Modelling Agricultural Diffuse Pollution: CAP – WFD Interactions and Cost Effectiveness of Measures

Within the context of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the design of effective and sustainable agricultural and water resources management policies presents multiple challenges. This paper presents a methodological framework that will be used to identify synergies and trade-offs between the CAP and the WFD in relation to their economic and water resources environmental effects, and to assess the cost-effectiveness of measures to control water pollution, in a representative case study catchment in Scotland. The approach is based on the combination of a biophysical simulation model (CropSyst) with a mathematical programming model (FSSIM-MP), so as to provide a better understanding and representation of the economic and agronomic/environmental processes that take place within the agricultural system.Bio-economic Modelling, Water Framework Directive, Common Agricultural Policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Potential economic gains from using forage legumes in organic livestock systems in northern Europe

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference of the Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR). Forage legumes, with their ability to fix nitrogen biologically, seem especially attractive for organic livestock production. In an attempt to assess their true potential, this study draws on a four-year trial conducted at 12 sites in northern Europe with four different forage legumes. One third of the sites were managed as organic systems, with the harvested forage being fed as silage to dairy cows. Based on the trial results, an economic assessment has been made of the potential of forage legumes to improve the competitive edge of organic dairy systems, relative to conventional grass-based ones. Although the results suggest that the organic milk price premium plays a major role in determining the comparative profitability of organic dairy systems, the use of forage legumes also gives a significant cost advantage to organic production

The implications of climate change on forage-based livestock systems in Scotland

The thesis examined the effects of climatic change on livestock production within Scotland. In order to achieve this, a systems model of the dairy, beef and sheep enterprises was developed. Climatic change primarily affects livestock production through its effects on forage production. Under climatic change, the model predicted that the length of the growing and grazing season will increase with the extensions occurring at both ends of the season. Relative to current climatic conditions elevated CO2 concentrations coupled with the associated changes in climate resulted in an enhancement in harvestable dry-matter yield that ranged from 20% to nearly 60% and increases in the percentage of white clover in the harvestable material by up to 126% In general, global warming is predicted to increase forage and livestock production within Scotland. However, the location of the site is also important in determining the effect of climate change as the magnitude and, in some cases, the directions of the changes varied between sites. The effects of climate change were also dependent on the actual level of changes in temperature. In addition, there were interactions between CO2 concentration and both temperature and rainfall, as well as interactions between temperature and rainfall. Although the three enterprises showed similar trends in their response to climate change, there were differences in the magnitude of the response as well as differences in the factors that resulted in significant changes. There were also differences in the response of the grazed and the ungrazed swards. This underlines the complexity of the interactions and the difficulty of extrapolating the results to other locations and to other levels of climatic conditions. The advantage of developing a model is that all these complex interactions can be captured and potentially the site - specific consequences of climate change on forage and livestock production predicted

Utilising the concept of nutrients as a currency within organic farming system

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference.Within organic systems, the successful management of nutrients at the field level is crucial for maximising production and minimising the environmental impacts. This requires that the farmer makes the best possible use of nutrients excreted by the grazing or housed livestock. In addition, the farmer must successfully manage the nutrients built-up in the ley phase of the crop rotation over the whole of the arable phase period. To analyse these complex flows, a nutrient budget model has been developed that describes the spatial and temporal flows within the organic farming system. The concept is analogous to treating nutrients as a currency where the flow of nutrients represents a cashflow. A spatial nutrient budget permits the analyses of the performance of the nutrient flows to be examined for the housing, manure, livestock, rotational land and permanent pasture to be analysed separately. This analysis will allow the farmer to better understand the weaknesses in the system, and hence take preventative measures

A framework for assessing crop production from rotations

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference of the Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR). Organic farming systems rely on the management of biological cycles for the provision of nutrients, which are crucial to maximising the production from the system. Rotations based on the use of grass-legume leys are central to the concept of organic farming systems, because they have the potential to support both animal production, and a subsequent, exploitative, arable cropping phase. A major challenge in organic farming is managing the supply of nitrogen, since it has a key role in governing both productivity and environmental impact. Hence, within a rotational system, there is a need to understand the complex interactions that are occurring between crop species and management, livestock production system and the impact of soil and climate on these processes. To understand these interactions, a framework is being developed for rotational farming systems that describes the soil nitrogen, crop growth and livestock production. The framework must address questions that are relevant to researchers and extensions workers. Typical questions relate to the management of nutrients in the short and long-term. Additionally, there are concerns over the impact of weeds, pests and diseases on productivity, as well as the impact of adopting new strategies or crops on the farming system

Climate factors contribute to grassland net primary productivity

Our call set out to enlarge the evidence base and methods for improving and evaluating grasslands in a changing environment as a sustainable ecosystem for all life [...

A Guide to Nutrient Budgeting on Organic Farms

The leaflet gives practical guidance on using data and calculating farm-gate nutrient budgets with sections on soil analysis, nutrient inputs, nutrient losses and flows, nitrogen fixation through leys and how inputs and outputs from organic manures and livestock feed can be recorded. It contains one example table of a farm-gate annual nutrient budget for a mixed cattle and arable farm. The tool is specific to organic farming. It was drafted for the UK but has relevance in other countries

The impact of fungicide treatment and Integrated Pest Management on barley yields:Analysis of a long term field trials database

This paper assesses potential for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques to reduce the need for fungicide use without negatively impacting yields. The impacts of three disease management practices of relevance to broad acre crops –disease resistance, forecasting disease pressure, and fungicide use – were analysed to determine impact on yield using a long-term field trials database of Scottish spring barley, with information from experiments across the country regarding yield, disease levels, and fungicide treatment. Due to changes in data collection practices, data from 1996 to 2010 were only available at trial level, while data from 2011 to 2014 were available at plot level. For this reason, data from 1996 to 2014 were analysed using regression models, while a subset of farmer relevant varieties was taken from the 2011–2014 data, and analysed using ANOVA, to provide additional information of particular relevance to current farm practice. While fungicide use reduced disease severity in 51.4%of a farmer-relevant subset of trials run 2011–2014, and yields were decreased by 0.62 t/ha on average, this was not statistically significant in 65% of trials. Fungicide use had only a minor impact on profit in these trials, with an average increase of 4.4% for malting and 4.7% for feed varieties, based on fungicide cost and yield difference; potential savings such as reduced machinery costs were not considered, as these may vary widely. Likewise, the1996–2014 database showed an average yield increase of 0.74 t/ha due to fungicide use, across a wide range of years, sites, varieties, and climatic conditions. A regression model was developed to assess key IPM and site factors which influenced the difference between treated and untreated yields across this 18-year period. Disease resistance, season rainfall, and combined disease severity of the three fungal diseases were found to be significant factors in the model. Sowing only highly resistant varieties and, as technology improves, forecasting disease pressure based on anticipated weather would help to reduce and optimise fungicide use

Calibration and validation of the DNDC model to estimate nitrous oxide emissions and crop productivity for a summer maize-winter wheat double cropping system in Hebei, China

We thank Dr. Min Liu for providing the field measurement data and Prof. Xinping Chen for providing the data of crop yields. We acknowledge the financial supported from the N Circle - a BBSRC-Newton Funded project (BB/N013484/1), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41830751) and EU Horizon 2020 programme (SuperG).Peer reviewedPostprin