New Publications from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department

Farm Business Management Update, December-January 2002/2003

By Karen Mundy

On the REAP website (http://www.reap.vt.edu) are three new REAP Reports: Price Risk Management in December Corn Futures by Wayne Purcell; Price Risk Management in July Wheat Futures by Wayne Purcell; and Are Extension Programs Effective? Impacts of a Program to Assist Limited Resource and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers by Ebere Akobundu, Albert Essel, George Norton, and Abebayehu Tengene.

The Price Risk Management reports by Wayne Purcell target those producers and processors already using the futures market to help control price risk. In these reports, Purcell describes the problems with technical chart analysis using trend lines. He then discusses how various moving averages perform.

From their research, the authors of Are Extension Programs Effective? conclude that "The Small Farm Program for socially disadvantaged and limited-resource farmers appears to significantly increase participants' net farm income, given sufficient participation... The findings clearly suggest a rationale for increasing the level of participation before broadening the program to include more participants (p. 8)." The authors' reasoning is that more visits by program agents reinforces the learning that must take place for the program to be effective.

Inconvenience: We regret that only Horizons will continue to be printed and mailed. Due to state budget cuts we cannot continue to print and distribute copies of other REAP publications. If you are unable to print the publication you need, please contact the REAP office by phone: (540) 231-9443; by email: reap01@vt.edu; or on the web at http://www.reap.vt.edu, and we will send you a hard copy.

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