spring 2012
Farmings's role
Food for everyone
Politics & Markets
Who's going to feed the world?
Since the end of October in 2011 seven billion people now live on Earth. Can we feed them all? It’s a huge challenge. But there’s a realistic chance that we can manage, although not necessarily through increasing harvests in Europe or North America. Instead, the extremely rapid shift of worldwide agricultural production into the developing countries has shown that farming there is capable of meeting the challenge by producing for their respective increased demands.
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Career: The right skills for the job
It’s been a long time since job opportunities for agricultural graduates have been so good. Despite this, applicants should consider early-on the when and how regarding entry into their career of choice. Apart from the required studies there are many additional factors significantly influencing any appointment decisions by businesses. A clear personal picture of one’s own aims and of the inputs looked for by employer as well as employee helps towards future success for both.
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Agribusiness
Increase in milking automation planned
The surveyeddairy farmers from 20 countries share a common ambition: reduction of milking time. This is because higher efficiency in milking offers all their businesses cost advantages that can be decisive. In the selection of milking technology automatic systems and carousels appear to be gaining market share while the old favourite, the herringbone parlour, loses influence.
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Research & Innovation
Research: Less chemistry, more crop breeding
New plant protection substances are urgently required. Worldwide, research investment increases but the companies involved prefer to invest outside Europe and rather in plant breeding than in plant protection. Increasingly fewer new active ingredients can be expected while gene technological solutions are socially unacceptable in Europe which means this continent’s importance in worldwide crop production falls behind in relative terms.
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Antibiotics: More questions than answers
An apparent wide variation in the use of veterinary antimicrobial agents between countries was observed in a survey. The differences could not be explained through the animal species demographics alone. Further analyses of use per species, age group, dosage, animal husbandry methods and country of slaughter are required to identify the factors underlying the observed differences.
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Winter 2011
EU greening policy: Clearing the fog
Politics & Markets
Planning a greener Europe
With its CAP recommendations for 2014 – 2020 the EU Commission attempts to address many demands and requirements. The most difficult: How to redistribute support funds between member countries and establishing new environment protection strategies.
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Aiming high for biofuel's future
The EU has big ambitions for biofuel. By 2020 10% of transport requirements is to be supplied through renewable energy. And to meet sustainability targets CO2 reductions involved will have to rise from today’s aim of 35% to 60% in just seven years! Urgently needed from now on is increased public acceptance for still higher bioethanol blends in petrol.
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Producing beef in Australia
Its huge annual output of meat, with 65% of all beef produced shipped abroad, means Australia is the world’s second largest exporter of beef after Brazil. Whether the subcontinent can maintain its position globally in this sector depends on feed costs and the weather, not forgetting the crucial currency exchange rates.
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Agribusiness
Livestock handling skills pay-off
The interaction of stockperson and farm animal influences the well-being of livestock and the possibility of their performing well. This is a relationship that can often be improved and there’s now a training programme developed in the Netherlands that can help.
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Updating farming's image
Straightforward campaigns explaining the details of farming are not enough to establish contact with consumers and communicate to them a positive picture of agriculture. In most cases there’s absolutely no interest in the naked facts. Instead, it’s far more important for the farmer to establish trust and to built up personal contacts, be it through direct marketing, tourism or involvement in local communities.
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Research & Innovation
Self-defence for plants
Particularly in oilseed rape production, pesticides nowadays struggle to control crop pests. But new GM methods now offer alternative possibilities for destroying selected pests without endangering beneficial insects.
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Autumn 2011
Agritechnica: Biggest farm machinery market worldwide
Politics & Markets
China 1: Land reform + mechanisation = self-sufficiency
New technology and new legislation for farmland: this could be the efficiency formula for Chinese agriculture in the coming decades. Efficiency is necessary, because everywhere there are signs of limitations to growth.
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China 2: The new entrepreneurs
China produces its own wheat and rice - for the human population. Maize and soybeans are imported - for the pigs. Main reason: animal production expansion is at full speed.
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China 3: Striving for more soya, maize and milk
China will chose its own way ahead - with or without advice based on European agricultural development. But offering our know-how and constructive assistance in this process could contribute towards optimal use of the limited resource farmland in China.
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Foreign farmland demand
When all the important agricultural imports and exports in food, feed and energy are considered, the EU has a farmland area requirement outwith its own borders of around 14.4 m ha. This represents the agricultural land area of Romania or 290 m2 per EU citizen.
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Agribusiness
Agricultural markets: Between finance and feelings
What counts is now! Important for market decisions is that these must be made in absolute detachment from earlier decisions. Feelings are of no importance here because price development for agricultural commodities depends on concrete factors. The main one is the supply situation. Because of the time span in agricultural production this cannot be rapidly adjusted. The result: marked fluctuations in price.
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Research and Innovation
Crop production: Giving the plant what it really needs
In recent years precision farming technology has encouraged development of a number of interesting production techniques towards optimal crop plant growth whilst sustainably protecting soil, moisture reserves and, not least, the farmer's wallet. There's no doubt that the final touches in such techniques are still missing. However, there are research projects occupied with further development in this respect and farm mechanisation progress to this end Is not standing still either. In the final analysis, however, it requires, as always, a few courageous pioneering farmers to develop the new systems in the field and prepare them for general application.
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Smart Farming: A new formula for success
Promising a lot, sold at high prices and producing little - precision farming has a bad name with many farmers. While the technology has made enormous advances in the last years, in most cases there’s still not the promised added value for the practical farmer. In future, smart farming will take into more consideration crop production factors from many sources in order to place into the farmer’s hand reliable management decision aids.
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