In this paper, we present calculations of the economic gains in terms of reduced costs by exploiting scale-economies in dairy production in Norway, and the effect this would have had on the number of farms. We also explore whether or not optimal scale and unexploited scale-economies change over time due to scale-augmenting technical change. The analysis is based on homothetic cost functions est...

The calculation of whole-farm nutrient balance is an effective and simple method for estimating the potential nutrient loading from dairy farming into the environment. In Finland, however, the published results based on larger number of farms are still lacking. In this study whole-farm nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) balances on Finnish dairy farms were studied based on short-cut data for the y...

BACKGROUND The purpose of the present study was to investigate activation of inflammatory markers in human macrophages derived from the U937 cell line after exposure to particulate matter (PM) collected on dairy farms in California and to identify the most potent components of the PM. METHODS PM from different dairies were collected and tested to induce an inflammatory response determined by ...

Community Q fever epidemics occurred in The Netherlands in 2007-2009, with dairy goat and dairy sheep farms as the implicated source. The aim of the study was to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors for seropositivity in dairy goat farmers and their household members living or working on these farms. Sera of 268 people living or working on 111 dairy goat farms were tested for Coxiella ...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to assess the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in animals and humans on veal, dairy, beef and broiler farms and to compare the risk for human MRSA carriage with that of strictly horticulture farmers. The genetic background, resistance phenotypes and genotypes and toxin gene content of the isolated MRSA strains were compared with MRSA c...

The objective of this study was to identify associations of bedding type and selected management practices with bulk milk quality and productivity of larger Wisconsin dairy farms. Dairy herds (n=325) producing ≥11,340 kg of milk daily were surveyed during a single farm visit. Monthly bulk milk SCC and total bacteria counts were obtained from milk buyers for 255 farms for a 2-yr period. Of farms...

Specifically-designed questionnaires were distributed to the managers and/or veterinarians of all dairy farms in Saudi Arabia in order to obtain data on the occurrence of foot and mouth disease (FMD) on these farms from 1971 to 1989, as well as data on current control measures. Of 39 farms, 27 responded to the questionnaire and 15 (56%) reported FMD outbreaks. Notification and collection of sam...

Phytoestrogens have structures similar to endogenous steroids and may induce or inhibit the response of hormone receptors. The objectives of the present study were to compare the effects of long-term vs. short-term grassland management in organic and conventional dairy production systems, compare organic and conventional production systems and assess seasonal variation on phytoestrogen concentr...

An on-farm study of 54 representative Wisconsin dairy farms was conducted to evaluate the influence of biophysical and socioeconomic factors on overall feed, fertilizer, and manure nutrient use. This report validates 1) how well data on cow diets, feed analyses, and milk production reflected established feed-milk-manure relationships; and 2) how well farmer-recorded data on manure land applicat...

In order to determine the safety of milk produced by smallholder dairy goat farms, a farm-based research study was conducted on commercial dairy goat farms to compare the microbiological quality of milk produced using 3 different types of dairy goat production systems (intensive, semi-intensive and extensive). A survey of dairy goat farms in and around Pretoria carried out by means of a questio...