Progress 04/01/07 to 03/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The main output from this project is a PhD student who will graduate in June 2012 and who recently accepted a position as an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in the Department of Economics at the University of New Mexico. Funding for the project has enabled her to disseminate her dissertation results to interdisciplinary audiences at conferences in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Davis. She also has presented her work at seminars at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater, Iowa State University, and the University of New Mexico. In addition, the project has supported crucial Staff Research Assistant activities in the Department of Environmental Sciences. PARTICIPANTS: Kenneth Baerenklau (UC Riverside, PI), Jingjing Wang (UC Riverside, PhD student / Graduate Student Researcher), Thomas Harter (UC Davis, collaborator), Ken De Groot (Sierra View Dairy, partner). TARGET AUDIENCES: Agricultural producers (particularly dairy farmers), environmental policy makers, environmental researchers (scientists and economists working on ground water quality). PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The student's work has clarified the important relationships between water, salt, and nitrogen in crop production and field emissions to groundwater. She has developed the first and only field-level economic model of crop production and waste emissions that accounts for all three of these factors. Results for the crop production model have been tested against available field data for nitrogen and show significant improvements compared to previous modeling approaches. The crop production model has been linked to a whole-farm model of an animal feeding operation (specified as a representative California dairy) to study the economic and environmental effects of alternative groundwater pollution control policies. Results for the whole-farm model demonstrate the cost-ineffectiveness of the current approach of limiting land application of nutrients, as well as the potential cost savings associated with alternative approaches of directly regulating emissions to groundwater. This work will benefit farmers, policy-makers, and researchers who are working on the difficult problem of developing cost-effective solutions for the problem of groundwater pollution from large-scale animal feeding operations. We expect that the project will enhance both farm profitability and groundwater quality by facilitating appropriate crop selection by farmers and policy selection by regulators. We anticipate 2-3 peer reviewed journal articles to be produced from the dissertation work.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project continues to support an outstanding doctoral student who is working on a dissertation on a closely related topic. It also continues to support crucial Staff Research Assistant activities in the Department of Environmental Sciences. During the reporting period, the project allowed the graduate student to travel to a Water Education Foundation conference in San Francisco and a student conference at UC Berkeley where she presented some of the results from her work. She is making excellent progress and is on track to graduate on time in Summer 2012. PARTICIPANTS: This project supports Ms. Jingjing Wang, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UC Riverside. It also has provided Ms. Sanaz Sohrabian, an undergraduate student in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UC Riverside, the opportunity to gain experience as a research assistant under Ms. Wang's supervision. TARGET AUDIENCES: Researchers in the fields of agricultural and natural resource economics; operators of confined animal feeding operations; environmental policy makers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The student's work is clarifying the important relationships between water, salt, and nitrogen in crop production and field emissions to groundwater. She is developing the first and only field-level economic model of crop production and waste emissions that accounts for all three of these factors. Results to-date suggest that crop yields exhibit complex and unexpected responses to changes in applied water, salt, and nitrogen. The field-level model eventually will be linked with a whole-farm model of an animal feeding operation to study the economic and environmental effects of alternative groundwater pollution control policies. This model will benefit farmers, policy-makers, and researchers who are working on the difficult problem of developing cost-effective solutions for the problem of groundwater pollution from large-scale animal feeding operations. We expect that the project will enhance both farm profitability and groundwater quality by facilitating appropriate crop selection by farmers and policy selection by regulators.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project continues to support an outstanding female doctoral student who is working on a dissertation on a closely related topic. It also continues to support crucial Staff Research Assistant activities in the Department of Environmental Sciences. During the reporting period, the project allowed the PI and the graduate student to travel to the annual meetings of the American Applied Economics Association in Milwaukee, WI where the project benefited from discussions with interested researchers and the student benefited from taking an advanced mathematical modeling short course that is directly relevant to her dissertation work. During the reporting period, the student also successfully defended her dissertation proposal and advanced to candidacy. She is now working full-time on her dissertation and has been asked to present preliminary results at a groundwater resources conference in San Francisco in June. She is making excellent progress and is on track to graduate on time in Summer 2012. PARTICIPANTS: Kenneth Baerenklau (PI): graduate student training. Jingjing Wang (UCR Graduate Student): dissertation research. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The student's work is clarifying the important relationships between water, salt, and nitrogen in crop production and field emissions to groundwater. She is developing the first and only field-level economic model of crop production and waste emissions that accounts for all three of these factors. This model will benefit farmers, policy-makers, and researchers who are working on the difficult problem of developing cost-effective solutions for the problem of groundwater pollution from large-scale animal feeding operations. We expect that the project will enhance both farm profitability and groundwater quality by facilitating appropriate crop selection by farmers.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project currently supports an outstanding female doctoral student who is developing a dissertation on a closely related topic. PARTICIPANTS: Kenneth Baerenklau (PI): graduate student training, applying for additional funding sources. Jingjing Wang (UCR Graduate Student): dissertation proposal development. Milt McGiffen (UCR informal collaborator): designing a field experiment, applying for additional funding sources. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
This work has shown that revised nutrient pollution regulations for animal feeding operations (1) are likely to have greater economic impacts on large producers than has been suggested by previous studies, and (2) are likely to have significant cross-media pollution effects as aqueous nitrate is converted into gaseous ammonia. It also has shown that improved input management and irrigation system uniformity are promising methods for reducing both waste emissions and disposal costs.
Publications
- Baerenklau, K.A., N. Nergis and K.A. Schwabe. 2008. "Effects of Nutrient Restrictions on Confined Animal Facilities: Insights from a Structural Model." Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics 56(2): 219-241.
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