This article develops a market timing decision rule for cattle feeders based on profit maximization. We then compare it with the “status quo” strategy of feeding cattle to a targeted carcass end point. We estimate individual nonlinear dynamic growth functions to derive each animal's value of the marginal product in relation to days on feed. Given individual marginal factor costs, our results indicate that the use of a profit maximization rule could have increased average profits by $16.56 to $21.09 per head for the cattle of known age, and $7.67 to $11.32 per head if age was unknown.

As a result of several judicial rulings, processing of horses for human consumption came to a halt in 2007. This article determines the change in horse prices resulting from elimination of horse-processing facilities. As expected, lower-valued horses were more affected by the ban than higher-valued horses. The analysis suggests the slaughter ban reduced horse prices, on average, by about 13% and resulted in a loss in producer surplus to sellers of approximately 14% at the sale we analyzed. We also show horse prices are affected by a myriad of factors including breed, gender, age, coat color, and sale catalog description.

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the United States would likely result in major costs to producers, consumers, and government. How animal health officials manage such an outbreak has substantial impact on probable losses. Without an emergency FMD vaccination strategy, producer and consumer losses of an FMD outbreak in the midwestern United States would likely approach $188 billion, and government costs would likely exceed $11 billion. In contrast, a high-capacity emergency vaccination program together with a large vaccination zone would reduce median consumer and producer losses to approximately $56 billion and government costs to a little more than $1 billion.

This article examines the impact of the 2012 drought and the biofuels mandate on the U.S. grain and livestock markets and estimates the mandate waiver required to offset the impact on the corn price. The framework used is a stochastic equilibrium displacement model that integrates the beef, pork, and poultry markets with the corn, distillers’ grain, soybean, soymeal, and ethanol markets. The corn and beef markets are found to be the most vulnerable. A mandate waiver of approximately 23% is required to fully negate the impact of the drought on corn prices. The waiver is equivalent to a 13.7% reduction in ethanol consumption.

Little is known about the impact of corn and energy prices on the profitability of irrigating corn in Tennessee. We evaluated the probability of a positive net present value (NPV) for center-pivot irrigation in Tennessee corn production. Three corn price series were employed to evaluate the effects of the shift in corn prices on the feasibility of irrigation. The recent rise in corn prices increased the probability of NPV being positive for irrigation investment. Future corn prices will need to remain high for investment in center-pivot irrigation to remain profitable under Tennessee growing conditions.

Pollution from fossil fuel use is a global problem. Studies have shown that a worsening of environmental quality has adverse effects on worker productivity and health. In this study, there is an inexhaustible natural resource that deteriorates environmental quality and affects productivity. There also exists a perfect substitute clean backstop, which is initially too costly to operate and whose costs can be reduced through investments in knowledge. Depending on the endowment of environmental quality, the optimal solution shows that the planner should only use the resource or only the backstop until a constant steady state is reached in which the polluting resource and backstop are used in fixed proportions. We show that investments in alternative technologies from the very beginning can help an economy make the eventual switch to clean energy sources, thereby attaining better environmental quality.