Soilborne potato diseases are persistent problems in potato production. Use of disease-suppressive rotation crops, such as Brassica spp. (mustards, rapeseed) and sudangrass, has shown potential for management of soilborne diseases and enhanced yield in various crop production systems. However, how to best implement these crops into productive potato cropping systems has not yet been determined. In this research, potential disease-suppressive crops were evaluated under four different types of production management (as a cover crop, green manure, harvested crop-residue incorporated, and harvested crop-residue not incorporated) in potato rotation field trials, and their effects on disease, yield, and economic viability determined. Mustard blend, sudangrass, and rapeseed rotations reduced the tuber disease black scurf (by 16–27 %) and increased yield (by 6–11 %) relative to a barley rotation control, but only mustard blend consistently reduced common scab (by 11 %). All rotation crops managed as green manures produced lower disease (by 15–26 %) and higher yields (by 6–13 %) than other management practices. Overall, the combination of mustard blend managed as a green manure was most effective, reducing scurf by 54 % and increasing yield by 25 % relative to a soybean cover crop. The use of mustard or rapeseed as a harvested crop with incorporation provided the best economic return, increasing net income by more than $860/ha relative to the standard barley rotation, but mustard blend grown as a green manure or non-incorporated harvest crop also substantially increased net income ($600 to $780/ha).

Management Effects of Disease-Suppressive Rotation Crops on Potato Yield and Soilborne Disease and Their Economic Implications in Potato Production

Urban growth compromises open space and ecosystem functions. To mitigate the negative effects, some agencies use reserve selection models to identify conservation sites for purchase or retention. Existing models assume that conservation has no impact on nearby land prices. We propose a new integer program that relaxes this assumption via adaptive cost coefficients. Our model accounts for the two key land price feedbacks that arise in markets where conservation competes with development: the amenity premium and price increases driven by shifts in market equilibriums. We illustrate the mechanics of the proposed model in a real land retention context. The results suggest that in competitive land markets, the optimal conservation strategy during the initial phase of the retention effort might be to use available dollars to buy fewer parcels with smaller total area that are under high risk of development. We show that failure to capture the land-price feedbacks can lead to significant losses in biological conservation. The present study is the first to create a reserve selection model that captures the economic theory of competitive land markets in a dynamic framework, produces tangible, parcel-level conservation recommendations, and works on problems with thousands of potential site selection decisions and several planning periods.

https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2011/nrs_2011_toth_001.pdf

Dynamic Reserve Selection: Optimal Land Retention with Land-Price Feedbacks

Economic evaluation of Johne's disease control programs implemented on six Michigan dairy farms

Theoretical and empirical research on farm management suggests that management practices and managerial ability affect farms’ financial performance. However, the explicit application of these conce...

Impact of management practices and managerial ability on the financial performance of aquaculture farms in Bangladesh

A contextual risk management tool, termed the Farm Risk Map, was designed for risk identification and sustainable management on farms Design criteria for the tool were that it should be relevant for farmers, holistic, systematic and easy to use The tool should be comprehensive, but it should also include a one-page summary helping in the visualization of the risks Major risk categories included in the risk map were farm assets and finance, products and production quality and people safety, as well as risks external to the farm A constructive research approach was used, incorporating extant literature, surveys among farmers and expert workshops The tool was also tested on a number of case farms Farmers were able to take a broader perspective on risk management and to prioritize risks systematically The Farm Risk Map has been used as a basis for developing new risk management software

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Frm.2011.14.pdf

Farm Risk Map: A contextual tool for risk identification and sustainable management on farms

The scope of farm management -- The farming environment -- The functions of management -- The decision process -- The farm business life cycle -- A business plan -- Strategic management -- A game plan -- Crafting a strategy -- Strategic planning -- Strategy implementation -- Strategic control -- Marketing plan -- Marketing plan components -- Historical price patterns -- General price forecasting methods -- Marketing control -- Budgeting -- General budget terminology -- Types of budgets -- Microeconomic principles for management -- Budget development -- Production and operations management -- Process mapping -- Improving the current process -- Enterprise selection -- Input supply management -- Scheduling operations -- Quality management and control -- Quality defined -- The costs of quality -- Quality management -- Process control -- Tools for process improvement -- Financial analysis -- Understanding financial statements -- Measures of financial position and performance -- Initial analysis -- Diagnostic analysis -- Financial management -- Sources and uses of capital -- Calculating loan payments -- Estimating the cost of credit -- Cash flow management -- Financial control -- Investment analysis -- The time value of money -- Investment analysis (a.k.a. capital budgeting) -- Land purchase and rental -- Purchasing land -- Land rental -- Risk management -- Sources of risk -- Managing risk -- Crop insurance -- Making risky decisions -- Scenarios for management planning -- Production contract evaluation -- Types of production contracts -- Evaluating production contracts -- A production contract checklist -- Staffing and organization -- Human and employee needs -- Human resource management -- Business organization -- The future farm manager -- Farmers' responses -- Concluding comments.

Kent D Olson

Papers

Farm management: principles and strategies