Alfalfa Harvesting System Essays

Over the next forty years, global population is expected to reach nine billion people. This increase in population, combined with expected economic growth, will cause an increase in food demanded and inevitably drain the resources we use for food production. So far, agriculture has been able to respond positively to the rising demand for crop and livestock products. However, farmers are already faced with many new challenges associated with feeding an expanding global population. Farmers must now meet strict new emissions requirements and produce more food on fewer acres while minimizing their environmental footprint. The demand for food is expected to grow substantially in the next couple decades. Some of the factors affecting an increase in food demands are population growth, rising incomes of individuals, food supply factors, and biofuels.

As this is the piece of land in which the feedlot is located there are many environmental factors and possible issues that come into play. Thus far they have done well in managing their environmental impact and sustaining the land but there are a few areas that need to be address through this study.

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that Americans like their meat. In fact, America produced 93 billion pounds of meat and poultry in 2012, which included some 32 million cattle. As many of us already know, agriculture has a significant impact on our environment in a variety of ways. In order to successfully rear livestock, slaughterhouses require large quantities of water, and emit plenty of greenhouse gases – methane and CO2 specially – during production.

Understanding the different agricultural sectors practice in Wisconsin is crucial in understanding how the drought affected the ebonies of scale. Farming practiced can be broadly placed under two categories; Livestock farming and Crop farming. The relationship between the two levels of farming, can affect one sector in terms of productivity. To illustrate this, the production of short corn dropped by 17%, this translates to 90 million bushels. Short corn is fed on milk producing livestock such as cows and so the overall implication is that milk production would be lower than the previous years (Boyes and Micheal 45).

Between conveyance, synthetic fertilizers/pesticides, and the incredible amount of energy it takes to run Concentrated Animal

The agriculture program in at full force the 10 years and growing a high yield of crops. Soybean production in 2015 totaled a record 3.93 billion bushels, up slightly from 2014. The average yield per acre is estimated at a record high 48 bushels, 0.3 bushel below the November forecast but 0.5 bushel above the 2014 yield. Corn for grain production is estimated at 13.6 billion bushels,

Due to the fact that energy cane is not a traditionally-produced crop in Hawaii and only limited data on the crop is available, energy cane production costs were estimated using adjusted banagrass production cost data per suggestion of Ogoshi (2013). Cost of production data are based on Kinoshita and Zhou (1999). The analysis considered a 25-year project period.

The energy return ratio (as food energy per fossil energy expended) of the most energy efficient factory farming of meat is 34.5%, while that of the least energy efficient plant food is 328%.

Modern day farmers are faced with many challenges in both the short term (daily life), and in the long term (season to season). These challenges range from battling Mother Nature, to staying financially afloat – and that does not take into account managing ones family and their health. Currently, the agriculture economy is very poor for farmers, in particularly wheat farmers. Many wheat farmers in this economy are having to downsize their operations just to keep their heads above water. There is a plethora of challenges facing dryland wheat producers therefore, it is imperative that wheat producers adjust their operation to minimize expenses and maximize profit. There are quite a few ways a wheat farmer can make the situation better. However, regardless of what way they chose, they need to take a step back,

Various proposals exist to eliminate and/or reduce the impact animal agriculture entails on climate change. The report released by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations suggests alternatives to the various sectors to the livestock industry. They propose better efficiency so, “...a larger portion of the energy in the animals’ feed is directed toward the creation of useful products (milk, meat, draught power), so that methane emissions per unit product are reduced.” (qtd. in Shields 363). The Humane Society International also developed some solutions the overall population can contribute to reduce climate change issues in the environment. One suggestion is promoting a higher population of people with plant-based diets in order to reduce the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The Humane Society International also ties this suggestion to an overall improvement for not only animal welfare, but public heath too. (“The Impact of Animal Agriculture” n.p.).

(2013) stated that the plant fresh weight was improved by increasing the alfalfa density per unit area. The weed non-interference provided more space to expand and grow alfalfa. As a result, the plant was able to achieve higher weight, because the presence of weeds led to competition on resources and consequently a reduction in the growth of alfalfa. Raoofi et al. (2013) and Raoofi et al. (2014) said that the weeds cause competition with alfalfa and thus reduce their fresh weight. There was also a wide range of weeds on the farm that inhibited the proper growth of alfalfa due to adsorption of resources and by shadowing in some cases. This fact is evident that yield loss enhances with increasing number of weeds (Rashed Mohassel et al., 2008). It was very clear relationship between the weighted yield and density of alfalfa. At higher densities, alfalfa was very successful in competition with weeds. The weed non-interference provided space for growing alfalfa that had accompanied its optimum growth. Generally, in terms of weed non-interference, alfalfa was able to better use of resources and conditions and caused fresh weight gain by higher

The commodity I have chosen to research is strawberries. Strawberries are a very important commodity. There are very few places on Earth strawberries do not grow. United States is the largest producer of strawberries in the world. The next highest producing countries are Spain, Turkey, Egypt and Mexico. There are two main methods for growing strawberries; the first method is hill cultivation. Hill cultivation is used in places where winter is not as cold. The plants grown this way are planted in raised hills of soil that are covered with plastic and are watered using some form of drip irrigation. The plants are usually replaced every one or two years. The second method is matted row cultivation; this takes place where winters are really cold. The plants are set into flat ground, covered with straw, and watered by sprayers. The plants in this method are only replaced every three to five years. Labor has been an issue when it comes to the production of strawberries. Many workers have complained about the poor working conditions they face. This paper will provide an overview of strawberries as a commodity, giving details

According to the graph corn produces the most energy demand and soybean is the most efficient. Because corn uses 9 billion kwh/acres it produces the most energy input and is the least favorable choice. However, Soybean regulates the least energy based on average input. When regarding the average energy yearly 54,597 kwh/yr the energy content is much lower compared to corn and canola feedstocks. The energy production of soybean accurately reflects our usage of electricity per day. The soybean is sustainable feedstock with a productive result and lower energy cost compared to corn feed stock. The results of soybean are closest to the expected energy usage , while corn is higher than the expected energy usage. While corn is a feasible

Preservation of agricultural products by moisture removal is an indispensable activity which conventionally gives longer shelf life (Esper and Muhlbauer, 1996) and lighter weight for manageable conveyance and minimal space for storage. The process of moisture removal is due to a simultaneous application of heat and bulk transport of vaporized liquid (El-Sebaii and Shalaby 2012). Sources of energy for heat application may come from electricity (El-Shiatry, Muller, and Muhlbauer, 1991) supplied by fossil fuel driven power plant or combination of any forms of energy and solar energy (Sesay and Stenning, 1996) as cited by El-Amin, Mohamed, El-Fadil, and Wolfgang (2006).

As mentioned in the previous sections, many studies explored the here presented research problem from different perspective, coming to similar as well as different conclusions. For example, authors such as Batte, 2000; Lowenberg-DeBoer, 2000; Auernhammer, 2001; Biermacher et al. 2009 also claimed PA as not feasible approach from an economic point of view, due to decreased yields or higher costs related to the use of the technologies. Other literature such as Diacono et al. 2013; Hobbs et al, 2008; Culibrk, 2014; European Parliament, 2014; FAO, 2015 corroborates our findings about tomato as presenting non-conventional farming approaches as more suitable when reducing environmental impact is the aim. Moreover, some other literature also presents environmental performances of PA approaches as controversial (Peng & Bosch, 2000 ; Sestak et al. 2014). This argument is in line with the results we have got for wheat. In the end, other