Farmers and futurists ponder how to feed 9 billion people inhabiting Earth by 2050

With an estimated 9.3 billion people expected to populate the planet by the year 2050, finding a way to feed them is one of science and agriculture’s greatest challenges.
In 2011, the United Nations (UN) predicted that the earth’s population, currently over 7 billion, will increase to 9.3 billion by the year 2050. Dr. Rick Foster, W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair for Food, Society and Sustainability

Fertiliser: How Much Is In Each Bale?

A huge cost to farmers growing forage, fertilser is a nonetheless vital expense which has trebled per ton of dry matter produced since 2002, writes Dennis Hancock, Extension Forage Specialist at the University of Georgia.

What do you see when you look at a bale? Certainly, many would say it is a source of feed for our livestock. Others see a commodity that is sold to their customers. These are

Quarter Horse Racing More Dangerous Than Thoroughbred Racing

University of California Davis researchers say jockeys and the quarter horses they race are more likely to suffer injuries than their thoroughbred-racing counterparts.




The researchers found the rate of jockey injuries per thoroughbred start is about a tenth of one percent. The rate of injuries for quarter horse starts is almost twice that.
Peta Hitchens is a post-doctoral candidate at the

Aumentar producción de cerdo mexicano en 50% llevará una década

En las condiciones actuales en que se desarrolla la porcicultura mexicana, aumentar la producción de cerdo en 50%, como proyecta la Sagarpa, representaría inversiones superiores a 10 mil millones de pesos y se llevaría, por lo menos, una década, calculó el experto en porcicultura Francisco Javier González Padilla.
Para lograr el crecimiento mínimo que proyecta la dependencia del 40 por ciento,

Tiny Doses of Bile Acid May Blunt Preemie Liver Disease

Giving premature babies small doses of a bile acid might help the newborns avoid a liver disease, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA) physiologist Douglas G. Burrin and his colleagues.
In a preliminary study with newborn piglets as the animal model, Burrin and his co-investigators showed that the bile acid CDCA (chenodeoxycholic acid) helped combat parenteral nutrition-associated

Technology Makes Dairy Operations More Efficient and the Cows Like it Too

Automatic milking systems are becoming popular on Minnesota farms as evidence of improvements in both production and cow well-being persuade farmers to invest in precision dairying, say staff at Minnesota state University.
Technological innovation covers a broad area and capable of changing the way milk is produced across a whole state.
"Precision dairy is the name used to describe several

Old Fashioned Milk Separator

Milk separator in dairy lab of the University of Florida agricultural college. January 9, 1913. Photo source: State Library and Archives of Florida.




(Note that Thursday is Luddite Photo Day at B.P.A.)