Purpose -For many farm families and operators across the OECD countries, off-farm income has become a major determinant of their well-being. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential role of off-farm employment as a risk management tool among farm operators. Design/methodology/approach -A two-part model is applied to a longitudinal farm-level data set for about 20,000 Canadian farms, from 2001 to 2006, in order to estimate the relationship between farm income risk and the decision to participate in the off-farm labor market and the level of off-farm employment income. Findings -The variability of farm market revenue is found to be positively related to the likelihood of off-farm work and the level of off-farm employment income, in particular for operators of relatively large farms. Hence, farm operators' production decisions appear to be conditioned on an income portfolio that includes a substantial amount of off-farm income for all sizes of farms. Social implications -These results reinforce the need to consider the portfolio effect induced by the integration of farm resources within the non-farm sector. This is particularly relevant to risk management farm policies that have typically considered decisions made in the agricultural sector in isolation. Originality/value -This paper uses a true farm-level panel data set to investigate the relationship between farm income risk and off-farm work. The size of the data set also allows the robustness of the results across farm typologies and size to be tested. This study contributes to the understanding of structural changes in the farm sector, and their potential implications for both rural and agricultural policies.

Environmental issues related to agriculture, and especially to animal production, are prominent in the regulatory agenda and are an area where the general public expects improvements. Many of the issues can be mitigated with changes in farm management practices. There is considerable potential for improvement, but before actions are recommended or mandated, it is important to document what are the current management practices and how they vary across the country and with farm size. This is the first of a series of papers that describes a large-scale livestock farm practices survey (LFPS) conducted across livestock farms in Canada, emphasizing manure nitrogen (N) management as it affects ammonia (NH3) emissions to the atmosphere. However, the survey results have much broader applicability. In this paper, the development of the survey and sampling strategy is described along with the results for the three main poultry sectors in Canada: broiler, layer and turkey. Husbandry in each poultry sector is generally uniform, but there were statistically significant regional differences in feeding practices and feed conversion efficiencies, and these imply differences in N excretion rates. Farm size was seldom significant as a covariate, suggesting that both small and large poultry farms have adopted similar husbandry and feeding practices. Key words: Manure, best management practices, emissions, odor

S. 2007. Estimation of ammonia emission episodes for a national inventory using a farmer survey and probable number of field working days. Can. J. Soil Sci. 87: 301-313. Emissions of ammonia (NH 3 ) and odor from livestock operations, and particularly from the landspreading of manure, are an issue from many aspects. Regional and national issues include production of inhalable aerosols (PM 2.5 ), where NH 3 from agriculture is a critical precursor. This process is episodic. As a result, it is important to characterize the episodic nature of NH 3 emissions. This paper addresses the fact that weather and soil conditions can focus manure landspreading into a relatively few days each year. The Versatile Soil Moisture Budget (VSMB) was used with 30 yr of weather data on 2576 soil landscape units in Canada to estimate the number of days in each month when manure spreading would be possible. In addition, a national survey of about 3100 livestock farmers was used to quantify common practice. The stochastic information from the VSMB and the survey were applied to an NH 3 emissions model. The base case, invoked by most national NH 3 emission inventory calculations, is that emissions are uniformly distributed throughout each month. The result of our study was that daily NH 3 emission fluxes could be up to 20-fold higher in the spring and fall months when manure landspreading is common but when weather and soil conditions limit the number of days available for field work. This has direct implications for estimating the role of agricultural NH 3 on the episodic production of PM 2.5 , and this approach also has application to odor management. et les odeurs que dégagent les élevages, en particulier à la suite de l'épandage du fumier, soulèvent des difficultés à maints égards. Les problèmes régionaux et nationaux comprennent la production d'aérosols inhalables (PM 2.5 ), dont le NH 3 issu de l'agriculture est un important précurseur. Ce processus est toutefois épisodique. C'est pourquoi il importe d'en préciser la nature, notamment pour les émissions de NH 3 . Cet article se penche sur le fait que les conditions météorologiques et l'état du sol concentrent parfois les activités d'épandage sur un nombre de jours relativement restreint durant l'année. Les auteurs ont appliqué le modèle VSMB (Versatile Soil Moisture Balance, bilan hydrique polyvalent du sol) à 30 ans de données météorologiques sur 2 576 unités de pédopaysage du Canada afin d'estimer le nombre de jours par mois durant lesquels on pourrait épandre le fumier. Ils ont au ssi interrogé environ 3 100 éleveurs pour quantifier les pratiques couramment en usage. Ils ont ensuite appliqué l'information stochastique du modèle VSMB et du sondage à un modèle des émis-sions de NH 3 . Le cas d'école employé dans la majorité des calculs de l'inventaire national des émissions de NH 3 suppose une répartition uniforme des émissions durant le mois. L'étude indique cependant que le flux quotidien des émissions de NH 3 peut être 20 fois plus élevé au printemps et à l'automne, périodes d...

The dynamics of entry and exit are examined across different categories of farms depending on the timing of entry and/or exit through a detailed panel data set on Canadian agriculture. The decomposition highlights the differences in the groups of farms and provides information affecting entry and exit beyond what can be inferred from net exit numbers. While aggregate values show a gradual fall in farm numbers over time and suggest a sector in decline, the decomposition reveals that approximately one-third of farms in each census are new entrants but only half of these will be in operation by the time of the next census. The results of the analysis suggest that many of the factors that increase the probability of entry also increase the probability of exit; smaller operations, producing vegetable/horticulture goods, located in more densely populated regions, are more likely to enter the sector but also to leave farming. Multigeneration involvement and a possible succession plan also contribute to the longevity of the farm operation after it has been launched. The results also highlight the decline of the mid-size operations and the growing importance of large farms in the overall share of production.

No abstract