The United States is the leading producer and exporter of corn and soybeans in the world. The United States exports 20% of the world’s corn and 30% of soybeans in a typical year (USDA, ERS). The U.S., being the top producer and exporter of these commodities, is also confronting major rivals such as Argentina, Brazil, and Ukraine, which are increasing their exports and causing the U.S. to lose some of its market share. In order to stop this decline in market share, the U.S. can adopt and implement different policies to manage resources and employ advanced technology more effectively. In this study, we empirically estimate the export demand function of U.S. corn and soybeans to the top four export destinations: China, Japan, European Union, and Mexico in the current context of energy and agriculture linkages and production of ethanol from corn. A log-linear, panel data equation is used to estimate the U.S. corn and soybeans export demand function. Own price, cross price, income and exchange rate elasticities are estimated econometrically. Data for the U.S. and its top four importer countries were gathered for the 1980-2012 period. A Hausman test implies that a random effects estimator is better for the estimations. Elasticity analysis indicates that U.S. corn demand is elastic to own price, cross price, income and poultry inventory, while inelastic to real exchange rate and pig inventory. The positive cross price elasticity reveals that corn and soybeans are substitutes in these countries. Conversely elasticity analysis for the U.S. soybean demand shows elastic cross price, real exchange rate, and pig and poultry inventory effects, while inelastic own price and income effects. Consequently, for the U.S. to gain more international market share, U.S. corn and soybean producers need to take advantage of their advanced technology and high management skills to increase quality and have more competitive pricing compared to rivals. The U.S. can gain more market share by employing better regulation to increase the quality of products, and provide incentives to U.S. farmers and exporters that could help boost their advantages in a highly competitive international environment. Higher quality and more product differentiation could help in this regard. This could help U.S. farmers increase exports to currently existing foreign destinations and access new markets, to expand market shares.

This study aimed to increase vegetable consumption and preference in elementary school-aged children using two interventions: 1) flavor-flavor conditioning; and 2) sensory-based, vegetable-themed education. In both interventions, increase in consumption was measured by visual observation of how many vegetables children took and consumed from a vegetable buffet. Preferences were measured with a self-administered survey. In the flavor-flavor intervention, children ages 5 to 11 (n=59) were exposed to sweetened and nonsweetened vegetable purees. Preferences were assessed prior to intervention using a rating and ranking system. Nine paired tastings were presented. Children received a posttest immediately after the final conditioning (n=27) and again 2 to 3 weeks after the final conditioning (n=24). A repeated measures ANOVA was used to examine the effect of conditioning (sweetened vegetable purees) on flavor preference. The change in attitudes and behaviors related to vegetables was evaluated using independent samples t-tests. Pre- and post-flavor conditioning change in whole vegetable consumption was assessed using paired t-tests. Flavor-flavor conditioning is not an effective strategy to increase whole vegetable consumption or preference for vegetables in elementary school-aged children. The vegetable-themed curriculum focused on four vegetables (carrots, peas, cauliflower, broccoli) and included three 30-minute lessons on each vegetable. Lessons included information on how the vegetable tastes, where it grows, and what it looks, feels, sounds, and smells like. Lessons were taught once per week for 3 weeks each month over four months. Children ages 5-11 enrolled in an after-school program at one elementary school were invited to participate (n=27). The amount of vegetables consumed by participants during a vegetable buffet was observed pre- and post-intervention (n = 20, 12 respectively). Differences in these amounts were assessed using independent samples t-tests. The education intervention was associated with increased consumption of carrots (p-value =0.001) and peas (p-value=0.003) but not cauliflower or broccoli. There was no change in vegetable-related attitudes/behaviors post-intervention. The results support the use of sensory-based, vegetable-themed education to increase vegetable consumption among children. Future studies should involve a larger sample size and should consider in-school rather than after-school education.

The emergence of genetically modified organisms has sparked a multi-faceted debate, covering issues related to human health, ethics, and the environment. Discussions of the economics of GMO adoption are highly politicized and are influenced by large corporations and non-governmental organizations. This study aims to provide insight into the economic impacts of genetically modified organisms on individual farmers of cotton in India. The first GMO to reach commercialization in India was Bt cotton in 2002, which led to significant increases in revenue and yield among smallholder farmers. Using survey data collected between 2003 and 2009, I examine the economic impacts of Bt cotton and explore macro level changes in the Indian economy.

With the price of corn now over $6 per bushel, and with feedlot total cost per pound of gain now approaching $1.00 per pound of gain there are new incentives to try and add weight to calves outside of feedlots. The question then arises of how to add weight to a calf in the most economical manner. There are many different feeding programs to consider. However, with few exceptions, the cheapest way to add weight outside of a feedlot usually involves the calf grazing for an extended period of time. Winter pasture grazing, wheat pasture grazing and corn stalk grazing followed by summer pasture grazing are examples of these programs. However, with the exception of California, most of the area west of the Great Plains lacks the resources and climate for most of these winter grazing programs. For those states, cattle producers can background calves through the winter and then allow them to graze pastures in the summer. Backgrounding calves is essentially taking calves at weaning and feeding them to heavier weights without placing them directly in a feedlot on a finishing ration. The overall objective of this research is to evaluate the level and variability of returns to several background feeding alternatives. The returns will be evaluated in an expected value-variance analysis and ranked using stochastic dominance procedures. It appears that there are several different background alternatives that producers could utilize to increase returns with an acceptable level of risk and add additional value to their calves.

Milk mineral (MM) is a type II antioxidant (metal chelator) that can bind iron and prevent iron catalysis of lipid oxidation. Thus, MM might have microbial growth inhibition effects on iron-dependent bacteria. Objective 1 was to evaluate effects of MM on growth of non-pathogenic iron-dependent bacterial strains (Listeria innocua, Eschericia coli, Pseudomonas fluorescens). MM (1.5 % w/v) did not significantly inhibit growth of Listeria and E. coli. However, growth of Pseudomonas fluorescens was consistently and significantly reduced by ~1 log colony forming units per ml (CFU/ml) with all levels of MM (0.5, 0.75, 1.5 % w/v). All levels of MM also had no growth inhibition effects against the mixed microflora of fresh ground beef during storage for up to 10 days at 2°C. In conclusion, MM had little or no effect to inhibit microbial growth. The strong affinity of MM to ionic iron inhibits lipid oxidation, but does not inhibit bacterial growth supported by other forms of iron (heme or amino acid + iron complexes). Several studies report that MM has greater antioxidant effect than sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) in ground meats, especially at longer storage time. Objective 2 was to compare stability of MM and STP in ground beef patties by monitoring the decomposition to soluble orthophosphates (Pi). Patties (control) and patties with 0.75 % MM or 0.5 % STP were stored at 2 or 22°C for 0, 1, or 2 days. CFU/g and Pi were measured. As expected, CFU/g at 22°C was much higher than treatment at 2°C. Pi levels at 2°C were lower (P < 0.05) than at 22°C. At day 0, for both temperatures, patties formulated with MM had the highest Pi levels. However, after 2 days storage, samples with added STP had the highest level of Pi, followed by MM and control. Thus, decomposition as measured by release of Pi was significantly higher for STP than for MM added to beef patties. There was a significant positive correlation (0.77) between CFU/g and Pi during storage of beef patties for 2 days at 22°C. In conclusion, increased Pi during storage of beef patties was at least partially due to bacterial phosphatases. A third experiment was conducted to examine the stability of 0.75 % MM or 0.5 % STP added to growing cultures of Pseudomonas fluorescens at 2°C or 22°C for 0, 1, and 2 days. Neither MM nor STP was stable in autoclaved media (Pi increased significantly). The factors responsible for decomposition of MM or STP in autoclaved media remain to be determined.

Since the beginning of history the wool of sheep has been used by the human race. Its chief use has been and still is for clothing. Also, it is widely used for blankets, upholstery, carpets, and numerous other products. The wool industry is important to the state of Utah, which was the sixth largest producing state in the United States in 1958. Wool growers in Utah received approximately $7,897,000 in sales proceeds and government payments for wool sold during the 1958 marketing year (12).1

The influence of an individual's dress practices on his/her sense of self has been studied for many years. Courses such as the Dress and Humanity course at Utah State University have been developed to educate students on the impact of dress on society. In this study, students in the Dress and Humanity course were given a pre-course and post-course survey to determine if self-perceptions related to dress practices underwent a change over the duration of the semester. Significant differences were found in the categories of body image, evaluating self-esteem, and communication of self to others. A relationship was found between survey responses and gender, degree of importance of clothing purchases, and how much money participants spent in the 365 days previous to the pre-course survey.

The supply of market milk in the Great Basin marketing area has been increasing more rapidly than the demand for fluid milk and cream. During the last four years, supply of market milk increased 35 million pounds, while fluid use increased only 15 million pounds.

Contamination of freshwater systems by nutrients has been studied extensively in the eastern U.S. Little research on the fate of nutrients in grazing conditions has been done in the western U.S. Western agriculture is often irrigated and research addressing the potential for leaching under these conditions is warranted. This study used Management Intensive Grazing (MIG) and eight grass-legume mixtures to evaluate the management and forage choice in relation to nitrogen and phosphorus leaching to ground water. Soil water samples were taken weekly through the growing season from 2001 through 2003. Water samples were analyzed for nitrate, ammonia, and phosphate. Soils were described and a textural discontinuity was discovered in two of the six soil profiles described. Data were analyzed by treatment, grass, legume, and soils by treatment. Three-year nitrate-N means were found to be in a range of 4.50 to 48.10 and 2.11 to 49.5 mg NO3 - -N L-1, at 60 cm and 90 cm, respectively. The amount of leaching depended on the grass-legume mixture as well as the soil characteristics. Significant differences were found between grasses (P=0.0001) with tall fescue leaching the least and orchardgrass leaching the most. Differences in leaching under legumes were also found to be significant (P=0.001), with white clover always leaching more than birdsfoot trefoil when significant differences were observed. Ammonia leaching was nonsignificant at a studywide analysis. Phosphorus treatment concentrations ranged from 0.025 to 0.41 mg PO4- -P L-1 and were significantly different (P=0.001). A comparison by grass type indicated that perennial ryegrass leached significantly higher concentrations of P (P=0.01) at 60 cm than the other grasses, but found no difference at 90 cm. No significant differences were found between legumes at either depth. Leaching of P was less affected by the soil textural discontinuity than nitrogen leaching. Soil differences affect leaching in varying degrees. Nitrate was affected most strongly by soil differences. These differences were more strongly evident at 60 cm than 90 cm. Soils affected phosphorus leaching differently than nitrate, and were more strongly affected at 90 cm than at 60 cm. Ammonia was not affected by soil characteristics.

The primary aim of the research conducted for this thesis was to develop a predictive model of information systems success for a publicly-available, web-based application that provides information to users on both the value of carbon credits that result from sequestration of carbon in a forest as well as potential earnings from supply of saleable timber. The application, also developed as part of this research, is called the CO2 Calculator. In addition attitudes of respondents to climate change and carbon sequestration were also gauged to ascertain their knowledge of key environmental issues relevant to the system.The model used as the foundation for the research is the DeLone and McLean (1992, 2002, 2003) model of information systems success. This model was adapted to measure information systems success for the CO2 Calculator which is a publicly available, web-based application rather than a proprietary, task-specific, organizationally focused application as measured in the prior research.Data was collected via a survey dispatched by email to users who accessed the CO2 Calculator. The survey instrument used builds on the existing work of Torkzadeh and Doll (1988, 1999), Seddon and Kiew (1994) and Torkzadeh et al. (2005). All of these researchers used variations of the End User Survey (EUS) to collect data on end users’ perceptions of the success of various applications, all of which were internal, organisationally-focussed, task specific, proprietary systems. This meant the survey items used for the current research were adapted to measure users’ attitudes to a publicly-available, web-based application that had no task-specific roles in an organisation.Analysis of the data proceeded in two distinct phases. The first phase was the examination and presentation of descriptive information about the demographic characteristics of the sample and the users’ attitudes to climate change, carbon sequestration and the overall success of the CO2 Calculator. The descriptive data indicated the respondents are a technologically literate group who have concerns related to environmental management and the use of land for sustainable practices. It also showed that the users were extremely satisfied with the CO2 Calculator.In the second phase Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to examine the constructs underlying the data and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships among the constructs. Both the EFA and SEM resulted in structures and relationships that differed from the hypothesised outcomes and revealed a set of constructs and relationships that were clearly associated with the success of a publicly-available, web based application with different theoretical associations than those found by previous researchers examining organisationally-focussed, proprietary applications.Regression analyses were also conducted to check the relationships among constructs that were omitted from the final structural model, but were on the hypothesised model. Support for their inclusion in further studies was found as the analysis identified that the scales used to measure these constructs were significant predictors of the outcome variables although not when networked with those constructs that were on the final measurement model.Notwithstanding the limitations of the research, it has resulted in the identification of a predictive model of information success for web-based, publicly available, nonorganisationally focused systems.