top of page
A Moderately Brief History of Farm Management: The Changing Language of Rural Property Professionals
The Journal of the ASFMRA has a long history of sharing farm management ideas. A textual analysis of 1,752 articles evaluated language and authorship trends since 1937. Over time, fewer articles were sole-authored, and common title words shifted, reflecting evolving concerns of the profession. Single authorship declined from 80% prior to the 1970s to less than 40% after 1990. While “farm” remained the most frequent title word, the second most common term in the earlier decades, “appraisal,” gave way to “farmland,” and terms like “economics,” “analysis,” and “risk” only became common after the mid-1980s. Results are relevant to prospective authors and those interested in the rural property professions.
T.W. Griffin JOURNAL OF ASFMRA 2026
Recent global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signal degradation events highlighted vulnerabilities in food and fiber production. Signal loss results from natural phenomena, such as space weather, or nefarious sources like jamming and spoofing. We evaluated duration nowcasts—forecasts of when ongoing GNSS outages will end—for peanut (Arachis hypogaea) production in the southeastern United States. Farmers reliant on RTK-enabled guidance face a trade-off: continue field operations and accept an yield penalty or postpone planting and incur delay penalties. Using linear programming to assess these decisions, we estimate over million at risk, while shorter outages also create substantial losses. The expected value of a reliable duration nowcast is million for Georgia and million for the Southeast, representing 4% of total regional peanut farm-gate value, twice the proportion attributed to terrestrial weather forecasts. Expected values vary by week of year and default farmer responses: weeks 18 to 22 benefit when continuing is the default strategy, while weeks 20 to 26 benefit when waiting is the default. State-level differences reflect variation in planted area and yield sensitivity to planting date. Production losses threaten nearly 262 kilotons of peanuts for human consumption. These findings have implications for agricultural researchers, crop consultants, peanut farmers, buy points, and shellers, equipment manufacturers, and GNSS stakeholders. Policymakers supporting the development of regional GNSS outage nowcasts as a public good may strengthen agricultural resilience and protect supply chains critical to food and fiber security. CONTEXT Peanut production depends on RTK-GNSS guidance for precise row alignment. Signal interruptions from space weather, jamming, or spoofing can reduce yields, forcing producers to delay operations or continue without guidance. OBJECTIVE To quantify the economic value of GNSS outage duration nowcasts for peanut farming by assessing trade-offs between waiting for guidance versus continuing operations, estimating breakeven durations, and calculating expected value of perfect information (EVPI). METHODS A whole-farm linear programming model simulated representative southeastern US farms using USDA NASS data. Yield penalties were modeled with splines; continuing without RTK caused an 11% loss. Breakeven thresholds and EVPI were computed for outage scenarios. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Waiting was optimal early in the planting window, while continuing was favored later. Nowcast value ranged $12–18 M in Georgia and $19–30 M across the southeast (4% of total peanut value), twice the value of terrestrial weather forecasts. SIGNIFICANCE GNSS outage forecasts deliver actionable decision support, improving precision agriculture and guiding investments in operational resilience.
T.W. Griffin, W. Porter
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, August 2026​
Forthcoming
bottom of page