As a part of the USEPA's concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) final rule, all CAFOs are required to develop and implement a nutrient management plan (NMP). The USEPA's emphasis on better management of nutrients appropriately targets a critical environmental issue associated with animal production. The concentration of animals in livestock feeding operations, often separate from feed gra...

The farm level is the most appropriate scale for evaluating options for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, because the farm represents the unit at which management decisions in livestock production are made. To date, a number of whole farm modelling approaches have been developed to quantify GHG emissions and explore climate change mitigation strategies for livestock systems. This paper...

Livestock production is a major consumer of fresh water, and the influence of livestock production on global fresh water resources is increasing because of the growing demand for livestock products. Increasing water use efficiency of livestock production, therefore, can contribute to the overall water use efficiency of agriculture. Previous studies have reported significant variation in livesto...

Much uncertainty remains about the origin and public health implications of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA). This study aimed to investigate the occurrence and prevalence of MRSA in general and LA-MRSA in particular in pigs and farm workers in five states. We collected nasal swabs from pigs and farm workers at 45 swine herds (21 antibiotic-free herds; ...

This study was on the analysis of livestock waste management practices among rural farmers in Abia State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select the 60 respondents for the study. Primary data used the study were collected using well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentages, means, and multinomial logit regression wer...

Intensification and specialisation of agriculture in developed countries enabled productivity to be improved but had detrimental impacts on the environment and threatened the economic viability of a huge number of farms. The combination of livestock and crops, which was very common in the past, is assumed to be a viable alternative to specialised livestock or cropping systems. Mixed crop-livest...

The Sacramento (northern Central) Valley of California (CA) has a hot Mediterranean climate and a diverse ecological landscape that is impacted extensively by human activities, which include the intensive farming of crops and livestock. Waste-water ponds, marshes, and irrigated fields associated with these agricultural activities provide abundant larval habitats for C. sonorensis midges, in add...

At the household level, livestock plays a critical economic and social role in pastoralists and at the household level, livestock plays a critical economic and social role in pastoralists and smallholder farm households. The objectives of this study were to analyze factors affecting participation in cattle fattening and its impacts on household income in Fadis district of Eastern Hararghe. Both...

Introduction The livestock industry creates jobs and income in, mostly rural, communities and can be an important engine of economic growth and development (e.g., Seidl and Weiler, 2000). Animal agriculture can also generate impacts beyond the boundaries of the farm, ranch, or feedlot, including flies, odor, water pollution, farm vehicle traffic, and noise, for example. The impact of these pote...

As demands for more controlled manure management heighten, policy makers seek indicators to assess the environmental impacts of livestock production and to subsequently direct manure management policy. Farm size indicators, based on number of animals per farm, are currently used to target federal manure management policy (USDA-USEPA, 1999). In this way, federal policy is directed toward the nat...