scholarly journals PRODUCTION POTENTIALS OF HILL COUNTRY IN THE NORTHERN SOUTH ISLAND

Author(s):  
A.D.H. Joblin

Hill country, defined as land over 15O slope, comprises 51% of the agricultural land resource and 44% of the grassland in the Northern South Island. This steeper land is assessed as carrying 20% of the current grazing stock numbers, with an estimated capacity to expand by 13 million stock units to support 31% of the region's livestock. The ability to achieve this potential will be influenced by the profitability of farming the land more intensively. At present the South Island hill and high country is farmed much more extensively than North Island hill country with net incomes of $9 and $1.5/ha respectively compared with $53 and $30/ha for hill and hard hill country in the North Island. Production output figures show similar trends. The challenge to research workers, advisers and farmers is to develop farming systems that will lead to a profitable expansion of production to the South Island hill and high country's potential. These systems will need to recognise the crucial importance of summer drought as a limiting factor to these production increases. Keywords: Hill country, slope, vegetation, production potentials, productivity, economic returns, costs, microsite pasture production, research requirements.

Author(s):  
B.S. Zhang ◽  
I. Valentine ◽  
P.D. Kemp

Decision tree models were applied to predict annual and seasonal pasture production and investigate the interactions between pasture production and environmental and management factors in the North Island hill country. The results showed that spring rainfall was the most important factor influencing annual pasture production, while hill slope was the most important factor influencing spring and winter production. Summer and autumn rainfall were the most important factors influencing summer and autumn production respectively. The decision tree models for annual, spring, summer, autumn and winter pasture production correctly predicted 82%, 71%, 90%, 88% and 90 % of cases in the model validation. By integrating with a geographic information system (GIS), the outputs of these decision tree models can be used as a tool for pasture management in assessing the impacts of alternative phosphorus fertiliser application strategies, or potential climate change, such as summer drought on hill pasture production. This can assist farmers in making decisions such as setting stocking rate and assessing feed supply. Keywords: data mining, decision tree, GIS, hill slope, rainfall


Author(s):  
J.S. Bircham

The effects of summer spelling, frequency and severity of defoliation on improved pasture which had reverted to browntop dominance in spite of adequate topdressing were investigated on northwest and south-east aspects in North Wairarapa hill country pastures. Frequency and severity of defoliation affected both pasture production and botanical composition on the south-east aspect but had little significant effect on the north-west aspect. A pasture improvement programme based on the field trial results was devised and applied. The interim results of this programme are given.


Author(s):  
Leah Platt Boustan

This chapter explains that the mobility of black southerners began increasing in the birth cohorts born immediately after the Civil War. Many of these moves took place within the South. Despite plentiful industrial jobs in the “thousand furnaces” of northern cities at the turn of the twentieth century, the potential wage benefits of settling in the North was dampened by the absence of a migrant network that southern blacks could use to secure employment upon arrival. Large flows of northward migration awaited a period of abnormally high economic returns, which arose during World War I. Circa 1915, northern factories supplying the war effort experienced a surge in labor demand, coupled with a temporary freeze in European immigration, which encouraged northern employers to turn to other sources of labor.


1910 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 62-71
Author(s):  
H. A. O.

The following paper, which completes the series of papers on the classical topography of Laconia, is an account of the hill-country on the eastern side of Taÿgetos, bounded on the north by the road from Sparta to Anavryté, on the south by Gytheion and Pánitsa. (Fig.1.)


1996 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 721 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.M Driessen ◽  
S.A Mallick ◽  
G.J Hocking

The habitat requirements of the eastern barred bandicoot, Perameles gunnii, in Tasmania were investigated with road-kill survey data and by mapping habitat features along survey routes. Road-kills of eastern barred bandicoots were most numerous in the South-east and North-west, less common in the North-east and Midlands, and very uncommon on the East Coast. Logistic regression of bandicoot presencelabsence data suggested that traffic volume is the major determinant of the road-kill distribution of eastern barred bandicoots around Tasmania. Along with traffic volume, rainfall was found to be strongly associated with the presence of eastern barred bandicoot road-kills for the state combined and for the South-east and Northeast, while along the Huon Highway in the South-east, soil depth was associated with the presence of roadkills. Favoured habitat of the eastem barred bandicoot is high-quality agricultural land with deep soils and high rainfall. It is hypothesised that clearing for agriculture in south-eastem, north-eastem and north-westem Tasmania has opened up previously unsuitable, heavily forested habitat for colonisation by eastern barred bandicoots. The resulting mosaic of pasture and remnant bush appears to provide ideal habitat for the eastern barred bandicoot. However, the majority of bandicoot habitat is found on private land, making the species vulnerable to changes in farming practices. Possible management options are briefly discussed.


1985 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 9-15
Author(s):  
D. Scott ◽  
J.M. Keoghan ◽  
G.G. Cossens ◽  
L.A. Maunsell ◽  
M.J.S. Floate ◽  
...  

The South Island hill and high country is defined as those areas which were in natural grassland at the time of early European settlement. This includes the major geographical regions of dry hill and high country of Marlborough, Canterbury and North Otago, and the wet acid tussock grasslands of Otago and Southland. To define the most appropriate pasture species for farming in these areas, it is first necessary to define the appropriate environmental factors since they largely determine the types of farming systems possible. Once this has been done, it will be found that there are only one or two pasture species which are the best option in each environment or farming system.


Author(s):  
A.G. Gillingham ◽  
J. Maber ◽  
J. Morton ◽  
M. Tuohy

The fertiliser requirements of hill country vary with soil type, slope and aspect-related factors which govern pasture production potential and species composition. In most situations, the topographic complexity is such that only very broad differentiation in land units can be made when aerially applying fertiliser. The traditional method of aerial topdressing is for superphosphate to be flown on at a common rate over large blocks of complex topography by fixed-wing aircraft. Advances in geographical positioning system (GPS) and aircraft technology now allow aircraft to fly accurately defined track spacing and so achieve optimum uniformity of fertiliser spread. The same technology could be used to vary fertiliser application rate along a flight path according to predetermined recommendations and through links to a farm geographic information system (GIS) map. This approach could also be used to apply different fertiliser types. In a desktop study the effects of differential, compared with uniform, fertiliser application policies, on animal productivity and economic returns were examined for three contrasting hill farm situations using a combination of trial results and the AgResearch PKS Lime Programme. Results showed that for a farm with a low soil P status (Olsen P =9), that stocking rate could be increased by 0.5 su/ha, and the economic return by 7.5%, by differential, rather than uniform fertiliser application. In a similar but higher soil P status farm (Olsen P = 15), the increase was 0.9 su/ ha and 10.1% respectively. In a summer-dry situation where nitrogen fertiliser could be substituted for some P fertiliser, a differential policy designed to optimise production gave a 2.1 su/ha and 43% net margin increase, compared with the uniform application of a typical rate of maintenance P fertiliser only. The results from the desktop study are discussed in relation to the practical aspects of developing differential fertiliser application methods. This will relate to extra fertiliser application cost, and the definition of practical sized land units and fertiliser forms, which will all have some effect on the net economics of a differential application policy. Despite these unknowns, the technology would appear to offer real gains to the hill country farmer. Keywords: economic return, fertiliser application, GIS, GPS, hill country, phosphate


New Medit ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  

Demand for animal products is expected to increase due to human population growth, resulting in a need for increased production. At the same time, climate change poses a major threat to the viability and sustainability of livestock production systems. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the sus-tainability of dairy cattle farms belonging to three farming systems (rainfed, irrigated, and mixed) at the northeast zone of Tunisia using the IDEA method (version 3). Collected data of 102 farms were subjected to an analysis of variance using the GLM procedure of SAS software (version 9.4). Results showed that the socio-territorial scale was the limiting factor for all systems and that the irrigated sys-tem had the lowest scores of agro-ecological and socio-territorial scales, compared to the other ones, but it recorded the highest score for the economic scale. The best agro-ecological and socio-territorial scores characterized the mixed system. However, it had the lowest score on the economic scale. Finally, the rain-fed system was exhibited medium performances of the three scales. It was concluded a differ-ence between the three farm systems, but there was no disassociation between the three sustainability dimensions; thus, improvements should proceed across all scales simultaneously.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 574
Author(s):  
Md Nadiruzzaman ◽  
Mahjabeen Rahman ◽  
Uma Pal ◽  
Simon Croxton ◽  
Md Bazlur Rashid ◽  
...  

Bangladesh produces only 5% of the cotton she needs to sustain her readymade garments industries. The country has very limited agricultural land and cotton competes with other crops for this scarce land resource. On top of that, Bangladesh is regarded as a country where agriculture is highly vulnerable to the variabilities of weather patterns that result from climate change. Against this backdrop, to better understand the potential for the sustainable expansion of cotton production in Bangladesh, we examine cotton’s agricultural value chain and projected climate risks associated with different phases of the chain. We identified associated stakeholders at different phases of cotton production, engaged with them to understand climatic and non-climatic threats and developed an integrated set of recommendations for climate-risk management through improving the connection of producers to markets, increasing economic returns to small farmers, and improving efficiency along the value chain. We discussed our estimated climate projections with stakeholders to understand the challenges at different stages of production and marketing, and together explored and identified probable solutions. This research offers a new and evolving approach to assess climate change impact on agriculture utilizing a holistic approach, which could be adopted for other crops.


2017 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 189-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.P. Devantier ◽  
D.R. Stevens ◽  
G.M. Rennie ◽  
K.N. Tozer

Abstract Maintaining pasture quality in late spring and early summer is a challenge in many hill country farming systems where pasture growth often exceeds animal demand. One possible management tool is to defer grazing on a portion of the farm to enable the desired grazing management and animal performance on the remainder. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of timing and duration of deferred grazing in mid-spring to early-summer on subsequent pasture accumulation rates, composition and quality, from mid-spring through to the following winter. A factorial design (3 durations x 3 closing times) in eight replicates compared withholding grazing (nil, 1 or 3 grazings), in three closing periods, mid spring, late spring, and early summer. Grazing pasture when covers reached 2500 - 3000 kg DM/ha to a residual of 1500 kg DM/ha was the standard grazing regimen used. Grazing after the exclusion period aimed to achieve the same residual as in the control treatment based on a feed budget. Short early closures resulted in little, or no change in pasture quality and quantity for the remainder of the season. Longer closure periods reduced pasture quality due to increases in the proportions of dead and reproductive stem. This effect was reduced with later closings. The control (nil deferred grazings) and mid-spring closings had a net loss of dead matter (-1000 and -420 kg DM/ ha, respectively), while the late -spring and earlysummer closings accumulated 60 and 180 kg DM/ha, respectively. These differences in dead matter were the major driver of the differences of net herbage accumulations (P=0.018), with net accumulations from 7990 kg DM/ha for the control (Nil) closings to 9660 kg DM/ha for the December (late) closings. Deferred grazing can be used to alter feed availability and utilisation while maintaining net pasture production over spring, summer and autumn. Keywords: grazing management, pasture quality, deferred grazing, net pasture accumulation, dead matter, reproductive tillers, metabolisable energy


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