Concentrate supplementation for crossbred bulls to increase profitability of smallholder fattening operations in East Java, Indonesia

Growth rates of bulls in Indonesia raised in smallholder fattening systems are generally low due to inadequate nutrition. This study compared bull growth and farmer profit between two feeding management systems, namely traditional feeding (as control) and intervention feeding by supplementation with a high quality concentrate. Bos taurus-Ongole cross bred bulls (n=46) aged 1.5-2 years, owned by smallholder farmers, from two villages in East Java were used in this study. The bulls were divided into two treatment groups; control and intervention. Farmers in the intervention group were provided with a concentrate containing onggok, copra and palm kernel cake. Farmers were instructed to feed 4 kg DM of concentrate/bull/day in addition to their existing roughage diet for 161 days or until sold. No changes were made to the feeding or management of the bulls in the control group. Mostly control group farmers used local forages and agricultural by product as a feed, without any supplementation. The daily feed cost and the cost of 1 kg of liveweight gain was higher in the intervention group (IDR 8827 and IDR 11990, respectively) than that of the control group (IDR 2606 and IDR 5543, respectively). Moreover, the average daily gain of bulls in the intervention group (0.82 kg/bull/day) was higher than that of bulls in the control group (0.52 kg/bull/day), resulting in a greater profit for the fattening period. Daily income minus feed costs was higher for farmers in the intervention group (IDR 24182/day), compared to farmers in the control group (IDR 15774/day). It is concluded that although there were additional costs for feeding high-quality feeds, but higher growth rates of bulls resulted in greater profits for smallholder farmers

Sustainable development of smallholder crop-livestock farming in developing countries

Meeting the growing demand for animal-sourced food, prompted by population growth and increases in average per-capita income in low-income countries, is a major challenge. Yet, it also presents significant potential for agricultural growth, economic development, and reduction of poverty in rural areas. The main constraints to livestock producers taking advantage of growing markets include; lack of forage and feed gaps, communal land tenure, limited access to land and water resources, weak institutions, poor infrastructure and environmental degradation. To improve rural livelihood and food security in smallholder crop-livestock farming systems, concurrent work is required to address issues regarding efficiency of production, risk within systems and development of whole value chain systems. This paper provides a review of several forage basedstudies in tropical and non-tropical dry areas of the developing countries. A central tenet of this paper is that forages have an essential role in agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and livestock nutrition in smallholder mixed farming systems

Economic Review of Pasture Development Options for North Australian Beef Enterprises

Beef cattle grazing (~14 million head) native pastures is the dominant economic use of northern grazing lands (2.3 million km2). Few enterprises make positive economic returns in most years or achieve the necessary productivity gains (~2% per annum) to offset an ongoing cost-price squeeze (McCosker et al., 2010). A significant contributor to poor performance is low reproductive performance, management of first calving heifers, calf growth and weaning rates and liveweight gain - linked to nutrition and the low quality of pastures. Pasture development technologies (Gramshaw and Walker, 1988) are available but uptake has been poor. Three pasture development options offering technical promise include (a) mosaic irrigation - small-scale schemes utilising favourable soils and access to water, (b) broad-scale over-sowing of native pastures with improved grasses and legumes, (c) high intensity-short duration (cell) grazing and (c) increasing stock access to underutilised pasture resources by expanding water and fencing infrastructure. How these options might alter the economic performance of enterprises has received limited attention. A formal review employed simulation models and regional case studies to explore the scope for mosaic irrigation to change the production and marketing orientation of northern beef enterprises and deliver economic benefits (MacLeod et al., 2013). Consideration was also given to alternative development options viz. broad-scale pasture sowing, high intensity-short duration (cell) grazing, and additional water and fencing infrastructure. The economic results of these options for three of the regional case studies are summarised in this paper

Next Generation Solar Array Technologies for Small Satellites

Recent advances in Shape Memory Alloy (SMA), Elastic Memory Composites (EMC), and ultra- light composites along with thin-film Copper-Indium- Diselinide (CIS) photovoltaics have offered the potential to provide solar array systems for small satellites that are significantly lighter than the current state of the practice. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and Lockheed Martin are jointly sponsoring an effort that will develop and, in partnership with AeroAstro, demonstrate advanced technologies for solar array applications. These technologies will result in advances that include cost, weight, risk, reliability, and power. Conventional state-of-the-practice solar arrays utilize rigid honeycomb panels to provide the structural support for the crystalline Silicon (Si) or Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) solar cells. Rigid composite panel structural and manufacturing methods have placed a practical producible limit on the power to weight efficiency of today’s solar panels. This limit is about 60 Watts per kilogram (W/kg). New technologies are needed to break this power to weight barrier and meet future DOD and NASA space power requirements. A potential solution to this problem, are the technologies that are being developed under the Lightweight Flexible Solar Array (LFSA) program. The LFSA will demonstrate key technologies on four space flights. The first space opportunity consisted of a flight experiment of a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) deployment hinge that was demonstrated on the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-93) in July 1999. The second flight opportunity consisted of a sub-scale twopanel solar array that was demonstrated on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 spacecraft in November 2000. The third and fourth flight opportunities will transition thin-film solar arrays into SSC02-II-2 Fosness, Eugene 2 16th Annual/USU Conference on Small Satellites operational spacecraft systems, specifically on the AeroAstro/Astronautic Technology Sdn. Bhd. (ATSB) Small Payload ORbit Transfer (SPORT™) vehicle in 2003 and the Team Encounter solar sail in 2004. The synergistic merging of the new, innovative technologies into an advanced lightweight thin- film solar array will meet the requirements of the emerging next generation of small satellites. The implementation of these new techno logies directed at lightweight solar arrays will result in significant weight and volume reductions over current satellite systems. The SMA devices will provide a controlled shock-less deployment of the solar array and improved testability due to mechanism re-set capability. Additionally, the SMA actuators will eliminate or minimize deployment motors, mechanisms, and part count. The LFSA program is a pathfinder for next generation rollout arrays that increase specific power densities to \u3e200 W/kg

The Evolution of Professional Nursing Culture in Italy: Metaphors and Paradoxes

We explored the perceptions of Italian nurses regarding their developing culture as a health profession. We sought to understand the ongoing evolution of the nursing profession and the changes that were central to it becoming an intellectual discipline on par with the other health professions in Italy. In 2010, the Regulatory Board of Nursing established a center of excellence to build evidence-based practice, advocate for interdisciplinary health care, and champion health profession reforms for nursing. In this study, focus groups—involving 66 nurse participants from various educational, clinical, and administrative backgrounds—were utilized to better ascertain how the profession has changed. Six themes, three of them metaphors—“vortex,” “leopard spots,” and “deductive jungle”—explain nurses’ experiences of professional change in Italy between 2001 and 2011 and the multiple dimensions that characterize their professional identity and autonomy

The Oombulgurri Project Clancy Committee report

In early August the Oombulgurri community requested assistance in the following terms. On behalf of the Oombulgurri Community, we invite assistance in developing the grain and pasture cropping at Oombulgurri. We have experimented with peanuts, sorghum, and many varieties of vegetables. This has tested the reality of hopes to expand acreage and varieties to become self-sufficient in stock feed. The Farm and Garden Guild now needs the expertise of your services to plan a four-year programme. vie need assistance in choosing from the many options, opinions and advices available from Australia and elsewhere, for grain production, pastures, methods appropriate to our geography, and machinery, to minimise expenditure and produce food for the stock expansion necessary to be self-sufficient in locally produced food for the town. Our concerns so far have been to start poultry, pigs, goats and horses stocking to provide useful work for everyone and food „ ually increase production and decrease imports with the appropriate use of manpower, water and other resources. We believe we can produce stock feed locally and grad- We attach our initial estimates of need which includes an estimate of projected stocking and machinery needs as well as a list of what is on hand

Herbaceous Tropical Legume Integration into Small-Holder Crop-Livestock Systems in Eastern Indonesia: Results of 10-Years of Multi-Disciplinary Systems Research

Integration a forage legume into crop-livestock systems of Eastern Indonesia was tested to establish the capacity to improve nitrogen supply and yields of staple cereal crops (maize and rice) and allow for intensification of beef production to ultimately increase farm income and alleviate rural poverty in the region. Species evaluation sites across a diversity of environments showed Clitoria ternatea (butterfly pea) to be the most resilient and adaptable forage legume for use in association with cropping systems. Crop rotation experiments demonstrated that legumes grown in rotation with maize or rice can increase grain yields by 50% where legume was cut and removed, and by 90% where legume biomass was retained – the legume providing the equivalent of 100-150 kg of urea fertiliser. Forage establishment and cutting management were shown to be critical to maximising legume productivity but labour inputs required are important constraints. Lower-labour options can be used effectively without dramatically compromising productivity. Providing legumes as supplements to cattle have been shown to have significant benefits for livestock productivity in various production systems; preventing liveweight losses of reproductive cows during the dry season, doubling calf growth rates and halving calf mortality, and increasing growth rates of growing cattle by 0.3-0.5 kg LW/d. Whole-farm bioeconomic modelling and participatory on-farm evaluation has found that livestock-oriented farmers with available land resources will benefit most from forage legumes with potential increases of farm income of up to 30%. Local seed production is critical for ongoing use of herbaceous forage legumes, and our research has refined locally relevant recommendations for agronomy for seed production methods and processing. Our research has confirmed that herbaceous forage legumes can be integrated into cropping systems to improve crop yields, livestock production and livelihoods of small-holder farmers in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Modality-Independent Effects of Phonological Neighborhood Structure on Initial L2 Sign Language Learning

The goal of the present study was to characterize how neighborhood structure in sign language influences lexical sign acquisition in order to extend our understanding of how the lexicon influences lexical acquisition in both sign and spoken languages. A referent-matching lexical sign learning paradigm was administered to a group of 29 hearing sign language learners in order to create a sign lexicon. The lexicon was constructed based on exposures to signs that resided in either sparse or dense handshape and location neighborhoods. The results of the current study indicated that during the creation of the lexicon signs that resided in sparse neighborhoods were learned better than signs that resided in dense neighborhoods. This pattern of results is similar to what is seen in child first language acquisition of spoken language. Therefore, despite differences in child first language and adult second language acquisition, these results contribute to a growing body of literature that implicates the phonological features that structure of the lexicon is influential in initial stages of lexical acquisition for both spoken and sign languages. This is the first study that uses an innovated lexicon-construction methodology to explore interactions between phonology and the lexicon in L2 acquisition of sign language

Risk of Climate-Related Impacts on Global Rangelands – A Review and Modelling Study

Climate change threatens the ability of global rangelands to provide food, support livelihoods and deliver important ecosystems services. The extent and magnitude of potential impacts are however poorly understood. In this study, we review the risk of climate impacts along the rangeland systems food supply chain. We also present results from biophysical modelling simulations and spatial data analyses to identify where and to what extent rangelands may be at climatic risk. Although a quantification of the net impacts of climate change on rangeland production systems is beyond the reach of our current understanding, there is strong evidence that there will be impacts throughout the supply chain, from feed and animal production to processing, storage, transport, retailing and human consumption. Regarding grazing biomass production, this study finds that mean herbaceous biomass is projected to decrease across global rangelands between 2000 and 2050 under RCP 8.5 (-4.7%), while inter- (year-to-year) and intra- (month-to-month) annual variabilities are projected to increase (+21.3% and +8.2%, respectively). These averaged global estimates mask large spatial heterogeneities, with 74% of global rangeland area projected to experience a decline in mean biomass, 64% an increase in inter-annual variability and 54% an increase in intra-annual variability. The potentially most damaging vegetation trends for livestock production (i.e., simultaneous decreases in mean biomass and increases in inter-annual variability) are projected to occur in rangeland communities that are currently the most vulnerable (here, with the lowest livestock productivities and economic development levels and with the highest projected increases in human population densities). Large uncertainties remain as to climate futures and the exposure and responses of the interlinked human and natural systems to climatic changes over time. Consequently, adaptation choices will need to build on robust methods of designing, implementing and evaluating detailed development pathways, and account for a wide range of possible futures