Livestock Management Articles
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Moving Up the Food Chain
For most of the time that human beings have walked the earth, we lived as hunter-gatherers. The share of the human diet that came from hunting versus gathering varied with geographic location, hunting skills, and the season of the year. During the northern hemisphere winter, for instance, when there was little food to gather, people there depended heavily on hunting for survival. Our long history ...
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Making sustainable intensification work on sound evidence
Assessing the real-world impact of new agronomic practices depends on good economic studies, says David Spielman. A new narrative is slowly taking hold of today's collective thinking about productivity, growth and poverty reduction in developing-country agriculture: the concept of sustainable intensification. Sustainable intensification hinges primarily on practices and technologies that help ...
By SciDev.Net
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Farmers fine-tune research, spread their own innovations
Smallholder farmers can aid the uptake of research fruits and drive grassroots innovations. Joel Winston reports. The 1960s' Green Revolution demonstrated how technological innovations can transform agriculture. High-yielding crop strains, irrigation, fertilisers and pesticides were brought into developing countries, including India and the Philippines, increasing yields by more than 250 per ...
By SciDev.Net
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African countries must improve livestock data
Africa still suffers from a lack of good quality data on livestock that could be used to measure and improve progress as well as inform policymaking processes, scientists have said. Good data are crucial for identifying effective public and private sector investment opportunities, and in helpling to improve the livelihoods of smallholder livestock producers in Africa, according to 'Livestock ...
By SciDev.Net
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Land, water, and forests : assets for climate resilient development in Africa
Africa is a continent rich in natural resources. Its land, water, and forests underpin the sustained productivity of food crops and livestock on which millions of Africans depend directly for their livelihood and survival. These resources are major assets on which most countries depend for economic growth and sustainable development. In the face of growing climate change threats, such as ...
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Economic dimensions and directions of animal disease policy
Widely publicised incidents of transboundary animal diseases (TADs), devastating to local livestock industries, have occurred worldwide creating a greater awareness of the role of response policy selection on TAD spread risk and risk of initial introduction into previously disease free areas. In particular, drawing on past TAD outbreaks, the literature and the intrinsic characteristics of the ...
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Paying a premium for climate resilience
What is the best way to protect vulnerable rural communities from the damaging impacts of climate change? Insurance could be an answer, but it raises a number of difficult questions. To illustrate, the New York Times recently ran a story, “Report Says a Crop Subsidy Cap Could Save Millions.” The piece discusses a new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that ...
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Inside stories on climate compatible development: Zambia
Production of staple crops, such as maize, is under increasing risk in Africa because of climate change and depleting soil fertility. The potential consequences for food security are dire. Climate change and food security must be tackled together. Modern methods of agroforestry and “conservation agriculture with trees” are employing age-old indigenous practices of natural ...
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Assessing agroforestry`s advantages
Agroforestry, the deliberate placement of trees into crop and livestock operations, can help capture substantial amounts of carbon on agricultural lands while providing production and conservation benefits. However, we currently lack tools for accurately estimating current and projected carbon values in these systems. In North America, windbreaks are an effective carbon-capturing option. Only ...
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Assessing the prediction capacity of an agricultural supply positive mathematical programming model
In this paper, the calibration and prediction capacity of a supply response positive mathematical programming model (PMP) for the Alentejo region are evaluated. The model is calibrated with prices and agricultural subsidies of the base year (2000), using the specification rules of the cost function standard, Paris standard, average cost and exogenous elasticities. Then, the model is utilised for ...
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U.S. national organic program approves ban on engineered nanomaterials from organic products
On December 17, 2010, the US National Organic Program (NOP) voted to accept the recommendation of the US National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to prohibit engineered nanomaterials from the production, processing, and packaging of certified organic products. The decision was made with little fanfare, but has big implications. Background The NOP is a federal program managed under the U.S. ...
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U.S. National Organic Program Approves Ban on Engineered Nanomaterials from Organic Products
On December 17, 2010, the US National Organic Program (NOP) voted to accept the recommendation of the US National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to prohibit engineered nanomaterials from the production, processing, and packaging of certified organic products. The decision was made with little fanfare, but has big implications. Background The NOP is a federal program managed under the U.S. ...
By Acta Group
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Managing waste from confined animal feeding operations in the United States: the need for sanitary reform
Confined food-animal operations in the United States produce more than 40 times the amount of waste than human biosolids generated from US wastewater treatment plants. Unlike biosolids, which must meet regulatory standards for pathogen levels, vector attraction reduction and metal content, no treatment is required of waste from animal agriculture. This omission is of concern based on dramatic ...
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Impacts of beef producer compensation programmes to remediate negative economic outcomes of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Canada
Before the first domestic case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was identified in May 2003, Canada was the world's third largest exporter of cattle behind the USA and Australia. After the detection of BSE, over 30 countries imposed an immediate ban on imported Canadian beef and cattle products, including the USA. The interdependence of the Canadian beef industry with that of the US ...
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Lessons learned from bovine spongiform encephalopathy for the future management of the Canadian cattle industry
Globally, Canada is only a minor beef producing country, and yet ranks fourth among countries exporting beef products. That fact alone shows considerable market vulnerability. When coupled with dependence on corporate-owned slaughter capacity and heavy reliance on only one export market (the USA), that vulnerability is magnified. Economic losses from BSE in Canada following the occurrence of the ...
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Supplementation strategies effects on performance of beef heifers grazing stockpiled pastures
The increased cost of inputs has led livestock producers in the southeastern United States to use alternative management practices to supplement beef cattle (Bos spp.) on pastures. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of beef heifers grazing stockpiled limpograss [Hemarthria altissima (Poir.) Stapf & C.E. Hubb.] pastures supplemented with cottonseed meal (CSM, Gossypium ...
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Weed biomass and species composition as affected by an integrated crop–livestock system
Crop and livestock production are rarely integrated together in modern farming systems. Reintegrating crops with livestock production has been shown to produce many agronomic and environmental benefits. The objective of this study was to evaluate how an integrated crop–livestock system would influence weed biomass and weed species composition compared with a conventional, continuous corn (Zea ...
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Air emissions of ammonia and methane from livestock operations: Valuation and policy options
The animal husbandry industry is a major emitter of ammonia (NH3), which is a precursor of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) —arguably, the number-one environment-related public health threat facing the nation. The industry is also a major emitter of methane (CH4), which is an important greenhouse gas (GHG). We present an integrated process model of the engineering economics of technologies to ...
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Pilot scale facility to determine gaseous emissions from livestock slurry during storage
Livestock production is a growing source of air pollution, locally and to the wider environment. Improved livestock manure management has the potential to reduce environmental impacts, but there is a need for methodologies to precisely quantify emissions. This paper describes and evaluates a novel storage facility for livestock slurry consisting of eight 6.5-m3 cylindrical units. The stores may ...
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Interspecies variation of forage nutritive value and nonstructural carbohydrates in perennial cool-season grasses
Knowledge of grass genotypes nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) variation is one component to be considered when developing a successful forage and livestock management program. The objective of this study was to determine variations in concentrations of NSC, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF) among perennial cool-season grasses grown in the southern ...
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