Construction of Risk Assessment Application Model of Epidemic Disease in Large-scale Pig Farms

The application model of epidemic disease assessment technology for Web-based large-scale pig farm was expounded from the identification of epidemic disease risk factors, construction of risk assessment model and development of risk assessment system. The assessed pig farm uploaded the epidemic disease risk data information through on-line answering evaluating questionnaire to get the immediate evaluation report. The model could enhance the risk communication between pig farm veterinarian, manager and veterinary experts to help farm system understand and find disease risk factors, assess and report the potential high risk items of the pig farm in the three systems of engineering epidemic disease prevention technology, biological safety and immune monitoring, and promote the improvement and perfection of epidemic disease prevention and control measures.

Construction and Environmental Protection of Large-scale Livestock and Poultry Farms

Large-scale breeding of livestock and poultry is the main way of modern animal husbandry development.This breeding method is widely used by the majority of owners because of its easy technical promotion,low breeding cost and good economic benefits.But with the development of large-scale livestock and poultry breeding,the pollution and damage to the environment caused by fecal pollution from large-scale livestock and poultry breeding has been criticized by many environmentalists.In this paper,through visit and investigation of large-scale livestock and poultry farms,the methods and measures of environmental protection in the construction of large-scale livestock and poultry farms are proposed.

End of Transportation of Spent Laying Hens： From Idea to Solution

Transportation of spent laying hens causes them severe suffering. HAI-MESHEK （The Israeli Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals） looked for ways to decrease the suffering and finally developed the solution. Spent laying hens are brutally taken out of the cages, and with broken legs and chests pressed into small boxes for transportation to the slaughter-house. Removing all hens from the cages, transportation, waiting in the slaughter-house and slaughtering all hens is a long and hard-suffering time, which may take 8-10 hours. Hai-Meshek conducted a research, aimed at finding more humane methods of transportation. The findings from other countries were very disappointing. Even in countries having high level of animal welfare, about 30% of the hens arrived at the slaughter-house with broken limbs! The conclusion was that even better method, imposed by legislation, would not solve the problem： it is difficult to detect truck drivers violating the rules and the fine is negligible, compared to the savings by the abovementioned cruel method. The only humane solution is by preventing the transportation and slaughtering on farm. Spent laying hens are not edible, so they need not be slaughtered in the slaughter-house. Hai-Meshek initiated and participated in the development and the building of a facility for the humane killing of spent laying hens on farms. The hens aye electrified and die in 1-1.5 seconds. This method costs far less than transportation and slaughtering. The Poultry Council, which takes care to remove spent laying hens from farms, requires contractors to use the facility and they bring it to every farm in Israel. The facility is also used for killing sick flocks. No more transportation of spent laying hens is allowed!

LARGE-SCALE FARMING BENEFITS SOIL ACIDIFICATION ALLEVIATION THROUGH IMPROVED FIELD MANAGEMENT IN BANANA PLANTATIONS

Large-scale farming by agricultural land transfers has been increasingly promoted in recent years,but the possible impacts on crop production,especially cash crops,and soil acidification remain unclear.This study obtained data for 110 banana plantations in Long’an County,China,and categorized them into small(<0.67 ha),medium(0.67−6.7 ha),and large(>6.7 ha)to determine banana cultivation,nutrient management,and soil acidification rates on farms of the three sizes.Banana yield per unit area significantly increased with increased farm size,and large farms had the highest average yield(48.9 t·ha^(−1))with the least variation.Despite a significant increase in organic fertilizer and base cation inputs,nitrogen(N)surplus did not differ significantly with increasing farm size.With large farms,actual soil acidification rate was significantly lower by 19.1 to 24.0 keq·ha^(−1)·yr^(−1);however,potential soil acidification rate increased with increased overuse of phosphorus.Overall,larger banana plantations used fewer mineral N fertilizers reducing the rate of soil acidification and increasing the H+buffering provided by organic fertilizers.It is concluded that larger farms deliver the dual benefits of higher,less variable banana yield and mitigation of soil acidification by substituting organic N for mineral N fertilizers,supporting sustainable soil management and food production.

What are the Determinants of Large-scale Farming in China？

The Chinese Government has increased its focus on expanding farm scale to promote agricultural development since 2010. A series of favorable polices has been adopted to support large-scale farming. Using a multivariate probit model and 2015 and 2016 rural household survey data, the present paper examines the factors that influence small farmers＂ decision to become large-scale farmers. The empirical regression results suggest that the decision to become a large-scale farmer is significantly influenced by household human capital cooperative membership, marketing channels, land-transfer contracts and government policies. However, the influence of these factors differs with respect to becoming large-scale grain and non-grain farmers. These results imply that policy tools should target these factors and the appropriate group of small-scale farmers. Generally, both central and local governments should promote large-scale farming by enhancing rural households＇ human capital improving marketing channels and providing agricultural social services, as well as encouraging returning migrant workers to engage in large-scale farming,

Comparison of RANS and LES in the Prediction of Airflow Field over Steep Complex Terrain

The present study compared the prediction accuracy of the three CFD software packages for simulating airflow around a three-dimensional, isolated hill with a steep slope: 1) WindSim (turbulence model: RNG k-ε RANS), 2) Meteodyn WT (turbulence model: k-L RANS), which are the leading commercially available CFD software packages in the wind power industry and 3) RIAM-COMPACT (turbulence model: standard Smagorinsky LES), which has been developed by the lead author of the present paper. Distinct differences in the airflow patterns were identified in the vicinity of the isolated hill (especially downstream of the hill) between the RANS results and the LES results. No reverse flow region (vortex region) characterized by negative wind velocities was identified downstream of the isolated hill in the result from the simulation with WindSim (RNG k-ε RANS) and Meteodyn WT (k-L RANS). In the case of the simulation with RIAM-COMPACT natural terrain version (standard Smagorinsky LES), a reverse flow region (vortex region) characterized by negative wind velocities clearly forms. Next, an example of wind risk (terrain-induced turbulence) diagnostics was presented for a large-scale wind farm in China. The vertical profiles of the streamwise (x) wind velocity do not follow the so-called power law wind profile;a large velocity deficit can be seen between the hub center and the lower end of the swept area in the case of the LES calculation (RIAM-COMPACT).

Providing Frequency Support of Hydro-Pumped Storage to Taiwan Power System with Wind Power Integration

The combination of wind and pumped storage is a useful method to compensate the fluctuation of wind power generation, which would exploit the abundant wind potential and increase wind power penetration. Taiwan Power Company (TPC) develops renewable energy actively in recent years. Moreover, TPC has started planning a high penetration wind power system and building offshore wind farms around the coast of Zhangbin, Yunlin and Penghu. The target of the offshore wind power installed capacity is up to 3 GW by 2025. However, the integration of the large scale of wind power would give huge challenges to the system operator because wind is randomly characterized. In this study, after high penetration wind power is integrated, the impacts of system frequency and the dispatch of conventional units will be discussed. Additionally, the hybrid system combing wind power with pumped-storage will be planning to reduce the effect of system frequency.

Fruits of Labor

In 2015, a large-scale kiwi farm was established in Xincheng Town of Jinggangshan City, east China's Jiangxi Province as part of the town's land transfer experiment The city was an old revolutionary and traditional povertystricken area with local farmers leaving the villages and working in cities as migrant workers. Four years later, the farm has borne fruit.