This contribution is based on the personal experiences of the author as a typical crop farmer in Holland in 1925-1991, as a researcher at the Dutch Institute of Agricultural Engineering (19541964), and as the Director of that Institute in the period 1964-1983. In essence, the 20th century developments in mechanized agriculture are considered from a historical perspective. The future of farm mec...

Criteria need to be developed to evaluate the cultural environment of European rural landscapes. The goal is to evaluate and encourage the contribution of organic farming to sustainable landscape quality. Two sets of criteria were used to evaluate the quality of the cultural environment, non-expert and expert values. The non-expert values consisted of criteria for the appreciation of the presen...

The aim of this study was to apply the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, from cradle to gate, to quantify the environmental burdens per 1,000 kg of expected edible carcass weight in the 3 main broiler production systems in the United Kingdom: 1) standard indoor, 2) free range, and 3) organic, and to identify the main components of these burdens. The LCA method evaluates production systems log...

Sunny Day Farm was the home of the highest producing registered Jersey herd in the world at the time this study was conducted. The cows are housed in a freestall barn and manure is removed from the barn using a flush system. The manure treatment system on this farm includes the following components in series: an inclined stationary screen separator, a two–chambered settling basin, and a lagoon....

This paper explores three interconnected issues of relevance to sustainability and climate change: agro-ecological farming, poverty reduction and information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries. It collates evidence from different sources pointing to the potential benefits of agroecological farming methods for climate change adaptation and its poverty-reduction possibil...

Abstract About half of all N and P loads to Swedish waters originate from agriculture must decrease reach environmental goals. Studying nutrient management at farm level can provide an understanding recycling the risk losses. In a survey organic conventional dairy arable farms in three southern counties Sweden, farm-gate balances use efficiency (NUE) were analysed. Crop distribution differed si...

The paper analyses the impact of a priori determinants of biosecurity behaviour of farmers in Great Britain. We use a dataset collected through a stratified telephone survey of 900 cattle and sheep farmers in Great Britain (400 in England and a further 250 in Wales and Scotland respectively) which took place between 25 March 2010 and 18 June 2010. The survey was stratified by farm type, farm si...

In organic livestock production systems, farm-management factors are thought to play an important role in the on-farm prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii. Serological results and the results of an HACCP analysis were combined to determine important risk factors for the prevalence of this protozoan parasite. Mathematical analysis demonstrated that feeding goat whey to pigs and the presence of a high...

Although Uganda has poor soils with low organic matter, fertiliser is not widely adopted, especially by female-headed households. Thus we examine the role of gender in inorganic fertiliser adoption using a national household survey. We estimate separate models for femaleand male-headed households to ascertain if the drivers of adoption differ by gender. With respect to male-headed households, w...