Anton Bekkerman and Eric Belasco sit down to chat about the big issues that are on their radars as a result of the 2016 presidential election outcome. They focus on three policy areas: immigration, trade, and domestic policy. How might immigration policy affect the US agricultural labor supply and, potentially, food prices? Are the TPP and NAFTA really a big deal and what other factors might influence international trade? What does a Republican-controlled legislative and executive branches (the first time since the 1954 agricultural policy that a Republicans controlled both branches) mean for the 2018 Farm Bill? Is crop insurance likely to go away or get stronger?

Have you been thinking about how the next four years are going to shape foreign and domestic agricultural policy in the United States? What are questions that you have about the 2018 Farm Bill?

(Intro and outro music by Trevor Sensor)

(Photo by dbking is licensed under CC BY 4.0)

The AgEconMT crew is joined by Dr. Brock Smith, an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. Brock discusses his research interests, which are primarily in the areas of natural resource and development economics. He shares findings from two of his recent projects, which consider the trade-offs between the economics benefits of communities’ access to natural resources and potential indirect costs, such as increased crime rates in oil boom towns.

Have you been thinking about issues related to the economics of natural resources, such as oil and natural gas? Has the boom and bust cycle in eastern Montana and western North Dakota affected you?

(Intro and outro music by Trevor Sensor)

The AgEconMT crew is joined by Dr. Gary Brester, a Professor of Economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. Gary discusses insights about the current and future trends in the U.S. beef industry, with a particular focus on how those trends impact cattle producers in the northern Great Plains.

Topics covered on this episode include cattle prices, issues constraining the expansion of cattle herds, hot topics in trade and whether more open trade is favorable to the beef industry, and the impacts of beef consumers’ changing socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Gary saves the best for last as he discusses his thoughts about the big trends and changing economics of the beef sector over the next 20 years.

Are you a cattle producers interested in knowing more about specific issues in the beef industry? Have you noticed factors impacting your bottom line that weren’t mentioned in this episode? Leave a comment or send us a note.

(Intro and outro music by Trevor Sensor)

 (Photo by USDAgov is licensed under CC BY 4.0)

The AgEconMT crew is joined by Dr. Mindy Mallory, an Associated Professor of Economics in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Mindy talks in depth about her current research with Quanbiao Shang and Dr. Philip Garcia. The study examines the bid-ask spread in corn markets and empirically identifies three components that make up the bid-ask spread: asymmetric information (adverse selection), inventory costs, and order processing. Her findings provide important insights about the efficiency of futures markets and the impacts of speculators.

Do you use futures markets to hedge price risk or better understand agricultural commodity markets? Do you have experiences that make you wonder whether futures markets are efficient?

(Intro and outro music by Trevor Sensor)

Anton Bekkerman chats with Dr. Diane Charlton, who discusses labor supply issues in U.S. agriculture and the issues that declining number of Mexican agricultural workers may have on the agricultural industry. As part of the spotlight series, Diane also discusses how she become interested in studying the agricultural labor supply and how her future work will provide a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities for the production agriculture sector to deal with labor availability changes.

Have you run into issues with finding enough labor for your operation? Do you have questions about the potential economic impacts of searching for labor? Leave a comment below or send us a note.

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Anton Bekkerman and Joe Janzen discuss recent happenings in wheat markets. The discussion focuses on potential factors that have influenced the historically low prices, premiums and discounts for quality characteristics, and thoughts about the issues that will affect prices going forward.

Don’t forget to regularly visit our website for more podcasts and constantly-updated economics information related to agriculture and natural resources in Montana and the northern Great Plains and please let us know ideas for future blog posts and podcasts using the Comments and Topic Suggestion form.

(Intro and outro music by Trevor Sensor)

(Photo by Neillwphoto is licensed under CC BY 4.0)

Today Anton Bekkerman interviews and helps listeners get to know Dr. Kate, an assistant professor and extension economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University and a regular contributor to the AgEconMT.com outreach website.

Kate discusses her role as a researcher and extension economist who directly works with providing access to education by those in Montana’s agricultural and rural communities. She describes several of her recent research projects involving the economic evaluation of pest and weed control in seed potato production and livestock management. Her extension work has taken her all over the state and has earned her national recognition for her involvement in educating Montana’s farmers and ranchers about the programs in the 2014 Farm Bill. She is looking forward (but not too soon) to again working on delivering information about the upcoming 2018 Farm Bill and describes her vision for the AgEconMT.com project to be a bridge to a different audience.

Don’t forget to regularly visit our website for more podcasts and constantly-updated economics information related to agriculture and natural resources in Montana and the northern Great Plains and please let us know ideas for future blog posts and podcasts using the Comments and Topic Suggestion form.

(Intro and outro music by Trevor Sensor)

Today Anton Bekkerman interviews and helps listeners get to know Dr. Joe Janzen, an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University and a regular contributor to the AgEconMT.com outreach website.

Joe talks about how his production agriculture background has contributed to his interest in studying commodity pricing and the dynamics of commodity markets. He discusses several of his more recent projects that consider the entry of major wheat exporters in the world market and how those changes are affecting global wheat markets. Joe then offers some insights on a newer work and ideas that he is excited to work on in the upcoming months. He discusses his focus on identifying and pushing further product differentiation in grain markets in order to advance northern Grain Plains farmers’ profitability.

Don’t forget to regularly visit our website for more podcasts and constantly-updated economics information related to agriculture and natural resources in Montana and the northern Great Plains and please let us know ideas for future blog posts and podcasts using the Comments and Topic Suggestion form.

(Intro and outro music by Trevor Sensor)

Today Anton Bekkerman interviews and helps listeners get to know Joel Schumacher, an extension economics associate specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University and a regular contributor to the AgEconMT.com outreach website.

Joel discusses his general research and extension interests, including personal finance and alternative energy. He also describes two of his current research projects: the Montana Poverty Report Card project and the Montana Beef-to-School program. Joel’s on-going and future work will focus on personal finance through the Solid Finances work, in which Joel develops and delivers regular webinars. He is excited to contribute to another avenue in which Montana State University researchers and extension specialists can deliver information to those for whom this information is most important.

Don’t forget to regularly visit our website for more podcasts and constantly-updated economics information related to agriculture and natural resources in Montana and the northern Great Plains and please let us know ideas for future blog posts and podcasts using the Comments and Topic Suggestion form.

(Intro and outro music by Trevor Sensor)

Today Anton Bekkerman interviews and helps listeners get to know Dr. Eric Belasco, an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University and a regular contributor to the AgEconMT.com outreach website. Eric describes some of his current research in understanding price response in cattle markets to droughts and discusses some of his teaching efforts in the financial engineering program.

Don’t forget to regularly visit our website for more podcasts and constantly-updated economics information related to agriculture and natural resources in Montana and the northern Great Plains.