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Brexit: Wie wird es der Landwirtschaft des Vereinigten Königreichs ergehen?
Get PDFPublication history: Published - 23 August 2018.There is little doubt that Brexit would have significant implications for UK agriculture, a sector with strong trade links to the EU and strong reliance on CAP income support. This article reports preliminary results from employing a Computable General Equilibrium Model, a Partial Equilibrium Model and Farm Level Models to explore selected trade and domestic policy scenarios post-Brexit. These allow for the estimation of changes in producer prices, production and farm incomes against a baseline scenario of continued EU membership. Under a Free Trade Agreement with the EU, agricultural impacts are relatively modest. By contrast, unilateral removal of import tariffs has significant negative impacts on prices, production and incomes. Adoption of the EU's WTO tariff schedule for all imports favours net importers (e.g. dairy) and harms net exporters (e.g. sheep). Given the strong dependence of most UK farms on direct payments, their removal worsens negative impacts of new trade arrangements and offsets positive impacts. Impacts vary across different types and sizes of farm, but also regionally. However, the period of adjustment to new trade and domestic policy conditions may prove very challenging for a large number of farm businesses.This research was
funded by the Economic and Social
Research Council (ESRC) through its
‘UK in a Changing Europe’ initiative
Relationship between chemical composition of native forage and nutrient digestibility by Tibetan sheep on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 06 March 2018; Published - 02 april 2018.To better utilize native pasture at the
high altitude region, three-consecutive-year feeding
experiments and a total of seven metabolism trials
were conducted to evaluate the impact of three forage
stages of maturity on the chemical composition,
nutrient digestibility, and energy metabolism of native
forage in Tibetan sheep on the Qinghai–Tibetan
Plateau (QTP). Forages were harvested from June to
July, August to October, and November to December
of 2011 to 2013, corresponding to the vegetative,
bloom, and senescent stages of the annual forages.
Twenty male Tibetan sheep were selected for each
study and fed native forage ad libitum. The digestibility
of DM, OM, CP, NDF, ADF, DE, DE/GE, and
ME/GE were greatest (P < 0.01) from the vegetative
stage, intermediate (P < 0.01) from the bloom stage,
and least (P < 0.01) from the senescent stage. Nutrient
digestibility and energy parameters correlated positively
(linear, 0.422 to 0.778; quadratic, 0.568 to
0.815; P < 0.01) with the CP content of forage but
correlated negatively with the content of NDF (linear,
0.343 to 0.689; quadratic, 0.444 to 0.777; P ≤ 0.02),
ADF (linear, 0.563 to 0.766; quadratic, 0.582 to 0.770;
P < 0.01), and ether extract (EE, linear, 0.283 to 0.574;
quadratic, 0.366 to 0.718; P ≤ 0.04) of forage. For each
predicted variable, the prediction of DMI expressed
as grams per kilogram of BW (g/kg BW·d) yielded
a greater R2 value (0.677 to 0.761 vs. 0.616 to 0.711)
compared with the equations of DMI expressed
as g/kg metabolic BW by step-wise regression. The
results suggest that parameters of forage CP, NDF,
and ADF content were most closely related to nutrient
digestibility. Contrary to previous studies, in this
study, ADF content had a greater linear relationship
(0.766 vs. 0.563 to 0.732) with OM digestibility than
the other parameters of nutrient digestibility. The
quadratic relationship between forage CP content and
CP digestibility indicates that when forage CP content
exceeds the peak point (9.7% DM in the present
study), increasing forage CP content could decrease
CP digestibility when Tibetan sheep were offered
native forage alone on the QTP. Additionally, using
the forage CP, EE, NDF, and ADF content to predict
DMI (g/kg BW·d) yielded the best fit equation
for Tibetan sheep living in the northeast portion of
the QTPThis work was supported by the National Key Project
of Scientific and Technical Supporting (2014CB138706),
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31672472),
Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research
Team in University (IRT13019), and the 111 project (B12002)
Impact of irrigation technology use on crop yield, crop income and household food security in Nigeria: A treatment effect approach
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 20 June 2018; Published - 03 July 2018.Using household survey data from a sample of about 2305 households selected from eighteen states in Nigeria, this paper analyses the impact of irrigation technology usage on crop yield, crop income and household food security in Nigeria among smallholder farmers. The logistic regression estimate revealed that years of education, household size, rainfall information, access to credit, regional dummies are the main drivers of usage decision. The results of the linear regression with endogenous treatment effects showed that irrigation technology use is positively related to crop yield, crop income and household food security. In consistence, the impact analysis using propensity score matching (PSM) also showed a significant and positive effect of irrigation technology use on crop yield, crop income and household food security. We suggest to policy makers, implementers, and any funding agencies with similar interest to further capitalize and scale up the irrigation technology facilities, especially for the poor households, and create more awareness to improve the livelihood of rural households. However, despite the positive impact of irrigation technology use, we contend that other sustainable irrigation sources, such as rainwater harvesting should be used due to possible environmental impact in the excessive use of irrigation technology. Moreover, rained agriculture can be improved with other farming techniques such as agroforestry and soil and water conservation practices
Current situation and future prospects for beef production in Europe — A review
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 26 April 2018; Published online - 24 May 2018.The European Union (EU) is the world’s third largest producer of beef. This contributes to the economy, rural development, social life, culture and gastronomy of Europe. The diversity of breeds, animal types (cows, bulls, steers, heifers) and farming systems (intensive, extensive on permanent or temporary pastures, mixed, breeders, feeders, etc) is a strength, and a weakness as the industry is often fragmented and poorly connected. There are also societal concerns regarding animal welfare and environmental issues, despite some positive environmental impacts of farming systems. The EU is amongst the most efficient for beef production as demonstrated by a relative low production of greenhouse gases. Due to regional differences in terms of climate, pasture availability, livestock practices and farms characteristics, productivity and incomes of beef producers vary widely across regions, being among the lowest of the agricultural systems. The beef industry is facing unprecedented challenges related to animal welfare, environmental impact, origin, authenticity, nutritional benefits and eating quality of beef. These may affect the whole industry, especially its farmers. It is therefore essential to bring the beef industry together to spread best practice and better exploit research to maintain and develop an economically viable and sustainable beef industry. Meeting consumers’ expectations may be achieved by a better prediction of beef palatability using a modelling approach, such as in Australia. There is a need for accurate information and dissemination on the benefits and issues of beef for human health and for environmental impact. A better objective description of goods and services derived from livestock farming is also required. Putting into practice “agroecology” and organic farming principles are other potential avenues for the future. Different future scenarios can be written depending on the major driving forces, notably meat consumption, climate change, environmental policies and future organization of the supply chain
Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world’s continental shelves
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 23 August 2018; Published online - 8 October 2018.Bottom trawlers land around 19 million tons of fish and invertebrates
annually, almost one-quarter of wild marine landings. The extent of
bottom trawling footprint (seabed area trawled at least once in a
specified region and time period) is often contested but poorly
described. We quantify footprints using high-resolution satellite vessel
monitoring system (VMS) and logbook data on 24 continental shelves
and slopes to 1,000-m depth over at least 2 years. Trawling footprint
varied markedly among regions: from <10% of seabed area in Australian
and New Zealand waters, the Aleutian Islands, East Bering Sea,
South Chile, and Gulf of Alaska to >50% in some European seas.
Overall, 14% of the 7.8 million-km2 study area was trawled, and
86% was not trawled. Trawling activity was aggregated; the most
intensively trawled areas accounting for 90% of activity comprised
77% of footprint on average. Regional swept area ratio (SAR; ratio
of total swept area trawled annually to total area of region, a metric
of trawling intensity) and footprint area were related, providing an
approach to estimate regional trawling footprints when highresolution
spatial data are unavailable. If SAR was ≤0.1, as in 8 of
24 regions, therewas >95% probability that >90%of seabed was not
trawled. If SAR was 7.9, equal to the highest SAR recorded, there
was >95% probability that >70% of seabed was trawled. Footprints
were smaller and SAR was ≤0.25 in regions where fishing rates consistently
met international sustainability benchmarks for fish stocks,
implying collateral environmental benefits from sustainable fishing.Funding for meetings of the study group and salary
support for R.O.A. were provided by the following: David and Lucile Packard
Foundation; the Walton Family Foundation; the Alaska Seafood Cooperative;
American Seafoods Group US; Blumar Seafoods Denmark; Clearwater Seafoods
Inc.; Espersen Group; Glacier Fish Company LLC US; Gortons Seafood; Independent
Fisheries Limited N.Z.; Nippon Suisan (USA), Inc.; Pesca Chile S.A.;
Pacific Andes International Holdings, Ltd.; San Arawa, S.A.; Sanford Ltd. N.Z.;
Sealord Group Ltd. N.Z.; South African Trawling Association; Trident Seafoods;
and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Additional
funding to individual authors was provided by European Union Project
BENTHIS EU-FP7 312088 (to A.D.R., O.R.E., F.B., N.T.H., L.B.-M., R.C., H.O.F.,
H.G., J.G.H., P.J., S.K., M.L., G.G.-M., N.P., P.E.P., T.R., A.S., B.V., and M.J.K.); the
Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Portugal (C.S.); the International
Council for the Exploration of the Sea Science Fund (R.O.A. and K.M.H.); the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (C.R.P. and
T.M.); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (R.A.M.); New
Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries Projects BEN2012/01 and DAE2010/
04D (to S.J.B. and R.F.); the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University
of Tasmania and the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and
Environment, Tasmania, Australia (J.M.S.); and UK Department of Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs Project MF1225 (to S.J.)
Short communication: Development of an equation for estimating methane emissions of dairy cows from milk Fourier transform mid-infrared spectra by using reference data obtained exclusively from respiration chambers
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 1 April 2018; Published online - 9 May 2018.Evaluation and mitigation of enteric methane (CH4)
emissions from ruminant livestock, in particular from
dairy cows, have acquired global importance for sustainable,
climate-smart cattle production. Based on
CH4 reference measurements obtained with the SF6
tracer technique to determine ruminal CH4 production,
a current equation permits evaluation of individual daily
CH4 emissions of dairy cows based on milk Fourier
transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR) spectra. However,
the respiration chamber (RC) technique is considered to
be more accurate than SF6 to measure CH4 production
from cattle. This study aimed to develop an equation
that allows estimating CH4 emissions of lactating cows
recorded in an RC from corresponding milk FT-MIR
spectra and to challenge its robustness and relevance
through validation processes and its application on a
milk spectral database. This would permit confirming
the conclusions drawn with the existing equation
based on SF6 reference measurements regarding the
potential to estimate daily CH4 emissions of dairy cows
from milk FT-MIR spectra. A total of 584 RC reference
CH4 measurements (mean ± standard deviation
of 400 ± 72 g of CH4/d) and corresponding standardized
milk mid-infrared spectra were obtained from 148
individual lactating cows between 7 and 321 d in milk
in 5 European countries (Germany, Switzerland, Denmark,
France, and Northern Ireland). The developed
equation based on RC measurements showed calibration
and cross-validation coefficients of determination
of 0.65 and 0.57, respectively, which is lower than
those obtained earlier by the equation based on 532
SF6 measurements (0.74 and 0.70, respectively). This
means that the RC-based model is unable to explain
the variability observed in the corresponding reference
data as well as the SF6-based model. The standard errors
of calibration and cross-validation were lower for
the RC model (43 and 47 g/d vs. 66 and 70 g/d for the
SF6 version, respectively), indicating that the model
based on RC data was closer to actual values. The root
mean squared error (RMSE) of calibration of 42 g/d
represents only 10% of the overall daily CH4 production,
which is 23 g/d lower than the RMSE for the SF6-
based equation. During the external validation step an
RMSE of 62 g/d was observed. When the RC equation
was applied to a standardized spectral database of milk
recordings collected in the Walloon region of Belgium
between January 2012 and December 2017 (1,515,137
spectra from 132,658 lactating cows in 1,176 different
herds), an average ± standard deviation of 446 ± 51 g
of CH4/d was estimated, which is consistent with the
range of the values measured using both RC and SF6
techniques. This study confirmed that milk FT-MIR
spectra could be used as a potential proxy to estimate
daily CH4 emissions from dairy cows provided that the
variability to predict is covered by the model.The authors are grateful to their fellow researchers
with regard to collecting methane and milk samples.
The OptiMIR (INTERREG IVB North-West Europe
funded; www .optimir .eu) and the COST Methagene
(COST-Horizon 2020 funded; www .methagene .eu)
European projects are gratefully acknowledged for
facilitating networking between research teams and
data exchange. The authors thank the Walloon Breeding
Association (Ciney, Belgium) and Comité du lait
(Battice, Belgium) for providing access to data related
to the Walloon milk recording. The Association of
Swiss Cattle Breeders (Zollikofen, Switzerland) is acknowledged
for providing the milk Fourier transform
mid-infrared spectral data of the Swiss samples. Part
of the work has been funded by the EU project GplusE
(http:// www .gpluse .eu), especially research conducted
at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in
Northern Ireland, and facilitation of data exchanges.
The GplusE project has received funding from the
European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme
for research, technological development, and demonstration
under grant agreement n° 613689. The views
expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility
of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the European Commission. Research conducted at
Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) in
Germany was partially funded by the optiKuh project
supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food
and Agriculture (BMBL) through the Federal Office
for Agriculture and Food (BLE). Research conducted
in France at the French National Institute for Agricultural
Research (INRA) was funded by the French
National Research Agency (ANR) through the Joint
Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security
and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI). Global Network
program (ANR-13-JFAC-0003-01). Research conducted
in Denmark at Aarhus University was funded by the
Danish Milk Levy Fund and Aarhus University
Data Descriptor: A European Multi Lake Survey dataset of environmental variables, phytoplankton pigments and cyanotoxins
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 3 July 2018; Published - 23 October 2018.Under ongoing climate change and increasing anthropogenic activity, which continuously challenge ecosystem
resilience, an in-depth understanding of ecological processes is urgently needed. Lakes, as providers of
numerous ecosystem services, face multiple stressors that threaten their functioning. Harmful cyanobacterial
blooms are a persistent problem resulting from nutrient pollution and climate-change induced stressors, like
poor transparency, increased water temperature and enhanced stratification. Consistency in data collection
and analysis methods is necessary to achieve fully comparable datasets and for statistical validity, avoiding
issues linked to disparate data sources. The European Multi Lake Survey (EMLS) in summer 2015 was an
initiative among scientists from 27 countries to collect and analyse lake physical, chemical and biological
variables in a fully standardized manner. This database includes in-situ lake variables along with nutrient,
pigment and cyanotoxin data of 369 lakes in Europe, which were centrally analysed in dedicated laboratories.
Publishing the EMLS methods and dataset might inspire similar initiatives to study across large geographic
areas that will contribute to better understanding lake responses in a changing environment.The authors acknowledge COST Action ES 1105 “CYANOCOST – Cyanobacterial blooms and toxins in
water resources: Occurrence impacts and management” and COST Action ES 1201 “NETLAKE –
Networking Lake Observatories in Europe” for contributing to this study through networking and
knowledge sharing with European experts in the field. Evanthia Mantzouki was supported by a grant
from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) to Bas Ibelings and by
supplementary funding from University of Geneva. We thank Wendy Beekman for the nutrient analysis
and the University of Wageningen for covering the costs of this analysis from the personal funding of dr.
Miquel Lürling. We thank Pieter Slot for assisting with the pigment analysis and the University of
Amsterdam for covering the costs of the analysis through funding from the group of Prof. Jef Huisman
and dr. Petra Visser (IBED). We would like to thank the Environmental Data Initiative for covering the
cost of archiving the EMLS dataset. We would like to thank the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology
and Inland Fisheries, Dept. of Experimental Limnology and the Aquatic Microbial Ecology Group for
logistic and technical support of J. Fonvielle and H.-P. Grossart; and the Leibniz Association for financial
support. The collection of data for Lough Erne and Lough Neagh were funded by the Department of
Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland
Appropriate level of alfalfa hay in diets for rearing Simmental crossbred calves in dryland China
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 2 May 2018; Published online - 24 May 2018Objective: In dryland areas of China, alfalfa hay (AH) is a possible substitute for concentrate
feed for beef cattle. To evaluate the potential benefits of this substitution, we studied the effect
of the ratio of AH intake to total dry matter (DM) intake on average daily body-weight gain
(ADG), dietary energy utilization status, and economic benefit in Gansu province.
Methods: In each of two feeding trials in 2016 (trial 1 [T1], July 3 to 17; trial 2 [T2], August
15 to September 23), crossbred male Simmental calves were allocated to low AH (LA), medium
AH (MA), and high AH (HA) feeding groups (n = 4 per group). The target ADG was set as
1 kg for both trials. In a one-way-layout design based on conventional feeding practices in
the province, calves received diets containing the different AH amounts, with a constant ratio
of corn stover:total DM and decreasing rations of concentrate feed proportional to the increase
in AH. Calves in T1 received AH at 15% (T1-LA), 23% (T1-MA), or 31% (T1-HA) of their
dietary DM allowances; those in T2 received 9% (T2-LA), 24% (T2-MA), or 34% (T2-HA)
AH.
Results: Among the T1 groups, both ADG and economic benefit were highest in T1-LA;
whereas in T2, they were higher in the T2-LA and T2-MA groups than in T2-HA. Energy
digestibility did not significantly differ among the groups in either trial. The dietary AH inclusion ratios of 14% in the warm season and 8% to 21% in the cool season appeared to yield
optimal ADG, metabolizable energy intake, and economic benefit.
Conclusion: Low-level inclusion of AH, ranging from 8% to 21%, is a practical approach for
beef cattle feeding. This modified feeding regimen likely will promote increased growth performance during the fattening stage of beef steers in dryland areas of Gansu province, China.We thank the students of the College of Grassland Science (Lanzhou University, China) for supporting the animal experiments and the operation of respiration chambers (LZUCKY-S-DXCLZ-001), and for analyzing feed and fecal samples. This study was supported by the Marginal Region Agriculture Project of Tottori University, the National Key Project of Scientific and Technical Supporting Programs of China (2014CB138706), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31172249), Special Fund for Agro-Scientific Research in the Public Interest (201403071), and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in the University of China (IRT17R50)
Prevalence of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV), Bovine Herpes Virus 1 (BHV 1), Leptospirosis and Neosporosis, and associated risk factors in 161 Irish beef herds
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 19 December 2017; Published online - 06 January 2018.Background: There are limited data available, in Ireland or elsewhere, to determine the extent of exposure to
various endemic diseases among beef cows and factors associated with exposure to causative pathogens. The
objectives of this study were to determine the herd and within herd prevalence of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus
(BVDV), Bovine Herpes Virus 1 (BHV-1), Leptospirosis and Neosporosis in a large scale study of commercial beef
herds on the island of Ireland, and to examine herd level factors associated with exposure to these pathogens in
these herds.
Results: The average number of cows tested per herd was 35.5 (median 30). Herd level seroprevalence to Bovine
Herpesvirus-1(BHV-1), Bovine Viral-Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV), Leptospirosis and Neosporosis was 90%, 100%, 91% and
67%, respectively, while the mean within herd prevalence for the these pathogens was 40%, 77.7%, 65.7% and 5.7%,
respectively. The study confirms that the level of seroconversion for the four pathogens of interest increases with
herd size. There was also evidence that exposure to one pathogen may increase the risk of exposure to another
pathogen.
Conclusions: Herd level seroprevalences were in excess of 90% for BVDV, BHV-1 and Leptosporosis. Larger herds
were subject to increased exposure to disease pathogens. This study suggests that exposure to several pathogens
may be associated with the further exposure to other pathogens.This project was funded by a Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
FIRM grant
Variation in the Early Host-Pathogen Interaction of Bovine Macrophages with Divergent Mycobacterium bovis Strains in the United Kingdom
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 8 December 2017; Published online - 20 December 2017.Bovine tuberculosis has been an escalating animal health issue in the
United Kingdom since the 1980s, even though control policies have been in place
for over 60 years. The importance of the genetics of the etiological agent, Mycobacterium bovis, in the reemergence of the disease has been largely overlooked. We
compared the interaction between bovine monocyte-derived macrophages (bMDM)
and two M. bovis strains, AF2122/97 and G18, representing distinct genotypes currently circulating in the United Kingdom. These M. bovis strains exhibited differences
in survival and growth in bMDM. Although uptake was similar, the number of viable
intracellular AF2122/97 organisms increased rapidly, while G18 growth was constrained for the first 24 h. AF2122/97 infection induced a greater transcriptional response by bMDM than G18 infection with respect to the number of differentially expressed genes and the fold changes measured. AF2122/97 infection induced more
bMDM cell death, with characteristics of necrosis and apoptosis, more inflammasome
activation, and a greater type I interferon response than G18. In conclusion, the two
investigated M. bovis strains interact in significantly different ways with the host
macrophage. In contrast to the relatively silent infection by G18, AF2122/97 induces
greater signaling to attract other immune cells and induces host cell death, which
may promote secondary infections of naive macrophages. These differences may affect early events in the host-pathogen interaction, including granuloma development, which could in turn alter the progression of the disease. Therefore, the potential involvement of M. bovis genotypes in the reemergence of bovine tuberculosis in
the United Kingdom warrants further investigation.Recombinant TNF and IL-10 were provided under the auspices of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grants (BB/I019863/1 and BB/I020519/1) with the support of the Scottish Government as an Industrial Partnership Award with AbD Serotec (a Bio-Rad Company).
This work was supported by the European Framework 7 small collaborative project MACROSYS (FP7-KBBE-2007-1-1-2). E.J.G. was also supported by a BBSRC Strategic Programme grant (Control of Infectious Diseases [BB/P013740/1]