Strawberries are among the most popular fruits consumed in Michigan. However, Michigan's climate conditions hinder local production on a commercial scale. Outside of the summer period, production is only viable through controlled environment cultivation. Consequently, local demand relies on shipments from other U.S. producing regions, such as California and Florida, or imports mainly from Mexico. Given the delicate nature of this fruit, the long-distance supply chain can compromise the quality of the fruit, leading to substantial losses at retail and consumer levels. These factors drive the need to identify strategies to extend strawberries production season and empower a resilient regionalized supply chain. Our study aimed to optimize economic returns of greenhouse strawberry growers in Michigan using a bioeconomic modeling approach. Three strawberry varieties, namely Albion, Cabrillo, and Monterey, were grown in a greenhouse utilizing five different temperature treatments. The temperature treatments employed during the day and night cycles were set as 15/7° C, 10/18° C, 21/13° C, 24/16° C, and 27/19° C, respectively. Data was collected on productivity per plant and transplanted into a commercial grower scenario. The spatial-temporal bioeconomic model simulated the implementation of 15 hypothetical greenhouses, each covering an area of 1,000 m2, to accommodate one variety and one treatment at the time. Using a partial budget analysis, the research identified profitability capacity for greenhouse strawberry cultivation. From a costing perspective, the model considered the most important operating costs, including energy consumption by supplemental lighting and heating systems, labor requirements, materials (runners, fertigation, etc.), and growing space requirements. As for revenue, the model estimated potential revenues based on production capacity and market prices. By integrating these factors, the model provided estimates of the impacts of different combinations of strawberry varieties and treatment on fruit production. All three varieties had lower productive performance in the 15/7° C treatment, with Albion and Monterey only producing strawberries in weeks 8 and 9. The 24/16° C treatment showed the best productivity for all varieties, with Monterey achieving best economic results, followed by Cabrillo and lastly, Albion.
Golf courses in the northern regions of the United States and Canada experience occasional damage from winter stresses. This damage can sometimes be very severe, resulting in substantial financial impacts. Winter damage to turfgrass surfaces affects golf course finances in three primary ways: pre-winter maintenance costs, post-winter repair expenses, and revenue losses due to delayed openings. In 2022, a survey was conducted among golf course superintendents in the northern USA. and Canada. This survey collected data on the causes of winter injuries, the extent of damage across the golf course and various management practices employed. Preliminary results have shown that on average the annual costs incurred for preventing winter injuries were between $12,291 and $13,790 and the additional costs resulting from winter injuries ranged from $7,452 to $8,951 per golf course.
The resilience of farmers and farm families are often threatened by the risk associated with farm income. One of the sources of farm income risk is the volatility or variability in crop yields. Climate change or crisis could amplify this risk thereby making farmers, their families and communities less resilient. One of the ways that farmers could manage farm income risk is to diversify their operations by adding crop enterprises. Enterprise diversification works best as an income risk management strategy if the returns from the crop that is being added is negatively correlated with the returns from the other crops. Understanding how the income from some crops or enterprises correlate with those other crops is a vital tool in using diversification as a risk management tool. We assess the suitability of producing sweet potatoes as a way to manage farm income risk through enterprise diversification. We identify major crops that are produced in North Carolina to include cotton, hay, peanuts, soybeans, flue cured tobacco, wheat, squash, strawberries, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. We then derive the annual revenues per acre for each crop as the product of the per acre yield and price per unit for each of the last 15 years. The correlation coefficients between the revenues per acre between sweet potatoes and each of the other crops are estimated. The correlation coefficients between sweet potatoes and the other crops range from -0.002 for squash, and 0.79 for hay. After squash, the next lowest correlation coefficient is between sweet potatoes and snap beans at 0.29 while that with peanuts is 0.47. These results indicate that farm operations in North Carolina that include sweet potatoes and squash could reduce farm revenue risk without substantially reducing the level of revenue.
