Contour plowing. Contour ploughing or contour farming is the farming practice of ploughing and/or planting across a slope following its elevation contour lines. These contour lines create a water break which reduces the formation of rills and gullies during times of heavy water run-off; which is a major cause of top soil loss and soil erosion.
The ex-ante cost of equity capital is the core fac-tor in financial decision making such as equity valuation or project evaluation. As the ex-ante cost of equity capital is not observable, the ex-post realized stock return has been utilized as an indirect measure of the ex-ante cost of equity capital.However, the realized stock return has been proven as a noisy proxy for the ex-ante cost of eq-uity (Fama and French, 1997; Elton, 1999).sia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies (2008) v37 n4 G  which suggests that the ICOE may reduce the noises in the ex-post stock returns as a proxy for the ex-ante cost of equity capital. Table 2 also reports the correlations among risk proxies.
For example, if the market value of a company's equity is $600 million and it has $400 million of debt on its balance sheet, then 60% of its capital is equity and 40% is debt. If the company's cost of equity is 10% and its cost of debt is 7%, then its WACC is:(60% x 10%) + (40% x 7%) = 8.8%. Note: If using the cash flow to the firm DCF method, the WACC would be your discount rate. company's cost of capital is exactly as its name implies. When a company raises capital from its lenders and owners, both types of investors require a return on their investment. Lenders expect to be paid interest on their loans, while owners expect a return, too.