School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses
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ItemUse of deductive reasoning by farmers( 1965)Chapter I. Review of Literature A. Classification Into Categories Sociology requires accurate observation, systematic classification and the logical establishment of relationships. Conceptical Variable Analysis provides a method of testing a general hypothesis by testing a corresponding empirical hypothesis. For example the concept of "Progressiveness of Farmers" can have as its operational measure the adoption of Farm Practices. Types of Scales developed to provide this measure are explained and evaluated.
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ItemGrowth studies in beef cattle( 1962)
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ItemThe economics of irrigated dairyfarming in the Central Gippsland irrigation district( 1964)It is the purpose of this thesis to investigate the level of managerial efficiency obtaining on a group of dairy farms situated in the Nambrok-Denison area of the Central Gippsland Irrigation District, and to enquire into the possible avenues of increasing the profitability of such undertakings under existing conditions. Emphasis is restricted to analysis at the individual farm level, although the results could be adapted to shed some light on a number of important questions of national policy. Farm management is concerned with the proper combination and operation of production factors, and the choice of crop and livestock enterprises to bring about a maximum and continuous return to the most elementary operation units of farming (Yang 1958, p.4). A broader definition encompasses two further functions, viz. acquisition of factors of production, and adaptation of the farm plan to changing conditions (Castle and Becker 1962, p.253). The present investigation is restricted to an examination of the existing resource allocation efficiency. Thus it represents only a partial analysis of the farm management problem, but one which focuses attention on the more feasible possibilities of increasing farming efficiency in the short run; namely a more efficient reallocation of the resources presently employed on the farm, and the more profitable avenues of investment of additional funds. Farm management research employs the two major processes common to scientific research in general - deduction and induction (Heady 1952., p.14) - and the following pages illustrate this procedure. First, the problem is explicitely stated - how efficiently are the individual farms being managed given relevant restrictions? Second, the theoretically optimum model is defined - in terms of the criteria for efficient resource allocation - and the empirical procedures to be employed in investigating departure from this optimum, lug. residual imputation and regression techniques, are described. The required empirical data is then collected and analysed using the statistical procedures appropriate to the above techniques. Finally, the results of the empirical investigation are examined in the light of the defined criteria for efficient resource use, and on the basis of this comparison between actual and theoretically optimum conditions, suggestions are made regarding the possibilities of more closely approximating the latter.
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ItemStudies with annual Medicago species in the wheat belt( 1965)This thesis was prepared while the author was employed with the Victorian Department of Agriculture at the Mallee Research Station, Walpeup, and at the Longerenong Agricultural College, Dooen. It is in the form of five papers. The first is a review on the place of barrel medic (Medicago tribuloides Desr) in the Australian wheat belt. The review was published in J. Aust. Inst. Agric. Sci. (1965) 31: 25-35. This provides the background information for the experimental work which is prefaced by a section on climate and soils at Walpeup. The experimental work is concerned with a comparison of four annual medics in pure swards, competition between two annual medics, root studies, and the residual effect of superphosphate on medic pastures in the year after a wheat crop.