Agribusiness Commons^™

Conflicts Over Farming Practices In Canada: The Role Of Interactive Conflict Resolution Approaches, Lorne Owen, Wayne Howard, Mark Waldron

Agribusiness

An increasing number of articles in professional and scientific journals, as well as in the public press, give evidence to a rising number of conflicts that exist in rural communities. These conflicts arise from changes in farming practices, the increasing number of large-scale production units, resource use, and demographics. Fair, effective and efficient approaches to resolve these conflicts are of increasing interest and importance. An interactive conflict resolution (ICR) approach that focuses on communication and positive social interactions may be a preferred approach for resolving conflicts. The role of ICR approaches in addressing conflicts arising from farming and agri-business practices …

Diversity Of Behaviour During Novel Object Tests Is Reduced In Pigs Housed In Substrate-Impoverished Conditions, Françoise Wemelsfelder, Marie Haskell, Michael T. Mendl, Sheena Calvert, Alistair B. Lawrence

Sentience Collection

Modern intensive farming conditions lack the diversity of substrates present in more natural environments and offer young animals fewer opportunities for interaction. Evidence exists that this may affect the organization of interactive patterns of behaviour, but shifts in behavioural diversity have not been measured directly. We investigated the effect of the substrate in the home pen on the diversity of behaviour in young growing pigs, Sus scrofa. Over 5 months, 26 pigs were housed singly in either substrate-impoverished (SI) or substrate-enriched (SE) conditions. Once every month we recorded the behaviour of these pigs in detail both in the home pens …

Monitoring Cattle Behavior And Pasture Use With Gps And Gis, L. W. Turner, M. C. Udal, B. T. Larson, S. A. Shearer

Management and Monitoring of Farm Animals Collection

Precision agriculture is already being used commercially to improve variability management in row crop agriculture. In the same way, understanding how spatial and temporal variability of animal, forage, soil and landscape features affect grazing behavior and forage utilization provides potential to modify pasture management, improve efficiency of utilization, and maximize profits. Recent advances in global positioning system (GPS) technology have allowed the development of lightweight GPS collar receivers suitable for monitoring animal position at 5-min intervals. The GPS data can be imported into a geographic information system (GIS) to assess animal behavior characteristics and pasture utilization. This paper describes application …

Interstate Economic Co-Operation: Issues And Options., Sarah O. Alade

Bullion

The main objective of this paper is to present a brief discussion of issues and policy options involved in interstate economic co-operation in Nigeria, and the rationale for economic co-operation among states as well as issues of economic co-operation.

Comparative Advantage In Production And Trade In Nigeria., Emmanuel U. Ukeje

Bullion

The Nigerian economy is generally large and very diverse. The country is endowed with a highly productive agricultural base and generally favourable climatic conditions, which provide the potential for intensive production, both for domestic consumption and for exports. This paper reviews the production and trade pattern in Nigeria with a view to identifying major structural changes with regard to the relative comparative advantage enjoyed by the sectors, the other parts of the paper focuses on some theoretical and conceptual issues. The rest of the paper is divided into five sections. Section 2 focuses on some theoretical and conceptual issues. Section …

Breeders' Awards And The Gambler's Corner Solution, James J. Ahern, Jay E. Noel

Agribusiness

California has had a Thoroughbred breeders awards program since 1933. The intent of the program is to encourage the production of Thoroughbred horses and provide an incentive for that production. The program rewards breeders of horses, stallion owners, and owners of registered California bred (CB) horses.

Commercial Irrigation And Nutrition Practices For Strawberries In Western Australia, D. Phillips, D. Gatter, T. Calder, D. Pitman

Horticulture research reports

Irrigation practices employed by five commercial strawberry growers on sandy soils of the Swan Coastal Plain near Perth Western Australia were monitored for two consecutive seasons, 1995 and 1996 during the Spring production period.

Nutritional practices for the same grower group plus one Albany grower were monitored by plant, soil and sap analysis at 14 day intervals throughout the 1996 season.

Irrigation records showed that market quality strawberries could be produced at this time of year (August to December in Perth) on soils with very poor water retention properties with an average crop factor(E Pan) for the season of 0.7 …

Floor Temperature Preference Of Sows At Farrowing, P. A. Phillips, D. Fraser, B. Pawluczuk

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 floor temperature. The concrete floor under each crate contained copper pipe through which temperature-controlled water was circulated to achieve unoccupied floor temperatures of 22°C (± 3.5), 29°C (± 1) and 35°C (± 1). Eighteen sows were tested in the apparatus. Video recording was used to determine sow position from 7 days before farrowing (Days ‒7 to ‒1) to 14 days after (Days 1 to 14). On Days ‒7 to ‒1, sows showed no significant preference among the three temperatures …

The State Of Urban And Community Forestry In California, Richard P. Thompson, James J. Ahern

Agribusiness

Tree and vegetation management in the urban and urban-interface communities create issues of growing importance in an increasingly urbanized state such as California. Communities recognize urban forest resource sustainability, maintenance and enhancement of forested aesthetics as an important value. They support these areas with tax dollars, local government agency involvement (usually Parks and Recreation or Public Works departments), and with efforts in many cases by both individuals and volunteer organizations in management and planning.

The Financial Impact Of Animal Related Phosphorus Management On Vermont Dairy Farms, Alyssa Dodd, Catherine Halbrendt, Charles F. Nicholson

Agribusiness

Excessive phosphorus loading has been identified as the primary cause of decreasing water quality in Lake Champlain. Dairy farms are the major source of phosphorus pollution to the lake and are targeted to reduce phosphorus run-off. The goal of this research is to determine the farm-level financial impact of phosphorus management on different sizes of Vermont dairy farms. Farm financial performance following implementation of manure management is simulated by farm size (60 cows, 150 cows, and 350 cows) over a ten-year time horizon using the Farm Level Income and Policy Simulation Modeling System (FLIPSim). Results indicate that implementation of Milking …

Pain In Farm Animals, L. U. Sneddon, Michael J. Gentle

Farm Animal Welfare Collection

This review will address how we can measure pain in farm animals and discuss the major causes of acute pain and also chronically painful conditions, and finally make suggestions for future improvements. Pain is a relatively difficult concept to define since it comprises both a physiological sensory and a psychological or emotional component. Pain is the subjective interpretation of nerve impulses induced by a stimulus that is actually or potentially damaging to tissues. The sensation of pain is a response to a noxious stimulus and should elicit protective motor (e.g. withdrawal reflex, escape) and vegetative responses (e.g. cardiovascular responses, inflammation). …

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 1 2000, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Estimating The Off-Farm Labor Supply In Canada, Wayne Howard, Michael Swidinsky

Agribusiness

Off-farm labor supply in Canada is modeled using separate off-farm labor participation and off-farm labor supply equations, which allows variables to affect participation and labor supply differently. The data used in this study are from Statistics Canada’s Agriculture-Population Linkage Database, which links the Population Census for 1986 to a 20% sample from the Census of Agriculture. Results indicate that age, education and wages have large, significant and opposite effects on participation and supply, and that government efforts to stabilize and supplement farm incomes through rural employment programs may have less effect on labor allocation decisions than do the underlying demographic …

Letter From The Dean, Charles J. Scifres

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Instructions For Authors, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Abstracts From The Student Presentations Of The Arkansas Chapter Of Gamma Sigma Delta, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Main Issues Rural Women Experience With Information & Communication Technology, Teresa Maiolo

Research outputs pre 2011

This brief report will outline the main issues rural women encountered with information and communications technology. This information was derived from interviewing twenty-one rural women from the South West, Eastern Goldfields, Murchison, Gascoyne, and Kimberley regions of Western Australia. Recommended actions are given to address each of the main issues.

Agroindustrialization Through Institutional Innovation: Transactions Costs, Cooperatives And Milk-Market Development In The Ethopian Highlands, Garth Holloway, Charles Nicholson, Chris Delgado, Steven Staal, Simeon K. Ehui

Agribusiness

Some small-holders are able to generate reliable and substantial income flows through small-scale dairy production for the local market; for others, a set of unique transactions costs hinders participation. Cooperative selling institutions are potential catalysts for mitigating these costs, stimulating entry into the market, and precipitating growth in rural communities. Trends in cooperative organization in East-African dairy are evaluated. Empirical work focuses on alternative techniques for effecting participation among a representative sample of periurban milk producers in the Ethiopian highlands. The techniques considered are a modern production practice (cross-bred cow use), a traditional production practice (indigenous-cow use), three intellectual-capital-forming variables …

Partial Tooth-Clipping Of Suckling Pigs: Effects On Neonatal Competition And Facial Injuries, Daniel M. Weary, David Fraser

Farm Animal Husbandry Collection

Piglets are born with fully erupted ‘needle teeth’ which are used in competition for access to teats. Producers often clip these teeth to the gum line soon after birth to avoid any resulting facial lacerations, but this clipping can itself lead to injury or infection. Two experiments investigated the effects on facial injury and piglet performance of the potentially less damaging practice of ‘partial clipping’ whereby only the distal third of the tooth is removed. In Experiment 1, teeth were (1) partially clipped, (2) fully clipped to the gum line, or (3) left intact. All piglets of a litter received …

The Potential For Marketing Pork Products With Embedded Environmental Attributes: Results From An Experimental Study, Sean P. Hurley, James B. Kliebenstein

Agribusiness

Environmental issues such as air and water quality related to livestock production currently receive much attention. Potential methods for environmental improvement range from regulation to market solutions. This study looks at consumer willingness to pay for pork products with embedded environmental attributes. Experimental auctions showed that over one-half of the participants (62%) paid a premium, that did not vary significantly between differing regions of the United States. (JEL Codes Q13, Q25)

The Impacts Of Dairy Cattle Ownership On The Nutritional Status Of Preschool Children In Coastal Kenya, Charles F. Nicholson, Phillip K. Thornton

Agribusiness

In many parts of the developing world, the availability of sufficient food—food supplying sufficient daily energy and protein—remains a key challenge for many families, despite substantial increases in total food production in the past two decades. At present there is sufficient food produced to feed everyone in the world, but the available food is neither evenly distributed nor fully consumed. As a result, some 800 million people—200 million children— are food insecure, that is, they lack consistent access to the food required for a healthy and productive life (Pinstrup-Andersen, 1994). The roots of food insecurity and malnutrition are complex, but …

Impacts Of The Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact On New England Milk Supply, Charles F. Nicholson, Budy Resosudarmo, Rick Wackernagel

Agribusiness

During the first year of the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, milk production in the six New England states increased by about 57 million pounds, or about 1.3% of production compared to the 12 months prior to the Compact. Increases in milk production were largest in Connecticut (31 million pounds) and Vermont (21 million pounds), whereas Maine and New Hampshire experienced increases of less than 10 million pounds. Production in Massachusetts and Rhode Island declined by 9 million and 0.4 million pounds, respectively. Because the rate of increase for New England was larger than the US average, the Compact Commission incurred …

Asymmetric Grading Error And Adverse Selection: Lemons In The California Prune Industry, Jennifer S. James, James A. Chalfant, Nathalie Lavoie, Richard J. Sexton

Agribusiness

Grading systems are often introduced to address the classic adverse selection problem associated with asymmetric information about product quality. However, grades are rarely measured perfectly, and adverse selection outcomes may persist due to grading error. We study the effects of errors in grading, focusing on asymmetric grading errors-namely when low-quality product can erroneously be classified as high quality, but not vice versa. In a conceptual model, we show the effects of asymmetric grading errors on returns to producers. Application to the California prune industry shows that grading errors reduce incentives to produce more valuable, larger prunes.

Stream Channel And Vegetation Responses To Late Spring Cattle Grazing, Warren P. Clary

Ecological Impacts of Animal Agriculture Collection

A 10-year riparian grazing study was conducted on a cold, mountain meadow riparian system in central Idaho in response to cattle grazing-salmonid fisheries conflicts. Six pastures were established along Stanley Creek to study the effects on riparian habitat of no grazing, light grazing (20-25% utilization), and medium grazing (35-50%) during late June. Stream channels narrowed, stream width-depth ratios were reduced, and channel bottom embeddedness decreased under all 3 grazing treatments as the area responded to changes from heavier historic grazing use. Streambank stability increased and streamside willow communities (Salix spp. L.) increased in both height and cover under all 3 …

A Better Future For Rural Wa Leadership And Economic Development In Rural Western Australia, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Western Australia

All other publications

A Better Future for Rural WA was a conference focusing on leadership and economic development in rural WA. The conference included

o Development of leaders in rural industries and communities.

o Building more vibrant rural communities through community and economic development initiatives.

o Generating innovative approaches to value adding and marketing our agricultural produce.

o Exploring how rural WA can further build on the economic strengths of agriculture

The conference was designed to help people deal with the issues facing rural communities by showcasing new and innovative projects and practices in rural development from within Australia and overseas and showing …

Vocal Response To Pain In Piglets, Daniel M. Weary, Leah A. Braithwaite, David Fraser

Farm Animal Welfare Collection

Three experiments were performed attempting to establish the validity of vocal measures as an indicator of the immediate response to pain in domestic piglets. Vocalisations were measured while piglets were subjected to the routine farm practice of castration without anaesthetic, or restrained identically but not castrated (i.e., sham-castrated). In Experiment 1 we measured how calling changed during the different stages of the procedure, and in Experiments 2 and 3 we measured the effect of different restraint techniques. Piglets that were castrated produced significantly more high frequency calls ( >1000 Hz) than sham castrates in all three experiments. In Experiment 1, …

Off-Farm Work By Census-Farm Operators: An Overview Of Structure And Mobility Patterns, Michael Swidinsky, Wayne H. Howard, Alfons Weersink

Agribusiness

The purpose of this paper is to provide descriptive statistics on off-farm labour supply and farm/off-farm labour reallocation for Canadian farmers using cross-sectional data and cross-sectional panel data, respectively, obtained from the Canadian Census of Agriculture. This report is part of a larger study on the off-farm labour supply and labour mobility of farm operators (Swidinsky, 1997). The data indicates that a growing proportion of operators worked off-farm between 1971 and 1991. As well, operators who work off-farm have allocated greater amounts of time to the off-farm labour market. The share of census-farm operators reporting 97-228 days of off-farm work …

Production Practices Of Arkansas Beef Cattle Producers, Michael P. Popp, Lucas D. Parsch

AAES Research Reports and Research Bulletins

This report contains information from a 1996 survey on production practices of Arkansas beef cattle producers. While several studies have been completed on the profitability of retained ownership of beef cattle, few empirical data are available on production practices of cow/calf and stocker operations in Arkansas. This report shows that there are some differences in production methods across operation types. Further, the report summarizes demographic characteristics of Arkansas cow/calf and stocker operations. The results of this study can be particularly helpful in providing the needed data for studying the potential economic impact of feeding weaned calves to heavier weights in …

Marketing Practices Of Arkansas Beef Cattle Producers, Michael P. Popp, Lucas D. Parsch

AAES Research Reports and Research Bulletins

This report contains information from a 1996 survey on marketing practices of Arkansas beef cattle producers. While several studies have been completed on the profitability of retained ownership of beef cattle, few data are available on what marketing techniques and decision criteria cow-calf and stocker operations use to market their cattle. This report shows that there are some differences in opinions on marketing issues such as pooled cattle sales and retained ownership across cow-calf and stocker operations. Further, these operations use different sources of information to make marketing decisions. The results of this study can be particularly helpful in providing …