Specialized Farms Research Articles

Economies of scope and the cash crop — Food crop debate in Senegal

The government of Senegal plans to achieve national food self-sufficiency by inducing farmers to switch away from cash crops toward food-crop production. This paper examines selected economic consequences of the planned substitution using empirical data recently collected in southeastern Senegal. Cost function estimates suggest that farmers are currently producing “too much” food-crop and “too little” cash-crop output, given existing technology and observed relative prices. Moreover, economies of scope in producing both food crops and cash crops on the same farm result in a 22% cost saving relative to growing both types of crops on separate, specialized farms.

Straightforward approach to completely singular system realization for arbitrary polynomial matrices

ABSTRACT A straightforward approach is presented to realize a completely singular system for in arbitrary polynomial matrix, two special coordinate farms frequently used in the analysis and design of singular systems can be simultaneous obtained.

A Decision Support System for Sustainable Farming

U.S. farmers are faced with growing environmental concerns and rising costs associated with highly specialized farming operations. They are searching for farming systems that are both ecologically sound and economically viable. They are searching for sustainable systems of farming.

Animal Production in France : Research and its Applications

The gross Agricultural product in France amounted to 44 thousands million Ecus in 1989 or 23 per cent of that of the EC; animal and plant production contributing equally to this figure. About 1 million farms are still in operation representing roughly in thousands : 180 growing crops and cereals in the North and South West, 150 growing fruit and vines in the South; 400 raising cattle sheep and goats, 150 producing pigs and 40 highly specialized farms producing poultry in the West Milk and dairy products and beef and poultry meat are the major animal products exported, while there are substantial imports of pig, and sheep meat to meet the requirements of the home market Agricultural business and consequently research have for long time been focused on the improvement of breeding stock and of the conversion efficiency of plant into animal protein. Present Agricultural Research in France, mainly performed in INRA laboratories, involves 7000 people of which 3000 are scientists (this has increased from 2000 in 1980). The total governement budget is 310 million Ecus/year, 82 per cent represented by salaries. But in a climate of surpluses,, consumers are less and less prepared to spend money on food : 16 % in 1987 instead of 20 % of their annual wages ten years ago, and are aware of food safety and quality. Therefore, in the past five years, research forces have been directed towards increasing the productivity of crop plants by expanding the number of scientists from 922 to 1029 (+ 11.6 %); also special attention was paid to agro-food research which has expanded from 319 to 525 scientists (+ 64.6 %).

"People, Your Government Has Returned to You!"

"People, Your Government Has Returned to You!" Václav Havel (bio) My dear fellow citizens. For the past 40 years on this day you have heard my predecessors utter variations on the same theme: how our country is prospering, how many more million tons of steel we have produced, how happy we all are, how much we trust our government, and how bright our prospects are. I do not think you appointed me to this office so that I, too, should lie to you. Our country is not prospering. The great creative and spiritual potential of our nation is not being used to its fullest. Whole sectors of industry are producing things which no one wants, while the things we need are lacking. The state, which calls itself a state of the working people, humiliates and exploits the workers. Our antiquated economy squanders energy, which is in short supply. A country which could once be proud of the educational attainments of its citizens today spends so little on education that it ranks seventy-second in the world. We have spoiled the land, rivers, and forests that our forefathers bequeathed to us, and we now have the most contaminated environment in the whole of Europe. Adults in our country die younger than in most other European countries. Allow me to tell you about a little personal experience of mine. [End Page 99] Flying to Bratislava recently for various meetings, I found time to look out the window. I saw the Slovnaft chemical complex and the suburb of Pertrzalka immediately beyond it. The sight was enough for me to understand that for decades our political leaders had not looked—or did not even want to look—out the windows of their planes. None of the statistics available to me would have enabled me to understand more quickly or more easily the situation we have gotten ourselves into. Yet none of this is the main problem. What is worst of all is that we are living in a debased moral environment. We have become morally ill, because we have become accustomed to saying one thing and thinking another. We have learned not to believe in anything, not to have consideration for one another, and only to look after ourselves. Notions such as love, friendship, compassion, humility, and forgiveness have lost their depth and dimension. For many of us, they are now little more than psychological idiosyncrasies, or stray relics from times long past, somewhat laughable in an age of computers and spaceships. Few of us managed to cry out that those in power should not be all-powerful, and that the special farms which produce ecologically pure, high-quality foodstuffs for them should send their produce instead to schools, children's homes, and hospitals, since our agriculture is not yet able to offer this kind of produce to everyone. The previous regime, armed with its arrogant and intolerant ideology, reduced man to a force of production and nature to a tool of production. In so doing, it attacked their very essence and the relationship between them. The regime reduced a talented people, capable of managing their own affairs and making an enterprising living in their own country, to cogs in some kind of monstrous, ramshackle, smelly machine whose purpose no one could understand. The machine was capable of nothing more than slowly but inexorably wearing down itself and all its cogs. When I talk about a debased moral environment, I do not only mean those gentlemen who eat ecologically pure vegetables and fail to look out their airplane windows. I mean all of us, because we all had become accustomed to the totalitarian system. We accepted it as an unalterable fact, and thereby kept it running. In other words, all of us are responsible, each to a different degree, for keeping the totalitarian machinery in motion. None of us is merely a victim of it, because all of us helped to create it. Why am I saying all this? It would be very unwise to see the sad legacy of the past 40 years as something alien to us, handed down by some distant relatives. On the contrary, we must accept this legacy...

The role of marketing boards in the industrialization of the Canadian agricultural system

Agricultural product marketing boards have emerged as a significant and somewhat unique institutional framework within the Canadian agricultural system during the last 70 years. That period coincides with the increasing industrialization of the system with respect to both its agribusiness and farm (production) sectors. The paper explores the relationships between the process of industrialization and the particular response represented by marketing board arrangements. The underlying premise is of a causal relationship, but one complicated by the changing goals of, and relationships between, the participants. Although marketing boards are seen as producer-initiated, at each stage their form and functions have been strongly influenced by the attitudes of agribusiness and the level of government involvement. Industrialization affecting agribusiness is seen as the initial stimulus to farmer actions which culminated in the Prairie Wheat Pools and the Canadian Wheat Board. Further consolidation by agribusiness, together with pressures on governments during the Depression, influenced the wave of provincial marketing boards, established during the early stages of farm-level industrialization. Most recently, since 1960, the latest stages of industrialization which have emphasized large scale, oligopolistic and multinational agribusiness, and the emergence of a minority of highly capitalized and specialized farm enterprises, has also seen the application of supply management, a more rigorous form of marketing control, to the dairy and poultry sectors. At present, however, marketing arrangements are under pressure from international trade agreements and from elements of multinational agri- business.

Potential uses of commercial technologies for sheep and goat smallholders in Indonesia

For the identification and assessment of possible technologies for Indonesian smallholder sheep and goat producers, a survey of six specialized, commercial producers was made. Herd or flock sizes ranged from 13 to 400 small ruminants. Measures of biological and economic efficiency were studied. Major differences between technologies used and typical smallholder operations included intensive breeding with bucks or rams, regular animal health inspections, feeding of soybean waste as concentrate, use of hired labor, and sale of manure among commercial breeding operations. Correlation analyses indicated that most measures of productivity were not significantly correlated with size of operation. However, transfer of technology used by commercial, specialized farms to smallholders will have to include frequent mating services, improved plane of nutrition, and better preventative health measures. Economic analyses indicated that, for intensive breeding operations which achieved high reproduction rates, the feeding of soybean waste as a concentrate was profitable when the operation was reasonably close to a soybean processing plant.

Feature Article—Mathematical Models in Farm Planning: A Survey

Farm planning has increased in complexity and importance as agriculture in the developed world has become concentrated in larger, more specialized farm units. These changes have stimulated the development of formal planning techniques based on mathematical models. Although this approach is characteristic of operations research, the profession's direct involvement in agricultural planning has been limited: much of the published work is associated with agricultural economics. In this paper, we provide an OR-oriented introduction to the problems involved in agricultural planning, particularly at the farm level. We describe the planning problems of both the crop and livestock sectors and outline the models that have been proposed for solving these problems. Researchers, and agricultural extension and advisory services, have been the main users of these models, but the widespread availability of microcomputers gives considerable scope for developing models for use by farmers.

CONSERVATION OF ANIMAL GENETIC RESOURCES IN THE USSR

SUMMARYMany valuable local breeds of farm animals in the USSR have either been lost or are in an endangered state. Concern about this loss of gene resources has led to the inclusion of a genetic resources programme in the overall state plan for the genetic improvement of livestock. It includes programmes for live animal conservation and setting up of gene banks. The former activity is carried out in special state gene pool farms, one for each geographical zone, where 500 purebred cows are maintained under a rotational outbred system of mating. Semen banks of most local breeds of livestock have also been established at animal husbandry institutes. Current research emphasis is on long term embryo storage and establishment of banks of somatic cells of local breeds.

MOBILIZATION OF THE FORCES OF SOCIETY FOR THE CONSERVATION OF ANIMAL GENETIC RESOURCES

SUMMARYIncreasing awareness of the contribution of native breeds to the quality of human life has created widespread support for conservation of rare breeds in Britain. The organizations concerned with conservation are either commercially oriented or charitable agencies. Public support for the latter is created through radio and television programmes, publications in magazines, demonstrations in agricultural shows and special farm parks for rare breeds.

Cut Flowers in Warsaw

Cut flowers production around Warsaw depends mainly on very intensive methods, particularly the use of glasshouses, and includes a number of highly specialized farms. It is the result of a remarkably high level of demand in Poland and of the development of an export industry. It plays an important role in an agricultural system in which the production possibilities for very small farms are limited. Most production is in private hands and depends on the application of relatively large quantities of capital with a considerable element of risk. Farmers grow flowers at varying levels of intensity and with varying degrees of specialisation. A particular spatial structure within the general geographical distribution of intensive agriculture around Warsaw appears to have resulted. An attempt is made to indicate some of the elements in this structure by the use of published data for flowers production and for the taxation of private holdings by small administrative districts — the “gminy” or local communes. Examination of inputs indicates major constraints. The industry reached a peak in 1981. If it were to expand again attention should be paid to existing spatial diseconomies and the possibilities of relocation.

Autoconsommation et marchés : Chayanov, Labrousse ou Le Roy Ladurie ?

Toutes les études sur les sociétés rurales d'hier et d'aujourd'hui font la part belle au développement des échanges monétaires et au renforcement volontaire ou imposé des rapports de la paysannerie avec le marché. Explicitement (E. Le Roy Ladurie, 1973) ou non, les historiens reprennent à leur compte l'opposition, classique, des pays du Tiers-Monde, entre agriculture de subsistance et agriculture commercialisée (G. Elwert et D. Wong, 1980). Et ceci avec une netteté toute particulière dans le cas de la France médiévale ou moderne, où l'on s'accorde volontiers à reconnaître le poids, précoce et durable malgré tous les efforts des rassembleurs de parcelles, d'une quasi-propriété paysanne enfin libérée par la Révolution de toutes les charges qui pesaient sur elle. Autoconsommation et marché se présentent ainsi comme les deux pôles autour desquels s'organisent les choix productifs de la majorité des exploitations agricoles.

IMMUNOLOGIC DYSFUNCTION AMONG PBB‐EXPOSED MICHIGAN DAIRY FARMERS*

In 1973 inadvertent contamination occurred in a special farm feed supplement for lactating cows. Polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) were used in place of magnesium oxide resulting in serious harm to farm animals, including cattle, chickens, geese, ducks. Farm families, accustomed to eating their own products, were most heavily exposed. To further study the impact of PBBs, 45 adult Michigan farm residents who were originally examined in a clinical field survey were further studied with respect to their immunologic status. For comparison, 46 dairy farm residents in Wisconsin, who had not eaten PBB-contaminated food, were examined, as were 79 healthy subjects in New York City. Abnormalities in the Michigan group included significant decrease in absolute numbers and percentages of T and B-lymphocytes and increased number of lymphocytes with no detectable surface markers ("null cells"). Significant reduction of in vitro immune function was noted in 35--40% of the Michigan farm residents who had eaten food containing PBB. Despite the absence of any apparent numerical reduction, both T and B lymphocyte subpopulations of peripheral blood lymphocytes showed evidence of functional defect. Ten of the 45 Michigan farmers studied showed impaired PHA-induced blastogeneic response, due to the decreased number and percent of T-cells in the PBLs. The decreased immune function detected among the PBB-exposed farm residents tended to affect families as a unit and was independent of exposed individuals' age or sex, speaking against the possibility of genetic predisposition.

Characteristics and radio listening behaviour of farmers and impact on knowledge of agricultural innovations

This paper attempts to identify the critical determinants of farmers' radio-listening behaviour and the impact of radio programmes on farmers' knowledge of agricultural innovations. Data for the study were collected from a hundred randomly-selected farmers, forty-nine of whom owned radios and fifty-one of whom did not. The farmers were interviewed using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The results show that: 1. (i) Most farmers listen to radio programmes such as news, traditional poetry (ewi), entertainment and special farm features. 2. (ii) Prime listening time is between 6 pm and 9 pm daily. 3. (iii) Family size, farm size and age have no significant relationship with radio listening even though those who are literate and owned radios listened for longer hours. 4. (iv) Radio listenership significantly increased knowledge of improved farm practices.

Farm equipment noise exposure levels.

Abstract Noise levels recorded during performance tests conducted at the College of Agriculture, University of Nebraska, on 58 new tractors and 20 other types of farm machinery were of such intensity, duration, and distribution as to indicate a potential permanent noise-induced hearing loss to the agricultural worker. Of the tractors tested at 75% of full load, 90% exceeded the recommended 85-dB average level for the three octave bands centered at 500, 1000, and 2000 cps. Of the 20 pieces of special farm equipment tested, 65% exceeded this recommended level. The average overall sound pressure level for all models, types, and operator positions was 103.5 dB.

The Usefulness of Aggregated Data in the Analysis of Farm Income Variability and Resource Allocation

ITH the steady increase in commercialization and size of the economical farm unit, the question of financing farm transfer also increases in importance. Further, with larger and larger amounts of operating capital required, shortand intermediate-term loans to farmers gain significance. While farm size and the importance of outside capital to the farm firm are growing, there is also a trend toward enterprise specialization. The latter may lead to year-to-year farm income fluctuations of considerably larger magnitude than is expected on highly diversified farms. As a consequence, it is possible that highly commercialized, large and specialized farms decrease their ability to meet loan commitments while their need for outside capital increases. Studies which address themselves to this question' are largely based on aggregated (county, economic area, state) data. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that the use of aggregated data in such studies is likely to lead to wrong conclusions. This will be done 1) by first sketching the procedure for variance estimation and the statistical theory involved; 2) by presenting empirical estimates of enterprise variation; and 3) by comparing variance estimates derived from aggregated (county) data with estimates derived from individual farm data. These variance estimates will then be employed in computing variances of differing enterprise combinations in order to demonstrate the difference in results obtained from the aggregated versus the individual farm data.

Agricultural Regions of Southern Ontario 1880 and 1951

T THE economic development in Southern Ontario since 1940 has surpassed that of all other regions of Canada. Expanding cities and towns have reduced the area of agricultural land and have increased the demand for agricultural produce. Approximately 20 per cent of the total area of the Palaeozoic lowland' (Fig. 2) is now urban land or is occupied by roads, railways, parks, cemeteries, and provincial forests. I n parts of the highly industrialized belt along Lake the area of agricultural land has declined as much as 20 per cent since 1940. most rapid urbanization is occurring in the areas with the highest proportion of good quality agricultural land. Land use planning on a regional basis is a prerequisite to future prosperity in this part of Canada. Basic to an understanding of present agricultural land use patterns is the reconstruction of the agricultural geography of the past. Oftentimes, such an investigation will greatly illuminate the dynamic forces that initiate and give impetus to the changes. purpose of this paper is to present the agricultural regions of 1880, to study the relation between these and those of 1951, and to explain the changes and to speculate regarding future trends. In 1880, practically all of the suitable land had been occupied and improved. acreage in wheat was three times what it was in 1950, though the livestock population was less than 40 per cent of the 1951 figure. era of diversified and specialized farming had begun while the period of rapid exploitation and increasing farm population was drawing to a close. map of the 1880 agricultural regions has been constructed after a careful study of census data, the Ontario Agricultural Commission Report, and all other relevant historical source materials (Fig. 4). Wheat was the dominant cash crop. There was a very large part of Southern Ontario which could be classified as a general or mixed farming region with an emphasis on wheat production. Specialization and diversification was in its infant stages and even in areas where the trend was in this direction, wheat was still one of the most important crops. traditional procedure in farming prior to 1880 was to clear as quickly as one could as much land as possible, and to grow wheat year after year, until yields or prices declined. This was the pattern everywhere throughout the Palaeozoic lowland on all soil types regardless of their texture, drainage, or inherent capabilities. Wheat was grown on *This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers in Ottawa, June 5, 1957. It is based upon research carried out for a doctoral dissertation, The Agricultural Geography of Southern Ontario, submitted to the University of Toronto in 1955. 1 Palaeozoic lowland is that part of peninsular Ontario to the south and east of the Pre-Cambrian Shield.

Housing and Operational Studies on California Egg Farms

ABSTRACT EGG farming in California has undergone radical changes in the last fifteen years. Once a sideline, today most egg production takes place on highly specialized farms where poultry is the only enterprise. Average flock size has increased from about 500 layers to three or four thousand or more. Mechanization in feeding, egg gathering, and egg cleaning has come, and further developments are anxiously awaited. But most important, chicken housing has undergone great changes in design. The conventional litter type house remains, but two new types of housing have become increasingly popular: one is the wire cage that holds one or two layers; the other, the wire-floored pen or colony house holding 6 to 60 or more layers per pen. These factors of increased flock size, mechanization, and changes in house design are making the poultryman seek more efficient methods of operation. Although some information is available on the labor requirements . . .

Reply to Questions by Professors Puterbaugh and Lampe

(5) . . it is not considered necessary to use the simultaneous equations approach for estimating production functions if the investigator is able to obtain enterprise input-output data that indicate with the input used and the outputs produced by the individual enterprises. Is sufficient accuracy obtained by detailed cost accounting or arbitrary allocation? (6) Vertically integrated enterprises such as crops and livestock enterprises should be treated separately, otherwise it is not possible to determine accurately where in the farm business a reallocation of inputs is necessary. Since the separation was made so that land contributed only to the crop and not to the livestock enterprises, and the functions are independent, does this imply that no land is required for the livestock enterprises? (7) If enterprise production functions are actually independent of each other, it should be possible for the level of output for all but one product to decrease sharply, without a change in the production function of any of the products. Carrying this one step farther, the output of all enterprises save this one could go to zero and this one be carried on at a very high level of output. Thus, the multiple enterprise farm has become a specialized farm without a change of production functions, or if preferred, a multiple enterprise farm with only one enterprise being carried on at a level greater than zero. Hence, can one logically state that enterprise production functions on multiple enterprise farms are independent of one another and yet different from those existing on specializing farms? (8) Were the enterprise production functions on these multiple enterprise farms really independent?

Grassland Management in New Zealand

G RASS production in New Zealand is basic, not only to agriculture but also to the entire national economy. On a land area (66 million acres) slightly smaller than that of Colorado, but with only a little more than 42 million acres occupied, New Zealand supports a sheep population (33 million head) greater than that of the United States plus about 5 million cattle and smaller numbers of hogs, horses and goats. This entire livestock population is a product of the pastures. Even the pigs are grazed and supplemented with skim milk and whey from the dairy industry. Of the 2 million acres under cultivation, more than one-third is in “plantations” of introduced timber trees, chiefly Monterey pine (Pinus radiata), and nearly onethird is in temporary pasture crops, leaving only about one-half million acres for cash field crops. In New Zealand, “grassland agriculture” is not simply a term designating some far-distant goal toward which to strive. Theirs is, in fact, a grassland agriculture in the highest sense, an agriculture in which the operation of all but a few specialized farms (fruit, truck, tobacco, etc.) is based on grass production and utilization. Grassland agriculture has in some cases been carried too far. The economy of the nation and the welfare of the farmers themselves would be benefited by wider use of cultivated food crops in rotation with the grasses. It is now