Farms systems are open to financial systems. Financing matters. Analysis of questions about management of farms is a multi-dimensional task; focusing on economic efficiency only partly does the job. A financial system channeling funds efficiently from the non-farm sector to the farm sector,...

The ‘openness’ of farming systems that is the focus of this paper is ‘open to information’, in particular the way that new information from the farming systems research project, Dairy Directions, flows from research outputs to dairy farmers. Dairy Directions is a multidisciplinary...

In this study, the possible impacts of different prices of carbon on farm profitability in two dairy farm businesses with different feeding systems operated over five years were analysed. The feeding systems were a ryegrass pasture-based system (RM) and a complementary forage-based system (CF)....

The capacity of farmers to adapt their businesses and adopt management practices that improve environmental outcomes varies greatly from case to case. Factors influencing this include the state of the farm business and its resources, the extent of the environmental problems, condition of native...

The decision to invest in pasture improvement raises various questions for the livestock grazier, with the most pertinent being about the potential returns and risks. In the high rainfall zone of south-west Victoria, researchers have trialled novel perennial pasture systems with the aim of...

A range of options for utilising additional land on a dairy farm in the high rainfall area of Gippsland were analysed. The aim was to determine if additional land may assist the owners/operators in maintaining or increasing profit in the medium term (5-10 years). Historical trends have been...

Clearing of trees and native vegetation over the past 160 years has led to increasing rates of dryland salinization in the Goulburn-Broken Catchment area. In its dryland section, within the Goulburn Highlands, South West Goulburn, and the Broken Highlands subcatchments, hydrologic balance...

This study uses a farm in the Victorian Mallee over the period 1998 2005 to analyse whole-farm profitability and risks of investing in Precision Agriculture and Site-Specific Crop Management systems. To answer the research questions, a model to predict yield under PA management is developed to...

Models of technical parts of farm systems have proliferated over the past decade. In this paper, the difference between the decision-information deriving from the farm management economic analysis that is included in a technical systems model, and the results derived from analysing the technical...