Here we report dairy calf management practices used by 242 smallholder family farmers in the South of Brazil. Data were collected via a semi-structured questionnaire with farmers, inspection of the production environment and an in-depth interview with a sample of 26 farmers. Herds had an average of 22.3 lactating cows and an average milk production of 12.7 L/cow/day. Calves were dehorned in 98%...

JAVMA, Vol 230, No. 6, March 15, 2007 T US dairy industry is moving toward fewer dairy farms with more cattle per farm. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of dairy farms decreased by 43.9% (from 139,670 to 78,295), but the total number of milk cows decreased by only 4.5% (from 9.47 to 9.04 million). Consequently, the average herd size for dairies in the United States has almost doubled during th...

the bias against mangrove areas in siting fish farms prompted a comparison of the cost structure and yield performance in upland and mangrove locations. tools utilized included descriptive statistics, budgetary and cash flow analyses and profitability ratios. empirical results revealed that substantial revenue could be realized from both farms. while the upland farms yielded average gross reven...

The aim of the current study was to investigate biogenic amines and mycotoxins concentrations in baled silage (mainly Poaceae family grasses) prepared in organic and conventional farms and to relate these parameters to fermentative parameters. The mean dry matter (DM) content was 364.10±93.31 and 424.70±95.93g/kg in the silage from organic and conventional farms respectively. The silage samples...

Pasture-based dairy production is used widely on family dairy farms in Southern Brazil. This study investigates conventional high input (C-HI), conventional low input (C-LI), and organic low input (O-LI) pasture-based systems and their effects on quantity and quality of the milk produced. We conducted technical site visits and interviews monthly over one year on 24 family farms (n = 8 per type)...

The impact of coccidiosis outbreaks on the productivity of broiler chicken farms can be substantial, depending on the severity of disease caused by particular species and strains of Eimeria. We examined the genetic diversity of Eimeria species present in commercial broiler farms in relation to their performance level. Four groups of broiler chicken farms in Arkansas (AR) and North Carolina (NC)...

Export banana production in Latin America is pesticide intensive, receiving much negative publicity regarding human health problems and environmental degradation. The Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification scheme was established to certify farms that met a number of social, occupation health and environmental standards set by RA and their certifying body, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SA...

One hundred and seven fattening pig units randomly selected in Catalonia (Spain) were surveyed during 2001-2003, in order to determine the frequency of the prophylactic use of antimicrobials and mass treatments against respiratory and enteric disease outbreaks. Logistic regression and regression tree analysis were done to determine the factors associated with the on-farm mass antimicrobial usag...

A total of 1076 sera from breeding goats were randomly collected from 24 different farms and tested with CHEKIT®-ELISA (IDEXX Laboratories B.V., 1 119 NE Schiphol-Rijk, Nederland) for antibodies against Chlamydophila abortus. The farms were divided into two categories of twelve farms each, based on their previous history of observed abortions over the previous 12 months: those with low (< 5%) l...

The occurrence of anthelmintic resistance on 25 sheep farms in the Nyandarua District of Kenya was investigated, using the faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT), the egg hatch assay (EHA) and a larval development assay (LDA). In the FECRT, resistance to both benzimidazoles (BZs) and levamisole (LEV) was detected on four farms, resistance to LEV only on three farms and to BZs, only on two farm...