Featherstone, Allen M.

September, 2022

Weather Impacts the Agricultural Production Efficiency of Wheat: The Importance of Precipitation Shocks

By: Chen, Bowen ; Dennis, Elliott J. ; Featherstone, Allen M.
Many studies have explored the determinants of technical efficiency in crop production, but fewer have examined how weather might change technical efficiency over time. We estimate weather effects on technical efficiency using data from 540 Kansas winter wheat farms from 2007/08 to 2016/17 using a panel stochastic frontier model that controls for farm-specific heterogeneity with farm fixed effects. Results show that precipitation is nonlinearly related to technical efficiency and that extreme temperature is associated with lower technical efficiency. Improving resilience to precipitation shocks is key to sustained efficient wheat production in Kansas.
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May, 2019

Farmers’ Choice of Credit among the Farm Credit System, Commercial Banks, and Nontraditional Lenders

By: Brewer, Brady E.; Bergtold, Jason S.; Featherstone, Allen M.; Wilson, Christine A.
Understanding the factors that affect a farmer’s credit source is useful for lending institutions to more effectively target customers and provides insight into credit sources that would be affected sooner if a credit crisis would occur and the characteristics that are correlated with a customer using a particular lending institution. Results of this paper suggest that the customers of commercial banks would be the most at risk as they are the most leveraged. Results also show that as conditions deteriorate, farmers add more lending institutions and are also more likely to use a commercial bank or nontraditional lender.
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December, 2002

USING SATELLITE IMAGERY IN PREDICTING KANSAS FARMLAND VALUES

By: Nivens, Heather D.; Kastens, Terry L.; Dhuyvetter, Kevin C.; Featherstone, Allen M.
Can remotely sensed imagery improve hedonic land price models? A remotely sensed variable was added to a hedonic farmland value model as a proxy for land productivity. Land cover data were used to obtain urban and recreational effects as well. The urban and recreational effects were statistically significant but economically small. The remotely sensed productivity variable was statistically significant and economically large, indicating that knowing the "greenness" of the land increased the explanatory power of the hedonic price model. Thus, depending upon the cost of this information, including remotely sensed imagery in traditional hedonic land price models is economically beneficial.
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December, 2000

DETERMINING SOCIALLY OPTIMAL NITROGEN APPLICATION RATES USING A DELAYED RESPONSE MODEL: THE CASE OF IRRIGATED CORN IN WESTERN KANSAS

By: Nkonya, Ephraim M.; Featherstone, Allen M.
Nitrate contamination of groundwater is an important problem. The transport of leached nitrate from the root zone to groundwater takes approximately 30 to 60 years. Many previous studies ignore this time lag by assuming instantaneous contamination. This analysis applies a delayed response model to account for the time lag between nitrogen fertilizer applications to the time the leached nitrate reaches groundwater. Results show that accounting for the leached nitrate externality reduces the nitrogen application rate by 13% and the returns above variable costs by 8% for farmers who apply both nitrogen and phosphorus. For farmers who do not use phosphorus, nitrogen use is reduced by 14% and the returns above variable costs by 22%. The application of phosphorous increased returns by more than 100% and significantly reduced leached nitrate.
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December, 1993

CLEARANCE SALES IN THE FARMLAND MARKET?

By: Featherstone, Allen M.; Schurle, Bryan W.; Duncan, Steven S.; Postier, Kevin D.
The ultimate loss financial institutions bear for foreclosed loans is determined by their success in liquidating their acquired property portfolios. This study examines the price received for land sold by private individuals and financial institutions from 1977 through 1990. After adjusting for quality differences, financial institutions received on average 9.2% less than private individuals. Further analysis reveals that commercial banks received a discount of 5.8%, the Farm Credit System (FCS) a 9.2% discount, and Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) a 14.7% discount. For this sample of 13,375 Kansas sales, it is estimated that the sum of the transfers from financial institutions to land buyers amounted to $9.2 million.
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July, 1992

RISK COSTS AND THE CHOICE OF MARKET RETURN INDEX

By: Amegbeto, Koffi N.; Featherstone, Allen M.
Six measures of returns are used to estimate the most "appropriate" market index for southeast Kansas farms. Results suggest that localized indices are more appropriate than state indices for use as the market index. The appropriate index was used to estimate systematic and nonsystematic risk and risk costs for farm planning. Estimated risks depend on the choice of market index, whereas risk costs depend on the index choice and the risk aversion are considered. More risk-averse specialized farmers are not completely compensated for risk.
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