All businesses encounter risk. Risk is born out of uncertainty, or not having a perfect knowledge of future events. Risk involves making a choice when you are not certain of the outcome and that the outcome may have a negative effect. Dana Hoag from Colorado State University in his book...
International markets for U.S agricultural products are often subjected to a wide range of trade barriers such as tariff and non-tariff measures. Though tariffs for agricultural products have been declining over the years under the purview of World Trade Organization (WTO), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers have become increasingly more...
With the economy still struggling to regain momentum, the use of resources (i.e., human and capital) continues to be heavily scrutinized to ensure they are put to their best use. Of course, the "best use" of resources can be defined in many ways, but generally what people refer to in...
One of our most loyal customers, Feed Energy Company, was recently honored as the runner-up for the Information Technology Innovation Award for their use of one of our custom decision-making tools. The "Nth Load" model is a computational, Dynamic Risk-Based Modelingâ„¢ tool that objectively analyzes large data sets to provide...
Here are a few questions for you: Have you ever wondered how many jobs a new business brings with it when it starts? What happens when a business closes? How much new income comes with a new business? Can a business really bring more jobs to an area than it...
I have the pleasure of traveling around the state speaking to economic development groups. Often times the discussion is about how to attract jobs to a particular region. On a recent trip though the discussion was different, it turned to how to attract people to the region...
With the spring season upon us, the weather here in Iowa has really begun to warm. With this change in weather, the focus in Iowa and Nebraska agriculture now turns to planting a new crop. With this focus, the events of last year's Missouri River flooding are...
I recently attended a Biomass Crop Workshop in Creston, IA. I was interested in attending for two reasons. First, our team has developed an application for biomass mapping that takes into account land stewardship and economic factors for converting land use to production of biomass energy crops....
We recently concluded a study (forthcoming in the Journal of Environmental Quality) on water quality modeling in the Raccoon River Watershed in Iowa. Intensive agricultural production is a predominant use of a significant portion of the land in the Raccoon River Watershed and is a primary driver...
I recently had a discussion with an individual about what drives the prices of commodities, which was a good discussion, but it helped remind me about why I enjoy and get frustrated with economics and correlations. It also reminded me of the importance of asking better questions,...
