Journal Issue:
Agricultural Policy Review: Volume 2024, Issue 1
Agricultural Policy Review: Volume 2024, Issue 1
Volume
Number
Winter 2024
Issue Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Journal Volume
Articles
Publication
Cover Crop Adoption Decelerates and No-till Area Stagnates in the I-States
(
2024)
Using County-level data from the 2022, 2017, and 2012 US Census of Agriculture (USDA 2014; 2019; 2024a), this article sheds light on the patterns of adoption and disadoption of cover crops and no- till in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, which jointly accounted for 19% of the value of crop production in the United States from 2017 to 2022 (USDA 2024b). Over that period, cover crop adoption decelerated substantially with respect to the previous five years, and no-till area stagnated in the I-states.
Publication
Iowa Farmers’ Perspectives on Precision Agriculture
(
2024)
USDA’s Economic Research Service defines precision agriculture (PA) as “a suite of technologies that may reduce input costs by providing the farm operator with detailed spatial information that can be used to optimize field management practices.” Marketing of PA technologies generally focuses on potential benefits such as increased productivity and profitability, optimization of input use, and overall improved sustainability of farming practices. But what do farmers, the typical PA end users, think about these technologies? A recent Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll survey examines use of key PA technologies and farmers’ perspectives regarding the potential benefits and concerns related to use of these technologies.1 This article summarizes the findings.
Publication
Pest Susceptibility Commons in Agriculture
(
2024)
Pest resistance to control technologies are causing costly management problems in crop and animal agriculture. Pest resistance often arises from heavy use of a particular control technology, a choice that makes sense to each individual farmer but may leave all farmers worse off. Viewing pest susceptibility to control as a commons, or common good, admits an understanding of policy responses intended to protect against excessive use of pest control technology. Common goods are characterized by two criteria—the good is rivalrous so that use by one person takes from use by another; and, it is also non-excludable so that those who do not pay can use the good. Excessive use for the social good, a reduction in resource availability, and a decline in resource quality generally ensue. Better management of the good requires mechanisms to both limit consumption and direct goods to those who value them most. These possibilities are not available for non-excludable goods. The extent to which either definition criterion is met varies greatly; and yet there is consensus that the underlying concept captures the essence of many resource use problems. We discuss some classical agricultural common good (ACG) issues as well as topical examples with emphasis on pest susceptibility to applied chemicals.
Publication
The Contribution of Agricultural, Forestry, and Fisheries Production to the US and Iowa Economies
(
2024)
In a recent report, USDA’s Economic Research Service summarizes the prevalence of agricultural and food sectors in the United States economy (USDA ERS 2024a). USDA finds that the $1.4 trillion spent in all agricultural, food, forestry, and related industries was about 5.5% of US gross domestic product (GDP). In their analysis, USDA includes all agricultural and forestry production, food and beverage manufacturing and processing, food retailing, food service, and fishing, as well as textiles, apparel, and leather production. According to the report, US households spent approximately 13% of their 2022 consumption on food—only transportation and housing expenditures ranked higher. USDA reports that the agricultural, food, forestry, and related industries contributed about 1% to 2022’s US GDP and directly created about 3.6 million jobs.
In this article, I focus only on the initial production portions of the “agricultural, food, forestry, and related industries” in the supply chain in order to ask what the impact is on the US economy from not just the direct spending but also indirect and induced effects that impact other industries. First, I need to define what I mean by the initial production portions of that industry.
Publication
Profitability of Winter Cereal Rye in Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems
(
2024)
Using experimental agronomic data from six location-years in Iowa and a partial budget framework, Plastina et al. (2023) evaluate the annual private net returns to cereal rye as a winter cover crop in the no-till corn phase of an integrated corn-soybean and cow-calf system in Iowa. They calculate the annual net returns to cereal rye in an integrated crop-livestock operation as the direct sum of the net returns in the crop system and the simulated net cost savings in the cow-calf enterprise, by planting date and method, seeding rate, and termination date. Net returns in the absence of grazing average -$50.08/acre and are negative for 82.2% of the treatments, while net returns under grazing average -$6.17/acre and are negative for 54.8% of the treatments. Early-broadcast cereal rye produces higher biomass and larger net cost savings in the livestock enterprise than late-drilled cereal rye, but it also results in higher corn yield penalties. In the no-grazing scenario, net losses for early-broadcast cereal rye are $67.16/acre larger, on average, than for late-drilled cereal rye.