Had we used the conventional method for identifying farm types, i.e. classification based on farm size or income sources of the farm, the diversity of farming systems would have been grossly underestimated.
Tracebacks have been important in identifying farms associated with outbreaks and in tracing the spread of S. Enteritidis.
This study focused on identifying farm-level parameters associated with cattle movements, which could be used to classify Swiss farms for targeted surveillance of contagious diseases.
Contagious diseases often spread from farm to farm in a sequential way and in contact tracing, both backwards and forward tracing is important, i.e. identifying farms from which infected animals may have come, and identifying farms which may have received infected animals.
A complicating factor in this study was the difficulty in identifying farms where both positive and negative pigs of the target age were present, since an 'all-or-nothing' effect was apparent on many farms.
It is imperative to identify farming systems that support biodiversity.
My host, from whom I had hoped to identify farming opportunities, said, "Today, with China buying all the soybeans we can produce, the first thing I'm doing is moving my cows to lower-quality scrub land.
Four categories of risk factors were identified; farming, dusts and fumes, gardening, and other.
Most TBAs were married, identified farming as their primary occupation, and had worked as TBAs for an average of 6.3 years.
"The report itself identifies farm size, scale and integration into global trade chains as major factors influencing conditions for wage workers, but then its conclusions appear to be based on unfair and distorted comparisons between farms and organisations of dramatically different size, nature and means.
