Farm machinery continues to increase in its importance to the agricultural sector. Depreciation, the decline in value of a durable asset over time, represents one of the largest costs of agricultural production. The general objectives of this study were to update and expand the number of Remaining Value (RV) functions...
Goats were the first livestock species to be domesticated by humans and continue to function as a key source of protein and economic value for many communities. In the sixteenth century, Spanish colonists brought goats to the Americas. Unlike other nations, the United States did not maintain a significant market...
Pawpaw is the largest indigenous fruit in North America, native to Ontario, Canada and 26 midwestern and eastern states, yet its high value as a niche crop has been met with limited cultivation in Oregon, Washington, northern California, Idaho, and western Montana (Jones & Layne, n.d.). Cultivation of Pacific Northwest...
Rural communities will continue to be disproportionately shocked by economic fluctuations. Market forces are likely to lead to the decline of many rural communities and they will need to be economically resilient to survive. This thesis draws on several social sciences and the natural sciences to develop ideas that communities...
Recently local grains have become an area of economic growth. Local grain products, including whole-wheat and sourdough products, are increasingly in demand for their health benefits, unique flavor profiles, and association with local food movements. These local grain economies are beginning to boom, but they lack the technical aid that...
Attention has been drawn to the observation that environmental benefits under the current regulatory approaches are diminishing with respect to increased pollution control costs. Regulators have begun to appreciate that while environmental gains can still be achieved under the current command and control system, the most significant environmental gains have...
Little work has been conducted regarding the net returns of forest lands. The Ricardian model is ripe with potential to estimate the effects of climate on net returns to forestry.
Multiple linear regression allows each climate variable to measure its effect of net returns with the assumption of all other...
The value of the student experience beyond just the academic classroom setting has been well established by a number of scholars in the higher education field. In more recent years the literature has intentionally expanded beyond the “typical” student demographics in order to examine the unique aspects, challenges, and needs...
Evaporation synergy is a phenomenon that occurs between different classes of soil and allows for a greater amount/quantity of soil water evaporation. 20 of the 66 soil texture class combinations have been shown to exhibit evaporation synergy (Fisher, 2012), however the impact of column width on the functionality of this...