Does it pay to integrate irrigated forages in a beef cattle breeding operation in north Queensland?

The northern Australian beef industry accounts for approximately half of the national beef herd. It is currently challenged by a range of factors including decline in beef prices, limited live export trade, large farm debt levels, and low return on assets managed. Access to irrigation has been identified as one factor with potential to contribute to growth of the northern Australian beef industry. The development of irrigation for growing pasture and forage crops could extend the ability to sustain cattle through the dry season, a period when forage quality and quantity often limits cattle performance. We used a bio-economic model (Northern Australia Beef Systems Analyser) to investigate the farm-scale impacts of integrating forage crops into an existing cattle breeding operation in the Gilbert catchment of north Queensland. We assessed the feasibility of a range of forage crop types and irrigated areas with consideration of the capital costs of irrigation investment, price movements, and water reliability. This analysis highlights some of the key conditions under which beef producers are likely to benefit from an irrigation development at the farm scale

CROPMARKET: a computer program to analyse global crop production and market trends

The Cropmarket computer package is designed to access, analyse and report on global production and market trends of crops and crop production. The package was written as a part of CSIRO Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures ongoing work to identify and select new crops for Australia. The package arose out of work to identify market trends for crops, and uses a 160 MB database developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The FAO database includes production and trade information over the last 30 yr for up to 240 countries. It covers three main product groups: crops and crops products, meat and meat products, and wood and forestry products. The crop component includes most agricultural crops, horticultural crops and products derived from these. These data can provide a basis for informed decision making, whether it be for target market selection, new crop selection or for some other use. The package consists of a program disk and data disks and can be run on IBM compatible personal computers. Disks have been produced which enable individual crop groups (eg cereals, grain legumes, oilcrops etc.) to be examined separately. Seven categories are available including world production, world trade, major producing countries, changes in production for countries over time, major exporting and importing countries and changes in trade over time. -from Author

Developing and Implementing Optimised Sugarcane Harvest Schedules Through Participatory Research

The Australian sugar industry saw opportunities for increasing productivity and hence whole- of-industry profitability through optimising the harvest date of sugarcane, accounting for geographical and crop differences in cane yield and the sugar content of cane for different harvest dates throughout the harvesting season. Research scientists engaged in participatory research with 3 case-study mill regions to construct the models needed to produce these optimised harvest schedules. Average potential gains of up to AU$119/ha at a sugar price of AU$250/t were shown and the case study regions were keen to pilot the schedules. This paper focusses on the development of a pathway to pilot implementation and evaluation through collaboration with growers, harvester contractors, and millers collectively. We developed: strategies to overcome implementation barriers; the design of the pilot scheme; software tools; and an evaluation strategy of pilot study results to provide proof-of-concept and encourage further uptake. With the development of this pathway, pilot implementation took place during the 2000 and 2001 harvest seasons for about 200 farms. Action learning methodologies were applied to improve the scheme for the 2001 season. Most growers and millers who followed the optimised schedules closely, achieved gains of up to AU$200/ha, with the Maryborough Sugar Factory estimating a gain of AU$34 000 for their crop. Although optimised harvest schedules were implemented by only a small percentage of growers in each of the case study regions, there is growing adoption throughout the sugar industry

Towards farming-systems change from value-chain optimisation in the Australian sugar industry

The supply chain of the conventional Australian sugar industry is characterized by horizontal separation between the stages. Often antagonistic relations between segments, particularly farmers and millers, led to each developing their systems for their own segment’s benefit, without reference to the wider industry interests. Cane growing developed into a monoculture, reliant on material inputs and technological solutions, whose low labour intensity afforded substantial lifestyle benefits to growers. Such a system worked well while the industry was the worldwide cost leader, but it has contributed to stagnating yields and left growers exposed to the industry downturn caused by Brazilian competition. Over the past few years, CSIRO and BSES research aimed at securing industry-wide cost savings included the logistical optimisation of the harvesting and transport segments, harvest scheduling to maximise sugar yield, optimisation of the length of the harvest season, logistical aspects of export marketing, and inclusion of climate forecasts in industry decisions. Our results indicate that while costs and benefits of such system changes fall unevenly on various segments of the supply chain, there is scope for industry-wide benefits from changed practices in individual segments. Some opportunities for downstream improvements identified in our research rely on changes in the farming system. The collection of most plant matter for electricity co-generation means an end to burning before harvest or green-trash blanketing. This, in turn, affects plant nutrition and water management by farmers. Sugar production can be improved by variety selection for location and soil types. Farm-layout changes can facilitate efficient harvesting, reducing not only harvesting costs but soil compaction and stool damage, in turn increasing yield. Crop rotations with legumes have promise for agronomic improvements and growing sweet sorghum may supply the mill outside the sugarcane season. The paper describes a number of such interactions between farming systems on cane farms and the rest of the sugar supply chain, including implications for segment-by-segment profitability

Interactions between intervention packages, climatic risk, climate change and food security in mixed crop-livestock systems in Burkina Faso

Smallholder crop–livestock farming systems have an important role to play for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, but they have to cope with the effects of climate variability and change. In this study, we test the impacts of different interventions in two contrasting mixed farms in Northern Burkina Faso against the background of plausible current and future climate scenarios. For this purpose, we developed a dynamic farm-household modeling framework around existing tools: crop and animal production models APSIM and LivSim, the household model IAT and the climate generator Marksim. The two farms (a small and a larger) were selected and parameterized based on information collected in a household survey. Tested interventions included different crop fertilization and animal supplementation levels, mulching with crop residues and an alternative livestock feeding strategy. Baseline (2013) and a 2050 projection based on IPCC RCP 8.5 describe two climate scenarios (90\ua0years) for comparison. The maximum level of inputs increases farm energy production by +\ua090% and +\ua076% compared to the baseline for the small and the larger farm, respectively. Input levels maximizing net incomes are moderate, though higher than those currently used in both farms. The inter-annual distributions of net income show that the use of external inputs increases both upside and downside risks, i.e. the probability of getting both very high and very low results. This is because the interventions are more effective at increasing the highest yields in good years than at preventing the low production levels of some years. The 2050 climate scenario has a negative impact on energy production and potential income, especially for the scenarios with high input levels. Downside risks could partly explain why farmers do not currently use optimal input levels, and the results suggest that these constraints could intensify with climate change

Additive impacts of climate-smart agriculture practices in mixed crop-livestock systems in Burkina Faso

Smallholder farmers of Northern Burkina Faso have important development opportunities, but they will haveto cope with the effects of climate variability and change. In four farms representative of the area, crop andanimal production, income and food security indicators have been simulated, with all combinations of fourinterventions: i) Optimized crop residue collection; ii) Improved allocation of existing feeds, iii) Cropfertilization; iv) Animal supplementation. The modeling framework we used is based on three existingdynamic livestock (Livsim), crop (Apsim) and household (IAT) models. To assess the impacts of climatevariability, a 99 years current climate series has been generated with the climate generator Marksim. Thesimulations show that collecting crop residues improves significantly the food security indicator (FS) in onefarm because it enables the development of cattle production (FS +135%), whereas the effects are moderate in the three other farms (FS <10%). Low amounts of fertilizer have a significant effect (FS +15%), but thesimulations show decreasing yield returns and the higher downside risk in the bad years. Improved feedallocation strategies with available resources have a positive effect (FS +9%), which is as important assupplementation with additional feeds. The impacts of the tested interventions are additive and synergistic,because increased crop residues production with fertilization creates opportunities for optimized feeding. As a consequence, in the four farms, the highest income and kilocalorie production (up to 53% compared to current farmer practices) are obtained with a combination of interventions enhancing synergies between the crop and the livestock systems. The household yearly probability to be food secure also increases by up to +26%, suggesting an increased resiliency toward climate variability. We conclude that the best options for adapting mixed crop-livestock systems might be found in the synergies between their components, rather than in single interventions