accounting methodology compares budgets based on private costs and returns to budgets based on the social values of inputs and outputs. The differences between these two budgets indicate the taxes and subsidies associated with policies or market imperfections. This methodology has been extensively used in analyzing policies in less developed countries. This article demonstrates through examples the application of the methodology to the analysis of competitiveness and efficiency of agribusiness firms and sectors.