This paper presents the results of an analysis that predicts the scale efficiency of individual farms and analyses the differences in scale efficiency over time and between farms. Representative farm account data for 1985–2006 are used, and the study applies stochastic frontier analysis using an input distance–function approach. The results show that pig farms have improved their input scale ef...

As the size of livestock farms in The Netherlands is on the increase for economic reasons, an important question is how disease introduction risks and risks of onward transmission scale with farm size (i.e. with the number of animals on the farm). Here we use the epidemic data of the 1997-1998 epidemic of Classical Swine Fever (CSF) Virus in The Netherlands to address this question for CSF risk...

The development of large scale wind farms that can compete with conventional energy resources presents significant challenges to today’s wind energy industry. A powerful solution to these daunting challenges can be offered by a synergistic consideration of the key design elements (turbine selection and placement) and the variations in the natural resource. This paper significantly advances the ...

Farm management focused on maximizing biomass production results in biological simplification and ultimately a degraded production potential for the future. Despite the large and growing body of evidence pointing to the need to restore biodiversity to farm systems, incorporation of biodiversity and ecosystem services into local agricultural land use decision-making remains limited. The lack of ...

Agricultural policy faces conflicting social goals. On one hand, efficient large-scale agriculture provides an adequate, low cost food supply, but many Americans continue to idealize the smaller family farm, believing that it promotes a democratic society with strong values. The changing structure of agriculture from many small farms to fewer but larger farms is a concern often expressed. Many ...

this study examined the influence of socioeconomic variables of farmers on their choice of cassava varieties in kogi state of nigeria. a total of 360 cassava farmers were selected through multi-stage random sampling procedure. data collected through structured questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics, customer-buying behavioral model and dynamic programming model. the results sh...

Building cost-effective models is of academic and practical value for fast measurement of soil properties, especially at a farm-scale. The aim of this study is to build quantitative models for soil total nitrogen (TN) and total carbon (TC) using visible and near infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy. Dried samples (n=122) collected from an experimental farm, at Silsoe, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, w...

The increasing size of web-server farms and the sheer volume of HTTP requests, makes hard to collect performance measurements and monitor the state of a farm in real time. Further, it increases the cost of a bad algorithmic or architectural decision, while predicting the performance of new algorithms and architectures is also hard. We propose a way to side-step these problems, by intelligently ...

When liquid manure is removed from storages for land application, "sludge" generally remains at the bottom of the tank. This may serve as an inoculum when fresh manure is subsequently added, thereby increasing methane (CH) emissions. Previous pilot-scale studies have shown that completely emptying storages can decrease CH emissions; however, no farm-scale studies have been conducted to quantify...

Intergenerational succession aims at the renewal of family farm and addresses the problem of increasing aged population of principal farm owners. This study assessed poultry farm characteristics and poultry farmers’ perception of farm succession planning in southwest Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used in selecting poultry farmers in Oyo and Osun states.  Data were analyzed using ...