Technical efficiency, the ratio of physical inputs to outputs, is a popular means of assessing agricultural performance. Benchmarking of these efficiencies is a fundamental tool for the farming industry. More sophisticated techniques have been developed recently which offer a greater degree of...

This paper reports results from two workshops held in York, England that investigated public attitudes towards the welfare of broiler chickens. At the outset the majority of participants admitted that they knew little about how broiler chickens are reared and were shocked at some of the facts...

Since decoupling of the CAP, many Scottish suckler cow farms are facing financial difficulties. In response, many farmers are out-wintering extensively managed suckler cows to minimise production costs. These systems are of animal welfare concern. A range of trade-offs between animal welfare...

Technical efficiency, the ratio of physical inputs to outputs, is a popular means of assessing agricultural performance. Benchmarking of these efficiencies is a fundamental tool for the farming industry. More sophisticated techniques have been developed recently which offer a greater degree of...

In this paper Occupational Alternative Ratios (OAR) are applied to the 2003 employment survey data from Shetland to measure dependency on whitefish in individual communities as an alternative to traditional measures of fishing dependency, such as fishing employment and fisheries contribution to...

Animal welfare presents particular policy challenges. Good welfare provides private productivity benefits to producers and some level of positive external benefits to people who care about animal welfare status. In enacting welfare legislation and setting regulatory standards, government needs...

Traditionally the evaluation of animal genetic traits has focused primarily on production traits and the construction of selection indices. Selection indices, however, fail to consider the effect of management practices and the environment on productivity. Non-production traits are either...

Data from each of 5 commercial, extensive sheep farms in Cumbria, UK were used as parameters in a linear program (LP) representing labour and grazing management in such farming systems. The LP maximised ewe enterprise gross margin subject to constraints dictated by the labour availability and...

An epidemiological model is described that closely mimicked results of a published serological study of natural transmission of Maedi-Visna virus in a low ground flock of sheep. We adjusted parameters in the model from this baseline to explore the possible implications for the control of...