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This study evaluates the economic feasibility and profi tability of producing industrial sugar juice and ethanol using energy beets in the Northern Plains of the United States. An enterprise budget is constructed to estimate the breakeven price of energy beets that triggers farmers to produce the crop. This breakeven price is used to estimate the long-run breakeven prices for industrial sugar juice and ethanol. Stochastic models are developed to account for price and parameter variability in the estimation of enterprise budgets and breakeven prices. Results show that the simulated breakeven price of producing ethanol is 518 $m -3 and that of industrial sugar juice is 351 $t -1 , using a 36 $t -1 breakeven delivered cost of energy beets. Energy beet ethanol investment could be profi table at the breakeven prices of energy beets and ethanol computed, and could attract new capital investment into the ethanol industry.

"Canada's multilayered wetland policies promote the preservation of "significant" wetlands, but the criteria for identifying these wetlands are not clearly defined partially because wetlands are a source of multiple ecological outputs, such as abating sediment and providing wildlife habitat. This study adapts a GIS-based, hydrologic, and economic model to examine the trade-offs between agricultural interests and ecological benefits in the Eramosa Watershed, located in southwestern Ontario, Canada. While preserving a wetland enhances both water quality and wildlife habitat goals, and the costs of preservation increase at an increasing rate as expected, the ranking of wetlands, and so the choice of "significant" wetlands, varies considerably depending upon the wetland benefit chosen as the policy goal. The trade-off between wetland benefits and drainage is diminished if there is an alternative means to abate sediment. Since conservation tillage is a lower cost means of improving water quality than wetland preservation, its inclusion can achieve comparable environmental benefits at decreased agricultural cost." Copyright (c) 2010 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.

Current Saskatchewan wetland regulation may be insufficient to meet North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) preservation and restoration goals in a climate of increasing demand for grains and nuisance costs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to ascertain the effects that crop prices, nuisance costs, and alternate wetland regulation have on these goals. An integrated geographic information system and economic farm-level model that assesses the net present value of drainage projects in the Whitesand River Watershed is employed. If prices eventually reach historical highs observed in the early 1970s, more than 85% of the wetland area in the study area could be drained, making NAWMP goals impossible to achieve. In this scenario, nuisance costs have little effect on drainage outcomes because they are dwarfed by the magnitude of agricultural revenue. If prices remain at the current higher levels observed from 2007 to 2012, the use of a binding permit could help achieve NAWMP goals. In this case, nuisance costs play a large role in determining the drainage of marginal, comparatively larger wetlands. If prices return to the recent lower levels observed from 1999 to 2006, current Saskatchewan regulation is sufficient. In this scenario, agricultural returns are low and nuisance costs are not high enough to cause wetland drainage. Both wetland regulation and nuisance costs can play an important role in agricultural wetland drainage, but that role depends critically upon the price of agricultural products. Les règlements actuels de la Saskatchewan sur les milieux humides ne sont peut-être pas suffisants pour permettre l'atteinte des objectifs de conservation et de restaurationénoncés dans le Plan nordaméricain de gestion de la sauvagine (PNAGS) compte tenu de la croissance de la demande de céréales et des coûts des nuisances. Le présent article viseà déterminer les répercussions des divers règlements sur les milieux humides, du prix des cultures et des coûts des nuisances sur les objectifs du PNAGS. Nous avons utilisé un modèle d'intégration de données tirées d'un système d'information géographique (SIG) et de donnéeséconomiques sur les fermes afin de déterminer la valeur nette actualisée (VAN)de projets de drainage dans le bassin versant de la rivière Whitesand. Si les prix venaientà atteindre les niveaux historiques du début des années 1970, plus de 85% des milieux humides situés dans l'aire d'étude pourraientêtre drainés, ce qui rendrait la réalisation des objectifs du PNAGS impossible. Dans ce cas, les coûts des nuisances auraient peu de répercussions sur les décisions de drainage puisqu'ils seraient dérisoires comparativementà l'importance du revenu agricole. Si les prix demeuraientà des niveauxélevés comme ceux observés de 2007à 2012, l'utilisation d'un permis contraignant pourrait favoriser la réalisation des objectifs du PNAGS. Dans ce cas, les coûts des nuisances joueraient un rôle important dans la détermination du drainage de grandes superficies de milieux humides peu productifs. Si les prix revena...