This thesis is a design of a sustainable family farm within the context of drastic changes is rural areas over the past century and the coming changes of the future century. The design explores the integration of farm culture, farm architecture, and farm sustainability. It uses the creative architecture to solve common farm problems. The thesis is organized into three major chapters relating to the three major areas of research; architecture precidents, context, and farming approaches, along with a design chapter. Chapter one looks at precedents for the unusual proposition of an architect designing a farm which is usually left to vernacular architecture. The farm design is related to the evolution of the villa ideology using James Ackerman. Chapter two explores the context of agriculture. It maps the historical changes due to industrialization and cheep fossil fuel energy. It continues to map the current beginnings of change due to rising energy costs and environmental concerns. These issues are expressed in the local conditions of the 150 acre site in Middlesex County, Southern Ontario. It places the thesis within contemporary issues of sustainability. Chapter three explains the design of the Woven Lea Farm. It describes the architecture of the farm as a total ecosystem design. The woven Lea Farm gets its name from the many complexities woven together and the pasture or lea rotation system which is an essential part of the design. Chapter four explores agriculture approaches and resulting technologies. It is a critique of artisanal, industrial, certified organic, and organic practices. This chapter explains the design as a hybridization of all these theories and explains many of the processes involved in the Woven Lea Farm. The design presents the agriculture environment and a critique of available practices. The design is a holistic approach including energy cycles, animal and landscape management, and passive building systems. This thesis is not only a design solution but can be used as a reference for many potential practices and creative problem solving methodologies available to farmers.

This cross-sectional study described antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in healthy pigs in 20 Alberta and Saskatchewan herds. All herds used antimicrobials; the daily probability of antimicrobial exposure was 0.8 for nursery pigs and 0.3 for grow-finish pigs. Salmonella spp. (n = 468) were isolated from nursery, grow-finish pigs and sows while <i>Escherichia coli</i> (n = 1439) and <i>Campylobacter</i> spp. (n = 405) were isolated from grow-finish pigs. <p>Fifty-nine percent of the Salmonella were pansusceptible. Isolates from sows were more likely to be pansusceptible than those from other production phases, while Salmonella from nursery pigs were more likely to be multiresistant. All Salmonella and E. coli were susceptible to ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin, drugs critically important to human medicine, while one E. coli was resistant to ceftiofur. Resistance was most common to tetracycline and sulfamethoxazole (Salmonella, 35% and 27%; E. coli, 68% and 46%). Although often considered an indicator organism, <i>E. coli</i> AMR was a poor sentinel for Salmonella AMR at the herd-level. <p>Antimicrobial resistance genes, described in 151 <i>E. coli</i>, were associated in two sets: aadA1 / sul1 / tetA and blaTEM / strA strB / sul2 / tetB. Associations between genes consistently matched associations between phenotypes suggesting phenotype data may be useful for predicting co-selection. Demonstrating dose-response relationships between various antimicrobial exposures and resistance phenotypes in E. coli reiterated the importance of co-selection. Significant predictors included exposures in other production phases and to unrelated drugs. Four <i>E. coli </i> resistance-phenotypes were associated with macrolide exposure; the most commonly used antimicrobial class in study herds. Additionally, 70% of the Campylobacter were resistant to a macrolide and this resistance was associated with macrolide exposure in nursery pigs. Study herds did not use quinolones. Despite this, 15% of Campylobacter were resistant to a quinolone. Both Campylobacter and <i>E. coli</i> AMR clustered within herds, indicating on-farm interventions could mitigate AMR in pigs.<p>This study described AMR in enteric bacteria from healthy pigs. Identifying dose-response relationships between antimicrobial resistances and exposures to unrelated drugs, and exposures of pigs in different production phases, emphasize the importance of judicious antimicrobial use in pig production.

The objectives of this study were threefold: (1) to determine a suitable model for defining the farm-retail price spread for two percent and whole milk in seven cities (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Seattle, St. Louis); (2) to discover the determinants that contribute significantly to the price spreads of two percent and whole milk in seven selected cities, and (3) to calculate the elasticity of price transmission for whole and two percent milk in the seven cities. The work of Wohlgenant and Mullen in -Modeling the Farm-Retail Price Spread for Beef" was followed in order to determine a suitable model. The two specifications considered were the markup pricing model and the relative price spread model. Factors considered to affect the farm-to-retail price spread of whole and two percent milk were the retail price for whole and two percent milk, marketing costs such as fuel and labor costs, milk production, seasonality, and structural change. Monthly data were collected over a 106 month period from January 1994 through October 2002 for the selected cities in this investigation. Principal findings from the analysis are the following. The markup pricing model was determined to be the better model for both products throughout the seven cities through the examination of the Schwarz and Akaike criteria of model selection. The driving forces of the farm-to-retail price spread for whole and two percent milk in most cites were retail price and seasonality. In addition, the price spreads in the Northeast were significantly lower before and during the implementation of the Northeast Dairy Compact compared to the period corresponding to the termination of the program. The price spreads of both whole and two percent milk were highest in the third quarter and lowest in the fourth quarter. Elasticities of price transmission, measures of the sensitivity of retail prices to changes in farm prices, were higher in all regions for two percent milk compared to whole milk. The range of the elasticities of transmission for whole milk was from 0.37 (Hartford) to 2.54 (Dallas) and from 0.39 (Hartford) to 3.66 (Dallas) for two percent milk.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-219). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 103 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 87 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-87).

Today’s farmers gut feeling and Fingerspitzengefühl comes from a learning by doing. By year 2025 farmers will have less know-how than today. Foretell supports the farmers in developing their gut feeling and lead more efficient farms. By visualising data, the system provides a comprehensive overview of the farm, both in the tractor, the barn, at the field and in the office. In the transition from running a family farm to become an entrepreneur with an own company has resulted in that the farmers need to supervise the farm’s production but also have control of external conditions. Future farmers needs to quicker become experts. Through research and user studies the system Foretell have been created. Foretell connects the data available today and displays it where it is needed and when it is suitable. The mobile application shows information on the go. While the desktop version gives the user better planning tools. A new precision farming input is added in form of a near-infra-red camera that detects the plants health. With all pieces together Foretell is bringing gut feeling to farmers!

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In North America, refrigerated semi-trailers are commonly used to transport large volume of produce. They are equipped with refrigeration and air circulation systems to provide an optimum transit enviromnent for the produce. Air circulation plays a vital role in maintaining produce temperature during transport. Its performance is greatly affected by the availability of air channels through and around the load. / This study is an attempt to evaluate the performance of the air circulation system. Air temperature data was gathered from 20 mixed loads of produce transported in trailers having a variety of accessories and using different loading patterns. Pearson correlation coefficient was used as an indicator to describe the air distribution inside the semi-trailers. The results showed that the air distribution inside semi-trailers is generally not uniform. In most cases, the areas that received little amount of airflow were the middle section along the length and width, and the middle and bottom sections along the height of trailers. The variability in the results precluded any determination of the effect of trailer accessories and loading patterns on the air distribution.