ABSTRACT

The Cotton Yield Monitor Investment Decision Aid (CYMIDA) is an interactive computerized decision aid that is designed to help producers evaluate the yield gains and input savings required to pay for investment in a cotton yield monitoring system. Using partial budgeting and breakeven analysis, CYMIDA allows producers to develop a custom analysis of the purchase decision based on their farm situation. CYMIDA has the following features: 1) a printable user's guide, 2) easy point and click operation, 3) context sensitive help, 3) default yield monitor purchase costs to serve as a starting point for the user, and 4) sensitivity analysis for changes in cotton and crop input prices. CYMIDA calculates annual and per acre cotton yield monitor ownership costs based on crop acreage, picker size, and yield monitor purchase costs (Figure 1). CYMIDA gives producers a risk-free opportunity to evaluate the lint yield gains and input cost savings needed to pay for a yield monitoring information system before actually investing in the technology (Figure 2). Required yield gains and input savings to pay for investment in the information system can be evaluated for the following crop input decisions: seed, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, lime, growth regulators, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, harvest aids, and drainage. CYMIDA also has a yield gain - input savings two-way sensitivity graph that allows the user the opportunity to adjust the lint and input prices to see how changing prices influence the yield monitor investment decision (Figure 3). Any changes made to the input or lint prices are reflected in the graph. Contact James A. Larson (jlarson2@utk.edu), Burton C. English (benglish@utk.edu), Roland K. Roberts (rrobert3@utk.edu), or Rebecca L. Cochran (rcohra2@utk.edu) at the University of Tennessee [http://economics.ag.utk.edu; phone: (865) 974-7231] to receive a copy of CYMIDA.