BACKGROUND Urban/peri-urban dairy production and sales has evolved as an adjustment to cope with food security and economic needs for urban dwellers in low-income countries and created an opportunity to transform from subsistence rural lifestyles of dairy farming to commercial engagement in towns. However, urban/peri-urban dairy farms differ in challenges from rural dairy farms and reproduction...

● lower stocking densities and production levels than in conventional systems (stocking densities on dairy farms on average 80% lower; on beef and sheep farms 40-80% lower). Organic certification Definitions of ‘organic’ farming vary internationally. Many countries operate national or ‘private’ standards, which do not have statutory status. The International Federation of Organic Farming Moveme...

This study examined attraction and motivation factors important for people choosing to work and remain in the profession of dairy farm worker. The study comprised 194 agricultural students, 197 employed dairy farm workers and 147 employers. The study was based on questionnaires in which the key questions were: What would attract you to choose dairy farming as a profession? What attracts and mot...

The aim of the article is to evaluate production efficiency and its determinants of specialised dairy farming among the EU regions. In the most of European regions, there is a relatively high significance of small specialised farms including dairy farms. The DEAVRS method (data envelopment analysis with variable returns to scale) reveals efficient and inefficient regions including the scale eff...

In Wisconsin, the prevalence of dairy and livestock farming has led to questions about how animal agriculture affects the environment. As of 2003, managed grazing was practiced on 23 percent of Wisconsin dairy farms (Taylor and Foltz 2006). Many farmers who practice managed grazing (graziers) have observed environmental benefits resulting from this management system. What have scientific studie...

OBJECTIVE To determine how iodine deficiency and endemic goitre disappeared in Britain. DESIGN Review of surveys of endemic goitre and iodine nutrition. MAIN RESULTS Endemic goitre was widespread in Britain but has declined, most notably since the 1960's. Its disappearance was probably due to changes in farming practice, especially iodine supplementation in dairy herds which has resulted in...

A typology was developed to provide a framework for examining the environmental impact of dairy farming and for setting priorities for environmental enhancement. This essentially differentiates systems according to the way in which farmland is managed combining economic/technical classification criteria (see section 2), bio-geographical region and forage and fodder resources (see section 3). Us...

It is currently legal within the EU for dairy farmers to use antibiotics routinely for purely preventative purposes. The most common reason for antibiotic use in dairy farming is to control mastitis (inflammation of the mammary gland and udder tissue, usually due to bacterial infection). This often involves “blanket” use of antibiotics across all cows to prevent the occurrence of mastitis durin...

For the request of rational and scientific farming of dairy cow, the database of dairy cow’s feed composition and ratio is established, and the feed formula service management platform and transaction processing platform is realized in Science Feed Management System. The application of this system contributes to improve science of dairy cow’s feed formula, enhance the utilization of the raw mat...