Browsing by Author "Shadbolt N"

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    Organizational structures of agriculture cooperatives in China: Evidence from the green vegetable sector
    (Elsevier B.V., 2024-06-19) Liu Y; Garnevska E; Shadbolt N
    China's agriculture cooperatives are playing a pivotal role in promoting rural development and boosting farmers’ income. As a result of the rapidly changing external environment, diverse types of cooperatives have emerged. However, a comprehensive understanding of the organizational structures, including ownership, control, and benefit rights, of different types of cooperatives, is limited. This study analyzes the organizational structures of two types of cooperatives in China: entrepreneur-led cooperatives and government-led cooperatives. Qualitative methodology was used in this study, including semi-structured interviews with four green vegetable production cooperatives in Shandong province. Results reveal the structural differences between these two types of case cooperatives. Despite the shared ownership, control, and benefit rights among members, entrepreneur-led cooperatives are characterized by the dominance of core members in capital contribution, control rights, and dividend distribution; whereas government-led cooperatives distribute those rights more equally among all members. The findings in this study present a more comprehensive landscape of the organizational structures of China's cooperatives. Empirically, it demonstrates how cooperatives can evolve and vary across laws and cultures, even within the same legislative background. Additionally, it offers crucial insights for these cooperatives to develop and sustain long-term vitality.
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    The Deviation between Dairy Cow Metabolizable Energy Requirements and Pasture Supply on a Dairy Farm Using Proximal Hyperspectral Sensing
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-03-12) Duranovich F; Lopez-Villalobos N; Shadbolt N; Draganova I; Yule I; Morris S
    This study aimed at determining the extent to which the deviation of daily total metabolizable energy (MEt) requirements of individual cows from the metabolizable energy (ME) supplied per cow (DME) varied throughout the production season in a pasture-based dairy farm using proximal hyperspectral sensing (PHS). Herd tests, milk production, herbage and feed allocation data were collected during the 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 production seasons at Dairy 1, Massey University, New Zealand. Herbage ME was determined from canopy reflectance acquired using PHS. Orthogonal polynomials were used to model lactation curves for yields of milk, fat, protein and live weights of cows. Daily dietary ME supplied per cow to the herd and ME requirements of cows were calculated using the Agricultural Food and Research Council (AFRC) energy system of 1993. A linear model including the random effects of breed and cow was used to estimate variance components for DME. Daily herd MEt estimated requirements oscillated between a fifth above or below the ME supplied throughout the production seasons. DME was mostly explained by observations made within a cow rather than between cows or breeds. Having daily estimates of individual cow requirements for MEt in addition to ME dietary supply can potentially contribute to achieving a more precise fit between supply and demand for feed in a pasture-based dairy farm by devising feeding strategies aimed at reducing DME.
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    The Relative Importance of Herbage Nutritive Value and Climate in Determining Daily Performance per Cow in a Pasture-Based Dairy Farm
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-05-14) Duranovich F; Shadbolt N; Draganova I; Lopez-Villalobos N; Yule I; Morris S
    The objective of this study was to assess the relative importance of herbage nutritive value (NV), herbage quantity and climate-related factors in determining daily performance per cow in a pasture-based dairy farm. Data on milk production, live weight, body condition score, weather, herbage NV and herbage quantity were regularly collected from August 2016 to April 2017 and from July 2017 to April 2018 at Dairy 1, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. Results indicated herbage NV was of higher relative importance in explaining the variation in performance per cow than herbage quantity and climate factors. The relative importance of the interaction between herbage metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) on explaining variation in yields of milk, fat and protein was high (0.11 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.15). Herbage ME was of high relative importance in determining milk urea and body condition score, while neutral detergent fiber was a key driver of milk urea and liveweight (0.12 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.16). The quantity of herbage supplied at Dairy 1 might have been high enough to not limit cow performance. Developing feeding strategies aimed at improving the efficiency of cow feeding by exploiting the daily variation in herbage NV to better match supply and demand of nutrients may be useful to improve the overall performance per cow of pasture-based dairy farms.