The first essay estimates switchgrass yields in Oklahoma using average temperature and total rainfall during summer months. The fitted model agrees well with available yield data and the estimated yields were consistent with most previous studies. The model's results indicated lower average yields and lower year-to-year variation in yields in the Western region with higher yields and higher year-to-year variation in the Central region. The model developed in this study shows a promising result which could be used to predict switchgrass yields for any county in Oklahoma and would likely apply across the Southern Plains.

The second essay attempts to model the cost of harvesting and transporting biomass (switchgrass) in an individual producer versus a cooperative structure. The results show that small scale biomass harvesting cooperative (10-12 members) could have substantial cost savings versus individual member operations. For a five member cooperative the cost savings was not significant compared to the individual producers. With five members the cost savings was $3.47 Mg-1 while cost savings was $6.08 Mg-1 with eleven members. The cost savings are more if machineries are brought to enough use which could be obtained either by increasing the number of members in cooperative or by increasing the total hectares or by renting the machineries.

The third essay uses a mixed integer programming model to forecasts grain facility replacement in Oklahoma. The results indicated regionalization in grain storage with fewer but larger capacity structures. The results of sequential replacement overtime indicated that there would be some abandonment of facilities and some shift to larger capacity structures. Producer's transportation cost did not increase with sequential replacement as expected because storage were added in places to the current deficits. The results were not sensitive to crop production, fuel and construction cost and amortization factors. Cost comparison per bushel between configuration after sequential replacement and unrestricted replacement show that transportation cost was $0.04 lower in sequential replacement but total cost was $0.02 higher than unrestricted replacement.