Alfalfa Harvesting System Essays

This conservation plan has been put together to identify any soil, salinity, fertility, water, grazing and manure management issues that Cattleland Feed yards might have and to make recommendations on how to improve them. The goal is to make the land owner more informed and knowledgeable of the beneficial management practice and get them to commit to improving them. This will need to be done in a realistic and financially manageable way.

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

In the treatments without weed control, all weeds stayed with alfalfa until the end of sampling without any control. To increase the accuracy in weed control, hand weeding was done on average every three days, as well as alfalfa density was examined; and with further growth of the density of lateral branches, alfalfa density was determined. On average, irrigation was put on the agenda to avoid farm wilting about every 3 to 6 days and almost after every hand weeding. Samples were taken to determine the traits expressed in the first and second cutting. In any cutting, with 40 percent of farm flowering, plant sampling from the soil surface was carried out by fixed quadrants (considering 50 cm from both sides of each plot as margin). The first cutting harvest was done in the second week of June and the second cutting was harvested in the third week of July. The fresh samples taken from each plot were weighted and their areas were determined by leaf area meter. The samples were dried in the oven at 74°C for 48 hours to calculate the dry

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

Corn was first used to feed cattle after the second World War, when there were large surpluses and prices were low, but the price has risen since from $1.30 in 19468 to around $5.00/bu9 today. According to Dr Richard Watson, chief scientist at Hart farms, confinement farms that use corn and grain as feed have costs in the range of $17-18/cwt and rely heavily on subsidies, such as the margin protection subsidy10. Comparably, Dr Watson says, grass-fed dairy farms run costs of $12/cwt. The operational costs of confinement farm dairies, that are higher than that of pasteur dairies, and Hart is a prime example of this, having developed a unique adaptation of the New Zealand grazing model, which enables Hart to be a cost leader by up to 50%11.

Silage rations can benefit the growth of calves through their growing age. Providing the protein and energy needed is an important issue to consider. Many individual will argue that having cattle on a hay ration is better than a silage ration. Hay is a roughage, cattle cannot consume enormous amounts of roughage at one point. Silage is better ration, because of the protein it has to offer, therefore it has a better affect on their growth, and makes it easier for the cattle to digest.

For the harvesting costs, it should be noted that the original cost values from Kinoshita and Zhou (1999) assumed standard sugar cane billet-harvester system. Machinery and labor are included under this assumption. The "other" costs under harvesting category refer to costs for transporting energy cane from farm to conversion facility (e.g. from harvesting area to highway haulers or beyond). It includes cost of transporting equipment and

In the first and second cuttings, the dry weight was affected by the weed non-interference and plant density (Tables 1 and 3). The weed non-interference significantly increased dry weight of alfalfa and it could have a direct impact on dry yield. In general, we saw an increase in dry weight of forage by raising the density, but there was no significant difference between 40 and 60 stems per square meter (Table 9) though the trend was on the rise. Elevated density per unit area was directly related to the dry weight, and the highest dry weight yield was obtained at density of 80 stems per square meter; hence, the appropriate planting density is very noteworthy. The researchers have considered repeatedly the importance of determining the appropriate density of alfalfa planting and other crops (Raoofi and Giti, 2015). The results of combined analysis showed that the fresh weight and dry weight were under the influence of cutting, hand weeding and plant density (Table 5). In general, the space was provided for the success of alfalfa forage crop through the weed control, by more favorable taking advantage of resources and conditions and by overcome the

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,

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

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,

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.).

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

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).