This paper presents a method for crop yield forecast based on remote sensing and official data. The method uses a statistical approach to extract different pixels of smoothed NDVI data derived from MODIS sensor to be used as proxies for sugarcane yield estimation at a municipal scale. From 368 municipalities with yield's historical data from 2003 to 2012, three groups were created based on acre...

National survey data collected for 1997 in USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Study was used to derive implications and pose hypotheses about the impact on pesticide use, production practices, and producer costs of using genetically modified (GM) seed in soybean and cotton production. Results of the analysis suggest concurrence with scientific and industry claims about the environmental qu...

Teff [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is a relatively new forage crop that is attracting much interest among hay growers in the United States and Utah (Creech, et al., 2012). Teff plants have fine stems, shallow roots and are not frost tolerant. This annual, warm-season grass grows best during the hottest months of the year when cool-season grasses suffer their “summer slump.” Since Teff does n...

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN; Heterodera glycines) and brown stem rot (BSR) fungus (Phialophora gregata) are serious pests of soybean, occurring over a range of soil types and soil pH. Often found in the same field, management strategies implemented to control one pathogen may in fact exacerbate damage caused by the other. As soybean acreage has increased, the duration between soybean crops h...

Arizona is the first state in the nation to regulate agricultural practices in order to reduce dust emissions near urbanizing areas. This BMP program requires dust mitigation actions in some combination of tillage and harvest, crop land, and non-crop land activities. Contingent valuation methods were used to estimate the willingness-to-adopt reduced tillage equipment. At $10-26 per acre in long...

Remote sensing offers an efficient and reliable means of collecting the information required, in order to map crop type and acreage. Besides providing a synoptic view, remote sensing can provide structure information about the health of the vegetation. The spectral reflectance of a field will vary with respect to changes in the phenology (growth), stage type, and crop health, and thus can be me...

Forecasting food production is important to identify possible shortages in supply and, thus, food security risks. Such forecasts may improve input allocation decisions that affect agribusiness and the input supply industry. This paper explains methods and data used to forecast acreage of four crops that are particularly important staple commodities in the world, namely wheat, corn, rice, and so...

ABSTRACf The National Agricultural Statistics Service used LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) data to aid regression estimates of acreage for major crops during 1980-1987. Future LANDSAT satellites will not have the MSS scanner, but will have a thematic mapper (TM) scanner. TM data is more expensive to purchase and process for large areas because of its higher spatial and spectral resolution. ...

The corn and soybean markets have been bidding for acreage due to a bullish final crop report for 2006. With bio-fuels creating new markets for corn and soybeans, this demand-driven market may continue to provide marketing opportunities. Currently, the major decision facing producers is determining the enterprise mix for 2007. This memo compares the Returns over Variable Costs for soybeans and ...