A bio-economic model for cost analysis of alternative management strategies in beef finishing systems.

peer-reviewedGlobal population growth together with rising incomes is increasing the demand for meat-based products. This increases the need to optimize livestock production structures, whilst ensuring viable returns for the farmers. On a global scale, beef producers need tools to assist them to produce more high-quality products whilst maintaining economic efficiency. The Grange Scottish Beef Model (GSBM) was customized to simulate beef finishing enterprises using data from Scottish beef finishing studies, as well as agricultural input and output price datasets. Here we describe the model and its use to determine the cost-effectiveness of alternative current management practices (e.g. forage- and cereal-based finishing) and slaughter ages (i.e. short, medium or long finishing duration). To better understand drivers of profitability in beef finishing systems, several scenarios comparing finishing duration, gender, genetic selection of stock for growth rate or feed efficiency, as well as financial support were tested. There are opportunities for profitable and sustainable beef production in Scotland, for both cereal and forage based systems, particularly when aiming for a younger age profile at slaughtering. By careful choice of finishing systems matched to animal potential, as well as future selection of high performing and feed efficient cattle, beef finishers will be able to enhance performance and increase financial returns

Trade-offs<i> </i>between indicators of performance and sustainability in breeding suckler beef herds

SUMMARYManagement of beef suckler cattle herds requires a difficult but vitally important balance between farm profits, animal health and welfare and sustainable food production. A dynamic programming (DP) model was implemented to investigate the consequences of replacement and management decisions on the interactions and possible trade-offs between animal welfare, fertility and profitability in breeding beef suckler cattle herds. The model maximized profit from the current cow and all successors by identifying the best keep/replace decision. The 150 states incorporated in the DP model were all combinations of: ten cow-parity, five calving periods including one barren state (five in total) as fertility indicators and three body condition scores at weaning as an animal welfare indicator reflecting feeding and nutritional conditions of animals. Statistical models were fitted to data from a breeding suckler cattle herd, consisting of performance records of 200 cattle over 5 years, to parameterize the DP model. Estimated parameters used in the DP model were: (i) probabilities of transitions between states and (ii) probability of involuntary culling. These estimates were used in the form of conditional probabilities of successful or failed (as a result of involuntary culling) transitions to the next state. In addition, statistical models were used to estimate probability of calving difficulty. There was strong evidence (P&lt;0·001) that parity affected calving difficulty and weak evidence (P= 0·067) that parity affected the incidence of involuntary culling. The DP model outcomes indicated that cows calving very early, i.e. those who conceived in the first 21 days after artificial insemination, showed reduced frequencies of calving difficulty as well as voluntary culling, and so gave better financial returns than late-calving cows and barren cows. As a result, fewer replacements were needed that reduced the frequency of calving difficulty, further implying a win–win scenario for both profit and welfare. In contrast, in late-calving animals, the frequency of calving difficulty increased and they were less profitable and more prone to be culled. Results of sensitivity analysis showed that the optimum voluntary culling rate was sensitive to commodity market prices. These findings suggest well-informed nutrition and reproduction management could deliver a win–win outcome for profit and animal welfare.</jats:p

Impacts of greening measures and flat rate regional payments of the Common Agricultural Policy on Scottish beef and sheep farms

SUMMARYThe latest Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms could bring substantial changes to Scottish farming communities. Two major components of this reform package, an introduction of environmental measures into the Pillar 1 payments and a move away from historical farm payments towards regionalized area payments, would have a significant effect on altering existing support structures for Scottish farmers, as it would for similar farm types elsewhere in Europe where historic payments are used. An optimizing farm-level model was developed to explore how Scottish beef and sheep farms might be affected by the greening and flat rate payments under the current CAP reforms. Nine different types of beef and sheep farms were identified and detailed biophysical and financial farm-level data for these farm types were used to parameterize the model. Results showed that the greening measures of the CAP did not have much impact on net margins of most of the beef and sheep farm businesses, except for ‘Beef Finisher’ farm types where the net margins decreased by 3%. However, all farm types were better off adopting the greening measures than not qualifying for the greening payments through non-compliance with the measures. The move to regionalized farm payments increased the negative financial impact of greening on most of the farms but it was still substantially lower than the financial sacrifice of not adopting greening measures. Results of maximizing farm net margin, under a hypothetical assumption of excluding farm payments, showed that in most of the mixed (sheep and cattle) and beef suckler cattle farms the optimum stock numbers predicted by the model were lower than actual figures on farm. When the regionalized support payments were allocated to each farm, the proportion of the mixed farms that would increase their stock numbers increased whereas this proportion decreased for beef suckler farms and no impact was predicted in sheep farms. Also under the regionalized support payments, improvements in profitability were found in mixed farms and sheep farms. Some of the specialized beef suckler farms also returned a profit when CAP support was added.</jats:p

Short communication:Identifying key parameters for modelling the impacts of livestock health conditions on greenhouse gas emissions

Improved animal health can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity in livestock systems while increasing productivity. Integrated modelling of disease impacts on farm-scale emissions is important in identifying effective health strategies to reduce emissions. However, it requires that modellers understand the pathways linking animal health to emissions and how these might be incorporated into models. A key barrier to meeting this need has been the lack of a framework to facilitate effective exchange of knowledge and data between animal health experts and emissions modellers. Here, these two communities engaged in workshops, online exchanges and a survey to i) identify a comprehensive list of disease-related model parameters and ii) test its application to evaluating models. Fifty-six parameters were identified and proved effective in assessing the potential of farm-scale models to characterise livestock disease impacts on GHG emissions. Easy wins for the emissions models surveyed include characterising disease impacts related to feeding

Cost-effectiveness of Escherichia coli O157:H7 control in the beef chain

Beef is considered to be an important source of food-borne disorders caused by the bacteria Escherichia coli O157:H7 (VTEC O157). Through the beef-supply chain, this bacterium can pose a risk to public health. The objective of this research is toprovide quantitative insight in the cost-effectiveness of interventions to control VTEC O157 at two levels of the Dutch beef-supply chain: dairy farms and industrial beef slaughterhouses.At the slaughterhouse level, seven decontamination measures were evaluated, namely hot-water wash, lactic-acid rinse, trimming, steam-vacuum, steam-pasteurization, hide-wash with ethanol and gamma irradiation. The effectiveness of the decontamination measures was estimated based on a stochastic epidemiological simulation model. The net costs of the decontamination measures were calculated with a deterministic economic model. To assess the effectiveness of on-farm interventions, a transmission model that mimics the dynamics of VTECO157 bacteria in a typical Dutch dairy herd, was used. The evaluated on-farm interventions were vaccination, diet modification, probiotics (colicin) and additional hygiene. The net costs of the on-farm interventions were based on a deterministic economic model. The effectiveness of the on-farm interventions and slaughterhouse decontamination measures was expressed as the prevalence of contaminated carcass quarters. The baseline prevalence (i.e., without intervention) was estimated to be 4.3%. The net costs of implementing single decontamination methods at the slaughterhouse were calculated to be&nbsp;0.22 to&nbsp;0.65 per carcass quarter which is 16% to 40% of the net profit per carcass. The costs of combining decontamination methods at the slaughterhouse vary from 0.44 to 1.88 per carcass quarter and the costs of irradiation were estimated at 4.65 per carcass quarter. The annual costs of implementing on-farm interventions for the supplying dairy farms were calculated to be 1.75, 2.25, 18 and 40 per carcass quarter for probiotics, vaccination, additional hygiene and diet modification respectively. It is concluded that: i) applying decontamination measures at the slaughterhouse level is more cost-effective than applying interventions at the farm level or at the chain level (i.e., both slaughterhouse and farm levels), ii) carcass trim and steam-pasteurization are the most cost-effective slaughterhouse interventions, and iii) vaccination and colicin supplementation have the best cost-effectiveness ratios of the on-farm interventions

Conserving farm animal genetic resources in the UK: a discussion on post-Brexit policies

The global challenges for conservation of farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) are mainly tackled using in situ, ex situ or both breed conservation methods aiming at reducing the extinction risks and providing options for future usage. The United Kingdom government has confirmed their commitment to this plan by adopting and endorsing the Interlaken Declaration in 2007. Over a decade later, the Brexit vote has provided a unique opportunity for the UK to re-evaluate its agricultural policies which regulate farm animal genetic resource conservation, specifically the pillars of common agricultural policy (CAP) and how they affect the conservation of the UK s farm animal population diversity. This paper describes the current activities and policies regarding FAnGR conservation in the UK and discusses the effects that Brexit may have on UK FAnGR and how the UK government could best alter policy post-Brexit to give renewed drive towards safeguarding FAnGR. It was concluded that conservation of FAnGR should be re-prioritised as an important environmental service. To do this, specific budget and payment support needs to be allocated to FAnGR conservation activities, giving emphasis on public funding for public good to renew drive towards fulfilling the targets of the Global Plan in the UK. Acknowledgement : Dr B Vosough Ahmadi s contribution to this research was funded by the Scottish Government Rural Affairs and the Environment Portfolio Strategic Research Programme 2016 2021, Work Package 2.3 Agricultural Systems and Land Management