Typical Farm Research Articles

Development of mini smart multipurpose vehicle for organic rice harvesting

This <span lang="EN-US">research aimed to develop the mini smart multipurpose vehicle (MSMPv) innovative from the conventional agriculture tractor for three objectives. The novel automatic gear modified technique for the MSMPv is proposed, then an idea to enhance peripheral capability through a hitch system. The final purpose is to support the farmer's ability to follow organic agriculture regulations on the issue of contaminated tools and machinery, especially in the rules related to contamination of equipment or machines that cannot share with conventional agricultural production. The organic rice crop plot of Nong Bua Lamphu Province in Thailand has been set to the case study. Here, farmers faced problems; lack of labour, production under an organic system that does not permit chemicals, and limited harvesting. According to the existing technology, this research has developed a typical farm tractor used in the country by inventing a manual transmission engine to an automatic transmission and accessories such as remote control, GPS, camera, and sensors. Thus, the development of this organic rice harvesting prototype should be an approach that provides both the opportunity to raise the self-reliance concept and enhance the knowledge of the development of innovative tools for farmers simultaneously.</span>

An assessment of the governance efficiency of agricultural farms

Despite the fundamental progression of the theory of economic organizations, Farm continues to be studied as a "production function" and its efficiency is assessed with "factors productivity". The report incorporates the New Institutional Economics and adequately defines and assesses the economic efficiency of Bulgarian farms. If inputs supply and marketing transactions of a farm are governed effectively (equal or fewer costs compared to another farm/organization), it is considered to be efficient, and vice versa. First in kind quantitative evaluation of governance efficiency of Bulgarian farms is made on the basis of assessments of managers of typical farms. "Nature of the problems in effective organization for major type farm transactions for securing needed factors of production and output realization" is used as an indicator for the comparative transaction costs. The study has found that the governance efficiency of farms is at a Good level but 60 % of all farms are with a Low efficiency and will likely cease to exist in near future. Major factors for inferior governance efficiency of farms are unsatisfactory efficiency in Supply of Necessary Labour, Innovations and Know-how, and Funding. There is a huge variation in governance efficiency of farms with different specializations as holdings in Field crops, Vegetables, Flowers and Mushrooms, and Mix livestock demonstrate the lowest levels. There is a big discrepancy between the new assessment and the dominating traditional approach to farm efficiency. The suggested framework has to be improved and widely applied in economic analysis at various levels, which require the collection of a novel type of micro-data on farms governance and transaction costs

A Novel Energy Absorption-Based Protection Scheme for Surge Transients in Large-Scale Wind Farm System

Onshore wind farms are usually connected to the power grid by 35 kV transmission lines. Due to the high altitude of the wind turbines and their associated long transmission corridors, lightning activities are more frequent for onshore wind farms compared to the power plant in plain areas. In addition, the insulation levels of 10–35 kV distribution lines are generally low. All these facts make proper lightning strike protection a technical challenge for onshore wind farms. Taking a typical onshore wind farm as the testing object, the structure of the 35 kV distribution line connected to this wind farm is modeled by EMTP software in this paper. The leakage current and absorbed energy of the arrester at the head tower when lightning currents of different amplitudes inject into the overhead line are studied. By calculating the energy accumulated in the arrester within 100 µs, the causes of the lightning trip and damage to the arrester of the distribution line, i.e., the energy accumulation mechanism, are clarified. Eventually, the lightning protection updating scheme for this distribution line is proposed: a combination of refitting the porcelain cross arm at the head and end of the tower and filling the grounding body of the tower with a drag-reduction agent, which shows that the lightning resistance level of the distribution can be improved by 50 times in maximum.

Optimizing Hydraulic Retention Time and Area of Biological Settling Ponds for Super-Intensive Shrimp Wastewater Treatment Systems

Biological settling ponds are a practicable approach for treating super-intensive shrimp aquaculture wastewater for almost all shrimp producers in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD). The optimization of the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of biological settling ponds plays a crucial role in establishing the stability of outflow wastewater quality and suitability of the settling pond area (SPA). This study aims to suggest appropriate HRT and SPA for super-intensive shrimp wastewater treatment systems based on the National Standard (QCVN 02-19:2014/BNNPTNT) and the best aquaculture practices (BAP) standards and guidelines. We investigated 20 typical super-intensive shrimp farms in the VMD and collected effluent samples from siphoning process, daily water exchange, and outflow of biological effluent-treatment settling ponds. The results showed that the average of each super-intensive shrimp farm produced wastewater at approximately 218 m3 ha−1 day−1. The contaminant loads of TSS, COD, TKN, and TP were commensurate to 177, 113, 9.86, and 4.19 kg ha−1 day−1, respectively. Based on the relationship between outflow COD, TSS concentrations, and HRT of biological-surveyed settling ponds, a 13.4-day HRT and 1934-m2 SPA were suggested to optimize the super-intensive shrimp wastewater treatment systems. Our recommendation for further work is to continuously optimize the HRT and SPA rates of functional ponds (anaerobic, facultative, and maturation) to ameliorate the engineering configuration of the recommended biological settling pond.

Acidic corrosion-abrasion resistance of concrete containing fly ash and silica fume for use as concrete floors in pig farm

The objective of this study is to investigate the resistance of concretes to organic acid corrosion and abrasive corrosion, which occurs in typical pig farms. For the concrete mixtures, cement was replaced by fly ash and silica fume with different weight percentages up to 30%. The cubic mortar and concrete specimens were prepared and tested for compressive strength and mass loss due to organic acid corrosion. The test results indicated that fly ash and silica fume mixed together significantly enhance the compressive strength of the concrete, especially at long-term curing periods. The resistance of the concrete and mortar against organic acid corrosion was greatly improved by the substitution of fly ash and silica fume. Moreover, two testing machines were developed to simulate the abrasion-corrosion attack on concrete floors in pig farms (one for organic acid corrosion tests in wet-dried conditions and the other one for an abrasion testing machine with steel brushes). The concrete slab was cast and tested with a wet-dry switching system in an organic acid solution cooperating with an abrasion test. The test results demonstrated that applying a large amount of fly ash and silica fume is not effective for increasing the resistance of the concrete against organic acid corrosion and abrasive corrosion. The concrete mixture with 5 wt% of silica fume shows the highest resistance to organic acid corrosion together with abrasive corrosion with a mass loss reduction for 7.14% compared to the reference mixture.

Impacts of import restrictions on poultry producers in Ghana

Abstract This paper investigates the potential effects of trade restrictions and alternative tariff policies, including a tariff wedge between feed and final products on the Ghanaian poultry producers. We apply a hybrid approach that uses qualitative results of a Delphi study to define scenarios for a modified global general equilibrium model. The projected production changes are then used as inputs into a typical farm analysis that disentangles the effects for broiler farm types in Ghana. The effect of expanding a tariff wedge between final and feed products by 5 per cent, either through increasing the tariff rates of the final product or through abolishing the tariffs on feed products, is small in our case. However, increasing the tariff rate of the final product to the maximum level of bound tariff (i.e. 99 per cent) or a complete ban has a larger effect on domestic production. It increases the production by 104 per cent and up to 254 per cent, respectively. The typical farm analysis reveals that large-scale farms are better positioned to increase production than small and medium farm types.

Wind Farm Energy Storage System Based on Cat Swarm Optimization–Backpropagation Neural Network Wind Power Prediction

To solve the instability problem of wind turbine power output, the wind power was predicted, and a wind power prediction algorithm optimized by the backpropagation neural network based on the CSO (cat swarm optimization) algorithm was studied, and a wind farm energy storage system model was built on this basis. By collecting the wind power plant’s historical wind speed, power, and other parameters, the short-term wind farm output power was predicted, and the operation of the wind farm energy storage system was controlled to suppress the output power of the wind farm when the wind farm was connected to the grid so as to improve the stability of the output power of the wind farm. At the same time, typical wind farm data were taken as an example to verify the feasibility of the proposed method.

A Novel High-Speed Sensorless Faulty Panel Detection Technique for an SPV String/Array: An accurate and cost-effective approach for SPV industry

Energy generating systems transcending into the renewable and clean fuel domain has put solar photovoltaic (SPV) systems in an unprecedented position of importance in the fuel and energy sector. However, lower efficiencies offered by these systems in comparison with traditional power generating systems such as coal-fired plants, has demanded the use of multiple techniques to operate the SPV system in a state of maximum power delivery. When the SPV panel is being operated under adverse conditions, such as low insolation, panel cracks, dust, mist and other environmental factors, the base power generated is reduced, implying a further decrease in efficiency of the system. These conditions call for critical countermeasures in order for the generating system to sustain in such situations and simultaneously power the load without any alterations. Given there is no feasible method to ward off these adverse conditions, the best way to restore the power system back to its nominal operating state is to detect and neutralize any faults on a panel. Traditional methods to mitigate the damage being caused by these adverse conditions include the utilization of by-pass diodes to protect the SPV panels from hotspots and to improve efficiency. But in typical solar farms, these by-pass diodes reduce the performance of the whole system causing a significant drop in efficiency.

About the Governance Efficiency of Agricultural Farms. The Case of Bulgaria

The New Institutional Economics framework is incorporated and a practical approach for assessing the level and factors of governance efficiency of Bulgarian farms suggested. The evaluation is made on the basis of original micro-data collected by the managers of typical farms of different type and location. The "Nature of the problems in effective organization for major class farm transactions for securing needed factors of production and output marketing" is used as an indicator for the comparative efficiency and adaptability of individual farms. The study found that the governance efficiency of farms is at a Good level but 60% of all holdings are with a Low efficiency. Major factors for inferior governance efficiency of farms are unsatisfactory efficiency in supply of necessary labor, innovations and know-how, and funding. There is a huge variation in the level and factors of governance efficiency of farms with different juridical types and sizes as well as in the share of farms with different levels of efficiency in each group. A strong correlation is found between the level of governance efficiency of farms, and diverse critical internal and external market, technological, institutional, personal, etc. factors. There is a big discrepancy between the “new” assessment of Governance efficiency with dominating traditional approaches for farm efficiency assessments based on factors' productivity. There was an improvement in the overall governance efficiency of farms during 2016-2020 but the share of efficient farms significantly declined during the period. 

Assessment of immunization procedures for foot-and-mouth disease in large-scale pig farms in China based on actual data and dynamics

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is an acute, highly infectious and pathogenic animal disease. In recent years, with the rapid development of the swine breeding industry in China, pig farms have shown a trend of larger-scale development. Large-scale pig farms employ standardized management, a high level of automation, and a strict system. However, these farms have a large trading volume, and increased transmission intensity of FMD is noted inside the farm. At present, the main control measure against FMD is pig vaccination. However, a standard for immunization procedures is not available, and currently adopted immunization procedures have not been effectively and systematically evaluated. Taking a typical large-scale pig farm in China as the research subject and considering the breeding pattern, piggery structure, age structure and immunization procedures, an individual-based state probability model is established to evaluate the effectiveness of the immune procedure. Based on numerical simulation, it is concluded that the optimal immunization program involves primary immunization at 40 days of age and secondary immunization at 80 days of age for commercial pigs. Breeding boars and breeding sows are immunized 4 times a year, and reserve pigs are immunized at 169 and 259 days of age. According to the theoretical analysis, the average control reproduction number of individuals under the optimal immunization procedure in the farm is 0.4927. In the absence of immunization, the average is 1.7498, indicating that the epidemic cannot be controlled without immunization procedures.

Hedging Wind Power Risk Exposure through Weather Derivatives

We introduce the industrial portfolio of a wind farm of a hypothetical company and its valuation consistent with the financial market. Next, we propose a static risk management policy originating from hedging against volumetric risk due to drops in wind intensity and we discuss the consequences. The hedging effectiveness firstly requires adequate modeling calibration and an extensive knowledge of these atypical financial (commodity) markets. In this hedging experiment, we find significant benefits for weather-sensitive companies, which can lead to new business opportunities. We provide a new financial econometrics approach to derive weather risk exposure in a typical wind farm. Our results show how accurate risk management can have a real benefit on corporate revenues. Specifically, we apply the spot market price simulation (SMaPS) model for the spot price of electricity. The parameters are calibrated using the prices of the French day-ahead market, and the historical series of the total hourly load is used as the final consumption. Next, we analyze wind speed and its relationship with electricity spot prices. As our main contribution, we demonstrate the effects of a hypothetical hedging strategy with collar options implemented against volumetric risk to satisfy demand at a specific time. Regarding the hedged portfolio, we observe that the “worst value” increases considerably while the earnings-at-risk (EaR) decreases. We consider only volumetric risk management, thus neglecting the market risk associated with electricity price volatility, allowing us to conclude that the hedging operation of our industrial portfolio provides substantial benefits in terms of the worst-case scenario.

Development of Improved Suppression Measures Against Reignition Overvoltages Caused by Vacuum Circuit Breakers in Offshore Wind Farms

In offshore wind farms, reignition overvoltages are usually caused by switching-off operations of vacuum circuit breakers, which degrade the insulation of power equipment, especially transformers. This paper proposes a new quantitative evaluation method of overvoltage suppression measures comprehensively considering three main indicators, which include the amplitude, steepness and reignition number. Based on the quantitative evaluation results, an improved suppression measure against high-steepness reignition overvoltages is developed. Firstly, high-frequency transient models of main components of a typical wind farm are developed in PSCAD/EMTDC. Then the stochasticity of opening instants is considered, and three main indicators are extracted for comprehensively analyzing the transient characteristics of reignition overvoltages. Subsequently, a quantitative evaluation is performed to analyze the effectiveness of different suppression measures, which involves surge arresters, RC snubbers and smart chokes with different properties and installation positions. Results show that a new combination of a surge arrester and a smart choke is capable of providing sufficient protection against a high-amplitude, high-steepness and severe-reignitions overvoltage. This research can provide a new overvoltage suppression solution for the insulation coordination of medium-voltage systems in offshore wind farms.

Heavy metal distribution profiles in soil and groundwater near pig farms in China

Intensive pig farming relies on the extensive use of heavy metal additions to feed and this poses a threat to the environment that receives the manure. Pig manure is still continually disposed of improperly and many farms do not possess waste treatment facilities. In this study, two typical pig farms that lacked waste treatment facilities in Beijing, northern China, and two in Hefei, southern China were selected to determine the distributions of Cu, Zn, and Cd in the environment near the farms. Our results indicated that Cu, Zn, and Cd levels were 1.28–36.60, 1.02–19.49, and 1.04–219.56 times their local background values, respectively. The order of frequency of individual metals that could potentially pose ecological risks to soils was Cd > Cu > Zn. All four pig farms were rated as possessing considerable or high risk according to the average contamination degree (Cd). Our RDA result indicated that the heavy metals did not show a significant correlation with the bacterial community composition in the soils. Additionally, groundwater near these pig farms was safe for drinking. Our results indicated that detailed investigations are necessary to determine the extent of heavy metal pollution in soils adjacent to pig farms that lack proper wastewater treatment facilities. This study offers further and deeper insights into the heavy metal pollution from intensive pig farms to the adjacent soils.

Efficiency of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System in the Dairy Farms: Case Study in the Mediterranean Region (Tlemcen)

With the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, renewable energies have become a promising solution to reduce global warming and pollution. One of the government’s goals is to introduce renewable energy in all sectors, especially the agricultural sector, which relies heavily on fossil fuels to operate milking cooling systems and other systems. This article presents a real study on the feasibility and efficiency of Grid connected PV system on a dairy farm, in Tlemcen province. It’s a typical farm that consumes about 42MWh / year of electrical energy. On this basis, we will dimension the system using the HOMER software, to feed this farm. A Grid connected PV system of 30W could produce 54.03MWh/yr, with Renewable Fraction of 53%, and 28.54kWh/yr was generated from the PV array, and 25.44kWh/yr is the amount of electricity purchased by the grid, while, the energy injected into the grid was estimated at 8.430 MWh/yr. In order to show the feasibility of this system we will proposed another system based on diesel generator, so that we can economically compare between the two systems, the lowest net present cost (NPC) of Diesel system of 25kW was estimated at 826$, with a cost of energy (COE) of 1.51$/kWh, while, the highest net present cost (NPC) of PV-Grid system (40kW) is 233$, and the cost of energy (COE) is 0.42$/ kWh. Therefore, this study shows the effectiveness of the grid-PV system in economic and environmental terms, thus, the use of this system in most dairy farms in Algeria contributes to the development of national agricultural production.

Odpornost kmetij s prirejo mleka z različnimi prilagoditvami proizvodnega načrta

In this study, the resilience of farm production plan through different management adjustments was analyzed. For this purpose, a farm model based on mathematical programming was applied. Through organized workshops typical farms focusing on dairy production were defined through qualitative and quantitative classification. Data were obtained from various databases and expert assessments from the agricultural sector. Analysis of resilience was carried out for three of these typical dairy farms. Using the farm model, the production plan of each farm was reconstructed in the first step and then tested for possible deviations from the baseline. Gross margin was used as the main economic indicator. The results show that the typical farms have very different levels of efficiency and potential for improvement. Furthermore, it was found that all farms can achieve significantly higher gross margin only with improved feed quality, which indirectly leads to a lower need for purchased feed and consequently to lower variable costs and higher gross margin. The level of the latter is also significantly affected by the milk yield achieved, especially on larger farms. However, on smaller farms they can improve profitability more significantly by keeping dairy cows on pasture to a greater extent, which results in a reduction in harvesting costs.

Assessing Animal Disease Prevalence and Mortality in Smallholder Dairy Farms under Contrasting Management Practices and Stressful Environments in Tanzania

In dairy farming, deploying effective animal husbandry practices minimise disease infections and animal mortality. This improves animal health and welfare status, which is important in tropical smallholder dairy farming, where animals are persistently exposed to multiple environmental stresses. The hypothesis of this study was that animals managed in positive deviants and typical farms suffer different levels of disease infections and mortality, whether under low- or high-stress environments. The study adopted a two-factor nested design with farms contrasting in the level of animal husbandry (positive deviants and typical farms) nested within environments contrasting in the level of environmental stresses (low- and high-stress). A total of 1,999 animals were observed over 42 month period in the coastal lowlands and highlands of Tanzania. The disease prevalence was lower (p < 0.05) in positive deviant farms than in typical farms under low-stress (10.13 vs. 33.61 per 100 animal-years at risk) and high-stress (9.56 vs. 57.30 per 100 animal-years at risk). Cumulative disease incidence rate was also lower (p < 0.05) in positive deviant farms than in typical farms under low-stress (2.74% vs. 8.44%) and high-stress (2.58% vs. 14.34%). The probability of death for a disease infected dairy cattle was relatively lower in positive deviant farms compared to typical farms under low-stress (0.57% vs. 8.33%) and high-stress (0.60% vs. 6.99%). Per 100 animal-years at risk, the mortality density of cattle was lower (p < 0.05) in positive deviant farms compared to typical farms, 15.10 lower in low-stress and 2.60 lower in high-stress. These results show that compared to typical farms, positive deviant farms consistently attained (p < 0.05) lower animal disease infections and subsequent deaths, regardless of the level of environmental stress that the animals were exposed to. This implies that positive deviant farms deployed animal husbandry practices that more effectively minimised animal disease infections and deaths and therefore could maintain their animals in better health and welfare status.

Wind Turbine Clustering and Equivalent Parameter Identification in Multitime Scales Based on the Deep Migration of Multiview Features

To improve the precision of wind farm multi-machine equivalence and multi-scene generalization, this paper proposes a method for wind turbine clustering and equivalent parameter identification in multi-time scales based on the deep migration of multi-view features. The proposed technique carries out multi-machine equivalence by leveraging the multi-view information from each turbine in a wind farm. Specifically, a deep spatio-temporal Improved Auto-Encoder is designed, jointly trained with the target clustering layer. IAE is used for mining multi-view latent characteristics of wind turbines orienting to grouping turbines to improve the model&#x2019;s adaptability to multiple scenarios and divide turbines in an unsupervised manner. This method generates a visual heat map to represent the attended area of characteristics based on transfer learning and Class Activation Map to enable interpretability. In the next phase, this technique constructs a multi-objective optimization model by synthesizing the equivalent deviation of voltage, current, active power, and reactive power to further improve accuracy. It can identify the equivalent parameters of collector lines, the mechanical structure, and the control system at different time scales simultaneously via the black-box paralleled optimization method based on Bayes and Multi-arm Bandit. The proposed approach is evaluated on a typical double-fed wind farm with grid-side faults under various conditions of disturbing winds. Also, an ablation study is conducted to make analysis according to the two phases, i.e., turbine division and parameter identification. The results validate the accuracy and robustness of this method.

German aquaculture under Covid-19 – impacts of the pandemic on the sector during 2020

This study sheds light on challenges and possibilities for the German aquaculture sector resulting from the restrictions imposed by the German government to contain the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. By presenting results of expert interviews, stakeholder statements and a survey among German fish farmers, we provide insights into distribution, cost and turnover developments trigged by the restrictions in 2020. The survey shows that the pandemic had an impact on the business of a large group of producers: 44% of the fish farmers reported disturbed production processes, 46% experienced a decline in sales and the restricted gastronomy sector impacted negatively on the sales of 79%. On the other hand, 15% of the respondents were able to sell more than in 2019, 27% expanded their sales directly to the consumers. Nevertheless, a great majority (78%) did not perceive the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as the main challenge of German aquaculture. Based on the gained insights, we estimated the economic impacts of the Covid-19 restrictions on typical German fish farms under three scenarios with EBIT changes ranging from −10% to +8% compared to 2019. In that way, the gained insights teach valuable lessons on the sector's resilience to external shocks. During the scenarios a lack of vertical integration and a dependency on wholesale led to financial challenges. On the other hand, the scenarios attest fish farms with direct marketing structures and diversified distribution channels a higher resilience to external shocks: the small-scale structure of the German aquaculture that was often seen as a weakness on a globalised market proved to be an advantage.

ДОСВІД ЄС У ЗАСТОСУВАННІ АГРОЕКОЛОГІЧНИХ СХЕМ У СФЕРІ ЗАХИСТУ БІОРІЗНОМАНІТТЯ ПРИРОДООХОРОННИХ ТЕРИТОРІЙ

The article considers the scientific and organizational bases for the development and implementation of agro-ecological schemes, according to which payments are paid for achieving results in the field of conservation of biodiversity of protected areas. It is noted that in practice there exists a continuum of approaches to delivering biodiversity objectives on agricultural land within the boundaries of protected areas and areas with high natural value, ranging from the more conventional management-based approaches, to those approaches that reward only the results that are achieved, irrespective of the methods used. Results-based payments create a market for environmental services, including biodiversity. Production of these services needs to be incentivised on areas best placed to deliver on specific target. For biodiversity this includes Natura 2000 and land of similar character and high nature value farmland. Results-based payments relate to the achievement of a defined environmental result, and the farmer or land manager is allowed the flexibility to choose the most appropriate management to achieve that result (in contrast to management-based schemes where the farmer is contracted to undertake specific actions). With results-based payments there are typically varying levels of payment, where the level of payment reflects the quality of the biodiversity, or level of achievement of other environmental targets, assessed at field level. Also identified that for results-based schemes the calculation payment is based on the income foregone and additional costs incurred in implementing the typical farming practices required to achieve the result indicators and transaction costs. It is concluded that overwhelming benefits of the results-based payments approach are the associated tiered payments which are both financially efficient and incentivise higher quality results; the opportunity for farmers to use their management skills, professional judgment and farm knowledge. The main problem for the implementation of effective results-based schemes is the presence good data about the dynamic relationship between the target ecosystems and the economics and management choices of the farming systems that support them.

Weakened Grip Strength Over 40 Years in a Community-Dwelling Cohort in Tanushimaru, Japan.

An epidemiological survey has been periodically performed since 1977 among the adult population in Tanushimaru, a typical farming town in Japan. We aimed in this study to retrospectively investigate changes of grip strength (GS) and its correlates over 40 years in the same cohort of community-dwelling adults. We used pooled data from the survey to deduce essential correlates of GS in community-dwelling adults. We retrospectively compared serial correlates of GS in the adult population in Tanushimaru between a population tested in 1977 and 1979 (Cohort A, n=2,452) and another population tested in 2016 and 2018 (Cohort B, n=1,505), to identify essential correlates of GS for investigating changes in GS during the past 40 years in community-dwelling adults. Age, height, weight, and the occupation of the subjects remained as correlates of GS in both genders during the past 40 years. In males, abdominal circumference also remained as a correlate of GS. Serum albumin levels in males and systolic blood pressure in females were identified as new correlates. GS after adjustment for the above correlates weakened in both genders, and the serial change in GS was particularly remarkable in subjects whose occupations were Class-1 and Class-2, which were defined as moderately hard work. From a periodically-performed epidemiological survey of a community-dwelling cohort in a Japanese typical farming town, age, height, weight, and occupation were deduced as essential correlates of GS. GS in the community dwelling cohort weakened in both genders over 40 years, possibly affected by their occupation.