Farm Management in Australia: The Way Forward

This paper summarises the outcomes of a National Workshop in Farm Management, 5-6 December 2002, organised by the University of Sydney, Faculty of Rural Management, Orange. At this Workshop leading farmers, industry leaders, corporate representatives, academics, researchers and extension officers explored the future of farm management (education, research and consultancy) in Australia. Major outcomes were that farm management practice is proceeding informally to undertake decisions supporting socially and ecologically friendly, sustainable commercial production agriculture. However the risks of lack of integration, a reductionist approach to only on-farm practice, stagnation of academic programs to respond to leading edge industry initiatives, as well as ill-defined boundaries for farm management research were identified. The analysis indicated that formal educational models, research and extension-consultancy frameworks of an holistic nature, and a multiple bottom line perspective, were appropriate avenues for the future development of farm management practice and research. Workshop participants perceived that a farm management strand emphasising business management rather than technology could be a better educational model. Also there was an emphasis in highlighting the importance of linked development and partnership amongst the different players. The Workshop created the conditions for development of networks among industry, education and consultative research.Farm Management,

The Australian Farm Business Management Network: Industry, Education, Consultancy and Research Coming Together

Under the sponsorship of the University of Sydney, on 5-6th December 2002 the future of farm management in Australia was discussed. The fundamental conclusion achieved by key primary industry representatives, corporate executives, academics, consultants and researchers is that farm management will have a more significant role to play in the future than previously in servicing the primary sector. The idea of farm management as a profession was proposed. Its basis would be business management supported by farming systems and technology, and using an holistic approach to action (i.e. finance, people and environment). The new profession of Farm Business Management would seek to influence education, research, consultancy and extension in Australia. Interested parties participating of the 2002 National Farm Management Workshop came away with the idea of championing a consultative network, constituted by interested institutions and interested individuals, as a first step in the process of nurturing the future development of farm business management. By integrating farmers and academics with corporate executives, consultants and researchers the objective is to behave as a consultative group. This group will influence educational models, implement consultancy and research strategies, and network in social and professional terms. Moreover, this network will provide a systematic opportunity for the channelling of farm business management and farming systems related information at different levels for education, extension and scientific purposes. This network is called the Australian Farm Business Management Network (AFBMnetwork).Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Women’s use of non-conventional herbal uterotonic in pregnancy and labour: Evidence from birth attendants

Over the years, governments and stakeholders have implemented various policies/programmes to improve maternal health outcomes in low-middle-income countries. In Ghana, Community Health Ofcers were trained as midwives to increase access to skilled maternal healthcare. The government subsequently banned traditional birth attendants from providing direct maternal healthcare in 2000. Despite these, there is an unprecedented utilisation of TBAs’ services, including herbal uterotonics. This has attempted to defeat stakeholders’ campaigns to improve maternal health outcomes. Thus, we explored and highlighted herbal uterotonic consumption in pregnancy and birth and the implications on maternal and newborn health outcomes in North-Western Ghana

A perpetual switching system in pulmonary capillaries

Of the 300 billion capillaries in the human lung, a small fraction meet normal oxygen requirements at rest, with the remainder forming a large reserve. The maximum oxygen demands of the acute stress response require that the reserve capillaries are rapidly recruited. To remain primed for emergencies, the normal cardiac output must be parceled throughout the capillary bed to maintain low opening pressures. The flow-distributing system requires complex switching. Because the pulmonary microcirculation contains contractile machinery, one hypothesis posits an active switching system. The opposing hypothesis is based on passive switching that requires no regulation. Both hypotheses were tested ex vivo in canine lung lobes. The lobes were perfused first with autologous blood, and capillary switching patterns were recorded by videomicroscopy. Next, the vasculature of the lobes was saline flushed, fixed by glutaraldehyde perfusion, flushed again, and then reperfused with the original, unfixed blood. Flow patterns through the same capillaries were recorded again. The 16-min-long videos were divided into 4-s increments. Each capillary segment was recorded as being perfused if at least one red blood cell crossed the entire segment. Otherwise it was recorded as unperfused. These binary measurements were made manually for each segment during every 4 s throughout the 16-min recordings of the fresh and fixed capillaries (>60,000 measurements). Unexpectedly, the switching patterns did not change after fixation. We conclude that the pulmonary capillaries can remain primed for emergencies without requiring regulation: no detectors, no feedback loops, and no effectors-a rare system in biology. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The fluctuating flow patterns of red blood cells within the pulmonary capillary networks have been assumed to be actively controlled within the pulmonary microcirculation. Here we show that the capillary flow switching patterns in the same network are the same whether the lungs are fresh or fixed. This unexpected observation can be successfully explained by a new model of pulmonary capillary flow based on chaos theory and fractal mathematics

The nature of farm succession in three New South Wales communities

Farm transfer between generations of the same family has long been considered a highly significant aspect of rural ideology in Australia with major ramifications for farm management decision making. However, the importance attached to family farm succession has been increasingly questioned in current literature. Results from a study in rural culture in New South Wales support the contention that succession is declining in importance, highlighting instead that the wellbeing and education of younger family members is being placed ahead of expectations that children will automatically take over their parents' property and remain in farming. Implications of this trend for farm management are flagged and directions for further research explored

Agricultural restructuring in the South Australian dairy industry: a case study of the Adelaide Milkshed

Over the last two decades, a great many farmers in the Adelaide Milkshed (the region supplying Adelaide with its liquid milk) have left the dairy industry which has led to a decrease in milk production relative to demand. Reasons are explored and improved management of the farm, and relocation of dairies to the south east and mid north are considered as possible options for increased milk production. How the dairy farm system operates and the means by which can adopt to malfunctioning or breakdown within the farm system is also discussed.Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geography, 199

A Longitudinal Examination of the Consequences of Sexual Victimization for Rural Young Adult Women

This longitudinal study examined the consequences of sexual victimization in a sample of 237 young adult women from a rural community. Of the total sample, 71 (30%) reported experiencing some type of unwanted sex. Multiple regression was used to examine the effects on psychosocial adjustment of unwanted sex that occurred through nonviolent coercion and violent coercion, respectively, controlling for prior psychological adjustment. Results indicated that women who reported physically violent sexual coercion exhibited poorer psychological and social/relational adjustment than either nonvictimized women or women who had experienced nonviolent forms of sexual coercion. Additionally, nonviolent sexual coercion was associated with higher sexual depression, compared with nonvictimized status. A second set of regressions compared adjustment outcomes for women reporting four types of sexual coercion. (a) internal psychological pressure, (b) substance-related coercion, (c) external psychological manipulation, and (d) violent coercion. Controlling for earlier psychological adjustment, women who had unwanted sex because of either violent coercion or external psychological manipulation reported lower levels of psychological adjustment than women who had unwanted sex because of internal psychological pressure or substance-related coercion

A sustainable approach to community-based rehabilitation in rural and remote Australia

This paper presents a summary of an extensive review of the health, disability and rehabilitation literature conducted for the purposes of informing the formulation of a sustainable approach to community based rehabilitation in rural and remote Australia. It begins with a review of definitions of disability and rehabilitation, which is followed by differentiating 'rehabilitation in the community' and 'community based rehabilitation'. Finally, a network of community based rehabilitation coalitions is proposed as a sustainable approach to community based rehabilitation in rural and remote Australia. Each coalition would have a community rehabilitation facilitator and community specific database of resources, as well as a register of local community rehabilitation assistants who can support the work of health professionals by providing rehabilitation interventions under the latter's direction. In this approach, rehabilitation is conceptualised as being about people's lives rather than only a series of interventions provided by health care professionals. As such, rehabilitation becomes everybody's business

Adolescent Risk Factors for Sexual Victimization: A Longitudinal Analysis of Rural Women

Longitudinal data were used to examine risk factors for sexual victimization among 237 young adult rural women. In this sample, 8% reported experiencing forced sex (i.e., physically violent experiences) and a separate 22% reported experiencing coerced sex (i.e., external psychological manipulation, substance-related coercion, or internal psychological pressure.) Women who had more educated mothers had a greater probability of reporting forced sex. In addition, mothers’ education moderated the relationship between individual risk factors and the probability of reporting forced sex. For women with less educated mothers, higher frequency of sexual activity during adolescence was related to an increased probability of reporting forced sex. For women with more educated mothers, higher frequency of sexual activity was related to a decreased probability of reporting forced sex. Frequency of sexual activity during adolescence was also related to coerced sex, with higher frequency of sexual activity predicting a greater probability of reporting coerced sex