Design of government policies that seek greater adoption of anaerobic digesters can benefit from a greater understanding of the motivations for adoption. Using a nationwide survey of U.S. dairy and swine producers, this study seeks to determine how policies, peer group influences, environmental beliefs, and farm characteristics affect the decision to adopt a digester. Results suggest that neighborhood effects, farm type and size, and nonmarket benefits of anaerobic digestion are important for predicting whether or not a producer will consider this technology for manure management. However, the decision to actually adopt is more dependent on government policies and economic considerations.
Increased credit availability facilitates land acquisition, but higher land values also hinder it. We investigate the impact of credit availability on land values, after regulatory changes in the lending system. We build an index of increased credit availability using Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation data. County-level panel fixed effects estimations are performed controlling for land value determinants, credit availability, and county-level macroeconomic factors. We find that estimating the effects of credit availability separately masks its total effect. Results show a 0.1 change in the index for increased credit availability is associated with 1.64–1.96% increase in land values.
The Dodd‐Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 aimed to improve the financial stability of the banking industry. This reform was intended to reduce the too‐big‐to‐fail practices for very large banks. However, it might also affect the performance of relatively small asset size banks with different lending portfolios. Using the Call Report data from 2006 to 2016, evidence suggests that the Dodd‐Frank Act has affected the estimates of cost efficiency and returns to scale measures of both big banks and small agricultural banks. Results indicate that Dodd‐Frank Act has increased cost efficiency, discouraged mergers, and encouraged product specialization for banks above the $50 billion asset size. However, none of these results hold for the banks just above the $10 billion asset size. This appears to suggest that Dodd‐Frank Act has mainly affected the economic measures of those very big banks that are subject to the more stringent regulations. Nevertheless, Dodd‐Frank has reduced agricultural banks' cost efficiency and increased incentives for mergers. In addition, the Dodd‐Frank Act has dampened the incentives for product diversification in agricultural banking. Likewise, evidence exists that this act has slowed productivity growth, efficiency, and technological change in agricultural banks. Taken together, Dodd‐Frank reduced consolidations in very big banks that are subject to greater oversight but adversely affected U.S. agricultural lending.
epayment rates for farm loans have declined every quarter since the second quarter of 2013, suggesting heightened stress in agricultural lending. This stress could be amplified if the outlook for the agricultural sector remains downbeat. Farm income is expected to remain low in the coming years, and farm sector liquidity continues to deteriorate. If lower agricultural commodity prices and farm incomes persist, bankers will need to understand how regional and agricultural economic conditions-such as annual changes in crop revenues, offfarm income, and farm production expenses-affect farm loan repayment rates and contribute to stress in agricultural lending. Declining loan repayment rates may lead to adverse outcomes for both banks and borrowers. When farm borrowers are unable to service short-term debt obligations, their ability to obtain financing decreases. In addition, if stress in agricultural lending intensifies, agricultural banks could become less able to lend to creditworthy farm borrowers. Farming operations require considerable funding to start, function, and grow. Many farmers borrow funds from agricultural banks to purchase land, farm machinery, livestock, and production inputs such as seed, fertilizer, and fuel. Often, these purchases spill over into local, rural economies. Therefore, when repayment rates decline and agricultural lenders are less able to lend to farmers, local economies and the general agricultural sector may experience worse outcomes.
Excess nutrients are among the leading sources of water quality impairment in the Unites States, and the USEPA has been working with state regulatory agencies to develop nutrient criteria for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is scheduled to establish nutrient regulations in 2013, and stream total P (TP) concentration standards of 0.16 mg L in warm water and 0.11 mg L in cold water have been proposed for the rivers in the state. The objectives of this study were to monitor TP concentrations and loads along the Cache La Poudre River as it flows from the pristine upstream area through urban regions and finally through a mixture of agricultural and urban land uses. The study attempts to evaluate the sources and influences of TP under different hydrologic conditions. Twelve sampling events were completed from April 2010 to August 2011 to assess the influence of various flow and precipitation conditions on aqueous TP concentrations. During midrange flows and dry conditions, WWTPs were the major sources of TP, but other sources were more significant under high-flow and wet conditions according to a load analysis. The analysis indicates that reducing the TP load from WWTPs will only marginally affect the TP load in the river, and therefore it appears that other sources (e.g., stormwater and agricultural runoff) need to be addressed before the aquatic life-based stream standard can be achieved.
Cattle prices in 2021 have been recovering slowly from several disruptions-including a pandemic, two ice storms, and a cybersecurity attack-which have already had significant effects on profit margins for cattle producers. Although prices for all major agricultural commodities fell dramatically in the first half of 2020 due to COVID-19-related disruptions, most commodities rebounded sharply in the fourth quarter of 2020 and remained strong through most of 2021. However, despite a similarly sized fall, prices producers receive for cattle have only recently surpassed pre-pandemic levels. The sluggish recovery in cattle prices was reinforced by major winter storms in early 2021, which resulted in significant losses to affected producers, and a May 2021 cyberattack on meatpacker JBS S.A., which caused significant production delays. Together, these disruptions have limited the industry's ability to recover from the pandemic and, alongside changing weather and consumer preferences, could have longer-term effects on the economic outlook for cattle producers moving forward.In this article, I examine long-term pressures and prospects for the U.S. cattle sector. Going forward, U.S. cattle production faces three key pressures that may affect profitability: vulnerabilities along the supply chain; extreme weather conditions, particularly drought; and shifting demand from U.S. consumers. First, although cattle operations had
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.