LECTURE 30- Sustainable Modern Agriculture

by what percentage does food production need to increase, to feed the pexpanding population

 food production will need to increase by 50%

how much of the land is habitable

71%

how much habitable land is used for agriculture

50%

how much agricultural land is used for livestock

77%

how much global protein supply is from meat and dairy

37%

how many animals are slaughtered each year for meat concumption

around 80 billion

what livestock products take up the most land and the biggest contributors to GHG emissions

1. lamb and mutton

2. beef

3. cheese

4. pig meat

5. poultry meat

6. milk

what is the goal for livestock production

leveraging advances in technology to drive better productivity, to have improved efficiency of production

(more production on the same, or reduced land area)

what animal improvements can be made to genetics and breeding

1. improved genetics

2. reproductive efficiency (e.g sheep twinning rates)

3. biotechnology

what animal improvements can be made to nutrition and growth

1. diet formulation

2. FCE/nutrient utilisation

3. animal metabolism

what animal improvements can be made to animal welfare

1. intensive farming that still promotes animal welfare

2. housing and painful procedures

3. surplus offspring

how does sheep twinning improve efficiency

• Selectively breeding ewes to successfully give birth to two lambs can reduce number of breeding ewes required

• Half the the number of ewes are required to produce the same amount of lamb

what are three welfare and ethical issues in agricultural production

1. Responsibility to the welfare of farmed animals vs wild animals

2. ethics of farming

3. surplus offspring

what are by-products in the dairy industry

Bobby calves

what’s the ethical issue about bobby calves

taken from farms too young to be sold as veal (day they’re born), resulting in calf deaths

what changes resolved the issues around bobby calves

1. changing definition of veal to rose veal

2. calves have to be minimum 4 days old before leaving farm

3. increasing dairy-beef crossbreeds- creates surplus offspring with value as meat

4. more bobby calves reared for beef

what’s the ethical issues for sheep/goat surplus

1. sheep/goat industries produce lots of surplus offspring

2. young are slaughtered at a young age for pet food or lower value meat

3. dairy sheep and goats don’t have meat quality characteristics

how many male chicks are disposed annually in NZ

3 million

W\What are the two welfare approved methods of chick disposal

1. maceration/instant fragmentation: killed in a blender instantly

2.  CO2 gassing: suffocating offspring

how can technology be integrated into agriculture

helps with precision agriculture (determining disease patterns, estrous patterns, etc.). Means you need people in the agricultural industry that understand both technology and agriculture/farming knowledge

what percentage of annual freshwater withdrawals is from agriculture

70%

how much ocean and freshwater contamination is from agriculture

78%

what methods improve irrigation efficiency and reduce environmental impacts?

precision irrigation and fertilizer application

how does precision agriculture improve efficiency?

Different wave lengths of light interact with chemical bonds to create spectral graphs that determine how much of something (nitrogen, fibre, etc,) is in pastures, using spectral profiles

• often used in nutrition to estimate chemical compositions of plants

what different on-farm technologies are there

C-dax, GPS and accelerometer technology, and greenhouse technology

how does c-dax work

Technology to attach to vehicles to measure pasture mass and pasture covers without a driver

how does GPS and accelerometer technology work

Electric ID collars for cattle with GPS and accelerometry, ad solar panels to prolong battery life.

Useful for big properties and invisible fencing, and measuring animal behaviours

how does greenhouse technology work

Absorbent hydrogel put on glass to recapture water from humid environment. Reuses water and increases crop yield

what percentage of GHG emissions is produced by the enrgy sector

73%

what percentage of GHG emissions are from agriculture, forestry and land use

18%

what percentage of GHG emissions comes from food production

26%

what future farming systems can make agriculture more sustainable

• Developments in technology

• Changing environment/climate

• Changing regulations/policies