This year north Italy maize growers have been especially hit by maize rootworm attacks. In the important growing area of Lombardy alone the pest is blamed for a 1 m t reduction in yield and there’s still no breakthrough in finding the right pesticide for control. But various international research groups are seeking a gene modification route towards beating the rootworm with maize modified so that it emits more of the natural substance beta-caryophyllene from its roots. This attracts nematodes that attack and kill the maize rootworm.

Field trials have already confirmed that this approach can effectively reduce damage. The researchers, including scientists from the USA, Switzerland and, in Germany, Jena University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, established that decades of plant breeding in North America had resulted in most varieties of maize no longer emitting beta-caryophyllene, resulting in them being unable to attract the protecting nematodes into their root areas.

Milk producers failed to fully exploit the EU milk quota for the year 2008/2009 with milk deliveries of 137.61 m t being over 5 m t below the reference amount of 143 m t, reports the EU Commission. In 13 countries including Britain, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia deliveries were in fact all 5% or more under their national quotas. France fell short by 4.8%. In terms of milk tonnage below quota, France led the field with a 1.46 m t shortfall followed by British dairy farmers with a minus of 1.19 m t.
While price has fallen markedly, total EU milk production, despite quota being raised by 2.4% on the year, was hardly changed with around 200,000 t more than last year delivered. There are five quota offenders that exceeded the respective national reference amounts: Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Cyprus and Luxembourg. The Austrians, for instance, were 1.2% over quota leading to a penalty of 97 m € having to be paid. However, total superlevy paid in Europe was more than 70% under the 2007/2008 amount. Even Italy, which has had problems keeping under quota since the beginning, had a penalty of »only« 43 m € to pay – around the same as the Netherlands. Last year the EU Commission levied 100 m € in oversupply penalty from German dairy farmers alone.

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A definite connection has been established between Bovine Virus Diarrhoea (BVD) in cows and calf deaths and bronchial disorders in Spanish dairy herds. Researchers in that country examined performances in 110 selected dairy herds with initially unknown BVD infection status.

Blood samples were taken from over 550 cows and young stock older than 12 months. Blood checks indicated that 12 of the herds had an ongoing BVD infection. Interviews were also held with the respective farmers, herd managers and vets so that the herds could be classified according to health criteria. In the infected herds between one and five cows had chronic diarrhoea and there was a clear link between calf mortality and presence of BVD. The animals on the infected farms also showed increased incidence of digestive problems.
Herds that had been vaccinated against Bovine Virus Diarrhoea were included in the survey sample. The blood tests allowed their separate identification. But overall there was hardly any difference between vaccinated and non-vaccinated herds regarding frequency of disease symptoms, according to the magazine »Research in Veterinary Science«. – kl –

Scientists in Washington State are putting mustard on their potatoes – one or two tonnes of it! But this eye-watering recipe is for potatoes growing out in the field.
Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are applying crushed mustard seed meal on potato fields before crop emergence. This potent pulp proves to be a very efficient contact herbicide, significantly reducing early weeds in the crop. This application is one of a series of natural solutions for potato growing problems being tested in the USA as part of a national drive for more sustainable potatoes. Producers in the northwest are also using the mustard plant to stop wind erosion during spring and supply some free N through the extra organic matter produced and then ploughed-in. They are growing brown and white mustard as opening crops. Scientific monitoring by ARS staff has indicated that such crops can supply more than 35 kg N/ha when broken down in the soil.    – nd –

The effects of the recession are blamed for stagnating poultrymeat production in the present year. But demand is already winding-up the market and a 3% increase in production to 73.7 m t is forecast for 2010. Leading the production increases will be Brazil and China with 4 % and 3 % respectively. Brazil’s rise is spurred by strong export and domestic demand. China’s increase is in response to strong domestic demand due to economic expansion. But the world’s biggest producer, the USA, will also be contributing to global growth with production reckoned to rise by 2 % to 16.2 m t. Expansion in output is also forecast for most other main producers particularly Argentina, India and Russia.
Total exports will be up by   2 % on the year to 8.3 m t, it is reckoned. Brazil’s expanding exports are forecast 6 % higher to a record of over 3.3 m t. Increased imports are expected from a variety of markets in the Middle East and Asia and the industry is also working hard to open up new markets. Brazil’s continued long-term focus on developing non-traditional markets will encourage expansion.
A 5 % drop in exports to just below 2.9 m t is expected for the U.S with demand in Russia and China for its poultry meat weakened through increased domestic production as well as by lingering non-tariff trade barriers.
Global economic recovery is expected to stimulate consumption and raise import demand. While Russia, the EU and Japan remain the largest markets for broiler meat imports, their share of global trade is forecast to continue to stagnate or erode in 2010.
In the absence of a multilateral agreement on 2010 tariff rate quotas (TRQs), the Russian forecast is based on 2009 TRQ levels and allocations. While the 2010 outlook depends greatly on future policy decisions for not only the TRQ but also the chlorine ban and imposition of non-tariff barriers, Russian imports are forecast 4% lower at 855,000 tons, a reduction that has been expected. Government support will probably mean that the Russian poultry industry will grow faster than domestic consumption.

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Pigs and energy crops: Is this a practical combination? Researchers at the University of Aarhus let free-range pigs in fields of the energy crop miscanthus to see whether the tall grass offered sufficient shelter for the pigs and to assess whether any crop damage by the animals was within economically acceptable limits. »The experiment proved successful. Pigs and energy plants both profited«, reported Grete Kongsted from the Agricultural Ecology and ­Environment department.  »Rows between the crop were kept free from grass and other weeds by the rooting of the pigs. But the miscanthus crop should be at least a year old because then the pigs cannot damage it. The energy crop is thereby manured by the animals to which in turn the plants offer sufficient shelter«.

Extracts from favourite human flavourings such as rosemary, thyme, cloves and peppermint could become useful natural insecticides out in the field, according to work at the University of British Columbia. There, very small amounts of essence from the herbs mixed in water feature in new biological pesticides that successfully kill insect crop pests on contact or keep them away from crop plants through their volatile vapours.
»One advantage is that insects do not develop resistance against this form of pesticide«, says research team leader Murray Isman.
However, such biological pesticides also have disadvantages. For instance the substances evaporate or decompose rapidly under sunlight. »Because the herb extracts have less effective strength, they have to be used at higher concentration as well«, reports Dr Isman. In order to overcome such disadvantages ways are now being sought of ensuring a longer effective lifetime for the active ingredients and for making them more powerful.                         – nd –

Straightforward dairy farming efficiency measures could have powerful effects in reducing greenhouse gas production from cows, according to research at the University of Wageningen’s Animal Sciences Group. For instance higher milk production per lactation naturally reduces methane produced per kg of milk, explains Theun Vellinga, a Wageningen researcher currently working with the FAO. And lengthening a cow’s production life can also reduce this factor.
Even more immediate reductions in greenhouse gases from ruminants could be achieved through modifying rations. In the Netherlands the average methane emitted from cows per kg of milk produced has been reduced by some 17% from 1990 until now. The main reason is that much more maize is used in cow rations compared with almost 20 years ago. Maize means more starch in the ration and results in less methane being produced by the cow. But ploughing up grass for maize releases carbon and nitrous oxide – a powerful greenhouse gas. Despite this, the Wageningen team reckons that diet manipulation with dairy cows represents one of the best opportunities of reducing methane production on a world scale. Other dietary components being considered for reducing methane include tannins. Work is also continuing in New Zealand and Australia testing vaccination of cows against rumen methanogens, microorganisms that convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methane. And another tested alternative is the introduction of reductive acetogenisis in the digestive system to convert the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to acetic acid instead.               – nd –

With 125 million hectares sown and harvested, cropping area for GM plants increased by 9 % in 2008 compared with the previous year. First time growers last year were farmers in Egypt and Burkina-Faso, although their GM crops covered only 50,000 ha.
The 14 largest growing nations according to the international biotechnology agency ISAAA are presented in this graph.

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500 farmers in north Netherlands are delivering their milk to a cooperative dairy specialising in climate-friendly cheese. The resultant Beemster Cheese is then marketed with the label »Caring Dairy«. Behind the climate-friendly cheese is the Cono cooperative which offers its milk suppliers workshops where the farmers learn how to produce milk with the lowest possible carbon footprint and the optimum animal welfare standards for the cows involved.
According to Cono this is the first programme for climate-friendly milk production in Europe. There’s more income for the farmers participating too: signing-up
for the system brings an extra 50 c/100 kg milk produced and another 50 c is added if the cows are let out for grazing.
The Caring Dairy programme was first introduced by an ice cream producer in the USA. And giving it added impetus in the Netherlands is scientific monitoring of production criteria and results by the University of Wageningen. – nd –

Rubber or multi-layered plastic mats in laying areas for feeding pigs reduce joint damage and skin scrapes, according to results from an over-1,200 feeder pig trial at the Agroscope Research Institute (ART) in Reckenholz-Tänikon. Weight gain performance was also improved on softer flooring in the trials which were carried out in insulated, ventilated barns. The feeder pigs also lay longer and seemed more relaxed on the various types of mattress.
Background to the trials is Swiss animal welfare law now demanding solid concrete flooring (and not slats) in the laying areas. Most Swiss farmers simply moved from slats to bare concrete, according to the ART researchers. Straw bedding on the concrete is required by some welfare-based meat labelling systems.
Compared were bare or straw bedded concrete laying areas with multi-layered plastic matting (foam surfaced by smooth thermoplastic), with the same multi-layered plastic matting with structured (non-skid) surfaces, or with 2.4 cm thick matting made from recycled tyres.
In one part of the trial very high daily liveweight gains were recorded from 30 kg to 100 kg slaughterweight with an average 1029 grams for pigs on multi-layered mattresses followed by 989 g for the animals on straw-bedded concrete and an average 929 g on bare concrete laying areas.  
There was a dramatic reduction in joint injuries and skin scrapes for all pigs on the softer floorings. This also led to improved performance. Counts of subcutaneous swellings on joints of pigs in the end feeding phase showed that up to 30 % of the animals on bare concrete had this problem, 20 – 25 % on straw bedded concrete but only under 5 % on the multi-layered plastic foam matting.                           – nd –

England’s Rural Development Programme (RDPE) is offering a total 4.8 billion € to help fund bioenergy production. Individual grants for heating or electricity production systems on single farms, for example, start at around 30,000 € and rise to a maximum of 300,000 € under the RDPE system. But grants can be substantially higher than this if a group of farmers or a cooperative venture is involved. Schemes that have already received RDPE grants include solar panel powered schemes for heating and cooling milk production plant and short-rotation tree crops for wood chip fuelled central heating schemes. Another 720 m € is available for supporting strategies that enable the more efficient use of energy and of resources such as water. An example of one of the biggest schemes to be grant-aided features the company Woodfuels East that plans to harvest, store and dry wood chip fuel for heating plants from around 15,000 ha of forest. This project involves long-term management of forests and the grants for offices and treatment/storage plants involved have already topped 5.4 m €. As from 2013 Woodfuels East aims to be harvesting 110,000 t of fresh timber annually for wood chip fuel capable of producing 45 MW per annum in systems that should save some 75,000 t CO2 emissions every year. – nd –

Million-dollar farms – those with annual sales of at least $1 million – accounted for about half of U.S. farm sales in 2002, up from a fourth in 1982 (with sales measured in constant 2002 dollars). By 2006, million-dollar farms, accounting for just 2 % of all U.S. farms, dominated U.S. production of high-value crops, milk, hogs, poultry, and beef.

According to a report by USDA, the shift to million-dollar farms is likely to continue because they tend to be more profitable than smaller farms, giving them a competitive advantage. Small farms (those with annual sales less than US $ 250,000) represent a large majority of U.S. farms (92 %), but account for a relatively small share of total farm production (23 %).
Million-dollar farms received only 16 % of U.S. Government payments in 2006, a small share compared with their 48-percent share of gross sales, although disproportionately large compared with their 2-percent share of all farms. The number of joint owners per farm averaged 1.5 for all farms in 2006, but 2.1 for all million-dollar farms and 2.6 for $5-million farms. Multiple-owner farms accounted for 66 percent of million-dollar farms, substantially more than the 46-percent share for farms in general. Multi-generation farms – those with at least 20 years’ difference between the ages of the oldest and youngest operators - made up a larger share of million-dollar farms (23 %) than any other  class.
What confounds critics is  that most million-dollar farms (84 %) are family farms – that is, the farmer and his relatives own the business. The million-dollar farms organised as non-family corporations tend to have no more than 10 shareholders. – mw –

Cows that get some special attention from their stockperson or milker and are not treated as just a number in the herd seem to be more content and repay their treatment by giving more milk. Researchers at the British University of Newcastle write in the journal Anthrozoos that, above all, cows that have been given their own name get more attention.
Results from several herds show an average increase of yield from these contented animals of 258 litres compared with their nameless herd mates. »Just as humans react positively to personal contact, cows are more contented and relaxed when they get more attention,« observes research team leader Catherine Douglas.

Do alternatives to the conventional CO2:O2 87:13 mix for gassing slaughter pigs offer better welfare standards? A study by the Dutch Animal Sciences Group in Wageningen shows there are only minimal differences in the anaesthetic effect when different levels of oxygen or nitrogen gas are added. From a welfare point of view the group looked at the effects of: 80% CO2 + 20% O2 ,
70% CO2 + 30% O2 , and 60% CO2 + 30% O2 + 10% N2 . Groups of six animals were gassed with the different mixes while heart function and behaviour were recorded. Addition of oxygen sometimes resulted in the animals being less short of breath before losing consciousness. This seemed to be the only recognisable welfare-positive effect of the alternative mixes. The researchers concluded that the heart beat speed was the factor probably affected most  by adding more than the usual amount of oxygen.

The US Ministry of Agriculture wants to know exactly how intensively arable farmers cultivate their fields after harvest and have recruited the help of the space agency NASA to gather satellite infra-red photographs of farmland for this purpose. This information from the »spies in the sky« allows the Agriculture Research Service (ARS) to calculate the amount of straw and stubble left on the field surface.
»When less than 15 % of the area is covered with harvest trash, cultivations have been intensive«, explains project leader Craig Daughtry. »With more than a third of the surface covered we are dealing with minimum cultivations or direct drilling. Everything in between can be regarded as reduced cultivation.«
The target of this investigation is to assess the amount of harvest trash for its possible utilisation in ethanol production whilst leaving enough behind to protect surface soil against erosion.

Can milking performance and feed intake be influenced by guiding cows more often through the robot pen? Spanish scientists have been investigating this question by comparing two systems based on milking robots. One allowed the cows to decide for themselves when they wandered from the cubicle area or the feed troughs to the milking robot. The other introduced an element of control with the cows having to go through the robot pen on their way to the feeding area. There, the animals would be milked if they had not been through the system within the previous six hours.
The study involved a total of 85 cows shared between the systems with concentrates fed in the robot milking stand supplementing a mixed ration at the troughs. In the barn with the controlled cow traffic, the cows went less often to the feeding trough although they stayed longer once there and eat more during each visit, although there was no difference between the groups concerning dry matter intake per day. And while the cows in the controlled traffic barn were on average milked more often, there was only an insignificant difference in total yields whilst protein and fat in the milk were lower with the controlled traffic system.             – kl –

Plant cellulose is converted directly into biofuel through a pioneering process from the University of California in Davis. The simple, cost-effective method mixes plant cellulose in a solution of lithium chloride and hydrochloric acid with organic solvent dichloroethane. Simmering at 65 °C for several hours and then filtering produces chlor-methylfurfural that is converted from cellulose with an 85 % efficiency. When ethanol is added this gives ethoxymethylfurfural (EMF) or 5-methylfurfural both of which can be directly used as high-energy motor fuels.
This so-called second-generation biofuel has also a large number of uses in the production of plastics, according to the US developers.

Britain still struggles to eradicate salmonella in pig herds according to the latest report from BPEX, the organisation advising pig producers and processors in Britain.
In a recent inspection, salmonella antibodies were identified in 27 % of 140,000 samples from selected slaughterhouses. But the test did not indicate if salmonella was actually present because identifying antibodies means only that sometime during the pigs’ lifetime they had come in contact with salmonella and that their immunity defence had reacted positively. Despite this, BPEX is worried by the result because it shows that the percentage of positive antibody samples has risen over the previous year despite eradication measures. One of the main reasons for this is thought to be the outdoor breeding systems popular in Britain whereby animals come in contact with a wider spectrum of pathogens compared with those in indoor systems.

Beef production in the EU reduced 1.8 %
in 2008 – and a further drop of 0.7,8 % is reckoned for this year. At the same time some countries have increased beef exports outside the EU although the union remains a net importer.

Taking some national examples of beef developments last year shows that Germany increased cattle slaughter numbers by 2 % on the year with exports increased and 1 % more domestic consumption.

Poland’s beef output edged up by 3 %, but the country remains a low consumer (4 kg/head/year) and so exports gained, a trend continuing into 2009 when veal and beef shipped outside the EU is expected to rise by 6 to 7 % while transporting live cattle abroad will drop by as much as 22 %.
French production of beef is described as stable although annual consumption last year was down by 3 %, an unusual development in a country renowned for its good appetite for beef and veal. To blame: probably the current financial crisis. There was also less (minus 2.6 %) beef leaving Spanish farms during 2008 while imports  have dropped as much as an estimated 40 %.

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Camelina is being developed in the US currently as a producer of oil for biodiesel which can be grown on relatively poor land and tolerant to both cold and drought. Helping in the next years should be a senate development grant of US$ 1 million. The aim is to take some of the heat out of the food or fuel arguments with camelina for fuel instead of its relation oilseed rape. Commercial trials in the USDA have considered the crop’s possible role in animal feed production after processing for biodiesel and found the by-product meal very useful indeed with a protein content of up to 40 %. It has been passed as animal feed by the Federal Drugs Authority and is accepted so far as a 2 %   component in pig feed.

Steve Sandroni, manager with Sustainable Oils, a company in the US developing the crop, says protein content is similar to that of soymeal but has the advantage of higher levels of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (up to 45 % of oil content) and vitamin E (110 mg/100g). In fact, North American observers say that one of the new crop’s biggest challenges as a biodiesel source will be the demand coming from the human health foods sector for the very healthy camelina oil.

The University of Wyoming has a number of farmers growing the crop although only 20 t camelina seed was harvested last year. Development this year has two big problems: the yield is low and there’s limited demand for the seed so far. Last spring camelina oilseed in Montana was selling for the equivalent of half the price of wheat which was making € 190 – 220/t. First published yields of the sand-sized grain average around 670 kg/ha.

World population has grown by 15 % in the last 12 years while grain consumption rose by 10 % in the same period. But heading the other way – downwards – is economic growth, thanks to turbulent global markets. This begs the question: will consumer purchasing power remain, despite the recession? A difficult call, because there’s never been such as deep economic crisis as the present one. But experience from the crises over the past 25 years indicates that the demand for food should remain as strong as ever.

Five percent of greenhouse gases produced globally come from cattle. But how to reduce this massive output? One idea is to transplant into cattle a sample of the microorganisms used by kangaroos for fermenting grass and other forages in their gut. These do essentially the same job as some of the cellulose-digesting organisms in a cow’s rumen, but they don’t produce any climate-damaging methane. Instead the by-products from fermentation are specialised acetates – which in the marsupials act as a further aid to digestion of forage.

Even more interesting for their application with domesticated species: the acetates are actually sources of energy for the animals thus increasing feed conversion efficiency. The Department of Primary Industries in Queensland is more than three years into practical research and development of a vaccine of kangaroo microbes to be used with cattle and sheep against methane production. »We’ve found that 50 % of the microbes we’ve isolated in kangaroos are totally different from those found in cows and sheep. Using cultures of selected microorganisms we are also looking at drenches or feed supplements to introduce them into rumens of domestic animals«, says Queensland researcher Dr Athol Klieve.

Farmers in the US are testing crop growing on long cultivated strips interdispersed with uncultivated land left fallow. For potatoes and vegetables produced in such a system the University of Wisconsin in Madison has joined with farmers and marketing groups to launch a new brand labelled »Healthy Grown«.

The strip farming is a method of integrated agriculture designed to reduce the need for plant protection. The fallow strips encourage the activities of insects and other wildlife that are predators of crop pests. The resulting potatoes and vegetables can be marketed as having been subject to minimum amounts of pesticide and so achieve a higher price in the stores.

Another advantage is that the biological diversity in the fallow strips is proving very much higher than in the surrounding cropland. Interestingly, even crop pests seeking shelter do not move in any great numbers into the neighbouring crops.

Running a 460-sow breeding herd can be very labour intensive. But Belgian weaner producer Wouter Sinnaeve from the Ardooie region reckons his 4-week system with one major task for each week has helped evolve an efficient output of around 12,000 25.5 kg pigs per labour unit per year.
•    Week 1: After weaning, the sows have three weeks before being served. »We do this on a Thursday and Friday with 100 sows in the batch allowing for something like 10 % returns«, said Wouter Sinnaeve. »This means we avoid any serving at weekends.«
•    Week 2: The whole of week is dedicated to farrowing. »The first 48 hours are the most crucial and we invest most of our man hour input during this week to see all the piglets get the best possible start«.
•    Week 3: Pens containing the weaners with average liveweight of 25.5 kg are emptied and the sheds get intensively cleaned.
•    Week 4: This week is dedicated to health care with vaccinations carried out, litters and sows prepared for weaning and all herd records updated.
The four-week rotation means farrowing pens are in more intensive use than with longer batching routines. »We have 13 farrowings per pen per year although there are disadvantages too such as less time for resting pens and the very short and intensive serving time of two days for 100 sows«, explains the Belgian pig producer.

Tapping electrons from the roots of growing plants can produce up to 14 kW electricity per hectare and hour, according to research at Wageningen University – that’s enough to supply year-round power for 28 average households.

Harvesting electrons directly is many times more efficient than producing energy from biomass, according to photosynthesis expert at Wageningen, Dr Jan Snel. This Dutch scientist is part of a team that has successfully collected continuous electricity from reed grass (Phragmites australis) – although only in relatively small amounts so far.
Behind this revolution is the development of the so-called Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell (PMFC) that collects the electrons produced by bacteria when breaking down excess organic acids and sugars exuded through root systems. The fuel cell comprises a graphite sphere (the anode) attached to roots. This passes the collected electrons to another pole, the cathode, with usable electricity the result.  
Recognised as exuding particularly high amounts of organic acids and sugars are rhizomatous aquatic plants such as the reed grass. One clump of wild reed grass at Wageningen has produced electricity continuously from its rhizome exudations for a period of over 300 days.

Greenhouse horticulture based on root irrigation is the first system that will probably be used for PMFC power production because the root systems are very accessible, being usually in simple nutrient/water troughs. »It might be possible to have horticultural crops produce energy as well as flowers and fruit«, reckons David Strik of the Wageningen University Environmental Technology Group.  »Our goal is to find the right balance.«

The plants must produce enough organic nutrients for energy production but at the same time retain sufficient to ensure healthy plants at the other end. And David Strik adds: »An important benefit of our method is that we only harvest sugars and organic acids (for power). This means the crop requires only low doses of fertiliser.«
Now European agronomists are cooperating to test the Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell application with other crops such as rice, lupines and tomatoes.                – nd –

In 2008 EU farmland growing GM crops increased by 21.2 % on the year to 107,719 ha. In fact the final total will be more than this because France is not included in the figures.  Especially marked growth occurred in Eastern Europe, according to EuropaBio, with BT-maize area in Romania increased by 20 times this year compared with 2007 to a total 7,150 ha. In Poland almost 10 times more GM crop was sown and the Czech Republic reports an increase of 67.6 % to 8,380 ha. But the country with most GM crops in the EU remains Spain with almost 80,000 ha
of BT-maize, up 5.5 % on the year. In Germany GM crop area also rose in 2008, up to
3,170 ha.

For an increasing number of Dutch farms creation of a new enterprise offers business expansion. This is one reason for the popularity of an EU-funded project launched last year offering professional help in farm diversification projects. So far, 34 workshops have been held across the country with an average 10 farmers attending each. Every workshop involves a series of meetings with supervisors from Wageningen Agricultural University and business development experts from the Dutch Farmers Union (LTO). Codenamed the »Country Impulse Project« the courses do not involve theoretical cases but concern actual diversification projects, on-going or being planned, on the participants’ farms.

Main focus is professional business development and this concerns not only establishment and expansion of direct marketing through farm shops, but includes a wide range of developments including the setting-up of camping or caravan sites on farms, opening the business for visits by the general public and even the establishing of social care facilities allowing regular visits of handicapped people with support from the local health authorities throughout the Netherlands.

»Learning by doing,« is the theme of such projects stresses Pieter de Wolf from Wageningen University who has now published a report on the project.  »We focused on strengthening market orientation of these farmers. Initially they are overly focused on developing their products and services rather than how to sell them.«
The courses have been so successful that now the Belgian Farmers Association and LTO are cooperating in a series of farm business diversification workshops in Belgium.                – nd –

The insulin-like growth promoting factor 2 gene (IGF2) in pigs has already proved to offer significant increases in ham and loin muscling but new research shows that even when the piglets are very young IGF2 influences their vitality, the suckling behaviour and resultant early growth rate.
IGF2 is inherited from the boar and can be applied in breeding programmes to increase carcass leanness as well as muscle development. After birth, though, piglets inheriting this gene can have increased development of the masseter muscle – a cheek muscle the strength of which has a direct effect on suckling performance.

Work at the Universities of Ghent and Leuven has shown that piglets so affected can have significantly increased intake of colostrum compared with those without the IGF2 mutation. The improved colostrum intake then positively influences neonatal piglet survival. Boars carrying the IGF2 gene mutation are readily identified through a simple blood DNA test.         – nd –

Lame cows can be found in practically every milk herd, but often hoof problems are not identified right away because there’s a gap between onset of disease and the first signs of lameness. A North American investigation on 140 dairy farms found average prevalence of hoof diseases to be between 16 and 28 % of herd members.
Meanwhile a study in Ontario, Canada found that 44 % of surveyed cows with no apparent lameness had, in fact, diseased or otherwise damaged hoofs. Closer inspection of the cows emphasised this discrepancy. In one herd with 518 cows, lameness evaluation on a scale from 1 (light lameness) to 5 (real difficulties in walking) identified 79 % of the cows with a 1 to 2 classification. Over the following days all the cows were examined more closely and underwent a hoof trimming session. Some of the cows classified 1 and 2 were discovered to have serious and probably painful foot problems. – kl –

Mastitis continues to prove hard to beat in the dairy herd and one possible reason for this has been discovered by researchers from the University of
Lisbon. They’ve found that bacterial pathogens working together with milk
in the udder can built a form of protective biofilm against antibiotics.
This biological protection results in bacteria being less sensitive to low doses of antibiotics and also more resistant to the natural immunity protection of the cow.
So far this bacteria-milk symbiosis has been identified with staphylococci strains against the more commonly used antibiotics including penicillin and gentamicin.
Currently the Portuguese are seeking an optimal combination of active ingredients that will suppress the formation of the protective biofilm.

A series of trials in countries including France, Spain and Japan reveal a homeopathic role for cooked rice in piglet diets. Comparing cooked rice with similarly treated barley, wheat and maize in weaner rations has shown best weight gain performance in disease-prevalent conditions from groups of piglets on rice-based rations. For example work in the Calf and Pig Research Unit at Rennes shows more resistance against colibacillosis post-weaning diarrhoea (PWC) in rice-fed weaner groups compared with groups fed with heat-treated wheat.
For the first nine days after weaning in piglet groups artificially infected with E-coli daily liveweight gain for the animals fed rice-based rations was up to three times better than those fed a wheat based ration. Where no experimental infection was introduced there was no significant difference in performances between groups. Work in Spain and Japan indicates that water-based polysaccharides in rice seem to encourage immunity against the intestinal effects of a range of pathogens such as E-coli while the polysaccharides in wheat have little or no effect.             – nd –

The EU Commission’s Prognosis Committee expects a clear reduction in pig production over the coming months. Europewide there’s been a record reduction in the sow herd of 1.25 million (minus 8.7 %) reported by 15 of the 27 member countries alone.

Germany’s central market and price reporting agency ZMP estimates the situation will lead to increased slaughter pig prices. The 15 member countries that have made returns so far have 90 % of the pig population in the EU and their 2008 census shows total pig numbers have dropped by 8.5 m or 5.6 % on the year.

Effects of the reduction have not yet percolated down to slaughter pig output where EU-27 figures for 2008 reckon on a 1 to 2 % reduction. But next year a 4 to 5 % downturn in slaughterpig numbers is expected for the first six months with output below 2008 in the second half too. A 4 % reduction over the whole of 2009 will represent 10 m less slaughter pigs or a minus of 900,000 t in carcass weight output.
The expected production gap could be filled by a reduction in pig meat exports from the EU and less consumption of pig meat in Europe.  – LL –

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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing 4.8 million $ over the next four years to support research into combatting the financial losses caused by Porcine Reproductive Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS). Currently, 60 % of the US pig herd is hit by PRRS losses with the disease estimated
to be costing the sector 580 m $ annually.
»In China and Vietnam a new PRRS strain has been discovered and we want to use this research money in finding ways to prevent this infecting the US herd,« comments Dr Gale Buchanan, US Under-Secretary for Research, Education and Economics.

By spring this year pig population in Denmark showed a 10 % drop on the previous year to 12.2 million head, says the German central market and price information agency ZMP.  This included a 92,000 drop in pregnant sow numbers with an even higher reduction of 14 % amongst piglets and growers under 50 kg. As a result, less slaughterpigs for the home and German abattoirs are now expected during the remainder of 2008 and most of next year. The margins are no longer what they were because of environmental regulations and high feed prices, say experts. Result: older farmers with smaller herds are getting out of the sector. Others are cutting back on production.

The slaughter and processing sector is also now affected with Danish Crown planning the – so far temporary – shutting down of one slaughterhouse and one processing plant by end of August 2008, along with cutting-back capacity by 40 % in another plant.

But plans are already being made on the farms for retaining more breeding gilts, reports Danish Crown. Slaughter pig production in Denmark should therefore be on the increase again towards the end of 2009.

Is there money to be made in letting farm visitors hug members of the dairy herd? Sounds crazy – but this enterprise has certainly brought the cash rolling in for the Holtrop farming family from Delfstrahhuizen, the Netherlands. Visitors can stroke the cows and give them a cuddle if they want in a 90-minute programme that costs the guests between 10 € and 12.50 € each.

Other aspects of the farm are visited too, with guests donning blue overalls and inspecting the calves and bulls and the friendly cows. At least the latter are well used to being stroked and spoiled by visits: by the end of this year the Holtrops reckon that more than 6,000 guests will have cuddled their cows.

The idea  for cow cuddling sparked-off in 2005 because so many people asked if they could see round the 140-cow herd on the 120 ha farming business.
»People wanted to get closer to the animals. The cows were here anyway so the enterprise hasn’t meant any extra costs for us«, explains farmer’s wife Minne Holtrop. Catering for the  non-farming public isn’t new to the Holtrop family: there’s already a small golf course there along with a camping ground and there are facilities for sleeping in the straw barn and for »Fierljeppen« (canal jumping) – although milk production from the friendly cows still remains the main enterprise.

Growth in annual turnover for organic farming enterprises is reaching double figures Europe-wide with Germany top of the league for domestic sales of organic produce, according to market and price reporting organisation ZMP. Bio-food turnover there rose to 5.45 billion € in 2007 representing 3 % of the entire food market.

This makes Germany the largest and, for many importers, the most important bio-market in Europe. Beating Germany for growth in this sector 2007 was only Denmark and Sweden with gains of 26 and 22 %. In most cases the large supermarket chains provide the motor for this sales success with more than 50 % of organic foods now bought in such retail outlets in 15 countries.

Only in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands do specialist organic food shops play a more important retailing role. The bio-food market is still not well developed in eastern Europe, Spain and Portugal, says the ZMP. In these countries production is aimed mainly at the export trade.

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An on-farm system for separating urea from slurry means the chemical can be used as basic material for plastic manufacture instead of the urea won conventionally from petroleum. This year a pilot project will be producing urea on a Danish farm.

The subsequent treatment to produce a white crystalline substance for plastic manufacture is already well known. Industrial-scale separation and filtration could make the system very attractive, claim the developers. Making profits from their pig manure will be a welcome change for Danish farmers where disposal of slurry can cost money nowadays. – nd –

While worldwide grain use for ethanol production continues to increase, total requirement only lies by 7% of world production. Estimates by the International Grains Council (IGC) indicate that by the end of the 2007/2008 year just under 96 m t grain had been shipped to ethanol plants, a plus of 32% on the previous year.

For 2008/2009, the German central price and market reporting agency ZMP reckons that this total will grow to 121 m t with maize grain dominating at 97% of supplies followed by small grains such as wheat, barley and sorghum that therefore play a secondary role in this market.

The US bioethanol industry is an important factor in the rapid growth. In the present financial year its maize use will be once again increased by nearly a fifth to almost 100 m t which means that a good third of the US maize harvest will flow into bioethanol plants for fuel and DGDS feed production. Bioethanol production in the EU-27 is expected to increase to 2.8 m t representing 1.8% of total grain production.

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At what times in the daily dairy routine do cows prefer to drink – and how much of the very important water intake is taken in a single session? The Journal of Dairy Science in the US reports a trial that showed daily water consumption of milking cows on a TMR diet (producing an average 26.5 kg milk daily) averaged 83.6 l with 7.3 visits to the trough over 24 hours.

Most water was taken during the feeding periods and at milking time with only a third of intake during the two hours after each milking although 75 % of the cows visited the drinking trough at least once during that period. Now scientists want to look closer at intake during different stages of the lactation.

European farmers growing energy crops could face real competition from seaweed production in the coming years, according to University of Wageningen research. There, scientists have already worked out that harvesting seaweed from just 500,000 ha of North Sea coastline could produce enough natural biomass to meet 10 % of the Netherlands‘ energy requirements by 2020.

Production strategy could involve hanging long cables in the sea between platforms. The seaweed could be grown on such cables. Mechanical harvesting systems would then lift the seaweed and deliver it on land for composting for BTL, biogas and electricity production.

Already the Dutch provinces of Zeeland and North Holland are offering research grants for two doctorates studying biomass production from both green and brown seaweeds. – nd –

Steve Mitchell from Fife in Scotland was a traditional beef producer selling meat from his Aberdeen-Angus herd at farmers’ markets. But he recognised early-on that he was just one of many good beef producers in his area marketing in this way. »I needed something different to sell from easily-managed animals. A meat that was still as tasty as beef but with maybe more high health appeal.«
Steve learned that water buffalo might be what he was looking for: easy-calving, healthy with good weight gain on forage only. In England the dark red meat was already recognised as a delicacy with fat content at least 17 % below the average for cattle beef and over 40 percent less cholesterol.
»This looked like being a meat that would give a direct marketer like myself something very attractive for our farm butcher shop and the 12 different farmers’ markets we sell at«, recalls Steve. »First buffalos were shipped onto our farm in 2005 and now we have around 140 breeding animals plus followers. We’re looking for a total of 400 head by the end of 2009.«   

Easy to manage? »You bet!« says Steve. The proof is that there’s only one full time stockman managing the buffalo herd. He adds that the buffalo seem to be immune to most cattle health problems and so far no help has had to be given at any calvings. The herd is kept outside all year round.
While female offspring are all retained for herd expansion the bulls are kept entire and raised on grazing and grass silage to about 600 kg at 30 months or so, giving a 290 to 300 kg meat carcass. The taste and wellness aspect of buffalo meat means this Scottish farmer can charge a small premium over his Angus steaks when selling direct. »But nothing much more than 10 percent.« – nd –

Clever PR with the simple message »GM sugar is safe« helped massive acceptance in the US for new varieties of GM sugar beet this year. In 2007 only around 1,000 ha of GM (Roundup Ready) beet was grown commercially on US farms. Just one year later sowings of the GM sugar crop soared to around 250,000 ha – or half the country’s total beet area, according to Ministry of Agriculture estimates.
The popularity swing for Roundup ready beet is believed to be due to a very persuasive PR programme that included analysing of a wide range of sugars and publication of results showing that crystalline sugar from GM beet was chemically no different from the conventional products.

Do the new beet varieties offer savings for farmers though? From the ecological aspect there seem to be advantages, as for instance weeds are left growing between rows of the Roundup Ready beet and then killed-off later with two Roundup sprays. This, say proponents of the GM approach, gives green cover between the rows which helps stop soil loss through erosion and water runoff with improved soil nutrient retention too. The GM seed, however, costs about double the price of conventional varieties and this year US farmers found they were paying the equivalent of around 120 €/ha for it. Farmers have still to harvest the new crop but agronomists expect a slight advantage for the GM crop in terms of income – plus the ecological gains through possible less soil erosion and nutrient loss. – nd –

Metritis is a problem in many dairy herds all over the world and this inflammation of the uterus is mainly, but not only, caused by the classic »difficult calving«

A long-term study in Scotland over fifteen years and covering 2,914 calvings
pinpointed metritis (up to 21 days after calving) or endometrium inflammation (more than 21 days after calving) cropping up after calving problems with heifers or with cows in poor body condition, after multiple births, premature calvings or difficult presentations – especially when any of these require human intervention.
Other factors often noted before metritis include afterbirth retention.  

Following the disease, timely insemination is often difficult with resultant longer dry periods or culling.
Even where the animals are safely back in calf the research indicates that dry matter intake during the first 100 days postpartum is often depressed and milking performance suffers too. – kl –

First sightings are claimed in Denmark of a wheat yellow rust (Puccinia striformis) strain that has already caused losses of up to 10 million tonnes per year in the USA.
Dr Mogens Hovmoller, Aarhus University plant pathologist says the spores have a completely different DNA profile than current European yellow rusts although so far the new rust strains screened out in Denmark seem to be ineffective against most common European wheats.
But Dr Hovmoller warns that varietal resistance is not a long-term guarantee and that only a few mutations would be needed to allow the new strain to overcome present resistance in European varieties.
Making the new yellow rust strain potentially more dangerous is its proven ability
to multiply under conditions of higher temperatures (30 ° C and above) compared with current strains. Tests in the USA have also shown that it can produce three to four times as many spores than older strains, growing much faster on susceptible wheats.

Danske Slagterier, the national organisation for pig production in Denmark, expects more inter-EU trade of pigmeat in 2008. In 2007 some 90 % (1.5 m t) of processed Danish pigmeat was exported with 600,000 more pigs slaughtered compared with the previous year. On top of this 4.9 m animals were exported live.
Among a row of factors helping Danish farmers is the high feed conversion efficiency of the Danish hybrid lines. The Danish Meat Association (DMA) presented the results of an international comparison that puts the Dutch and the Danes level at the top of this league with 2.68 and 2.69 kg feed for 1 kg liveweight gain. German pig producers managed a conversion of 2.83 : 1 while the taillights here were the USA (2.93 : 1) and Canada with 2.95 : 1.

Despite this production efficiency the Danes are struggling with low producer prices from the main slaughter cooperatives Danish Crown and TiCan. Just as with the main Danish milk processor Arla Foods, there is a danger of farmers redirecting deliveries over the German border to realise better prices. Last year 700,000 slaughter pigs (plus 150,000 cull sows) took this route for processing in Germany. Some sources say that this total could top 2 m this year.

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Higher returns are expected for starch potatoes following the opening this year of a new factory in the Netherlands to extract high value proteins from the starch. In the first year of operation the operator, Avebe daughter Solanic, expects to produce around 1 000 tonnes of food proteins with potential output increasing to around 30,000 t within five years.

Contracts have already been signed for potato protein uptake in bakeries, meat processors and the wellness drinks industry. The proteins will be made available to the pharmaceutical sector at a later date. These food ingredients are seen as viable alternatives for livestock-based proteins and, according to Solanic, offer substantial added value to starch potato processing. Among the first uses for the plant protein is replacement of egg in meringue baking and it is also being applied as a high value amino acid source in sports drinks, as replacement for milk protein in ice cream and as a hunger-suppressor in some dietary foods and drinks.

Global warming is already bringing more volatile weather patterns – even to temperate European zones. The French ARVALIS crop research institute warns that this makes accurate weather forecasting even more important for farmers and has reacted by researching a new system which uses trends over the last 30 years to predict the most likely temperatures and rainfall up to six months ahead.
The technique is called seasonal forecasting and is based on the »most likely« weather expressed as above, close to or below the average for any given period. To simplify calculation, forecasts are for much larger areas than present day weather predictions in France (200 x 200 km grids instead of 20 km squares).
Such long-term forecasts are helped by studying the so-called North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) that is based on the pressure difference between the Azores high-pressure area and Icelandic low-pressure areas. This helps predict whether northern European weather will be wetter and cooler than normal or warmer and drier. For instance predictions based on the system for December 2006 – February 2007 in parts of France were correct in forecasting temperatures above the seasonal average and the winter turned out to be the warmest for 50 years with temperatures 2.1° C above long term average.
Sea temperatures are also an important factor in seasonal forecasting. As seasonal forecasting is much more complicated for northern Europe compared with, for example, the tropics or the South Seas, specialised computation tools have to be developed first for more accuracy. – nd –

The worldwide production of poultry meat grows continuously. US estimates reckon that in 2008 this will reach 70 m t, up 2 m t on the year and 3.5 m t greater than in 2006. Largest production by far is of broiler meat with turkey only playing a role in the EU and USA.  
Producing the most poultry meat is the USA with 16.5 m t. With a domestic consumption of 14 m t (46 kg/head) this country joins Brazil in servicing almost the complete export market.
Second in total production is China with an annual 11.4 m t. With Chinese consumption expected to reach 11.6 m t poultry meat in this year (not least through the swine fever related high price of pigmeat and the coming Olympic Games) China will achieve a net import of 170,000 t poultry meat.
While Brazil is only the third largest producer with 10.5 m t, its domestic consumption of 7.5 m t means it is the largest exporter. EU-production this year is expected to be a good 8 m t with a net export of 150,000 t.

New Zealand dairy Fonterra announces that details of carbon emissions produced in dairy production  – from farm cows right through to transport around the globe and retail distribution – will be published on its product labels. Such »CO2 labelling« is also being urged by the New Zealand government to help consumers compare the emissions related to each brand.
Helping Fonterra in calculating the carbon costs is the Australian University of New South Wales and New Zealand Research Institutes »Scion« and »AgResearch«. The size of the agricultural sector in New Zealand means its share of greenhouse gas emissions is relatively high and will, according to government, be brought into international emissions trading from 2013. By that time agriculture will have to have reduced its emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 10 % compared with the 2005 figure.
Minister of Agriculture Jim Anderton says he wants to »Work closely with the (milk processing) branch to develop a practical and effective system for rewarding good environmental protection performance.«

Manitoba farmer Darrel Carlisle claims over 80  % savings in nitrogen fertiliser for his spring wheat – simply by channelling CO2, NOX and C from the exhaust of his 450 HP tractor through the pneumatic drill and into the soil along with his seed. Although he admits that in each case foliar fertiliser is later sprayed, this farmer says he used to apply the equivalent of 112 kg N/ha when drilling. Since he’s been ploughing-in all the gas from his exhaust while drilling he adds only 8 kg
N/ha at drilling and is getting the same yield as before for his hard red: an average
2.7 t/ha.
Carlisle, who with his brother and father farms 2,000 ha of cereals and oilseeds, is one of 45 large farms in Canada, the USA and Australia claiming to make substantial savings through diverting exhaust gases into the soil. They work together with a company called N/C Quest with claimed backing of scientific trials by independent laboratories.
A complex cooling system takes the gases from an initial 500 ° C at the mouth of the exhaust down to around 65 ° C before they can be safely piped into the drill tubing. Carlisle reckons he also helps keep down his carbon emissions during sowing by pumping an estimated 8 kg CO2/ha into the ground in this way.

The system is not without considerable controversy. While some experts agree that CO2, C, etc., could have some fertilising effect when pumped into the seed horizon through stimulating bacteria activity, it is pointed out that nitrogen fixing enzymes, for example, do not need extra CO2. Neither, say specialists, is the NOX from exhaust fumes readily available to growing plants. While resulting carbonic acid might release otherwise locked phosphates in the soil, these minerals still need to be
replenished by the crop
grower.
Meanwhile, farmers such as Carlisle get ready for another season of fertilising with tractor exhaust gas. »We have seen that adding carbon to the soil in this way enhances plant growth«, he concludes. – nd –

There’s probably not a country in the world that studies so hard the best ways of fostering young piglets than Denmark. This is because Danish sows farrow from 12 – 13 liveborn piglets per litter and this performance is increasing steadily by 0.3 piglets every year.

»High sow output means redistributing litters is becoming even more common«, says Dr Flemming Thorup of Danish Pig Production, the country’s support organisation for this sector. »Most at risk in big litters are the very smallest members and we find best overall performance comes from taking them away after they’ve had some colostrum at 6 to 8 hours. A collection of these young piglets is then fostered onto a newly farrowed sow.«

The aim is to keep litter numbers to between 11 and 13 piglets so where there are still surplus piglets these are removed at almost the same time and fostered onto a first or second litter sow that has a 2 – 5 day old litter. Her piglets in turn are passed on to a sow that has just weaned her litter at 21 days old.

For best results in this fostering routine the first foster sow should always be first or second litter, according to Dr Thorup. »They accept the new litter much better than older sows. Also, we’ve found that a sow at 21 days does not accept very young piglets so well but is more successful with 2 – 5 day old ones. That’s why we have introduced the two-step system.«

He points out that mortality does increase with larger litters so the extra work in two-step fostering is repaid with more live pigs weaned. Average number of pigs produced per sow per year in Danish herds is now 25 with the top 25% herds producing 27.3.

One headache for farmers adopting two-step nursing is finding room for the second foster mother – the sow that has just been weaned and been given a new batch of piglets. On most farms there’s the choice of moving the foster piglets into the pen where the sow has reared her previous litter and thus risking piglet cross infection problems – or of causing the sow stress by moving her out of her pen and into a new one.

Comparative trials by Dr Thorup and his team indicated that saving the sow stress was probably the most important route to take. Where the piglets were moved to the sow in her familiar surroundings nursing the newcomers seemed to get off to a much better start. By weaning, the foster piglets were on average 400 g heavier than piglets in the trial that had been fostered to sows moved to a new pen. – nd –

In the Netherlands so-called »agricentres« are being planned for large-scale vegetable and meat production under the same roof. In China the concept is even further advanced where a Dutch consortium is designing a single complex for synergetic growing of vegetables and rearing and slaughter of cattle, pigs and fish.
But, given planning permission, the Netherlands won’t be too far behind with the planning company Innovatienetwerk discussing a series of such agricentres. A typical development – on industrial harbour land at the Port of Amsterdam – features stylish glass pyramids for 14,000 sows and spaces for 100,000 feeding pigs. Under the same roof: poultry production, aquaculture and glasshouse vegetable crops. Feed will be delivered by ship for pelleting on-site and there’s an integrated slaughterhouse with processing of slaughter waste and manure into biogas on the spot. The biogas is then used to heat the building in winter and also the basement fish farming tanks. Feeding pigs and broilers are reared on floors between the basement and top floor glasshouses. The company gives main advantages of the agricentre approach as:

• l Low capital investment per unit;
• Synergetic gains through biogas production and use in the various enterprises. Residues used for fertilising vegetable crops;
• Tighter control of water and air emissions compared with individual farms;
• Better health and disease control through enclosed birth-to-slaughter system and on-the-spot slaughter and also ship transport of feed.    – nd –

Only 2,016 of around 545,000 farms in France are certified under the rules required for »Agriculture raisonnée« or »good farming practice«. This is far fewer than had been aimed for when the scheme was introduced five years ago.
Then, the government targeted 30% of farms to be registered. Now, the Ministry of Agriculture has pared down its expectations to »five percent of farms by 2008« as part of the programme towards sustainable production.

To help the general public become more acquainted with the principle and advantages of good farming practice the ministry’s communication strategy is being reappraised. Among other actions an improvement in the labelling of the appropriate products coming from certificated farms is suggested.    – sri –

What’s the relationship between trace element deficiency and various diseases in dairy cows? This question was addressed recently in France by a working group studying more than 10,000 dairy and suckler cows from 2,080 herds. Acting as control were 177 herds without health problems. Trace element presence was assessed by blood samples. Supply status was ranked as sufficient (A), barely sufficient (B), borderline (C) and insufficient (D).

Among the findings was that insufficient copper supply was not associated with increased disease susceptibility or fertility problems in adult animals. But with younger ones deficiency reduced growth rate and led to increased diarrhoea outbreaks and higher mortality. Herds with status B zinc deficiency showed an increased risk of mastitis, reduced milk production, placenta retention and leg and joint problems.
Zinc deficiency with calves led to diarrhoea and growth rate reduction. Where zinc concentration was under 12 mmol/l with a third of animals in the herd this indicated a herd deficiency. Herds with status D selenium deficiency ran the risk of abortions and placenta retention among other health problems.         – kl –

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Increasing effort is going into documentation of grain production in the USA and this demands ever more time and money for growers. So all the more welcome is a new crop management programme developed by the US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) promising faster input and reading of information on fields, crops and their treatments.
»iFarm Record Keeper« is the system and it can process farm management information in different formats without the farmer having to feed-in the information more than once which leads to more efficiency and less error possibilities.

The iFarm Record Keeper, developed by ARS scientist Gale Dunn and technician Daniel B. Palic in cooperation with grower group Colorado Wheat Farmers, also features an extension for rapid on-screen creation of farmland rental contracts. – nd –

Pigmeat prices in 2007 were down on the year in the six largest EU-27 production countries to which belong Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Poland and Spain. Major factors, according to the ISN Pig Producers’ Society in Germany, were expansion of pig production in most countries, levelling off of demand, the strong Euro and growing competition on the world market. Largest drop in price was in Germany with minus 15 c/kg slaughterweight (sw) while farmers in Spain faced a drop of 14 c/kg sw even although they still had the best prices in the EU. But worst prices overall were in Denmark with an average of just 1.225 €/kg sw. There, prices for contracted producers were dictated as before by Danish Crown that has nearly 90% of the country’s slaughter capacity. The ISN expects a markedly higher pig price level throughout Europe in 2008.  – st –

During the milk production year 2006/2007 1.9 million tonnes EU milk quota remained unused and in the first four months of the present production year milk deliveries are even 0.7% lower than the same period of the previous year. Should this trend continue unused quota could reach almost 3 m t by the end of the 2007/2008 period. Reasons, feel the EU Commission, include the continuing difficulty of quota transfer as well as rigid guaranteed amounts for individual countries that in some are even set fast for every region or indeed dairy. Additionally, the unused quotas are increasingly rarely taken-up by other producers with farmers taking advantage of diversification opportunities. With over 28 m t Germany has the largest quota followed by France with 24.6 m t and Britain with 14.8 m t. Since 2003 the overall quota has been topped-up by a total of 24.5 m t, mainly because of EU expansion to 27 member countries. Interesting will be the effect of a further topping-up on future milk production. – st –

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Spain’s two-year-old milk quota bank founded for efficient transfer of quotas with a fixed price to avoid speculation by dealers has completed another successful year. The national bank controls the quota price sales.  Spain’s minister of agriculture Elena Espinos reports that over 240,000 t of quota has passed into the bank from dairy farmers going out of business with 152,000 t sold on to 4,850 dairy farms at 27 cents/kg and a further 86,500 t awarded free to some 2,000 young farmers and other preferred businesses.

Scottish grain growers were the first in Europe to create an assured quality production system for grain (SQC) in 1994. Now they have also pioneered the next step in control with a national HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) system for cereal production. This covers points from harvesting through to delivery to the mill or distillery. The HACCP system is already widely used in the food sectors and in Denmark some pig producers apply the system controlling quality from breeding farm to meat processing plant.
Being introduced this year, the HACCP procedure will dovetail with HACCP schemes of major customers of Scottish growers such as millers, maltsters and distillers. Paperwork is greatly reduced in the grain growers’ programme through the creation of a generic HACCP system covering all farms instead of each grower having to create an individual system. Production is monitored with frequent on-farm tests for all procedures concerning the grain. Approved crops get an official »passport« which must accompany all grain leaving the farm.     – nd –

European farmers are much more confident about the
future. Results from the Trendmonitor 2007 conducted by the DLG and Europe’s leading agricultural market research institute Kleffmann asked respondants how sure they were that the current economic situation would have a positive effect on their businesses in the next 12 months. The percentage results are shown in the graph with average reaction (where very good is 1 and very bad 5) Hungary 3.0, UK 2.9, France and Czech Rep. 2.8, Poland 2.6 and Germany 2.5.

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Increasing light intensity in pig housing from 12 to 40 Lux does not increase the sight and orientation capacity of pigs, according to researchers at Wageningen University’s Animal Science Group. EU regulations stipulate that pigs must be kept in a minimum 40 Lux environment for eight hours daily. An increase from 12 Lux intensity to 40 costs an annual 0.40 € per place and year, estimate the researchers. They looked at the situation with 20 gilts in a pen with two automatic feeders. One feeder, marked C, was kept full while the other, O, was continually empty. The pigs very quickly recognised the situation and went only to feeder C.
The scientists then varied the lighting intensity and the size of the identifying letters and discovered that letter size was very important for the pigs’ orienteering. On the other hand the light intensity had no effect and the pigs only began making mistakes between O and C when the lighting sank below 1 Lux.

Does tackling intestinal worms in cattle have a measurable effect on milk output? To find the answer and to check if the efficancy of a treatment could be judged from recording antibodies in the milk of treated cows, Belgian veterinarians ran trials with 110 dairy herds ranging in size from 16 to 87 milkers.
On half the farms all cows received antiparasitic treatment with the other herds serving as control. Treatments were carried out in October and from August of that year until four months after the de-worming monthly samples were taken from the respective bulk tanks and analysed.

In all herds that were treated the associated antibody level in milk was lower in every sample while the amount of milk produced by the de-wormed cows was an average 1.2 kg per cow and day higher than that from the untreated herds. In the herds with the highest antibody level before treatment daily milking performance increased most significantly  by 4 kg per cow. No effects on milk composition were noted.     – kl –

With ethanol from maize booming in the United States, the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) has set 100 scientists to the task of finding new uses for the by-products of the process. This is critical because in 2006 some 10 million tonnes of dried grains from ethanol production were produced in the US Midwest alone, selling for cattle feed currently at between 85 and 110 US $/t. But ethanol production is increasing rapidly and oversupply of the dried grains is foreseen very soon.
One of the results from laboratory, greenhouse and field trials with the post-fermentation material is that it has proved very efficient at weed suppression when applied as mulch - stopping germination of, for example, chickweed seeds.
NCAUR researcher Mark A. Berhow tried the mulch on plots with young tomato plants and noted that the plants themselves were not harmed while any seeds in the soil failed to germinate. The mulch, applied as pellets, also appears to have a fertiliser effect. In one trial, tomato yield was increased by 51% compared with a plot with no mulch.    – nd –

The US-based Smithfield Foods heads the current world list of biggest pig slaughter and processing concerns. Together with its European daughter companies Smithfield has an annual throughput of 30 million pigs – more than are produced in any single year in the whole of France.  Positions two and three are filled by European concerns Danish Crown and the Dutch/German Vion conglomerate which between them process 41 m pigs a year thus almost equalling total Spanish output.
Under the global top ten (all of which slaughter over 6 m pigs/year) there are only three European concerns to be found (including the German Tönnies concern) despite Europe being the second largest producer of pig meat after China and placed a long way ahead of the US. The seven other companies all have their headquarters in North America, indicating how concentrated this sector has become there.

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