Creating a typology of tobacco farms according to determinants of diversification in Valle de Lerma (Salta-Argentina)

The objective of this article is to identify typical tobacco farms according to determinants of diversification that can be used to explore possibilities of diversification in the province of Salta (Northwest of Argentina). National Agriculture Census data of 278 farms in the main tobacco production area of Salta were used for the analysis. The variables selected concerning determinants of diversification were: land area, irrigation, general capital goods and specific capital goods, ownership of land, education, off-farm work, and labour availability. The analysis of the principal components applied to 16 selected variables allowed to reduce the dimensionality of the data to four components. Those components were used to apply K-means cluster approach to classify the farms. Four clusters were determined. Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 are the largest clusters. These concern highly specialized tobacco farms. They differ regarding determinants for diversification due to different levels of education of the farmer and different levels of off-farm work. Both clusters are interesting for further analysis regarding diversification alternatives to maintain or improve income and to reduce soil degradation. Cluster 3 concerns large tobacco farms being somewhat less specialized than the farms in Clusters 1 and 2. Intensive tobacco production makes this group interesting for exploring diversification alternatives to improve soil conditions. Farms in Cluster 4 already have a high level of diversification with substantial livestock production. The presence of perennial pastures suggests a better soil management than the other clusters. This cluster looks appealing to investigate what can be done regarding diversification

Economic-environmental modelling of Dutch dairy farms incorporating technical and institutional change

Circumstances in Dutch dairy farming are changing continuously. The general objective in this thesis was to develop and apply a method to enlighten the consequences of these changing circumstances for dairy farms. The research was started with the development of a linear programming model of a dairy farm. The model contains activities for common production processes on dairy farms like grass and silage maize production and milk production. To register nutrient flows nitrogen, phosphate and potassium balances at soil, animal and farm level were included in the model. The model was tested and validated based on average results in practice.Scenario analysis was used to assess consistent scenarios for technical and institutional change. Analysis of historical data taking into account external changes was done to assess future technical change of fodder and milk production. Institutional change included national environmental policy and EU market and price policy. For national environmental policy a moderate and a severe variant of a nutrient balance system with levies on unacceptable surpluses were formulated. For EU market and price policy the two alternatives used were continuation of the current system and a system with decreased milk quota receiving a high price combined with free additional milk production receiving a low price.One forecast for technical change, two for environmental policy and two for market and price policy resulted in four scenarios. Using the farm model the consequences of the scenarios for 2005 were calculated. The results showed that technical change contributes to both farm income and reduction of nutrient surpluses. Environmental policy and the two-price-policy for milk tend to decrease income. Besides, the two-price-policy tends to increase milk production by increasing numbers of animals conflicting with environmental policy. In general consequences of the scenarios are larger for more intensive farms. The final step in this thesis was extension of the model in a spatial and a seasonal dimension in order to realize a more realistic representation of nitrogen flows.</p

Mestwet kost boer veel geld : financieel gunstig voor bedrijven om bedrijfsspecifieke stikstofproductie via ureumgetal te bepalen

Om de gevolgen van de invoering van het nieuwe stelsel van gebruiksnormen per 1 januari 2006 na te gaan hebben onderzoekers van Wageningen UR een aantal uiteenlopende situaties voor een bedrijf met 800.000 kg melkquotum op de zandgrond doorgereken

Blaarkoppen bekeken

Voor extensieve melkveebedrijven is m.b.v. modelberekeningen een economische vergelijking gemaakt tussen blaarkoppen en HF-koeie

Voeren op de norm : scherper voeren vooral voor intensieve bedrijven financieel interessant

Uitgerekend is wat de kosten en opbrengsten zijn bij het boven de norm voeren en bij verscherpt op de norm voeren, waarbij onderscheid is gemaakt in extensieve en intensieve bedrijve

Lagere vervanging succesformule doormelken

Doormelken blijkt onder andere in het Why dry-project een mogelijke oplossing om de koegezondheid in het begin van de lactatie te verbeteren. Maar is doormelken ook economisch interessant? Wageningen-student Johan Heeren deed een modelstudie naar de economische gevolgen van doormelken. Dit blijkt alleen interessant als het vervangingspercentage ook echt lager is