The combination of larger farms, rapidly increasing land values, and tax laws has resulted in increasing tax liabilities for the seller of farm real estate. After a real estate owner has made the decision to sell, he must choose the method of sale from several alternative selling strategies. Each selling strategy has a different impact on after-tax earnings. In the U.S., large numbers of farmers face this decision each year, as 4 to 5 percent of farms transfer annually. In addition, more than four-fifths of farm transfers are credit-financed. Sellers have been the predominant source of financing, providing more than two-fifths of all credit extended annually for farm real estate purchases.

During the 1970s, many changes have influenced U.S. agriculture. Researchers have devoted considerable attention to analyzing the effects of greater variability of agricultural product prices and means of coping with imperfect knowledge. Questions related to energy and the environment are receiving increased research emphasis. Hathaway has written on inflation and food prices and Tweeten has analyzed the real price effects of inflation on agriculture and total net farm income. Agricultural lenders, farmers, and others have expressed concern about higher land prices and capital requirements, but little research has been directed toward analyzing the effects of inflation at the firm level.

Tax reform, the incidence of taxation, and any implied restructuring of the rates at which individuals are taxed are recurrent issues which public policymakers must address. The advocation of reform or restructuring may be couched in various terms or approaches, but ultimately it must be concerned with the incidence of taxation and the rate of taxation in relation to income level. Arguments for changes in a tax structure may range from unsubstantiated value judgments to comparisons of taxes paid in relation to income but, regardless of the justification, each proposal is based on implicit or explicit evaluation criteria. An approach based solely on a comparison of tax paid in relation to income does not address one of the central issues—the sacrifice which the taxpayer perceives as he/she gives up income.

The fact that the local property tax remained virtually unchanged for so many decades prior to the 1950s is remarkable, considering the myriad modifications that have emerged during the past quarter century. Perhaps the historically low tax rates shielded many of its unfavorable characteristics which have been attacked in recent years. Because of rising land values and rising tax rates per dollar of value, the property tax in a majority of the states was modified, usually to protect agricultural or residential interests. Two factors contributed to the passage of the many tax reform programs for agriculture: (1) a belief that property taxes discriminated against farmers because farmers paid a disproportionate share of their income in property taxes and (2) a desire to affect land use by preserving farmland and open space.

Since the mid-1960s, agricultural economists have given much attention to research on farm-firm growth. One procedure used in this type of research has been multiperiod linear programming models, e.g. [1, 6, 9, 11, 14, 17]. Several researchers using the multiperiod linear programming framework have compared optimizing criteria. Generally, comparisons were made between maximizing some type of present value criterion and maximizing net worth at the end of the planning horizon. The different assumptions associated with the two maximizing criteria have resulted in different optimal growth patterns.

Most major crop and livestock prices became considerably more variable after 1972, resulting in increased producer price risk. Uncertainty in cattle feeding was compounded in that both input (feeder cattle and feed) and product (fed cattle) prices became quite variable after 1972. This uncertainty, accompanied by considerable losses in cattle feeding during the 1973-1975 period, has made hedging a more desirable option [1, 9]. Several studies have examined a short hedge on live cattle at the beginning of the feeding period as a means of reducing risk and increasing returns to cattle feeders. Selective hedging strategies generally reduced the variance of returns per head as well as improved returns during periods when cash feeding was unprofitable [2, 5]. Routine hedging of every pen clearly reduced profits during periods when cattle prices were rising while providing some protection during cash-feeding loss periods [6]. Feeding live cattle on a cash basis was more profitable than routine hedging prior to 1973 [6].

Producers and processors of many agricultural commodities can choose from among several coordination arrangements including spot-market exchange, contractual arrangements, and vertical integration. Firm decisions about coordination arrangements are important because they affect the success or even the survival of the firm and also cause broader impacts. The choice of marketing arrangements will influence a firm's profitability through prices received or paid, quality premiums or discounts, marketing costs incurred, exposure to production or price risk, and perhaps capital requirements. These firm decisions may have repercussions throughout the industry. For example, decisions by processing firms to shift from spot purchases to contract purchases may effectively foreclose the opportunity for producers to make spot sales. Decisions by processors to vertically integrate into production may force specialized producers out of business by limiting their marketing alternatives. Firm decision models focusing on choices among coordination arrangements should be helpful for prescribing and predicting firm behavior, predicting trends in relative importance of alternative arrangements, and evaluating policies (e.g., laws prohibiting processor ownership of production facilities) that are designed to influence these trends.

The production of beef cattle has historically been an important component of the Southeast's agricultural economy. In 1977 the region had 24.6 million cattle and calves, accounting for more than 28 percent of the total mature beef animals in the United States [3]. Despite this large and active cattle industry, however, the region is substantially deficient in carcass beef production.

Beef cattle production gradually has become more specialized with increasing separation of activities among geographic regions and farmers. The research literature commonly identifies two tiers of production — (1) cow-calf enterprises and (2) feedlot finishing [14, 19]. An intermediate tier — special feeding activities whose main functions are to assemble and grow out calves from a weaning weight to a weight and condition ready for feedlot finishing — has been operating for years. In recent years, as these activities have become more visible and distinct from the cow-calf or finishing enterprises, the name “backgrounding” has come into common usage among producers and market analysts [8].

In the United States. 146.5 trillion Btu's of energy were used in the production and marketing of poultry products in 1974, at a cost of $550 million [4, p. 261. Processing plant operations accounted for about $130 million or 24 percent of these costs. Because of increased mechanization and higher sanitation standards, the poultry processing industry has become more energy intensive over time. Expanding volume and increased emphasis on further processed products also have contributed to greater energy use.

Approximately 50 million metric tons of poultry wastes are produced annually in the United States. Production of this byproduct is not without costs. Cost incurred for handling and disposal of broiler litter, for example, has been estimated to be .26c per kg of liveweight salable bird [1].

Although costs are associated with this byproduct, it is not a source of revenue for many producers. The traditional use of litter has been as a fertilizer. However, for many poultry producers, land is a limiting factor. In some cases, the value of the plant nutrient content of the wastes does not justify their use instead of commercial fertilizers when handling costs are considered. Thus in many instances these wastes create a pollution problem and may be negatively priced.

Fuel shortages, along with dramatic increases in the price of energy, have placed considerable emphasis on the development of new and competitive energy supplies. In irrigated regions, the increased price and threat of curtailed supplies of natural gas have serious economic implications for the farm firm [4, 13]. Agriculture has the potential of replacing part of the energy it uses in the form of agricultural residues. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the use of residues from crop production in Texas as a feasible energy source.

Historically, the economic problems of Appalachia have been closely linked to the problems of the coal industry, which, with its boom and bust cycles, often has intensified the conditions of poverty, unemployment, out-migration, and capital flight from the area. For more than a decade it has been national economic policy “to develop in Appalachia a self-sustaining economy capable of supporting the people with rising incomes, improving standards of living and increasing employment opportunities” [1, p. 64]. It has been widely hypothesized that this societal goal will be achieved through exogenous increases in demand for coal as the result of its substitution for other energy sources. Therefore a study was made of the impacts of the increased demand for coal on the economies of the 18 coal-producing counties in Appalachian Kentucky.

Because of growing stocks of grain and the reinstitution of production controls, the question of what allocative impacts such controls imply is once again relevant. The prospect that restrictions on land use may initiate an intensification in the use of substitute inputs such as fertilizer, which are already high in price, is discouraging. Although the issue is an old one, empirical evidence on the extent of these effects is incomplete.1 The purpose of this article is to derive a convenient means of measuring the allocative effects of changes in input restrictions. As an example of empirical application, results are presented which indicate the impact of acreage restrictions during the marketing quota years in North and South Dakota.

Spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) landings in Florida increased from 1.9 million pounds in 1954 to 6.6 million pounds in 1974 [1], a gain of 239 percent. Florida landings currently account for 94 percent of U.S. spiny lobster landings. Total Florida spiny lobster landings have declined since 1974 for two reasons. First, prohibition of Florida fishermen from lobster fishing on the Bahamian continental shelf reduced landings considerably. Florida landings declined approximately 3.5 million pounds between 1974 and 1975, mainly because of the loss of the domestic landings which were caught in Bahamian waters. Second, domestic landings from Florida waters appear to have reached a maximum in 1974 and have since remained relatively stable or declined slightly.

Economists have a continued and justified interest in agricultural water demand estimation. Water is becoming a scarce resource throughout much of the United States, even in “water abundant” eastern states such as Florida. As a result, new water institutions are evolving to address the water allocation problems. Estimates of values in alternative uses are important information in these water allocation decision processes.

Much dialogue has been devoted to the “farm problem” by both the public and private sectors in recent months. Expressions of concern about chronic low farm income because of low prices received have again become common. Numerous proposals have been offered as solutions to the problem.

It is of concern to the authors that many of these proposals emphasize production control as means of maintaining adequate farm price levels. Economists routinely receive training in the concepts of demand and supply response which, although difficult to quantify, offer easily understood market principles. For example, elasticity of demand can be used to show U. S. farmers how actions taken to reduce domestic production could be less than beneficial to the producer. Perhaps economists have failed to apply some of these concepts in the evaluation of policy alternatives or have not clearly demonstrated the effects (particularly long-run) of unilateral actions taken by the United States.

In a recent attempt to emulate by simulation and then to improve upon a farm supply cooperative's distribution system, a lockset algorithm that included a backhaul routing capacity was constructed. The author describes the problem that motivated that modification, the modification itself, and a possible methodological improvement for applying routing models to firm-level distribution problems. The modified lockset's simulation capability is discussed with respect to capacity control and “load size/loading time” trade-off. Finally, the potential for determining visit frequency within a distribution routing analysis rather than accepting it as a given is discussed.

Decision makers face two opposing forces in the provision of emergency services. Their constituency wants more and better services, but financial considerations limit the quantity and quality of services provided. This classic economic confrontation requires a decision based on the trade-offs between the benefits of protection provided by additional services and the cost of providing these services. Such a decision is needed for ambulance service, fire protection, and law enforcement.

The notion that one economic variable has an impact on another over several time periods is not uncommon to economic thought. Irving Fisher was the first to introduce empirically the notion of distributed lags using different shapes of probability curves. Alt continued the work, but made no a priori assumptions about the distribution of the lag as Fisher had done. Koyck and Nerlove returned to and extended the work of Fisher assuming a priori a monotonically declining distribution. More recently Jorgenson, Almon, and Johnson have developed estimators which, like those of Alt, assume only a continuous lag function of unspecified shape. There is evidence, however, that the Jorgenson and Johnson techniques are extremely sensitive to errors of measurement and specification because in applied work, reasonable estimates of lag distributions occur infrequently.