In the beef cattle industry, sustainable beef production is a primary focus, as it has direct effects on environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and public concerns. Research has been and is continually being conducted to evaluate alternative forages such as Brown Midrib Corn Silage (BMRCS) as a major component in growing beef cattle diets, to improve animal performance, ruminal fermentation, and economic returns. The objective of this study was to determine growth performance, ruminal fermentation characteristics, and economic returns of growing beef steers when fed a brown midrib corn silage-based TMR (BMRT) compared with a conventional corn silage-based TMR (CCST). This growing beef study was performed in a completely randomized design with 24 Angus crossbred steers (initial body weight (BW) = 258 ± 23.2 kg) to test 2 treatments: CCST vs. BMRT. All animals were placed in individual pens, and 12 animals allocated to each treatment (n = 12). All steers were adapted to the CCST for a 2-wk period prior to start of the trial. The CCST contained 48.1% CCS whereas the BMRT consisted of 49.0% BMRCS on a dry matter (DM) basis. All steers were fed once per day, and feed bunks assesed each afternoon and prior to morning feeding, which was used to determine the amount of feed to deliver to each pen the following day. The experiment lasted 84 d. For all steers, BW and ruminal fermentation characteristics were measured on wk 4, 8, and 12. Intake of DM averaged 9.54 kg/d across the treatments and was similar between the treatments. Steers fed the BMRT tended to increase average daily gain (ADG) compared to those fed the CCST (1.54 vs. 1.42 kg/d; P = 0.09). In addition, feeding the BMRT tended to increase G:F compared with the CCST (0.165 vs. 0.146; P = 0.07). Feeding the BMRT decreased ruminal pH (6.42 vs. 6.67; P < 0.01), whereas it increased total VFA concentration (P = 0.01) compared with the CCST. Feeding the BMRT decreased molar proportion of acetate (P < 0.01), but increased propionate proportion (P = 0.01), resulting in decreased acetate-to-propionate ratio compared with the CCST (P < 0.02). Steers fed BMRT increased feed margin (P = 0.05) and net return (P = 0.02) compared to those fed CCST throughout the trial. Overall data in this study indicate that feeding the BMRT to growing beef steers enhanced ruminal fermentation and beneficially shifted VFA profiles, which contributed to improved growth performance and economic performance of steers fed the BMRT.

This study provides an environmental and economic analysis of the ability to reduce potential nitrogen loadings to water bodies through the implementation of nutrient management plans on livestock farms. Study results indicate that nutrient management plans do result in significant reductions while maintaining or increasing farm income. Nutrient management plans on the four case farms reduced mean nitrogen losses by 23 to 45 percent per acre while increasing net farm income from $395 to $7,249. While reducing excess nitrogen applications with the implementation of nutrient management plans achieved significant reductions in potential nitrogen losses, further reductions may be achieved through farm level planning. After achieving initial reductions through the elimination of excessive nutrient applications, variation in application rates of organic and inorganic fertilizers across soils may become important in achieving further reductions in nitrogen loss. Study results suggest that it may be beneficial to apply higher rates of manure on soils and slopes less susceptible to nitrogen losses in order to reduce applications elsewhere. Increased nutrient losses on such fields may be more than offset by reductions on soils more susceptible to nutrient losses. Linear programming results for the Shenandoah Valley Dairy show that nitrogen losses could be reduced up to 44 percent below pre-plan losses with no impact on farm net economic returns. However, if nitrogen loss restrictions were instituted beyond this level, the impact on farm income increases significantly. After-plan nitrogen losses can reduced up to 52 percent, but farm returns decrease by 56 percent. / Master of Science

The aim of this study is to explore ways to maximise the economic returns of road infrastructure investment. In order to achieve this objective, the study was divided into five parts involving the following: analysing the nature of road infrastructure, determining the relationship between road infrastructure investment and economic development, considering aspects of economic modelling, developing a formula of road investment, and refocusing road investment practices. In the first part the characteristics of road infrastructure are examined and the demand and supply approaches to road investment outlined. The focus is on the balanced approach versus the unbalanced approach to infrastructure investment. The second part analyses the causal relationship between road investment and economic development. Four components are highlighted, namely the investment component, the network-performance component, the transport economic component and the economic development component. The third part analyses the applicability of modelling techniques. In the fifth part, the formula of road investment and economic development is focused on four markets. Finally, it is argued that road infrastructure investment must be refocused. The following was found: Road infrastructure investment must be demand led. This is because of the characteristics of roads, namely their indivisibility, long gestation period, lumpiness and high cost. Road infrastructure investment can only realise economic development if the four causality components are complied with simultaneously. Input-output modelling is preferred in South Africa. The modelling strategy developed in this study is recommended for transport economic studies. The probability of economic returns of road infrastructure investment is a function of the real estate market, the land development market, the urban economic market and the infrastructure market. An agenda for reform in the road investment industry was also proposed. The study clearly identifies the relationship between road infrastructure investment and economic development, and the proposed formula is an appropriate tool for a first-order priority system. / Transport Economics, Logistics and Tourism / D. Com. (Transport Economics)

The aim of this study is to explore ways to maximise the economic returns of road infrastructure investment. In order to achieve this objective, the study was divided into five parts involving the following: analysing the nature of road infrastructure, determining the relationship between road infrastructure investment and economic development, considering aspects of economic modelling, developing a formula of road investment, and refocusing road investment practices. In the first part the characteristics of road infrastructure are examined and the demand and supply approaches to road investment outlined. The focus is on the balanced approach versus the unbalanced approach to infrastructure investment. The second part analyses the causal relationship between road investment and economic development. Four components are highlighted, namely the investment component, the network-performance component, the transport economic component and the economic development component. The third part analyses the applicability of modelling techniques. In the fifth part, the formula of road investment and economic development is focused on four markets. Finally, it is argued that road infrastructure investment must be refocused. The following was found: Road infrastructure investment must be demand led. This is because of the characteristics of roads, namely their indivisibility, long gestation period, lumpiness and high cost. Road infrastructure investment can only realise economic development if the four causality components are complied with simultaneously. Input-output modelling is preferred in South Africa. The modelling strategy developed in this study is recommended for transport economic studies. The probability of economic returns of road infrastructure investment is a function of the real estate market, the land development market, the urban economic market and the infrastructure market. An agenda for reform in the road investment industry was also proposed. The study clearly identifies the relationship between road infrastructure investment and economic development, and the proposed formula is an appropriate tool for a first-order priority system. / Transport Economics, Logistics and Tourism / D. Com. (Transport Economics)

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This dissertation interrogates the deficit assumptions about English proficiency of skilled immigrants who were recruited by Canadian governments between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Through the lens of literacy as social practice, the eighteen-month ethnographic qualitative research explores the sequential experiences of settlement and economic integration of seven well-educated Chinese immigrant professionals. The analytical framework is built on sociocultural approaches to literacy and learning, as well as the theories of discourses and language reproduction. Using multiple data sources (observations, conversational interviews, journal and diary entries, photographs, documents, and artifacts collected in everyday lives), I document many different ways that well-educated Chinese immigrants take advantage of their language and literacy skills in English across several social domains of home, school, job market, and workplace. Examining the trans-contextual patterning of the participants’ language and literacy activities reveals that immigrant professionals use literacy as assistance in seeking, negotiating, and taking hold of resources and opportunities within certain social settings. However, my data show that their language and literacy engagements might not always generate positive consequences for social networks, job opportunities, and upward economic mobility. Close analyses of processes and outcomes of the participants’ engagements across these discursive discourses make it very clear that the monolithic assumptions of the dominant language shape and reinforce structural barriers by constraining their social participation, decision making, and learning practice, and thereby make literacy’s consequences unpredictable. The deficit model of language proficiency serves the grounds for linguistic stereotypes and economic marginalization, which produces profoundly consequential effects on immigrants’ pathways as they strive for having access to resources and opportunities in the new society. My analyses illuminate the ways that language and literacy create the complex web of discursive spaces wherein institutional agendas and personal desires are intertwined and collide in complex ways that constitute conditions and processes of social and economic mobility of immigrant populations. Based on these analyses, I argue that immigrants’ successful integration into a host country is not about the mastery of the technical skills in the dominant language. Rather, it is largely about the recognition and acceptance of the value of their language use and literacy practice as they attempt to partake in the globalized new economy.

This dissertation interrogates the deficit assumptions about English proficiency of skilled immigrants who were recruited by Canadian governments between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Through the lens of literacy as social practice, the eighteen-month ethnographic qualitative research explores the sequential experiences of settlement and economic integration of seven well-educated Chinese immigrant professionals. The analytical framework is built on sociocultural approaches to literacy and learning, as well as the theories of discourses and language reproduction. Using multiple data sources (observations, conversational interviews, journal and diary entries, photographs, documents, and artifacts collected in everyday lives), I document many different ways that well-educated Chinese immigrants take advantage of their language and literacy skills in English across several social domains of home, school, job market, and workplace. Examining the trans-contextual patterning of the participants’ language and literacy activities reveals that immigrant professionals use literacy as assistance in seeking, negotiating, and taking hold of resources and opportunities within certain social settings. However, my data show that their language and literacy engagements might not always generate positive consequences for social networks, job opportunities, and upward economic mobility. Close analyses of processes and outcomes of the participants’ engagements across these discursive discourses make it very clear that the monolithic assumptions of the dominant language shape and reinforce structural barriers by constraining their social participation, decision making, and learning practice, and thereby make literacy’s consequences unpredictable. The deficit model of language proficiency serves the grounds for linguistic stereotypes and economic marginalization, which produces profoundly consequential effects on immigrants’ pathways as they strive for having access to resources and opportunities in the new society. My analyses illuminate the ways that language and literacy create the complex web of discursive spaces wherein institutional agendas and personal desires are intertwined and collide in complex ways that constitute conditions and processes of social and economic mobility of immigrant populations. Based on these analyses, I argue that immigrants’ successful integration into a host country is not about the mastery of the technical skills in the dominant language. Rather, it is largely about the recognition and acceptance of the value of their language use and literacy practice as they attempt to partake in the globalized new economy.