RESILIENCE IN DAIRY FARM BUSINESSES; TO BOUNCE WITHOUT BREAKING
Journal Title: JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN AGRICULTURE - Year 2017, Vol 7, Issue 3
Abstract
New Zealand dairy farmers face an increasingly turbulent business environment. To cope with a turbulent environment, they need to have resilient farming systems that have the capacity to better deal with volatility. The main purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of what resilience means for dairy farming and to determine how it might be measured. Resilience can be described as buffer capacity, adaptability and transformability with increasing degrees of change required with each. The research for this paper focused on buffer capacity, the ability of a farming system to bounce without breaking, and carried out rigorous statistical analysis of the DairyBase database to identify resilience surrogate measures. Of the three attributes of buffer capacity the PCA method identified that the dominant attribute was resistance (both technical and financial efficiency), the less dominant were precariousness (solvency) and latitude (liquidity) attributes. In conclusion, the farms that were able to demonstrate both short-term optimization and long-term adaptability were those that were neither low input nor high input pasture based farms. They had farming systems that were able to both respond to favourable and unfavourable conditions to improve or protect results respectively; they displayed the flexibility to bounce and not break.
Authors and Affiliations
Nicola Shadbolt, Femi Olubode-Awosola, Bvundzai Rutsito
Design and Simulation of Liftable Crawler Chassis for Combine Harvester
Aiming at the needs of field operations in different deep mud, a liftable crawler chassis based on the connecting rod arm mechanism was designed, including the chassis upper frame, lifting mechanism, hydraulic cylinder,...
Evaluation of 14 Accessions of Amaranthus cruentus for Production of Early Vegetative Yield
The present study was conducted to identify cultivar(s) of Amaranthus cruentus with the ability for production of vegetative yield within a short period of growth. A total of fourteen accessions of Amaranthus Cruentus we...
A study on pre-retting and post-retting water of waterbodies from a selected area of Bangladesh
The study was conducted to analyze the pre and post-retting water of five randomly selected ponds regarding the parameters viz. BOD5, COD, TSS, TDS, TKN, TP, CI, PH, Ec PH, and EC. BOD5 (ranging from 110 to 215 mg/l and...
Impact of Elicitation by Methyl Jasmonate and Ethephon on Cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) Protection Against Fusarium Oxysporum F. Sp. Vasinfectum
The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of methyl jasmonate and ethephon on cotton against Fusarium wilt. As well, cotton plants were treated in the field by methyl jasmonate (MeJA), ethephon (ETH) and the...
Effect of Silver Nanoparticles on Seed Germination of Crop Plants
Engineered nanomaterials have increased for their positive impact in improving many sectors of economy including agriculture. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been implicated nowadays to enhance seed germination, plant...