Small-scale organic vegetable farms need strategies to overcome yield, labor, and economic challenges in transitioning to reduced and no-till practices. However, the production tradeoffs associated with different scale-appropriate management practices are not well documented for these operations. We evaluated crop yields, labor, profitability, and soil nutrients over four continuous years of management in Freeville, NY. Cabbage (Y1 and Y3) and winter squash (Y2 and Y4) were managed in permanent beds under four contrasting tillage systems: conventional rototilling to 20 cm depth (CT), shallow rototilling to 10 cm (ST), no-till (NT), and no-till with tarping (NTT), in which an impermeable, black polyethylene tarp was applied to the soil surface between crops. Within each tillage treatment, we compared three mulching systems: rye mulch (RM), compost mulch (CM), and no mulch (NM), where mulches were applied annually to each crop. Crop yields did not vary by tillage, except in RM, where yields were highest in CT and reduced in ST and NT over four years. Mulch treatments were a significant driver of crop yields. When compared to NM, RM reduced crop yields in the first two years and CM increased yields after the first year. Overall, RM systems had the lowest net returns and CM returns were equivalent to NM despite greater yields. No-till consistently required the greatest pre-harvest labor investment, up to two times greater than tilled systems with NM, and the lowest net returns. Labor requirements for NTT were greater than CT but up to 41% lower than NT, and profitability was equivalent to CT. Shallow tillage performed similar to CT across yield, labor, and profitability measures, except when combined with the use of RM. Compost mulching led to dramatic changes in soil properties after four years, including a 49% increase in total soil carbon, a 31% increase in total soil nitrogen, and a 497% increase in extractable phosphorus. Small farms adopting NT practices should: 1) consider the potential tradeoffs associated with annually applied organic mulches, and 2) integrate tarping to increase the profitability of NT over consecutive production years.

The objective was to evaluate steer performance, meat nutritional value, land-use, food–feed competition and both economic and environmental sustainability within temperate pasture-based suckler weanling-to-beef systems with or without (forage-only) concentrates. Post-weaning, 8-month-old, late-maturing breed steers (333 kg) were assigned to one of three systems: (1) grass silage + 1.2 kg concentrate DM (148 days), followed by pasture (123 days) and finished on ad libitum concentrates (120 days) – slaughter age, 21 months (GRAIN); (2) as per (1) but pasture (196 days) and finished on grass silage ad libitum + 3.5 kg concentrate DM (124 days) – slaughter age, 24 months (SIL + GRAIN); and (3) grass silage-only (148 days), pasture (196 days), silage-only (140 days) and finished on pasture (97 days) – slaughter age, 28 months (FORAGE). The mean target carcass weight was 390 kg for each system. Data generated were used to parameterize a farm-level beef systems model. Concentrate DM intake was 1187, 606 and 0 kg/head for GRAIN, SIL + GRAIN and FORAGE, respectively. The forage-only (FORAGE) system offers several advantages, including improved farm profitability, enhanced meat fatty acid profile and only utilized inedible human feed. Consequently, associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per net human edible food produced were more favourable for FORAGE. However, compared to GRAIN, the FORAGE system had an older age at slaughter and associated increased pasture land-use and GHG emissions per animal, meat weight gain and essential amino acids gain. There are therefore inevitable trade-offs, as one beef system does not improve all sustainability and GHG emission metrics.

High-tunnel (HT) systems have been shown to effectively improve yields, fruit quality and profitability. In order to maximize returns on investment, HTs are frequently planted successively with both winter and summer cash crops and may include >2 crop cycles per year in some climates. The intense cultivation strategies used in HT systems necessitate increased tillage and nutrient demands posing challenges for soil health, environmental quality and long-term economic sustainability, particularly among organic growers. Seasonal rotations that incorporate fertility-building cover crops, such as legumes and other green manures, have the potential to build soil organic matter, improve crop yield and reduce applications of animal manure and/or compost. The economic impact of cover crop use in HT production systems poses important implications for organic growers. In this study, we present three partial budget analyses to quantify the economic benefits from a leguminous winter cover crop–tomato cash crop rotation in HTs across three regions. Data used in the economic analysis come from multi-year organic HT field trials in Kansas (2016–2019), Kentucky (2016–2019) and Minnesota (2016–2020). Direct financial benefits from hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) cover crop N credits were observed but not sufficient to offset the direct and indirect costs of the cover crop practice. A winter cover crop used in organic HT vegetable systems results in negative financial benefits to producers even with conservation incentive payments. These results highlight challenges for organic growers who are required under the USDA National Organic Program to incorporate soil building practices as part of their rotation schedule. The findings will also be of interest to policy makers as they refine cost-share offerings and programming to incentivize cover crop adoption as a conservation strategy.

The relationship between animal welfare at slaughter and slaughterhouse profitability is complex, with potential trade-offs between animal welfare costs and benefits. Slaughterhouses currently lack data support for decisions on investments that can improve both animal welfare and profitability. Therefore, this study mapped the economic impacts for slaughterhouse businesses of improved cattle and pig welfare at slaughter. Specific aims were to: (i) highlight the possible economic impact of animal welfare improvements, based on the scientific literature; (ii) develop an economic model demonstrating the theoretical contribution of animal welfare to slaughterhouse profitability; and (iii) validate the economic model through focus group interviews with slaughterhouse personnel in Sweden. The findings indicated that investing in animal welfare improvements could result in accumulation of an intangible asset that can be considered together with other production factors in the economic model. Model validation stressed the importance of selling by-products for the economic outcome and of smooth workflow for productivity. The study thus improves understanding of the economic impacts of animal welfare at slaughter and incentives for slaughterhouse businesses to improve animal welfare. The results are important for public and private policy-makers interested in enhancing animal welfare at slaughter.

The productivity of wheat is low on smallholder farms in Rwanda. Although mineral fertiliser use is being promoted as a sustainable intensification (SI) pathway, little is known about the nutrient use efficiency and profitability of various fertiliser inputs in Burera, Musanze and Nyamagabe districts of Rwanda. The objective of this study was to assess the use of combinations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn) and boron (B) in wheat production in terms of nutrients management specifically, crop yield, production risk, input use efficiency and economic returns on smallholder farms. The study was conducted in three wheat-growing regions of Rwanda (i.e., Nyamagabe, Musanze and Burera districts) with contrasting soil conditions. The treatments included combinations of different levels of N (0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 kg ha−1) with P (0, 7.5, 15 and 22.5 kg ha−1) and K (10, 20 and 30 kg ha−1) and the control with no applied nutrients. A diagnostic treatment composed of 90 kg N, 15 kg P, 20 kg K, 10 kg Mg, 2.5 kg Zn and 0.5 kg B ha−1 was also included. Mean grain yield and its variability, rainfall use efficiency (RUE), agronomic use efficiency (AE) of N and P and the value cost ratios (VCRs) were calculated to assess the sustainability of the nutrient rates. Across all sites, wheat grain yield and RUE increased with increase in N rates up to 90 kg N ha−1, beyond which no further increase was observed. The highest wheat yield (5.5 t ha−1) and RUE (6.6 kg ha−1 mm−1) with the lowest production risk (coefficient of variation [CV] = 20%) were recorded in the diagnostic treatment. Although the highest AEN and AEP were recorded at lower N and P levels, the CVs of VCR were high (>64%), indicating higher production risk to wheat farmers. In all cases, an optimum VCR (5.6), with the lowest CV (44.4%), was recorded in the diagnostic treatment. We conclude that application of 90 kg N, 15 kg P, 20 kg K, 10 kg Mg, 2.5 kg Zn and 0.1 kg B can guarantee a more SI of wheat production in Burera, Musanze and Nyamagabe districts of Rwanda.

Data from 1,422 feeder cattle teleauction lots were used to assess the impacts on profitability of the Virginia quality assured (VQA) feeder cattle program. The analysis finds higher profits for VQA cattle due to their faster turnover and lower feed costs; however, certification does not have a significant effect on price received by producers. The analysis further suggests that the cost associated with production under VQA should be considered in addition to price effects studied in previous literature.

Although soybean is emerging as an important commercial crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), its productivity on smallholder farms is very low. Soybean requires application of phosphorus (P) fertilizer and inoculation with the right rhizobium strains to achieve optimum biological nitrogen fixation and higher yields. However, subsistence farmers in SSA rarely invest in P fertilizers and inoculants due to lack of knowledge of their use and benefits. Most of the early reports on soybean in SSA have been based on work on research stations; hence, information is lacking on the profitability of fertilizer and inoculant use on smallholder farms in SSA. The main hypothesis of the present study was that the combined application of P and inoculants significantly reduces yield risks and increases P use efficiency and profitability compared with P fertilizer alone under smallholder farm conditions. We analyzed a data set of over 2,800 observations from on-farm demonstrations across Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Soybean yields, the partial factor productivity of P (PFPP), agronomic efficiency of P (AEP), and the value cost ratio (VCR) were significantly improved by the combined application of P fertilizer with inoculants than with P fertilizer alone. Combining P and inoculants increased yields over P alone by 17.3% in Kenya, 21.4% in Zambia, 25.7% in Ghana, 56.4% in Tanzania, and 57.1% in Malawi. However, soil organic matter was an important determinant of yield response and P use efficiency. The VCR increased linearly with increasing AEP in P + inoculant (R2 = 0.829) and less so with P fertilizer alone (R2 = 0.672). Net present values were positive in all countries, indicating that investments in P fertilizer and inoculants will generate profits over time. In order to increase uptake of fertilizers and inoculants among subsistence farmers and make soybean production more profitable, appropriate policies and market incentives need to be created.

The future of food value chains has increasingly been reliant on the wider adoption of sustainable farming practices that include organic agriculture. Organic farming in developed countries is standardized and occupies a niche in agro-food systems. However, such a standard model, when transferred to developing countries, faces difficulty in implementation. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the expansion of organic agriculture in Lebanon, a Middle Eastern context, and analyzes the economic performance of organic tomato among smallholder farmers. Accordingly, the study was able to determine the production costs, map the organic value chain and assess the profitability of organic tomato by comparing it with the conventional tomato in the same value chain. The study finds organic farming being increasingly expensive primarily due to the inherently high cost of production in Lebanon and the inefficient organization of the organic value chain. As a result, we suggest a blended approach of organic farming with other models, in particular agro-tourism, as a local solution to the sustainability of organic farming in developing countries with limited resources (land and labor) and characterized by long marketing channels. In countries such as Lebanon, a country endowed with rich cultural heritage and natural and beautiful landscapes, the agro-tourism model can harness organic farming and tourism activities. We also propose the adoption of local collective guarantee systems for organic production as a way to alleviate the costs of third-party auditing in Lebanon.

This study examines the international performance of emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) from a strategic configuration perspective. We propose that the strategic patterns of EMNEs that deliver growth and/or profitability are characterized by different configurations of environment, strategy, and managerial resource factors. Therefore, identifying and assessing strategic configurations is key to understanding EMNEs’ international performance. Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we analyze a multi-sourced dataset of Chinese firms’ outward investment and identify multiple equifinal strategic configurations that are associated with superior international performance in terms of sales growth and/or profitability. These findings inform the development of a taxonomy of EMNEs’ strategic configurations corresponding with three performance groups, namely profitable growth, profitable niche, and poor performers.

In areas where water is scarce, the use of regulated deficit irrigation, combined with decision support system tools, may decrease the impact of agriculture on natural water resources, as well as on energy consumption, thereby improving the profitability of farms. With this aim, the SUBSTOR-Potato model (incorporated in the DSSAT Program) was evaluated with a 2-year field test (2011 and 2012) conducted in a semi-arid area (Albacete, Spain) applying four irrigation levels (120, 100, 80 and 60% of irrigation requirements). Subsequently, the model was used for simulating the potato yield under several deficit irrigation strategies (ISs) during 30 years of a semi-arid climate (1988–2017) and determining the most profitable option. The considered ISs were deemed those most suitable from the yield and water productivity point of view by some authors. The model performance for tuber yield was satisfactory with an index of agreement >0.91 and errors between 0.71 and 3.06 × 103 kg/ha. The ISs simulated with SUBSTOR-Potato showed that slight deficit irrigation (5–10%) may increase the water productivity and profitability of the farms. Moreover, tuber formation (from onset of tuber initiation to harvest) was shown to be the most sensitive stage, therefore it is highly recommended to avoid deficit during this stage, which would cause a large reduction in yield (around 8 t/ha, depending on the level of deficit suffered by the crop).

The intensification of Brazil's beef cattle production system can involve different strategies to increase beef production while reducing deforestation in the Amazon biome and mitigating climate change. This study economically evaluates a cooperating beef farm in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil's Amazon biome over three crop years (2015–16 to 2017–18), transitioning from an extensive grazing system to a semi-intensive system using five sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) practices. These five practices include (1) grain supplementation for cattle, (2) pasture fertilization, (3) pasture re-seeding, (4) crop–livestock integration (CLI) and (5) irrigated and fertilized pasture that is rotationally grazed. The relative costs of these five SAI strategies used on this cooperating farm are compared. The adoption of SAI strategies increased beef productivity 5.7% (228–241 kg live-weight sold per hectare) and gradually improved net farm income by ~130% over the 3 years of transition (−US$94.79 to $29.80 ha−1). Grain supplementation (US$188 ha−1) had the cheapest cost per hectare, followed by pasture fertilization (US$477 ha−1) and pasture reseeding (US$650 ha−1). The most costly practice was in-ground irrigation of fenced rotationally grazed pasture (US$1600 ha−1) with the second most costly being CLI (US$672 ha−1). Despite adoption challenges of these SAI practices, past research confirm these five practices can increase beef productivity and profitability while reducing carbon footprint. Regardless of the cost per hectare of each practice, farmer adoption can be improved through education, support and incentives from both the public and private sectors.

The use of compost bedded pack systems (CBS) has increased over the past 5 years in tropical countries, and studies associating production traits with economical outcomes of this system are warranted. Our objectives were to evaluate productive traits, economic outcomes and the risks of losses of dairy farms that switched from a drylot system (DLS) to a CBS and to compare these with similar farms that did not change their system. We collected data from 18 farms over 36 consecutive months (August 2014 to July 2017). All farms started the study as DLS, and six farms switched to CBS in the second year. The other 12 farms kept their DLS during the 36 months of evaluation. Annual technical and economic indexes per farm were collected and calculated. Additionally, a risk analysis was performed based on a 10-year historical series of milk prices. The results were analysed using a regression model including year and herd as categorical variables (fixed), system and herd size as quantitative variables (fixed), and system × herd as a random variable. Furthermore, a non-metric multidimensional scaling plot was used to evaluate producers’ profiles in each year. Milk fat, milk total solids, and somatic cell count did not change when farms switched from DLS to CBS, and averaged 3.80%, 12.04%, and 256 500 cells/ml, respectively. However, milk protein (%) decreased in CBS farms. The majority of milk production variables were not affected. Nevertheless, farms that switched to CBS increased milk production per cow by 13.3% compared with DLS farms. Total operation costs (296 076.83 $/year) were not affected by the system, and neither were the costs of concentrates, roughage, labour or medicines. Net margin per litre (0.09 $/l), operating profit (14.95%), assets per litre (398.68 $/l per day) and return on assets (10.27%) did not change when farms switched from DLS to CBS. Net margin ($/l and $/cow) and asset turnover rate increased in CBS farms. Risk analysis indicated that the risk was reduced by 38% in CBS farms. Furthermore, our analysis showed that producers who switched to CBS had similar technical and economic indexes in the first year before switching their system. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that CBS systems might be promising for producers in tropical countries who are looking for a more productive and less risky system. We did not observe improvements in animal health as previously reported in the literature.

Using internal debates and surviving account books, this article traces the eighteenth-century history of the Norwegian glass industry, created to exploit Norway's immense natural resource wealth, and of the chartered company that would later become Norway's iconic Christiania Glasmagasin. The investors in the company, many of them among Norway's “founding fathers,” were individually responsible for its losses and it operated, remarkably, at an annual loss for nearly five decades. The article asks why, beyond the anticipation of a royal import ban on foreign glass, private investors might have continued to accept such losses. It focuses on tensions between cameralist and liberal ideologies in the creation of an important national industry, and on older (and perhaps more sustainable) ways of thinking about profitability.

In this Research Communication we analyse the animal welfare status of dairy farms located in southern Spain and test the hypothesis that monitoring of wellbeing could increase the profitability of dairy herds by improving indices of reproduction. Twenty dairy farms were visited and a total of 1650 cows were assessed using the Welfare Quality® (WQ) protocol to determine their welfare status. These farms were selected as representatives of the main types of dairy farms found in the south of Spain. No farms attained a welfare status of ‘excellent’, but all obtained an adequate score for most parameters. Feeding assessment showed relatively low variability among farms, whereas housing and health assessments exhibited high variability. Significant correlations were found between a number of welfare parameter pairings: between percentage of collisions and time needed to lie down; between cleanliness of water points and cleanliness of various animal parts; between farms with access to an outdoor loafing area and an inadequate body condition score and with animal cleanliness; between the frequency of animals lying partly or completely outside of the lying area and the percentage of integument alterations and finally between the presence of respiratory problems and farm hygiene parameters. Furthermore, significant correlations between welfare parameters, reproductive indices and milk production were found. The percentage of cows exhibiting an inadequate body condition score and farms where cows took longer to lie down were correlated with the calving-first insemination interval. Animals showing a higher incidence of coughing and hampered respiration presented lower heat detection rates and milk production and finally farms with dirtier animals had lower milk production. This study is the first step towards including welfare in the recording of routine data in dairy cattle farms in southern Spain.

Although food from grazed animals is increasingly sought by consumers because of perceived animal welfare advantages, grazing systems provide the farmer and the animal with unique challenges. The system is dependent almost daily on the climate for feed supply, with the importation of large amounts of feed from off farm, and associated labour and mechanisation costs, sometimes reducing economic viability. Furthermore, the cow may have to walk long distances and be able to harvest feed efficiently in a highly competitive environment because of the need for high levels of pasture utilisation. She must, also, be: (1) highly fertile, with a requirement for pregnancy within ~80 days post-calving; (2) ‘easy care’, because of the need for the management of large herds with limited labour; (3) able to walk long distances; and (4) robust to changes in feed supply and quality, so that short-term nutritional insults do not unduly influence her production and reproduction cycles. These are very different and are in addition to demands placed on cows in housed systems offered pre-made mixed rations. Furthermore, additional demands in environmental sustainability and animal welfare, in conjunction with the need for greater system-level biological efficiency (i.e. ‘sustainable intensification’), will add to the ‘robustness’ requirements of cows in the future. Increasingly, there is evidence that certain genotypes of cows perform better or worse in grazing systems, indicating a genotype×environment interaction. This has led to the development of tailored breeding objectives within countries for important heritable traits to maximise the profitability and sustainability of their production system. To date, these breeding objectives have focussed on the more easily measured traits and those of highest relative economic importance. In the future, there will be greater emphasis on more difficult to measure traits that are important to the quality of life of the animal in each production system and to reduce the system’s environmental footprint.