Economics of Extensive Livestock Flashcards
1
Q
A
- 26%
- of all the land that doesn’t have ice pretty much!
2
Q
A
- 33% (a third)
3
Q
Facts between Livestock and Land
A
4
Q
Extensive Livestock Systems
A
- don’t need to put a lot of labor (input) into them
- but in return they have low outputs
5
Q
A
- plenty of grass
- but also very large grass - issue because these animals may have very little benefit from the soil due to lack of exposure to grass
6
Q
A
- only have bushes
- hard to do anything, hard to grow crops
- these animals in this kind of system are more in survival mode
7
Q
Extensive Livestock and Resources
A
- requirement to have forage and water
- may have competition for this by using land for something else or inheriting it for example and splitting up parts of land with vital resources
- ex: lambing season requires a lot of labor
8
Q
Resource Demand
A
- cattle are still fed with brewers grains quite often
9
Q
Extensive Livestock System and Underutilised Systems
A
10
Q
A
- these animals in ecuador can still meet nutritional needs if given the proper feed and nutrition, but just will grow at a slower rate
11
Q
Resource Allocation - Hill areas, Upland areas, lowland areas
A
- Hill areas- difficult to have any crop, really can only have sheep
- Lowland: good climate, good grass, easy to have crop and have farm animals
12
Q
A
13
Q
A
- hills and upland areas basically
14
Q
A
15
Q
A
- good grass and nutrition for animal
16
Q
A
17
Q
A
18
Q
A
19
Q
Niches and Livestock Systems
A
20
Q
A
- Farms will only spend about 5-7% of available finances on veterinary services!
21
Q
A
- feed/forage and labor are about 40%
- cost towards vets is still quite low
22
Q
A
- If animals are not fed well, they will not be efficient eaters
- need labor to look over these animals
- even though vets are a small amount of the cost, they make a HUGE impact with the little bit they do and advice they give for the farm
23
Q
Things to Remember about Cost Structure
(vet services and Medicines)
A
24
Q
Cost Structure - Advice
A
25
Q
Cost Structure - Awareness of Business
A
26
Q
Forage
A
- there is a plateau in growth
- nutritional value starts to decrease after the peak growth ( the growth slows)
- want to make sure to time the consumption of grass ideally for the farmer
27
Q
A
- in winter, there is not sufficient grass, they will not be able to grow and often lose weight
- farmers will try and minimize that by giving supplementation
- this is why we have srping lambing systems (when the grass is good!)
28
Q
Management of Grazing
A
- you just need to be aware of this for each farm as it affects animal health
- store cattle/lambs: not able to gain weight (maybe in bad region) so we need to keep them extra amount of days to get them to gain weight
29
Q
A
31
Q
Breeds for wool and finishing
A
- movements from pure breeds to more mixing
32
Q
Water
A
- compare required water for each animal
33
Q
A
- need to know how to catch and contain all this water
- getting difficult with climate change- this catching system becomes quite critical!
34
Q
What goes into the Gross Margin
A
- variable costs are what are short term changes (change in feed, etc.)
- fixed costs are those that cannot change
35
Q
A
variable costs can include costs of managing the land
36
Q
A
- 37 gbp per ewe
37
Q
A
- labor is a fixed cost, as is rent, infrastructure
- not taking these in, farmers are on average taking in 37gbp per ewe
- the herd size varies!
- You need to have a very large herd size to even have enough income to satisfy the farmers needs let alone other costs
38
Q
A
39
Q
A
- will have these tables for every year
- help you prepare farmers for changes in costs
- there will be varied costs depending on the time of year and this will as a result change the worth of the individual animals (weight loss/gain)
- Brexit will have a huge effect on the exhange rate
40
Q
The impact of a Health Problem
A
- Need to look at diseases
- Want to bring the curve as high as possible
- You will still get losses with some control
41
Q
Economic Logic for Investment
A
- want to target the AVOIDABLE losses
42
Q
Intervention and Avoidable Losses
A
- avoidable losses over the years can get bigger
- ex: worm burden
43
Q
Losses due to worm burden
A
- weight they cen get if they are worm free v. if the avoidable loss due to worm burden is not taken out
44
Q
Losses from Acute Problems
A
45
Q
A
- intensive systems have higher demand for vet intervention (especially if they are more prone to diseases)
