Intensifying livestock production to meet the demands of a growing global population coincides with increases in both the administration of veterinary antibiotics and manure inputs to soils. These trends have the potential to increase antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities. The effect of maintaining increased antibiotic resistance on soil microbial communities and the ecosystem processes they regulate is unknown. We compare soil microbial communities from paired reference and dairy manure-exposed sites across the USA. Given that manure exposure has been shown to elicit increased antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities, we expect that manure-exposed sites will exhibit (i) compositionally different soil microbial communities, with shifts toward taxa known to exhibit resistance; (ii) greater abundance of antibiotic resistance genes; and (iii) corresponding maintenance of antibiotic resistance would lead to decreased microbial efficiency. We found that bacterial and fungal communities differed between reference and manure-exposed sites. Additionally, the β-lactam resistance gene ampC was 5.2-fold greater under manure exposure, potentially due to the use of cephalosporin antibiotics in dairy herds. Finally, ampC abundance was positively correlated with indicators of microbial stress, and microbial mass-specific respiration, which increased 2.1-fold under manure exposure. These findings demonstrate that the maintenance of antibiotic resistance associated with manure inputs alters soil microbial communities and ecosystem function.

In 2004 a mail-in survey was conducted to establish a baseline level of awareness and knowledge related to dairy beef quality assurance (BQA) issues in Idaho. A 30-question survey was mailed to every (n=736) registered Idaho dairy. Two-hundred seventy-three (37%) dairies participated and were categorized as small (n <201 cows; 53.5%), medium-sized (n=201 to 1,000 cows; 27.1%) or large (n >1,000 cows; 19.4%). The majority of respondents were dairy owners (83%). Eighty-nine percent of respondents indicated they followed BQA recommendations for animal care. The neck region in cows was used by 68% of respondents for i.m. injections and by 80% for s.c. injections. In calves, the values were 61 and 78%, respectively. Seventy-four percent of respondents indicated they had been trained for injections. Training methods cited included veterinarians (19.8%), dairy owners (16.8%), experience (9.9%), and BQA events or schools (4.5%). The importance of BQA in the dairy industry was rated 2.6 on a 5-point scale (0 = low; 4 = high). Participants rated the effect of dairy animals on the beef industry at 2.5. Plastic ear tags were the preferred method of animal identification, with 100% of large dairies, 97.3% of medium-sized dairies, and 84% of small dairies citing their use. Less than 10% used electronic identification for their animals. Almost half (48%) of large and medium-sized (49%) dairies and 32% of small dairies supported a national animal identification program. A mandatory identification program was supported by 41, 69, and 59% for small, medium-sized, and large dairies, respectively. The percentage of dairies keeping records was similar between small (93%), medium-sized (99%), and large (100%) dairies. Most small dairies (58%) used some form of paper records, whereas most medium-sized (85%) and large (100%) dairies used computers for record keeping. The preferred method to market cull cows by Idaho dairies was the auction market (64%), followed by order buyers (17%), direct to the packer (17%), private treaty sales (16%), and forward contracts (1%). To market calves, dairies used private treaty sales (52%), auction markets (42%), order buyers (14%), and forward contracts (1%). The results of this study will be used by University of Idaho Extension faculty in the design, development, and delivery of dairy BQA program information and materials.

Feeding SDP during transition improves milk production and milk fat content.•No negative effect on reproductive performance when SDP is included in transition feed.•The inclusion of SDP in transition feed has no detrimental effect on health performance. Spray-dried plasma (SDP) proteins are recognized as safe, high-quality feed ingredients for livestock due to their immune modulatory components, including immunoglobulins, bioactive peptides and growth factors. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of feeding a SDP product during the first 200 d of lactation on milk production and reproduction performance in dairy cows. Nine hundred ninety-eight Holstein cows, 260 d pregnant, were enrolled in a completely randomized design. Before calving, cows were fed a late gestation ration containing blood meal (BM; 13.3 g/kg of DM; Control; n = 503) or SDP (16.0 g/kg of DM; 250 g SDP/d; n = 495) replacing BM on N basis. After calving, Control cows were randomly distributed in two pens and fed a lactation ration containing 15.6 g/kg BM (DM basis). Cows on SDP were randomly distributed in 2 pens and fed a lactation ration that contained 18.3 g/kg SDP (DM basis. 400 g/d of SDP), which replaced BM. Cows were milked three times per day and milk production and composition were monitored monthly at one milking. First service consisted of a timed AI protocol applied to all cows that were > 44–50 DIM. Following AI, cows were examined daily for return to estrus or for confirmation of pregnancy by rectal palpation at 35–41 and 70–76 d after AI. At 72–78 DIM, cows not pregnant were enrolled into an intrauterine progesterone program. Cows fed SDP had greater milk yield (P < 0.01; 16.8 vs 16.4 kg/milking) and milk fat (P < 0.05; 35.5 vs 34.7 g/kg), but there were no differences in milk protein or in milk SCC between Control and SDP cows. Milk yield improvement in SDP cows was evident during the second month of lactation and onwards. No differences in pregnancy rate, overall conception rate, days at which pregnancy occurred or body condition score were observed between treatments. In conclusion, supplementation with SDP in dairy cows slightly increased milk yield and milk fat content without affecting reproductive parameters.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the main ways in which large amounts of information have been integrated to provide new measures of food consumption and agricultural production, and new methods for gathering and analyzing internet-based data.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews some of the recent developments and applications of big data, which is becoming increasingly popular in agricultural economics research. In particular, this study focuses on applications of new types of data such as text and graphics in consumers' online reviews emerging from e-commerce transactions and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data as well as other producer data that are gaining popularity in precision agriculture. This study then reviews data gathering techniques such as web scraping and data analytics tools such as textual analysis and machine learning.FindingsThis study provides a comprehensive review of applications of big data in agricultural economics and discusses some potential future uses of big data.Originality/valueThis study documents some new types of data that are being utilized in agricultural economics, sources and methods to gather and store such data, existing applications of these new types of data and techniques to analyze these new data.