ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to verify the association of improved native grassland and winter and summer pastures on the weaning rate in beef cattle production. Subsequently, we also verified the socioeconomic and productive characteristics related to the adoption of technologies to increase the weaning rate of the farmers. The survey was conducted with 73 producers of Hereford and Braford cattle in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. A data analysis was performed using the minimum […]

ABSTRACT We aimed to determine the relationship of milk yield, milk composition, and somatic cell score (SCS) with functional traits (lameness score, udder cleanliness score, udder depth, and teat end hyperkeratosis score) and physiological status (parity and days in milk (DIM) of cows housed in compost bedded pack barn system (CBP) using multivariate analysis. Data were collected in September and October of 2017 and evaluated using factor and cluster analysis. Four factors were formed, with the first factor showing the […]

ABSTRACT We aimed to evaluate the impact of milking management practices on milk quality though somatic cell count (SCC) and total bacterial count (TBC). By means of a survey that included farmers associated to two cooperatives, namely Cosulati in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and Castrolanda in the state of Paraná, the hypothesis that milking handling practices impact SCC and TBC levels negatively, regardless of the technological development level of the farm, was analyzed. For such, the quantile […]

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to examine the structure and competitiveness of the global sheep meat market using econometric indices (Balassa’s revealed comparative advantage, relative position market [RPM], relative export advantage [RXA], imported specialization index [RMA], relative trade advantage [RTA], and net export index [NEI]), as well as sheep meat production, structure, consumption, and trade volume for 151 countries with sustained participation in the global trade market for sheep meat from 2003 to 2013. A hierarchical cluster analysis […]

ABSTRACT We analyzed the efficiency of farmers in the dairy production using cross-sectional data collected from 92 sample dairy farmers in the West Mediterranean Region of Turkey. The study used the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to measure the technical efficiency of farmers in milk production. The technical efficiency of the sample of dairy farms ranged from 0.30 to 1.00. The mean efficiency of the sample of farmers was 0.55, indicating the presence of substantial scope for improving the competitiveness of […]

ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate the determinant profitability indexes of typical dairy farms located in Brazil. The empirical sample included detailed technical and financial information of 61 Brazilian dairy farms across a longitudinal data set (10 years). Numerous technical and economic indexes were estimated, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the relationship between each index and profitability. After selecting the significant indexes, regression equations were generated to determine the relationship between each index and profitability. The results […]

ABSTRACT The objective with this study was to calculate the total cost of maize production and beef cattle in permanent pasture activities in separate production systems (conventional) and integrated systems (maize production plus beef cattle), as well as to verify economic gains explained by the economy of scope. The first step for the development of the research was to obtain field experimental data. Six experimental treatments were studied: corn grain production, beef cattle in permanent pasture, and four integrated systems […]

ABSTRACT This study was performed to determine and quantify the inherent auction factors that affect the selling price of beef calves (weanlings – from six to nine months old). Data on the selling price, location and month of the auction, genetic group, lot size live weight, and sex of animals were collected in 148 auctions from January 2004 to December 2014. A total of 4,312 lots corresponding to 48,588 calves were classified into seven genetic groups according to their phenotypic […]

ABSTRACT The objective with this study was to evaluate the impact of different swine nutritional strategies and technologies, as well as the land spread system, on logistical costs of pig manure distribution. For this, pigs were fed a conventional diet (C0) or a diet supplemented with 0.01% phytase (C1); organic minerals (40% substitution; C2); synthetic amino acids at reduced dietary crude protein levels (C3); or a combination of the three strategies (C4). All pig manure was weighed, then its chemical […]

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to compare predictive performances of different data-mining algorithms for determining factors influencing the average daily milk yield at dairy cattle enterprises of Ardahan province, located in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The algorithms employed in the present study were Classification and Regression Tree (CART), Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID), Exhaustive Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detector (Exhaustive CHAID), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS), and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). The MARS algorithm outperformed the other algorithms in the […]