Journal Issue:
Agricultural Policy Review: Volume 2022, Issue 2
Agricultural Policy Review: Volume 2022, Issue 2
Volume
Number
Spring 2022
Issue Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Journal Volume
Journal Volume
Articles
Publication
Iowa Lakes Drive over $1 Billion in Recreational Spending Each Year
(
2022)
Outdoor recreation in natural resource venues, such as state parks, lakes, and trails that accommodate a variety of recreational and wildlife-related pursuits, is one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the United States. As such, it makes large contributions to the nation’s economy. As a result, residents’ recreational usage and how they value water quality improvements are of interest to policymakers and researchers. In 2002, Iowa State’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), Department of Economics, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, and Limnology Laboratory worked together to create the Iowa Lakes Valuation Project to determine use and valuation information for more than 100 in-state lakes over a comparable time period (figure 1).
Publication
Challenges and Opportunities for a Manure Market in Iowa
(
2022)
Manure, which is produced as a joint product with the live-weight of animals and animal products (Roka and Hoag 1996; Ritz 2016), has long been utilized as fertilizer for crops and as a soil amendment (MacDonald et al. 2009). Utilizing manure for fertilizer is an efficient and potentially revenue-generating use of what otherwise would be a waste product. Additionally, given that a variety of livestock species and many operations produce manure, it serves as a source of fertilizer that is largely resilient to international shocks that have plagued the commercial fertilizer market.
Publication
Fresh Projections for the Next Marketing Year
(
2022)
USDA always adds its outlook for the next marketing year with the May World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report. The timing allows USDA analysts to see the development of supply and demand changes in the current marketing year and incorporate those trends, along with information on crop planting progress and weather conditions, into the forecasts for the next marketing year. Given the differential timing of the marketing years between crops and livestock, the new projections cover the 2023 marketing year for livestock (which basically aligns with the calendar year) and the 2022 marketing year for crops (which for Iowa crops, starts in September with the coming harvest). Drought conditions in the western United States, the spread of avian influenza, the planting delays this spring, the continuation of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the volatility in the energy markets, and the continuation of supply chain issues, among other factors, influence these projections. With this myriad of confounding factors shaping the ag markets, these projections will likely change significantly over the coming months, but these estimates provide us the best guess on what the future holds given what we know today.
Publication
Nitrogen Management with Abnormal Rainfall
(
2022)
Abnormally high rainfall may increase both the uncertainty about nitrogen fertilizer use in agriculture and the discharge of nitrate into water streams. Furthermore, changes in climate may lead to higher variability in rainfall with more frequent abnormal precipitation. In this study, we use experimental data from the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) to investigate the effects of abnormal rainfall on farm nitrogen management, considering both farmer profitability and the potential for environmental damages.
Publication
US Agricultural Exports to China during the Phase One Trade Deal: Larger Pie, Smaller Slice?
(
2022)
The United States and China signed the Phase One trade deal on January 15, 2020. The deal ran from February 15, 2020, to February 14, 2022, and obligated China to purchase $36.5 billion worth of US agricultural products in the first year ($12.5 billion more than the baseline) and $43.5 billion in the second year ($19.5 billion more than the baseline) (He et al. 2020). While China fulfilled 81% of its agricultural purchase obligations and China’s purchases of several products, such as corn and pork, reached historical levels, it is unclear if China’s record purchases were driven by China’s growing import demand or its trade deal obligations. We investigate whether China’s agricultural imports from the United States grew in proportion to China’s agricultural imports from all sources during the trade deal. We look at both total agricultural trade and trade for specific commodities that are important for the United States. We also compare the comparative advantage of the United States and major exporters of corn, soybeans, and pork using the normalized revealed comparative advantage (NRCA) index (Yu et al. 2009).