Evaluation of Alternative Crop Rotational Schemes for Cotton Production in Louisiana

Increasing economic importance of cotton production in Louisiana, awareness of the financial and environmental benefits of crop rotations have stressed the need for evaluating cotton production in different rotational schemes. The objective of this study was to estimate profitability of alternative crop rotational schemes within a whole farm context. Yield data for 11 alternative production systems involving cotton, soybean, corn, wheat were obtained from the ongoing crop rotation research at the Northeast Research Station during the period 1983 -1993. Th e systems included continuous, 2 year, and 3 year rotations on two soil types: silt and clay. Price data were generated given the distributions of adjusted seasonal average prices obtained from the department. Enterprise budgets were constructed for each crop, considering cotton as a program crop. A deficiency payment was included in the cotton income stream when the price fell below the target price. These budgets were used to calculate the net returns for each system. This resulted in 11 net return distributions consisting of 36 observations each. The net returns for the schemes containing cotton were generated both with and without deficiency payments. The net return distributions were then analyzed in two Target MOTAD frameworks: a portfolio of all schemes and a portfolio of only continuous schemes both with and without deficiency payments. Results suggest that a decision maker achieved higher expected income with continuous cotton as the major enterprise when deficiency payments were included . Without deficiency payments, the decision maker included continuous cotton in the optimal portfolio when only continuous schemes were available. The solution patterns for clay soil were identical except for the portfolio of all schemes with deficiency payment. All optimal portfolios were stable at the zero risk level