Full-Cost Analysis for Dairy and Arable Farming
Since costs for improving competitiveness are of key importance, Agroscope calculated the full costs of all production branches for 596 commercial dairy/arable crop farms. For milk production, the costs per cow of the 25% of farms with the highest expenditure are almost twice as high as those of the 25% with the lowest expenditure. Labour accounts for almost half of the costs, followed by machinery at 14%. In arable farming, machinery represents the most important cost item, except in the case of potato production.
Genomics & Bioinformatics Network under Construction
Researchers are currently sequencing the genomes of ten Pseudomonas strains capable of protecting potato plants from infestation by the Phytophthora infestans pathogen. This project provides an example of the high potential benefit of microorganisms to agriculture. Such genome research is dependent on a wide network of experts. An initial focus during the creation of this ‘Agroscope-wide network in the field of genomics and bioinformatics’ (ANET-GB for short) lies on metagenome sequencing and the genome sequencing and annotation of Procaryota. Internal as well as external collaboration partners were obtained, and initial third-party funding secured from the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF.
