Heads of agricultural economics and agribusiness departments across the United States are surveyed to develop an inventory of distance education (DE) offerings by their departments. Perceived challenges, strategies for use, and future plans for DE are assessed. While the majority of the responding departments offer DE, the department heads believed that faculty time costs to develop/deliver DE are high relative to traditional delivery and that both strategic plans for implementing DE and financial incentives for faculty to adopt DE are lacking. The department heads did, however, have positive views about the technological ability of students to use distance courses.

This paper provides an overview of the development of the Management Analysis and Strategic Thinking (MAST) program conducted by Kansas State University. This intensive management training course for progressive farm and agribusiness operators is being delivered successfully using a combination of face-to-face and distance extension delivery techniques. We find that some parts of the program are best delivered face to face and other parts are best delivered via distance. Of participants surveyed, 94% would recommend the MAST program to their peers, and 100% believe the program will have a positive impact on their businesses' bottom line.

Undergraduate Food and Resource Economics majors and those with different majors were surveyed to determine the perceived advantages and disadvantages of distance and online education courses from a student perspective. Specific objectives included determining if students who have been exposed to more online courses are more likely to rate online education as positive or negative relative to the traditional classroom setting. In general, Food and Resource Economics majors tended to view distance and online education courses less favorably than did the others.

There has been much hype around online education creating a revolution in education. Studies analyzing the use of distance education at the graduate level have been limited. This article uses Kansas State University's Master of Agribusiness program as a case study. Educational theory related to a distance environment is studied. Development and technology issues related to the Master of Agribusiness program are presented followed by survey information from students. Appropriate administrative and management practices that govern a program are essential to the success of the program.

Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Asia, Europe, and Africa have caused severe impacts on the poultry sector through bird mortality and culling, as well as resulting trade restrictions and negative demand shocks. Although poultry producers play a major role in preventing and controlling avian influenza, little research has examined the influence of their farm-level decision making on the spread of the disease. In this study, we describe farm behavior under livestock disease risk and discuss data and analyses necessary to generate sound empirical evidence to inform public avian influenza prevention and control measures.

Simulation results showed that simultaneous outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Asia, the United States, Brazil, and selected European countries will have significant impacts on world poultry trade. Assuming demand for chicken meat is constant, the global export price is simulated to increase by 9.63%. HPAI outbreaks in the United States, Economic Union, and Brazil will have a greater impact on export price than in any other possible three-region case. Outbreaks in the United States and Brazil would still lead to major impacts on world poultry trade, confirming large country effects.

This analysis examines the economic impact of an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and the consequences of regionalization. The results suggest that an outbreak would have serious economic effects. Depending on the regionalization scenario, returns to capital and management in the poultry meat and egg sectors would fall between $602 million and $853 million dollars over 16 quarters. Consumers of poultry meat lose $900 million in consumer surplus in the first four quarters, a decline of 10.7%. Egg consumer surplus falls 17.1%. Regionalization lowers the economic welfare losses for producers because it dampens the export loss.

The U.S. poultry industry has spent considerable resources to date preparing for an outbreak of avian influenza in this country. This research quantifies the potential effects of two alternative avian influenza scenarios on the poultry industry. In addition, this research looks at effects on other agriculture sectors including the loss of feed demand from an outbreak and the impacts on aggregate measures like farm income and consumer food expenditures. The economic sector model maintained by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) is employed for these scenarios.

This article presents current investment and operating costs of ethanol and biodiesel plants for alternative prices of feedstock. The price of these two fuels is estimated for alternative prices of crude oil with the existing renewable fuels policy. The excise tax credit, currently $0.51 per gallon of ethanol and $1.00 per gallon of biodiesel, is a major contributor to the fuel price and profitability of these industries. The analysis demonstrates how the crude oil price, feedstock price, and excise tax credits interact to impact profitability of these industries.

The feasibility of integrating ethanol production into an existing sugar mill was analyzed by a stochastic spreadsheet model. As the price of corn continues to rise, ethanol producers will eventually need to look at other feedstock alternatives. Sugarcane has been proven to work well in the production of ethanol in Brazil. The results indicated existing U.S. sugar mills could economically switch to ethanol production. As imports into the United States threaten to undermine the U.S. sugar program, sugarcane producers have a viable alternative. At the very least, the alternative exists to diversify their income streams with ethanol production.

Analysis of the potential to supply 25% of projected 2025 U.S. transportation fuels indicates sufficient biomass resources are available to meet increased demand while simultaneously meeting food, feed, and export needs. Corn and soybeans continue to be important feedstocks for ethanol and biodiesel production, but cellulose feedstocks (agricultural crop residues, energy crops such as switchgrass, and forestry residues) will play a major role. Farm income increases, mostly because of higher crop prices. Increased crop prices increase the cost of producing biofuels.

As the hunt for renewable energy sources from agriculture intensifies, many agricultural producers are contemplating what crops to grow in the foreseeable future. On the one hand, there are traditional food crops, such as soybean, corn, and wheat, which have recently enjoyed a spike in prices, primarily because of the seemingly ever-growing demands of the corn to ethanol industry. On the other hand, there are the lesser-known perennial energy crops, such as switchgrass. Although much information on various aspects of switchgrass production exists, this paper discusses the adaptation of existing production and processing information to Arkansas conditions as a potential alternative to crop production.