This survey described movement patterns that will assist in modelling the potential spread of EAD in the Australian pig industry. Continued movement towards vertical integration and closed herds in the Australian pig industry effectively divides the industry into a number of compartments that mitigate against the widespread dissemination of disease to farms adopting these practices.

Backgrounding of feeder cattle is a growing specialty operation in the so-called “Fescue Belt” grasslands of the South (Bradford et al.). Backgrounding is largely a seasonal enterprise, consisting of the purchase of weaned calves that are placed on pasture and supplemental feed for several months and then resold for placement in feedlots. Since feeder calf and feeder cattle prices are among the most volatile of all classes of cattle, backgrounders face considerable price risk (Russell and Franzmann). In principle, hedging could shift this risk, but there has been a question whether hedging can be worthwhile, given the additional costs and financial obligations involved.

Recent commodity price volatility and development of new futures contracts has kindled interest in hedging among farmers in many parts of the country. Due to the importance of feeder cattle production in Kentucky and in the South generally, recent development of a feeder cattle contract is of special interest. This paper addresses some potential problems associated with use of feeder cattle futures markets by Kentucky producers. Specifically, it tries to: (1) determine the effect, if any, of location basis variability on ex post hedging results in Kentucky markets versus delivery markets at Omaha and Oklahoma City, (2) assess the ability of hedging to reduce revenue variability as compared to cash marketing and (3) determining the presence of bias in feeder cattle futures prices.

In an article in this Journal, Manderscheid sets forth several guidelines for curricular changes (pp. . He suggests that curriculum change is a dynamic process requiring efforts to monitor developments both within the discipline and in supporting and complementary disciplines and notes the need for integration of individually planned instructional activities into a systematic whole. Manderscheid further hypothesizes that an inadequate humanities component, insufficient attention to the needs of students planning for a career in the public sector, and a tendency to base courses and curricula on teaching objectives rather than learning objectives all constitute weaknesses in current agricultural economics curricula. Manderscheid's work has exerted considerable influence on the direction taken in a recent review and restructuring at Kentucky. While much remains to be done in terms of implementation, the procedures followed may provide useful guidelines to other institutions contemplating similar curricular revision. This paper reports on the process employed in developing a competency-based undergraduate curriculum in the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky. While applying competency-based instructional techniques to academic programs in higher education is not new, this approach has recei ved very limited use in our profession as well as in colleges of agriculture generally. A competency-based core curriculum has been developed in the College of Agriculture, University of Arizona (Zubrick).Basically, a competency-based curriculum is an attempt to identify desired outcomes of an educational process (vis-it-vis experiences) and to certify these on the basis of demonstrated behavior on an earlier draft of this paper. The work was supported by a grant from the Southern Regional Education Board.1 Most adaptations of competency-based programs in higher education have involved developing self-paced, multimedia courses as substitutes for the formal classroom presentations. As students satisfy the requirements of a given learning level, they move up to the next level of learning activities encompassed in another self-paced course.veloped at the University of Kentucky is not strictly a competency-based program, since it will not be centered around individual, self-paced courses. It is competency-oriented, however, in that learning objectives were developed on a competency basis for formal classroom courses. Multimedia learning objectives are being developed to supplement rather than substitute for the classroom. The department chose this approach because it was felt that greater weight should be given to students' learning needs and objectives as opposed to faculty teaching interests and objectives.The movement towards a competency-based approach was also influenced by recognition of the fact that higher education is entering an era of greater accountability. Funding sources, especially state legislatures, are likely increasingly to evaluate institutions of higher education in terms of their ability ...