In Ireland, conversion of biodegradable farm wastes such as pig manure spent mushroom compost and poultry litter wastes to pelletised fertilisers is a desirable option for farmers. In this paper, results obtained from the composting of pig waste solids (20% w/w) blended with other locally available biodegradable wastes comprising poultry litter (26% w/w), spent mushroom compost (26% w/w), cocoa...

The increasing of crude oil prices recently in the world, the need for an alternative source of fuel in the Indonesia is urgently required. In addition, growing concern about climate change is driving the need for “low-carbon” fuels. One highly potential form of renewable and low-carbon fuel is biogas from anaerobic digestion of organic wastes. Anaerobic digestion is a naturally occurring proce...

The combination of a post-Brexit agricultural policy, the Global Methane Pledge announced during last United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), and urgency meeting climate goals means UK has unique opportunity to create an exemplar through recognition benefits small-scale farm anaerobic digesters that valorise on-site wastes for renewable electricity heat, cushioning agri-bus...

The unsafe and indiscriminate use of pesticides in agriculture represents a major hazard to the environment and human health. The aim of this study was to assess the levels of knowledge, attitude and practices of Kuwaiti farmers regarding the safe use of pesticides. A total of 250 farmers participated in this study through in-depth interviews and observations on-farm. The majority of the farmer...

Confined livestock production farms typically store their wastes prior to land application. Here, we employed three complementary approaches to evaluate changes in the population structure and stability of virulence genes in Escherichia coli during manure storage on a commercial farm that housed healthy swine. Isolates were genotyped by repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR using the BOXA1R pri...

On-farm trials were carried out in two data collection periods to evaluate the performance of growing-fattening pigs fed on local sources of carbohydrates supplemented with 200 g/day of protein from soya bean grain or meal, in both cases enriched with vitamins and minerals. In the first period, four farmers with a total of 33 pigs using the traditional system based on concentrates provided base...

If farmers are risk averse, greater farm income variability should increase off-farm labor supply. This effect is confirmed for a sample of Kansas farmers. Off-farm employment of farmers and their spouses is also found to be significantly influenced by farm experience, off-farm work experience, farm size, leverage, efficiency, and farm-specific education. In addition, farm operators and spouses...