The preparation of the farm transfer or farm exit is a process that starts in the consolidation stage of the farm life cycle. In this stage, the decision to transfer the farm or not is taken and the farm management is adapted to this decision. The objective of this paper is to model the...

European agriculture has been characterized by a shift in structure towards larger farms with less labour employed. Within the current article we investigate the case of Flanders, a region in Belgium, and try to define what the sectoral shifts of labour and land have been in the past. Thereby we...

The Flemish agriculture is characterised by family farms in sole ownership. Alternative business governance structures occur in only 7 % of the cases, although they have advantages on fiscal, family and property grounds. The reason why partnerships don't work in Flemish agriculture are mainly...

Modeling the farm level impact of risk management programs, policies and instruments is traditionally been done on a farm-level basis. Hence, farm simulation models typically use the behavioural assumption of profit or utility maximization is risk aversion taken into account. However, abundant...

Current thoughts on CAP changes, e.g. the "Health Check", emphasize the necessity to move away from payments based on historical receipts towards a "flatter rate" system. The aim of current research is to simulate the impact of a flat rate system (equal payments per hectare of cultivated land)...

To explain over- and underuse of available quota, Buysse et al. (2007) have integrated the shadow cost of the quota constraint in a quota flexibility function in a positive mathematical programming model. This method and central hypothesis, formulated and tested for the case of Belgian sugar...

To comply with the European Nitrate Directive, the Flemish manure policy has been elaborated mainly on the base of command and control measures (maximum fertilisation limits etc.). In literature, however, tradable permits are described as a cost efficient and effective instrument. Applied to...

In intensive animal husbandry areas surface water N and P concentrations often remain too high. The Water Framework Directive calls for additional nutrient emission abatement measures. Therefore, costs and benefits for possible agricultural measures in Flanders were first analysed in terms of...

In 2005, 30% of the Flemish farms faced a manure excess, while at aggregated level still 9.7% of the emission rights were unused. This means that, despite the various possibilities, Flemish farmers do not succeed in an effective exchange of manure between farms. In current paper is shown how...

This paper reports on the increased volatility in the milk price received by Flemish dairy farmers and its consequence on the risk profile of selected Flemish dairy farms. The volatility of the milk price has doubled since January 2007. It is suggested that this increasing volatility could have...