Russell Tronstad

Cow Culling Decisions Adapted for Management with CART

A stochastic dynamic programming (DP) model of range cow culling decisions incorporating market price uncertainties and dynamics of biological productivity was solved for biannual and annual calving systems. Decision trees were generated from the DP solutions using the Classification and Regression Trees (CART) methodology. The decision trees captured over 99% of the optimal DP returns from both biannual and spring-only calving. CART culling criteria in conjunction with dual-season calving increased wealth by 7% compared to optimal DP culling decisions with spring-only calving, and by 10% compared to a more traditional strategy of culling all open cows.

Dynamically Optimal After-Tax Grain Storage, Cash Grain Sale, and Hedging Strategies

This article utilizes a stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) model that considers the state variables of (a) before-tax income, (b) grain storage, (c) quantity of futures position, (d) value of futures position, (e) wheat price, and (f) basis level. Decision variables are monthly cash grain sales and futures market transactions. In comparing the post-sample performance of SDP to other marketing strategies over a four-year period, SDP resulted in

Looking beyond value‐based pricing of beef in North America

5,961 to

Economic Effects of Bt Cotton Adoption and the Impact of Government Programs

25,021 more wealth than the other strategies considered. Also, these other strategies yielded a standard deviation of after-tax income that was 30% to 621% greater than that from the SDP framework.

Cross-Border Trade and Perceptions: Friend or Foe?

Purpose – Quality traits desired by consumers may not be adequately captured by beef industry standards associated with grid or value‐based pricing alone. Aims to demonstrate this shortcoming by examining strategies of selected companies in North America at the four supply chain levels of cow‐calf genetics, feedlot feeding, processing, and retailing that have been proactive in producing desirable beef attributes efficiently to better meet consumer beef demand.Design/methodology/approach – The vertical alliance between Ralphs retailing, Sunland Beef processing, and a handful of feedlots using narrowly defined beef genetics are examined to illustrate how consumer market research and coordination throughout the supply chain may address many shortcomings associated with current value‐based pricing of beef criteria.Findings – Better information sharing and coordination between seedstock and retail industries could help assure that consumer preferences of beef palatability and consistency are met while meeting ...

Horticultural, systems-engineering and economic evaluations of short-term plant storage techniques as a labor management tool for vegetable grafting nurseries

Plants expressing a gene extracted from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a soil bacterium, produce a protein toxic to budworms, bollworms, and other Lepidopteran insects. Use of Bt cotton can reduce yield losses to budworms and bollworms and reduce the need for pesticides. In 1995, the year prior to Bt cotton introduction, nearly two thirds of cotton acreage in the United States was treated with insecticides to control tobacco budworms, cotton bollworms, and pink bollworms, at a cost of

Economics of sale weight, herd size, supplementation, and seasonal factors.

373 million. Growers treating for budworms and cotton bollworms averaged four applications, while growers treating for pink bollworm averaged 3.3 applications. Bollworms and budworms still reduced US cotton yields by 4%—over one quarter of abillion dollars worth of cotton (Williams, 1996).

Does Tourism Promote Cross-Border Trade?

Agribusiness leaders in the border states of Arizona and Sonora feel strongly that trade will be more important to their future business than it is at present. Each state believes that there is a potential or expanding market available. Little support was found for the opinion that each others state serves as a business competitor. Integration, complementarity, and regional specialization have allowed cross-border agribusiness firms to become more competitive. Opportunities for risk reduction are felt to exist through cross-border expansion. The highest ranked items for increasing the economic vitality of agribusiness in the region are streamlining border crossing formalities for products, unifying grades and standards, improving Sonoras transportation and communication infrastructure, developing better financing strategies/legal agreements, and forming a bilingual regional agricultural agency to disseminate information regarding current regulations specific to agriculture. This agency may also help facilitate capital and trade flows by providing a voluntary certified trading license.

Bt Cotton Adoption in The United States and China: International Trade and Welfare Effects

This transdisciplinary study has a three-fold systems approach in evaluating a horticultural technology: 1) horticultural evaluations, 2) economic and resource analyses, and 3) systems engineering analyses, using low temperature storage as an example technology. Vegetable grafting is a technique to produce value-added seedlings but requires labor intensive nursery operations. Low temperature storage of seedlings for a short period of time can reduce peak production, but has not been evaluated at the extent demonstrated in this paper. Seedlings of 22 genotypes of Cucurbitaceae (cucurbit family) and Solanaceae (nightshade family) were evaluated for storability under selected temperatures and photosynthetic photon flux. Storability of Cucurbitaceous seedlings varied between 2 to 4 weeks at 12°C and 13 μmol m-2 s-1. Solanaceous seedlings were generally storable for 4 weeks at 12°C and 13 μmol m-2 s-1, but tomato seedlings could be stored for 4 weeks at 10°C and 5 μmol m-2 s-1. Capital and weekly operational costs of a low temperature storage system with a design that meets environmental requirements were estimated as

Adoption of Bt cotton: regional differences in producer costs and returns.

671 to