The Socioeconomic and Ecological Impact of Cool Season Forage Production: A Case of Black Belt Counties, Alabama

Abstract Raising livestock during the lean season of forage production has become a great challenge for small and limited resource farmers because of a high cost involved in procuring supplementary feed. This study was conducted to assess the impact of cultivating cool-season forages on the feeding costs for meat goats and cattle. Three case studies were conducted in three Black Belt Counties of Alabama, Russell, Dallas, and Bullock. The socioeconomic and ecological impacts of developing cool-season pastures were evaluated using the before versus after assessment approach. The findings revealed that all three cooperator farmers reduced costs of procuring hay and supplementary feed after establishing cool-season forages, on average $917 for two goat farms and$4,152 for a beef cattle farm. It is believed that an extensive outreach on forage production would help small and limited resource livestock farmers boost their farm income. Keywords: Socioeconomic Impact, Ecological Impact, Cool-Season Forage, Year-round Pasture, Alabama Black Bel

The Significance of Urban Gardening on the Household Economy: A Case of Minority Urban Gardeners

Urban gardening (UG) is an emerging approach to increase the consumption of fresh produce in the homestead. The objective of this exploratory case study was to enhance the technical and economic efficiency of small, socially disadvantaged, and minority (SSDM) urban gardeners in Maryland. Twenty-two SSDM producers engaged in UG participated in the study. The findings showed that farmers were operating rationally, and cultivating diversified specialty, medicinal, and ethnic crops, with an average of twenty specialty/ethnic crops on 1.2 acres. The farmers reported six primary reasons for sustaining urban gardening: family consumption (79%), outdoor and physical activity (79%), supplemental household income (57%), leisure (50%), experiential learning for family members (14%), and tax benefits (7%). Findings revealed that 96% of the farmers strengthened knowledge in reducing production costs, increasing farm income (86%), enhancing entrepreneurial skills (82%), improving farm management practices (73%), mitigating risk (59%), and changing UG behaviors and actions (100%)

Effects of valence and spin of Fe in MgSiO\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e melts: Structural insights from first-principles molecular dynamics simulations

Iron (Fe) is present in terrestrial melts and at all depths inside the Earth. How Fe in its varying oxidation and spin states influences the properties of silicate melts is of critical importance to the understanding of the chemical evolution of our planet. Here, we report the results of first-principles molecular dynamics simulations of molten Fe-bearing MgSiO over a wide pressure range covering the entire mantle. Our results suggest that the structural properties of the host melt, such as the average bond length and coordination in Mg–O and Si–O do not differ much when compared with the pure melt. More importantly, they show that the local Fe–O structure is more sensitive to the spin state (high-spin, HS and low-spin, LS) of iron than to its valence state (Fe and Fe ). For iso-valence configurations, the average Fe–O bond length and coordination number differ by more than 10% and ∼30%, respectively, between the HS and LS states. In comparison, the corresponding differences between Fe and Fe for iso-spin configurations are within 5 and 15%, respectively. Ferrous iron shows lower average oxygen coordination numbers of ∼3.8 for HS and ∼3.3 for LS compared to the corresponding numbers of ∼4.1 and ∼3.7 for ferric iron at 0 GPa and 3000 K. As pressure increases, the coordination gap between the ferrous and ferric iron closes for HS but persists for LS. Our analysis of the proportions of non-bridging and bridging oxygens and the rates of bond breaking/formation events suggests an equivalent role of the ferrous and ferric iron in terms of their network forming ability. The predicted structural behavior of iron in its different oxidation states is generally consistent with the experimental inferences for MgO–FeO–SiO melts. Unlike other ferrosilicate compositions for which the experimental data suggest that Fe increases and Fe decreases the viscosity of the melt, the ferrous and ferric iron, due to their structural equivalence, are likely to have a similar influence on the dynamical behavior of deep mantle iron-bearing MgSiO melts. 3 2 3 2+ 3+ 2+ 3+ 3+ 2