This paper develops Engel relationships to identify the determinants of household expenditures on nursery products and specifies their impact on consumer purchases of these goods for subregions of the United States. Household income, the number of single family home construction starts, educational level attained, and age composition of the population were found in influence nursery product expenditures. The economic variables of income and construction starts appear to be key factors affecting nursery purchases. To maintain a competitive edge, industry participants should monitor these variables carefully and adjust their production and marketing plans to meet changing market conditions.

This paper compares hedging risk for various weights of feeder cattle hedged with a traditional cross hedge and a ratio cross hedge. A traditional hedge calls for the purchase/sale of one pound of futures for each pound of cash feeder cattle. By contrast, a ratio hedge requires estimation of a hedge ratio to determine the number of pounds of futures needed to hedge one pound of cash feeder cattle. Hedge ratios were found to be larger than 1.0 for light-weight feeder cattle. By using the estimated hedge ratios, it was shown that hedging risk could be reduced 20-50 percent compared to that achieved by using a hedge ratio of 1.0.

Pecan growers can increase income by storing pecans if economically feasible storage technology is available. The marginal conditions under which growers would store pecans were derived. Revenue changes due to storage and impact of storage on price variations were simulated, suggesting the price that growers could pay for new storage technology.