Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Thinking Styles And Financial Characteristics Of Selected Canadian Farm Managers, Wayne W. Howard, George L. Brinkman, Remy Lambert

Agribusiness

The thinking styles of selected Canadian farm managers are identified using the life styles inventory (LSI). The farmers'LSI scores are compared with those of a base sample of nonfarmers, and correlations between the farmers'LSI scores and financial indicators are examined. Results indicate that farmers do thinking differently than nonfarmers and that there are significant correlations between thinking styles and financial measures.

Smallholder Dairying Under Transactions Costs In East Africa, Steven Staal, Christopher L. Delgado, Charles F. Nicholson

Agribusiness

It is argued that dairying is vital to future viability of many small farms in East Africa and that high transactions costs for dairy production and marketing limit participation by asset-and information-poor smallholders. Case studies from Kenya and Ethiopia illustrate the role of dairy cooperatives in reducing transactions costs. Analysis of the determinants of producer prices received by a sample of dairy producers near Addis Ababa suggests that different levels of access to infrastructure, assets, and information explain why different households contemporaneously accept widely different producer prices for fluid milk.

Sow Preference For Types Of Flooring In Farrowing Crates, P. A. Phillips, D. Fraser, B. K. Thompson

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

A preference-testing apparatus was used to provide sows with continuous access to three identical farrowing crates, each with a different type of flooring. The crates radiated from a central hub area sufficiently large for sows to enter or leave any crate freely. In exp. 1, nine sows from a concrete-floored gestation room were offered crates over concrete, plastic-coated rod, and galvanized metal rod. In exp. 2, sows were pre-exposed for a period of 1 wk to one of the three floors before entry into the preference testing apparatus. Video recording was used to determine sow position from 3 d before …

The Economic Benefits Of New Information Technology, Wayne H. Howard, Glenn Fox, Calum Turvey

Agribusiness

The purpose of this study is to analyze the demand and supply of information within the agriculture sector. This study has three components to meet this goal: i) a review of the literature, ii) a survey of Canadian farmers, and iii) interviews with agribusiness firms and government agencies.

Massively Parallel Computation Of Large-Scale Spatial Price Equilibrium Models With Discriminatory Ad Valorem Tariffs, Anna Nagurney, Charles F. Nicholson, Phillip M. Bishop

Agribusiness

In this paper, we develop a perfectly competitive spatial equilibrium model in price and quantity variables in the presence of discriminatory ad valorem tariffs, a widely used trade policy instrument. We derive the equilibrium conditions and formulate them as a variational inequality problem. An algorithm is then proposed for the computation of the equilibrium pattern and convergence results established. The algorithm resolves the problem into very simple subproblems, each of which can be solved simultaneously and in closed form. Finally, the algorithm is implemented on the massively parallel Thinking Machines CM-2 and CM-5 architectures, known as the Connection Machines, and …

Strategic Planning And Performance: Helping Directors And Managers Communicate, Jay E. Noel, David J. Schaffner

Agribusiness

The results from a survey of California agricultural marketing cooperatives illustrate the importance of boards of directors and management evaluating their strategic planning and performance. This evaluation process improves communication between the two groups, and determines where they agree or disagree on the importance of specific planning factors, competitive forces, strengths, weaknesses, distinctive competency, and performance of their cooperative.

The Effect Of Substrate-Enriched And Substrate-Impoverished Housing Environments On The Diversity Of Behaviour In Pigs, Marie Haskell, Françoise Wemelsfelder, Michael T. Mendl, Sheena Calvert, Alistair B. Lawrence

Sentience Collection

In intensive farming situations, growing animals are housed in relatively barren environments. The lack of opportunity to perform substrate-interactive and manipulative behaviour patterns may affect the expression and organization of these behaviours. However, making direct comparisons of the behaviour expressed in environments of differing physical complexity is difficult. In this experiment a relative diversity index was used to compare the behavioural repertoires of pigs housed in two different environments for a period of five months. One group of pigs (substrate-enriched) had straw, forest bark and branches added to the standard pens and the other group (substrate-impoverished) did not. The pigs …

The Australian Family Farm: Is It Soon To Be An Illusive Myth?, Fiona M.H. Mckenzie

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper examines the challenges faced by Western Australian rural enterprises since 1961 and the effects of economic and demographic change on the agricultural industry over the last thirty years.

Increasing capitalisation and technological advances have led to major shifts in the way the business of farming is conducted. There is evidence to suggest that these changes have contributed to an oversupply of agricultural products, the development of large-scale agri-business firms and a general depopulation of the agricultural sector.

The family farm has always been considered the backbone of Australian agriculture but there is evidence to suggest that in this …

Less Meat, Less Misery: Reforming Factory Farms, Henry Spira

Farm Animal Campaign

No abstract provided.