Pests bring significant losses in both quantity and quality of products in postharvest food facilities and their uncertain activities make imprecise obtained infestation information from trap monitoring, which causes unclear estimation on detriment costs, preventing effective pest management. Trap placement, which collects insect information through determining the exact location and number of traps, will enhance the precision for obtaining insect information. However, this method involves optimizing conflicting objectives. On one hand, smaller number of traps save the monitoring cost and enlarge the monitoring efficiency. On the other hand, number of traps may be insufficient and losses the monitoring accuracy. Existing studies to enhance the monitoring accuracy via both laboratory testing and high tech devices but they rarely considered economic efficacy in practice. In this paper, we characterize the trap placement problem as a Multi-Objective Optimization Problem under Uncertainty. Feedforward Neural Networks and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms are used to design a tailored algorithm for modeling the conflicting objectives through process-based simulation. Then, robust multi-objective optimization evolutionary algorithm (RMOA) is developed to search for the Pareto optimal solution for the least number of traps settled at optimal positions. Results show the optimal and robust performance of exact trap locations to monitor insect infestation effectively under uncertain insect locations and dynamic insect growth. Compared to the studies that were mainly utilizing general algorisms for solving agricultural problems, the proposed model has implications for effective methods of capturing the characteristics of real-world insect monitoring applications in food industry.

An alternative futures-based procedure is developed to forecast the season-average farm price for U.S. corn, an under-researched price forecast. The new method performs similarly or better than two widely-watched season-average price forecasts, i.e., the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates and the Hoffman futures-based forecasts, at the beginning of the post-harvest season and just as well as those forecasts in most of the other months during the marketing year. We attribute the robust performance of the proposed forecast to its ability to use heterogeneous coefficients for futures and cash prices depending on the underlying market conditions. Improved performance of the proposed forecasts is especially noticeable when the market is more volatile. Overall, the method derived in this study complements the existing forecasts and provides valuable information for decision-makers.

Technical efficiency (TE) is an important measure of farm performance. This study measured the TE of wheat farms across six states in the U.S. Western Great Plains based on production and farm management-specific variables. Significant factors positively influencing efficiency were insecticide use, farm size, and tillage. Alternatively, government payments, crop insurance, off-farm income, and crop share rates had negative effects on efficiency. Kansas and Oklahoma farms were more efficient than Nebraska and Wyoming farms in the sample. Average TE score of 0.56 indicates a substantial gap between average producers and the most efficient ones located near the TE frontier. Benchmarking the highly efficient farms provides best-management practices enabling less-efficient farms move closer to the efficient frontier. Extension specialists and collaboration among farms could transfer the skills and techniques through workshops, webinars, fact sheets, and social media pages.

An identity-preserved supply chain creates value by guaranteeing the isolation of products with unique characteristics throughout the supply chain. This enhances the ability of food producers to target increasingly specific consumer demands by controlling food characteristics more precisely. More recently, increased production of genetically modified (GM) crops has increased interest in identity-preserved grain supply chains as a way to segregate non-GM food from GM food and target growing demand for non-GM food. The US grain storage and handling industry is currently primarily focused on commodity grain and is structured to maximize storage and transportation efficiency. A segregated system for non-GM grain currently coexists within that larger supply chain. Going forward, it is possible that the commodity and non-GM supply chains will continue to coexist with little changes in the GM (commodity) infrastructure. If additional forces for identity preservation (IP) storage and handling occur, though, there could be structural changes to more efficiently facilitate IP even while foregoing scale economies in storage and transportation.

Wheat breeding continues to be an important component of agricultural innovations in the Great Plains region of the US. This paper reviews Oklahoma's wheat breeding program over the past several decades with an emphasis on the economic aspects and planning of future breeding strategies. Over the past century, Oklahoma's wheat yields have increased but the productivity gains have been offset in part due to increased yield variability. The shift to improved wheat varieties has resulted in increased susceptibility to plant disease and pest pressure. While a few varieties introduced over the past few decades have dominated the wheat seed market, recent trends indicate producers are adopting a more diverse range of wheat varieties. Producers' concerns have expanded beyond demands for high yielding varieties to include more market oriented needs to increase protein content and test weight. This paper identifies several key policy instruments that Oklahoma stakeholders and policy makers should consider when planning future breeding strategies. A critical need is to assist Oklahoma producers in adapting to climate change by developing drought and heat resistant wheat varieties. Marketing new varieties would be improved and revenue increased if more innovative pricing structures were adopted to better align producers' willingness to pay with seed development costs, which could then be re-invested in breeding. Research budgets, which have remained stagnant in real terms, will need to be increased to adequately address producers' needs into the 21st century.

Infestations of internal feeders such as Rhyzopertha dominica cause damage to stored grains, including rice. Few studies, though, have measured the economic effects of that damage. In this study, samples of rough long grain rice were infested with R. dominica at several rates (0, 20, and 200 adults/kg). The effects of these infestations on rice quality and quantity were measured objectively using color and milling yield. They were also measured subjectively with a blind taste/sensory consumer taste test and a non-hypothetical auction measuring consumer willingness to pay for the different qualities of rice. The objective quantity and value loss ranged from 2% for lightly-infested rice to 3.5% for heavily-infested rice. For subjective effects, results of the auction suggested that participants on average were willing to pay only a small premium for less infested rice. This test confirmed results of the sensory taste panel, which showed that participants on average detected very little difference among rice samples with alternative levels of infestation. However, when they were given extra information verifying that rice with lower infestation levels was higher quality or that the rice was stored using IPM methods, the potential price increase from reducing R. dominica infestation could range from $0.44/kg. to $0.79/kg., plus a $0.13/kg. premium for using IPM storage methods. However, results suggest that in order to capture that value rice sellers must be able to convey information about quality and storage attributes to consumers in a way that is relevant and trustworthy. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A manager of a food processing facility faces the dilemma that postponing a treatment (such as fumigation) in order to save money, risks allowing insect population to increase to an amount that causes economic damage. This economic damage includes buyer discounts due to presence of insects or insect damage, cost of extra treatments needed, or rejection by a buyer. Conversely, fumigating too early may allow the remaining insect population to rebound sufficiently that another expensive fumigation is necessary earlier than it would have been. Managers need economic guidelines to make insect control decisions that fully consider treatment costs, effectiveness, and costs of failing to control insects. Here, we value the tradeoff between fumigating now and fumigating later using a real options approach, which measures the risk tradeoff in money terms. Specifically, we consider a food-processing manager who is facing a timing decision to shut down the whole facility for fumigation. The approach can be easily expanded to value the risk/reward tradeoffs of alternative insect control strategies, including integrated pest management strategies that include sampling and monitoring, helping food processing firms make better insect control decisions.

This study uses an experimental auction and a discrete choice experiment to determine consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for rice with improved insect control and for rice stored using Integrated Pest Management and investigates potential reasonsÑanchoring and informationÑwhy some studies have found inconsistencies between the two methods. Results indicate that WTP estimates from the choice experiment are lower than consumers' average auction bids. Anchoring in the choice experiment appears to be an explanation for the discrepancy. Providing consumers with additional information about the products improved choice experiment results, producing consistent preference ordering and increasing WTP estimates.

A robust whole chain traceability system can limit consumers' exposure to potentially hazardous foods, improve supply chain management, and add value to consumer products. However, fragmented supply chains present special challenges. In the beef industry, for example, producers have resisted participation in whole chain traceability because of high cost relative to value and concerns about disclosing proprietary information, among others. A multi-disciplinary team from universities, private firms, and a foundation has developed and tested a pilot proprietary centralized data whole chain traceability system that addresses many of these obstacles. This system would facilitate a precision agriculture approach to beef production and marketing. While the remaining challenges are serious, the benefits to society, consumers, and businesses from widespread adoption of whole-chain traceability systems are potentially large.

Implementing a Whole-Chain Traceability System (WCTS) in the beef supply chain may bring many benefits. For a sufficiently large number of individual producers to voluntarily adopt whole-chain traceability so that these benefits can be realized, though, benefits must exceed costs for individuals, not just for the industry. Recently developed technology in the form of a Proprietary Centralized Data WCTS (PCD-WCTS) can help increase the individual benefits. A key feature of the PCD-WCTS is that those who put the information in the system can choose which participants in the supply chain have access to that information. Thus, once producers choose to participate in the PCD-WCTS, they can choose whether or not to share information with any specific participant. This removes a major potential obstacle to adoption of whole-chain traceability in a fragmented supply chain, losing confidentiality of information. It also facilitates value creation in the supply chain. Even if a producer is separated by several supply chain stages from a buyer who is willing to pay extra for animals with certain characteristics, the information about those characteristics can go directly from the producer to those who value the information, without being seen by intermediaries in the supply chain. Correspondingly, those who value that information can pay those who provide it, even if they are several steps away in the supply chain. The economic problem is that those who benefit from the information must choose how much of the added profitability to reimburse to upstream firms who provide the information (and value-added characteristics), so that they have sufficient incentive to provide the information. This research estimates the value of information in a fragmented beef supply chain and its optimal allocation, focusing on the improvement of beef tenderness. The value is compared to costs of participating in a PCD-WCT and providing the information of an individual firm. Traceability has the potential to reduce information asymmetry in the supply chain, improving the allocation of economic value. However, the benefits cannot be fully realized without substantial participation by industry firms. Value-added benefits can provide substantial incentive for individuals to participate in a traceability system. This research will help to quantify the net benefits for individual firms to participate in a PCD-WCTS, and provide a method for evaluating other value-added opportunities. It will also provide guidance for firms to use in allocating the increased value among supply chain participants.

Whole-chain traceability systems can help increase food safety, improve supply chain management, and add value to consumer products. Significant obstacles to implementing traceability, however, including costs of implementation and operation, loss of confidentiality in business transactions, and increased liability, have inhibited participation in whole-chain traceability systems, severely limiting the value of traceability for improving food safety and animal disease traceability. However, technology is available to help address these concerns and increase participation. An application of this technology to beef production systems is described.

We investigated weight loss caused by Liposcelis entomophila (Enderlein) feeding in damaged (cracked) and intact kernels of 'Jagger' variety of hard red winter wheat over a 90-d period at 30 +/- 1 degrees C and 75 +/- 5% relative humidity. L. entomophila caused 8.5% weight loss in damaged wheat kernels, which was significantly greater than the weight loss found in intact wheat kernels (0.2%). We also evaluated the suitability of six wheat varieties commonly grown in Oklahoma, namely, Jagger, 'Endurance,' 'Overley,' 'Jagalene,' 'OK Bullet,' and 'Deliver' to support populations of four psocid species, namely, Liposcelis bostrychophila Badonnel, L. decolor (Pearman), L. entomophila, and L. paeta Pearman over a 30-d period. The greatest population increase was observed in L. bostrychophila followed by L. paeta. Subsequently, weight loss of damaged and intact wheat kernels and germination of intact kernels infested by L. paeta over a 45-d period were assessed in OK Bullet variety. L. paeta caused weight loss of 3.3% in damaged kernels, which was significantly greater than the weight loss found in intact kernels (0.4%). Based on our data, 40% of infested intact kernels failed to germinate after 45 d of infestation by L. paeta, but this decreased to 32% when adjusted using germination failure of uninfested kernels. Our data show that psocid infestations do not only cause considerable loss in weight of wheat, but also result in significant germination failure. These data call for the formulation of effective integrated psocid management strategies for stored wheat to mitigate the negative impacts of psocid pests.

An animal traceability system can help control disease, improve food safety, improve production practices and provide enhanced marketing opportunities. However, attempts to establish a beef traceability system in the U.S. has faced resistance from many beef producers. Some of the reasons for resistance were cost, lack of confidentiality, and lack of accuracy of the system. Moreover, those who incurred the costs would not necessarily have received the benefits of such a system. This study evaluates the costs of a whole chain traceability system and compares them to the benefits of a traceability system in improving feed efficiency of cattle. We determine the cost saving from purchasing a higher proportion of high-­‐efficiency cattle using the information available in the whole chain traceability system. We also determine the benefits that should be shared among cow/calf, stocker and feedlot operators to motivate them to adopt such a system. Results show that while cow/calf producers would bear most of the cost of a traceability system, they would also receive the least benefits. To make participation in a traceability system profitable for cow-­‐calf producers, the results indicate that $20 per head additional income should be transferred to the cow/calf and stocker producers. This additional income transfer will cover the costs of whole chain traceability system and also provide additional profit that will motivate the cow/calf and stocker producers to participate in such a system. The feedlot also gains a net cost saving of $19 per head after transferring the additional income and paying its own traceability cost. Thus, by reducing feeding cost, a whole chain traceability system that provides information about the feeding efficiency of cattle can provide additional profit to the cow/calf, stocker and feedlot operators even after covering the costs of implementing the traceability system.

Methyl bromide is a commonly used fumigant for controlling insects in food processing facilities. However, it has been designated as an ozone depleter and is becoming less available and more costly. Integrated pest management (IPM) is an alternative, and may additionally reduce insecticide resistance, improve worker safety, and reduce environmental concerns and consumer concerns about pesticide residuals. However, little is known about the costs and efficacy of IPM in food processing facilities. Here, we consider several IPM approaches and measure both the treatment costs as well as the costs of failing to control insects for each approach. The results will provide managers economic information to choose a better insect control method in their goal of producing wholesome, pest-free and profitable products.

Traceability through the entire food supply chain from conception to consumption is a pressing need for the food industry, consumers and government regulators. A robust, whole-chain traceability system is needed that will effectively address food quality, food safety and food defense issues by providing real-time, transparent and reliable information from beef production through slaughter and distribution to the consumer. Traceability is an expanding part of the food safety continuum that minimizes the risk of foodborne diseases, assures quality and cold-chain integrity. Traceability can be a positive competitive marketing edge for beef producers who can verify specific quality attributes such as humane production or grass fed or Certified Organic. In this review we address the benefits as well as the remaining issues for whole-chain traceability in the beef industry, with particular focus on ground beef for the markets in the United States.