Economic Threshold Analysis of Supplementing Dairy Cow Diets with Betaine and Fat during a Heat Challenge: A Pre- and Post-Experimental Comparison

Ex ante economic analysis can be used to establish the production threshold for a proposed experimental diet to be as profitable as the control treatment. This study reports (1) a pre-experimental economic analysis to estimate the milk production thresholds for an experiment where dietary supplements were fed to dairy cows experiencing a heat challenge, and (2) comparison of these thresholds to the milk production results of the subsequent animal experiment. The pre-experimental thresholds equated to a 1% increase in milk production for the betaine supplement, 9% increase for the fat supplement, and 11% increase for fat and betaine in combination, to achieve the same contribution to farm profit as the control diet. For the post-experimental comparison, previously modelled climate predictions were used to extrapolate the milk production results from the animal experiment over the annual hot-weather period for the dairying region in northern Victoria, Australia. Supplementing diets with fat or betaine had the potential to produce enough extra milk to exceed the production thresholds, making either supplement a profitable alternative to feeding the control diet during the hot-weather period. Feeding fat and betaine in combination failed to result in the extra milk required to justify the additional cost when compared to the control diet.

Can the Adoption of Protected Cultivation Facilities Affect Farm Sustainability?

Given the increasing threat of climate change to agriculture, determining how to achieve farm sustainability is important for researchers and policy makers. Among others, protected cultivation has been proposed as a possible adaptive solution at the farm level. This study contributes to this research topic by quantifying the effects of the use of protected cultivation facilities on farm sustainability. In contrast to previous studies that relied on small-scale random surveys, a population-based sample of fruit, flower and vegetable farms was drawn from the Agricultural Census Survey in Taiwan. Propensity score matching, inverse probability weighting and inverse probability weighting regression adjustment methods were applied. Empirical results show that the use of protected cultivation facilities increases farm profit by 68–73%, other things being equal. This finding is persistent when farms suffer from disaster shocks. Moreover, the changes in farm labor use can be seen as a mechanism behind the positive effect of the protected cultivation facility use on farm profit. Our findings suggest that agricultural authority can consider subsidizing farms to increase the adoption of protected cultivation facilities to mitigate the risks resulting from natural disaster shocks.

Modelling a Transition from Purebred Romney to Fully Shedding Wiltshire–Romney Crossbred

Considering the current low prices for coarse wool (fibre diameter > 30 µm), a grading up transition to a shedding flock may eliminate wool harvesting costs and increase sheep farm profit. This transition could be achieved by breeding non-shedding ewes with Wiltshire rams. A bio-economic system-dynamics model of a pastoral sheep farming enterprise was used to simulate this grading up transition from 2580 Romney ewes to a similarly-sized flock of fully shedding third or fourth cross Wiltshire–Romney ewes. The total annual sheep feed demand was constrained within a ±5% range to minimise disruption to the on-farm beef cattle enterprise. Wool harvesting expenses were eliminated after seven years of transition, and with reduced feed demand for wool growth, the post-transition shedding flocks had more ewes producing more lambs and achieving greater annual profit compared with the base Romney flock. The net present values of transition were 7% higher than the maintenance of the base Romney flock with a farmgate wool price of $2.15/kg. Results suggest that coarse wool-producing farmers should consider a grading up transition to a shedding flock, and the collection of data on the production of Wiltshire–Romney sheep in New Zealand would improve the accuracy of model predictions.

Dairy expansion: a case study of spring-calving pasture-based dairy production systems in Ireland

Since 1 April 2015, European dairy milk quotas have been removed resulting in the intensification of dairy production within EU countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physical and economic impacts of the initial intensification undertaken within Irish grazing dairy systems. Physical and financial data for 868 seasonal calving dairy farmers with records for each of the years 2013–2017 inclusive were used in this analysis. All analyses were undertaken using a mixed-model framework in PROC MIXED. The overall level of fat plus protein productivity of studied farms increased by 51% during the 5-year period through a combination of increased production per cow, increased operational scale and system intensification. Overall farm net profit was highly variable between years and was greatest in 2017 (€133 836) and least in 2016 (€65 176). When farms were characterized into milk production expansion quartiles, farms in Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 increased output by +7, +25, +44 and +86%, respectively. Whereas total farm profit (€/farm) declined for Q1 farms between 2013/2014 and 2016/2017 (€−5257; −7%), the greater expansion undertaken in Q2, Q3 and Q4 resulted in increases of €3046 (+4%), €20 810 (+25%) and €51 604 (+62%), respectively. In all strategies studied, farm profit increased due to a combination of increased revenues, increased pasture utilization and a dilution of per unit production costs. Further investigation of the longer term impacts of expansion is merited, not just in terms of economic indicators, but also in terms of environmental and socio-cultural change.

Determinants of profit efficiency among peanut farming households in Tra Vinh province, Vietnam

This study is aiming to identify profit efficiency and its determinants among peanut farming households in Tra Vinh province, Vietnam, based on the data collected from 182 peanut farming households in three districts of Tra Vinh province. The Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier profit function incorporating profit inefficiency effects was employed to analyze the data, using the Frontier 4.1. The results revealed that the profit efficiency was ranged between 29.80 to 96.76 percent, an average of 59.06 percent. Significant factors that were found negative affect the peanut farm profit were prices of fertilizer, pesticide, wage rate; whereas, the price of seed and land area (fixed factor) were found negative effect the peanut farm profit. Significant determinants that were found positive effect the profit efficiency of peanut farmers were gender, education attainment, peanut farming experience, farm size, credit access, training, and farmer’s association membership.

Feasibility of Swamp Paddy Farming with New Superior Varieties and Different Planting System

Alfayanti A, Wilda M, Taupik R. 2020. Feasibility of swamp paddy farming with new superior varieties and different planting system. Jurnal Lahan Suboptimal: Journal of Suboptimal Lands 9(1): 50-56.Efforts to fulfil the community food demands could be achieved by swamp land optimization. One technology that can be developed on swamp land is utilization of new superior variety and planting system. Economic feasibility is one of considerations for farmers to adopt a technology innovation. The study aimed to determine the combination of the most economically viable new superior variety and planting system to be developed in swamp rice farming. The study was conducted from May-August 2016 in Karang Anyar Village Semidang Alas Maras district, Seluma Regency. There are 7 New Superior Varieties of swamp paddy cultivated; Inpara 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and Dendang and 1 existing variety as benchmark variety, Cigeulis. The planting system applied were legowo planting system (2:1) with insertion and without insertion. The data used to achieve the research objectives is primary data in the form of farming data to calculate economic benefits and feasibility. Farm profit is calculated using partial analysis whereas economic feasibility is calculated by evaluating the break even point and R/C ratio. The results showed that Inpara 6 with legowo planting system with insertion yield the largest profit Rp 15.096.600,-/ha with R/C ratio of 2.92.

Performance of sheep systems grazing perennial pastures. 3. Fertility, fecundity and lamb survival

Management system has the potential to alter the reproductive output of sheep flocks and thereby farm profit. A study was conducted between 2006 and 2010 to evaluate the reproductive performance of four management systems with differing combinations of time of lambing, stocking rate and ram breed, while grazing at a similar midwinter stocking rate (dry-sheep equivalents per hectare of 8, 10.2, 13, 11.2 and 11.2 in the successive seasons 2006–2010). Three systems, winter lambing Merino (WLM), split lambing (SL) and later lambing (LL), grazed replicated farmlets comprising pastures that were 20% lucerne (Medicago sativa), 20% tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) and 60% phalaris (Phalaris aquatica). A fourth system (high lucerne (HL)) grazed farmlets of 40% lucerne, 15% tall fescue and 45% phalaris. All systems used Merino ewes: in WLM mated to Merino rams, lambing in July; in SL half of the ewes lambing to terminal-breed rams in July, the other half lambing to Merino rams in September; and in LL and HL lambed in September, half to terminal-breed and half to Merino rams. The number of lambs weaned per ewe joined was 10% higher (P < 0.05) in the WLM system (0.99 ± 0.03) than in the September-lambing systems LL and HL, largely a result of a higher number of fetuses per ewe and despite lower (P < 0.05) lamb survival to marking in some years. The SL system weaned a similar (P > 0.05) number of lambs per ewe (0.95 ± 0.03) to all other systems. However, the number of lambs weaned per hectare was least in WLM (4.6 ± 0.2), lower than in the HL and LL systems by 2.7 lambs/ha because of a lower stocking rate. The ranking of systems for fetal number and lamb survival was not consistent among years. Spring-lambing systems produced more lambs per hectare because of a higher stocking rate but fewer lambs per ewe than the WLM system. System differences in pregnancy rate, fecundity and lamb survival were not consistent between years.