EXAMINING THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF FEDERALLY SUBSIDIZED FARM SAVINGS ACCOUNTS FOR DAIRY FARMERS

Financial data from a panel of New York dairy farms was analyzed to examine the potential benefits of establishing federally subsidized farm savings accounts for dairy farmers. The paper examines whether farmers would have sufficient cash flow to fund the accounts, how the accounts would influence farm income variability, and how program design influences eligibility for the benefits received from the accounts.Financial Economics,

NY Pollution Discharge Elimination Permits for CAFOs, Management Adjustments and the Environment

Weakening demand for livestock and dairy produce, historically high prices for feed ingredients and increasingly strict regulations on animal waste management continue to put significant pressure on livestock and dairy operating margins. In this paper, we use representative farm mathematical programming models to analyze important linkages between farm management adjustments and changes in farm income due to recent changes in relevant agricultural prices and restrictions on land application of nutrients. We account explicitly for new restrictions on land application of nitrogen and phosphorus, and specifically applied to confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Our mathematical methods and the distinctive data available allows for the assessment of the effects on income and environmental nutrient loading for New York State dairy production farms. The results suggest that with current relative prices for feed ingredients, adjustments to dairy rations lead to increased nitrogen and phosphorus content in dairy waste and soil nutrient levels being applied well in excess of crop requirements. While the regulations will correct for this problem at the farm level, our results indicate that CAFOs could experience significant losses in income. These losses depend critically on the cost of off-site manure disposal. Our results also demonstrate that significant risks of excess nutrient loading remain during extreme weather events.CAFO regulations, nutrient management, manure disposal, mathematical programming, environmental quality, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Production Economics,

Dairy Farm Management Adjustments to Biofuels-Induced Changes in Agricultural Markets

A mathematical programming model of a representative New York dairy farm is developed to identify optimal management adjustments to increased availability of corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). While at current prices DDGS feeding is limited to dry cows and young stock, as prices decrease, DDGS in lactating cow rations increase from 7.4% to 20% on a dry matter basis. While expected changes in net farm returns are modest, more important is the consideration of changes in nutrient management practices necessary to deal with increasing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the animal waste.Production, Management, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Foresight study on dairy farming systems in Central Kenya and north of Senegal

Dairy farming activities play important roles in nutrition and health, livelihoods and employment, and culture, in Kenya and Senegal. Faced with various challenges such as climate change, increased populations, insecurity, and conflicts over (water, land, feed) resources, dairy production systems will have to undergo changes in the future that allow them to adapt. This study used a qualitative foresight approach that is mainly based on interviews with technical experts and key stakeholders, including dairy cattle herders, to identify the main evolution trends to be observed in dairy farming in Central Kenya and north of Senegal. It found that (semi)-intensification of production systems and increased settlement of herders who are nomad pastoralists are the prevailing trends. These trends are likely to persist into the future. For both countries, the key drivers of change and their potential environmental and socio-economic impacts were investigated. As dairy systems continue to confront challenges related to livestock feed and water availability, milk quality and safety, production costs, and market access, strategies are needed that can improve resilience of the systems while attaining the right balance between productivity and sustainability

Promising interventions for livestock production and productivity improvement in smallholder systems in developing countries

In this report, we highlight the global importance of animal food sources, presenting measures of production, consumption and international trade of meat, milk and eggs, and emphasizing effects of these on developing countries. Our discussion points out the implications for smallholder producers, of a ‘livestock revolution’ that is evident in developing regions of the world. Next, we present candidate promising livestock systems interventions that hold much potential for improving livestock productivity and production in smallholder low input systems in developing countries. The technicalities, costs and timelines involved in the development of the interventions are presented in some detail, as well as the processes for transferring the new technologies to the end users. The mandate of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in the current Global Futures Project prioritizes modifying of the specification of the livestock sector in the IMPACT model. An ‘IMPACT‐livestock’ quantification improvement exercise ‐ that includes characterization of region and production system‐specific global livestock production systems ‐ is underway, so that cost benefit analysis and technology adoption runs cannot yet be implemented for livestock commodities in the IMPACT model. As such, a single promising livestock technology has not been identified based on uniform investment and returns analysis. For the same reasons, we in lieu of presenting IMPACT‐generated results on the economic and social value of the promising technologies, discuss other results and present the progress made on the livestock systems characterization and other improvements of livestock sector quantification in IMPACT. The final section discusses important issues coming out of the current work