Selected Topics in Peanut Production: Economic Feasibility of an Energy Crop on a South Alabama Cotton-peanut Farm and Do Economies of Scale Exist on Peanut Farms in the Southeast?

Abstract

The possibility of low prices farmers receive for peanuts at the farm gate may cause them to implement alternative production practices. This thesis is comprised of two separate papers, formatted for publication with the help of Patricia Duffy, Robert Taylor, and David Bransby, for the purpose of analyzing two possible alternatives. In the first paper, linear programming and enterprise budgeting are used to analyze possible crop rotations that include a bioenergy crop (velvet bean) on a cotton-peanut farm in southeast Alabama. The price for velvet bean is parameterized from a point where a velvet bean-peanut rotation is optimal and then increased to a point where continuous velvet bean production is optimal. The second paper uses a regression model to estimate the influence of peanut acres, education, age, and primary occupation on average cost per unit of output and to determine whether economies of size exist on peanut farms located in the Southeast.