Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2017
Authors
Klaus Mittenzwei Stefan MannAbstract
Purpose Outside farming, pluriactivity is generally considered as undesirable, whereas agricultural economists tend to recommend part-time farming. This contradiction is to be solved. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach Linking tax-payer and statistical farm-level data from Norway, the authors tested how profitable part-time farming is for Norwegian farm households. Findings The analysis showed that concentrating on either working on-farm or off-farm generates a higher household income than combining the two. Practical implications Part-time farming may be a lifestyle decision, but apparently is not economically optimal for most farms. Originality/value The contribution solves an apparent contradiction between the discourses inside and outside agriculture.
Authors
Arne Henningsen Tomasz Gerard Czekaj Björn Forkman Mogens Lund Aske Schou NielsenAbstract
We propose a theoretical framework for the relationship between animal welfare and the economic performance of livestock farms. We empirically analyse this relationship based on a unique dataset of randomly sampled Danish pig herds that includes information from unannounced inspections of the compliance with the animal welfare legislation. We find large variations in economic performance and animal welfare. The relationship between these two indicators is rather weak, but tends to be slightly positive. A possible explanation for our results is that management has a major influence on both economic performance and animal welfare so that good farm managers are able to meet all animal welfare regulations, while achieving a high economic performance.
Abstract
Area-efficient constructed systems for stormwater management and bioretention may involve large fluc-tuations in subsurface water levels. Such fluctuations challenge vegetation by forcing roots to exploredeeper layers to access water during dry periods. In a controlled experiment, we studied growth pat-terns and the ability of Phragmites australis roots to track subsurface water level fluctuations of differingamplitude and frequency in substrates with contrasting water-holding capacity. We found that P. aus-tralis was able to adjust its rooting pattern to considerable subsurface water level fluctuations (to wellbelow 120 cm), but that substrate characteristics can restrict its ability to adjust to larger fluctuations.Fluctuation amplitude was the driving factor for plant growth and biomass allocation responses, whilesubstrate characteristics and fluctuation frequency were less important. When not exposed to large waterlevel fluctuations, P. australis grew larger shoots and only explored intermediate rooting depths. Therewas a negative relationship between root and rhizome biomass, showing a resource-based trade-off andshort-term costs of adjusting rooting patterns to large water level fluctuations. These results indicatethat P. australis is suited for systems with considerable subsurface water fluctuations, but constraints onits flexibility need to be investigated.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Large herbivores gain nutritional benefits from following the sequential flush of newly emergent, high- quality forage along environmental gradients in the landscape, termed green wave surfing. Which landscape characteristics underlie the environmental gradi-ent causing the green wave and to what extent landscape characteristics alone explain individual variation in nutritional benefits remain unresolved questions. Here, we com-bine GPS data from 346 red deer (Cervus elaphus) from four partially migratory popula-tions in Norway with the satellite- derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), an index of plant phenology. We quantify whether migratory deer had access to higher quality forage than resident deer, how landscape characteristics within sum-mer home ranges affected nutritional benefits, and whether differences in landscape characteristics could explain differences in nutritional gain between migratory and resident deer. We found that migratory red deer gained access to higher quality forage than resident deer but that this difference persisted even after controlling for land-scape characteristics within the summer home ranges. There was a positive effect of elevation on access to high- quality forage, but only for migratory deer. We discuss how the landscape an ungulate inhabits may determine its responses to plant phenol-ogy and also highlight how individual behavior may influence nutritional gain beyond the effect of landscape.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Anja Karine Ruud Susanne Skinnehaugen Windju Andrea Ficke Jon Arne Dieseth Timothy L. Friesen Morten LillemoAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Bjørn Egil FløAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Jogeir N. StoklandAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Geir-Harald StrandAbstract
No abstract has been registered