University of Kentucky Crop Diversification & Biofuel Research & Education Center Economics Research

Economic analysis of specialty grain crops

Objectives:

An economic evaluation of nonGMO Corn and nonGMO soybeans

Economically evaluate non-GMO corn and soybeans for profitability and risk management potential by comparing the economic performance of these to the alternative of producing GMO corn and soybeans.
Ascertain the sensitivity of these production management decisions in light of changes in the agronomic (e.g., yield differentials between GMO and nonGMO) and economic (e.g., the level of nonGMO price premium) environment.

Whole Farm Analysis of Edamame Production in Kentucky

The fundamental purpose of this research project is to assist Kentucky crop producers by providing procedures and information that will assist them in making decisions of whether or not they can economically justify the adoption of commercial edamame production for frozen distribution. The specific objectives of this project are:

To collect current sales and production data for edamame in the United States.
To establish an appropriate range of alternative planting dates, maturity groups and plant populations for the production of baseline, "traditional" corn and edamame for the study area.
To develop a whole farm management model to assess the economic performance of incorporating edamame into a crop rotation instead of "traditional" soybeans.
To analyze the economic differences between a mechanical method and wheat/rye cover crop for weed control.
To determine break-even acreage and prices to justify commercial edamame production.
To determine maximum distance away from frozen edamame distributors to justify production.