Human capital is an important resource in primary production impacting on farmers’ decisions and actions. Given their current and expected economic environment, farmers must use their human capital in mapping out a trajectory for their farm. This study considers particular aspects of farmers’ human capital and its influence on farm growth, or lack of it. Farmers’ characteristics as expressed through their personality, intelligence and objectives are the main human capital aspects considered in a sample of smaller NZ dairy farms. They are somewhat typical of western farmers working on smaller farms. They can be broadly classed into Expanders, Maintainers and Retractors. It is hypothesised each group will have distinct and different personal characteristics and these influence the farmers’ choice of trajectory. This is in addition to purely economic factors. It is also hypothesised the characteristics influence the farmers’ choice of development strategy and how challenges to the strategy are viewed. The data collected from the small dairy farms support the hypotheses suggesting the design of policy and extension programs must allow for these human capital drivers. Using past data, it is also shown aspects of human capital are different in large farms emphasising the same conclusion.
Freshwater resources around the world are under increasing pressure from agricultural activities. As a result, regulatory frameworks around on-farm environmental compliance have become more complex. Consequently, farm plans which have been used in New Zealand to identify risks to and develop mitigation strategies for freshwater quality can be time consuming and costly to develop and monitor. Using semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the views of the regulators working in environmental policy and implementation on the use of drones to increase the efficiency of on-farm environmental compliance. Results show that drones can improve process robustness by providing an aerial view, and that they are quicker and safer to use on steeper contoured farms. However, there is confusion around the permissions required in order to capture footage, its ownership and storage, and who has access rights to the footage. This ambiguity in the implementation of environmental regulations can lead to uncertainty on the part of policy implementors around how to integrate drones in on-farm environmental compliance. In addition, positive relationships between farmers and compliance officers are needed in order for the benefits of drone use to be realised for on-farm environmental compliance purposes.
Soil acidity combined with low levels of key nutrients on New Zealand hill-country farms are limiting factors for legume establishment/growth. However, legumes are a critical component of these farms as they provide nitrogen and high-quality feed. A farm-systems model was developed to estimate the impact of targeted fertiliser and lime application, combined with sowing clover, on whole-farm productivity and profitability. A base model was developed that incorporated 17 years’ worth of Beef + Lamb NZ survey data for Class 1: South Island Farms. This base model was then used investigate two lime-application/oversowing models where part of the modelled high-country farm was targeted for improvement: (1) Conservative, i.e. 0.6% farm area; and (2) Aggressive, i.e. 2.8% farm area. Three scenarios to utilise the additional pasture grown were then investigated for each model by: (a) increasing ewe numbers; (b) increasing ewe performance (lambing percentage); and (c) increasing liveweight gain of stock. Scenario 2a, generated the highest profitability level (Earnings before Interest Tax and Rent, EBITR $58,870) above the base model but became less financially attractive when the two years required to build the maternal ewe flock were factored in. Scenarios 2c and 1b generated increases in profitability (EBITR) between $33,310 and $41,290 above the base model. Variation in product prices, production levels and time to develop the final farm-management system would also influence the productivity and profitability of the scenarios. Environmental aspects, infrastructure and staff availability would affect the suitability of the development for individual farming businesses.
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