Udder Health and Communication
Udder Health and Communication

Author: H. Hogeveen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-03-10

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9086867421

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In dairy industries throughout the world there is a desire to optimize udder health. An improved udder health will lead to improved animal welfare, improved production efficiency and a reduction of the use of antibiotics. To improve udder health, first of all, technical knowledge on issues such as treatment, milking, infectious pressure and host resistance is important. However, over the years we learned that knowledge alone is not enough: knowledge has to be used. And for knowledge to be used, farmers have to be motivated. This requires knowledge about motivation and communication. In this book, recent knowledge on technical udder health issues is combined with knowledge on motivation and communication. A large number of descriptions of mastitis control programs that are being carried out worldwide is combined with more specific studies. These are aimed at effective advising, motivation and communication strategies, economics, and technical studies on mastitis control and prevention. Therefore, this book provides an applied source of information for all that are willing to improve udder health.

Dynamic Efficiency and Productivity Measurement
Dynamic Efficiency and Productivity Measurement

Author: Elvira Silva

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-11-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0190919485

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A systematic treatment of dynamic decision making and performance measurement Modern business environments are dynamic. Yet, the models used to make decisions and quantify success within them are stuck in the past. In a world where demands, resources, and technology are interconnected and evolving, measures of efficiency need to reflect that environment. In Dynamic Efficiency and Productivity Measurement, Elvira Silva, Spiro E. Stefanou, and Alfons Oude Lansink look at the business process from a dynamic perspective. Their systematic study covers dynamic production environments where current production decisions impact future production possibilities. By considering practical factors like adjustments over time, this book offers an important lens for contemporary microeconomic analysis. Silva, Stefanou, and Lansink develop the analytical foundations of dynamic production technology in both primal and dual representations, with an emphasis on directional distance functions. They cover concepts measuring the production structure (economies of scale, economies of scope, capacity utilization) and performance (allocative, scale and technical inefficiency, productivity) in a methodological and comprehensive way. Through a unified approach, Dynamic Efficiency and Productivity Measurement offers a guide to how firms maximize potential in changing environments and an invaluable contribution to applied microeconomics.

Nutrition and the Welfare of Farm Animals
Nutrition and the Welfare of Farm Animals

Author: Clive J. C. Phillips

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-05-12

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 3319273566

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This book explores the importance of good nutrition in ensuring an adequate standard of welfare for farm animals. It is often not realized that farm animals can suffer when they are fed unsuitable diets, which may be because these diets are more economic or the farmer does not know how to rectify poor nutrition. This book reveals how to recognize and deal with feeding problems in farm animals, when the animal’s behaviour is indicating a deficiency, through oral stereotypies for example. Feeding livestock in emergency situations can present special challenges, and the availability of clean and potable water, one of the essential components of life, can also be an unrecognized problem for many farm animals. Feeding farm animals effectively is rarely recognized for the major welfare issue that it is. We may assume that animals in intensive husbandry conditions have adequate feed, yet it is often too concentrated and designed primarily to immediately maximize production from the animals, in the form of growth, milk yield or reproduction. In extensive rangeland conditions adequate feed supply also cannot be assured, potentially leading to undernutrition with serious consequences for the health and even survival of livestock. This book will provide a much-needed review of the relationships between nutrition and the welfare of farm animals.

Farming Systems and Poverty
Farming Systems and Poverty

Author: John A. Dixon

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9789251046272

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A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.

Coping with Risk in Agriculture, 3rd Edition
Coping with Risk in Agriculture, 3rd Edition

Author: J Brian Hardaker

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2015-04-24

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1780645740

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Risk and uncertainty are inescapable factors in agriculture which require careful management. Farmers face production risks from the weather, crop and livestock performance, and pests and diseases, as well as institutional, personal and business risks. This revised third edition of the popular textbook includes updated chapters on theory and methods and contains a new chapter discussing the state-contingent approach to the analysis of production and the use of copulas to better model stochastic dependency. Aiming to introduce agricultural decision making, probability and risk preference, this book is an indispensable guide for students and researchers of agriculture and agribusiness management.

Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock
Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 925107920X

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Greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector could be cut by as much as 30 percent through the wider use of existing best practices and technologies. FAO conducted a detailed analysis of GHG emissions at multiple stages of various livestock supply chains, including the production and transport of animal feed, on-farm energy use, emissions from animal digestion and manure decay, as well as the post-slaughter transport, refrigeration and packaging of animal products. This report represents the most comprehensive estimate made to-date of livestocks contribution to global warming as well as the sectors potential to help tackle the problem. This publication is aimed at professionals in food and agriculture as well as policy makers.

Agriculture Investment Sourcebook
Agriculture Investment Sourcebook

Author: World Bank

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2005-04-08

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 0821383523

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Investing to promote agricultural growth and poverty reduction is a central pillar of the World Bank's current rural strategy, 'Reaching the Rural Poor' (2003). This 'Sourcebook' addresses how to implement the rural strategy, by sharing information on investment options and identifying innovative approaches that will aid the design of future lending programs for agriculture. It provides generic good practices and many examples that demonstrate investment in agriculture can provide rewarding and sustainable returns to development efforts. It is divided into eleven self-contained modules. Each module contains three different types of subunits that can also be stand-alone documents: I. Module Overview II. Agricultural Investment Notes III. Innovative Activity Profiles. The stand-alone nature of the subunits allows flexibility and adaptability of the material. Selected readings and web links are also provided for readers who seek more in-depth information. The 'Sourcebook' draws on a wide range of experiences from donor agencies, governments, institutions, and other groups active in agricultural development. It is an invaluable reference tool for policy makers, professionals, academics and students, and anyone with an interest in agricultural investments.

Agricultural Household Models
Agricultural Household Models

Author: Inderjit Singh

Publisher:

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13:

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This book presents the basic model of an agricultural household that underlies most of the case studies undertaken so far. The model assumes that households are price-takers and is therefore recursive. The decisions modeled include those affecting production and the demand for inputs and those affecting consumption and the supply of labor. Comparative results on selected elasticities are presented for a number of economies. The empirical significance of the approach is demonstrated in a comparison of models that treat production and consumption decisions separately and those in which the decisionmaking process is recursive. The book summarizes the implications of agricultural pricing policy for the welfare of farm households, marketed surplus, the demand for nonagricultural goods and services, the rural labor market, budget revenues, and foreign exchange earnings. In addition, it is shown that the basic model can be extended in order to explore the effects of government policy on crop composition, nutritional status, health, saving, and investment and to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the effects on budget revenues and foreign exchange earnings. Methodological topics, primarily the data requirements of the basic model and its extensions, along with aggregation, market interaction, uncertainty, and market imperfections are discussed. The most important methodological issues - the question of the recursive property of these models - is also discussed.

Agricultural Value Chains in India
Agricultural Value Chains in India

Author: Ashok Gulati

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-01-01

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9813342684

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This open access book provides a clear holistic conceptual framework of CISS-F (competitiveness, inclusiveness, sustainability, scalability and access to finance) to analyse the efficiency of value chains of high value agricultural commodities in India. It is based on the understanding that agriculture is an integrated system that connects farming with logistics, processing and marketing. Farmer’s welfare being central to any agricultural policy makes it very pertinent to study how a value chain works and can be strengthened further to realize this policy goal. This book adds value to the existing research by studying the value chains end-to-end across a wide spectrum of agricultural commodities with the holistic lens of CISS-F. It is not enough that a value chain is competitive but not inclusive or it is competitive and inclusive but not sustainable. The issue of scalability is very critical to achieve macro gains in terms of greater farmer outreach and sectoral growth. The research undertaken here brings out some very useful insights for policymaking in terms of what needs to be done better to steer the agricultural value chains towards being more competitive, inclusive, sustainable and scalable. The value chain specific research findings help draw very nuanced policy recommendations as well as present a big picture of the future direction of policy making in agriculture.