Objectives
Statistics Canada administers the Agricultural Census every 5 years, and this paper presents unsuppressed data from the 2016 and 2021 Census. The data set encompasses detailed information on farm types, sizes, technology choices, and a demographic profile of farm operators from the 2021 Census. Data on farm characteristics and operator demographics is crucial for understanding innovation in agriculture and formulating evidence-based policies.
Data description
The data sets cover the two most recent agriculture censuses of 2016 and 2021, presenting data on the number of farmers by region, farm type, size, and the adoption of technologies. Additionally, a third data set lists the number of farm operators by age and sex. The census questionnaire inquires about using different technologies, varying the types across the two census periods. Notably, there is no data suppression in these data sets, and they cover all 10 provinces in Canada, excluding the three territories. Farm types are categorized based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and farm size is measured in acres.
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Easher, T. H., Enstroem, R., Griffin, T. W., & Nilsson, T. 2024, Springer Link
The pandemic-related social distancing protocols and resultant limitations in recreational activities raised additional barriers for children with disabilities participating in sports and social events. This study describes the effects of an adaptive recreational community bowling program on quality of life (QoL) and physical abilities in children with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-four children participated at four different bowling locations. Pre- post-intervention data collected included the PedsQL: Parent Report Quality of Life and General Welwell-being scale for children, pinch strength test, grip strength test, trunk flexion test, and shoulder range of motion measure. Results showed significant improvements (p-value=0.01) in bilateral pinch strength and thoracolumbar range of motion. No differences were found in grip strength or shoulder range of motion. Significant improvements were found in QoL (p-value=0.01) primarily related to social and emotional factors. This suggests that adaptive community recreational bowling programs can have therapeutic effects on children with disabilities.
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Traywick, L., Griffin, T. W., Curtis, D., and James, D.
Since May 10th, a new question has been getting economists thinking: How will the GPS outage associated with the geomagnetic solar storm affect US farm profitability during the 2024 cropping season? The answer, as usual, is that it depends, especially on who, what, where, and when.
The GPS outage occurred during planting season (when) for many crops across the heartland (where). In 2024, farm operations have become more reliant upon GPS technology (what) than at any other time in history. Some farm operations were more vulnerable to the GPS outage than others (who).
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T. W. Griffin, farmdocDaily
The primary objective of this paper is to quantitatively analyze the number of acres planted per suitable fieldwork day and the total number of fieldwork days available for the complete planting of soybeans (Glycine max L.) in Arkansas. Total days to plant soybeans in each spring from 1980 to 2023 averaged about 33 days, indicating that roughly 33 days are expected, on average, from the month of April to May based on USDA-NASS weekly crop progress and condition data. Furthermore, the average soybean planted acres is estimated at 106,736 acres per day within the study period. Recently, variations in this range appear more pronounced, likely due to the significant impact of extreme spring weather conditions. However, technological advancements have enabled soybean producers to plant crops as early as the first half of March or as late as June, contributing to the increased variability observed from year to year in recent times. Furthermore, Arkansas’s optimal soybean planting window typically provides an average of 4.7 fieldwork days per week. These quantified estimates offer historical data on Arkansas’s soybean planting performance and will prove highly valuable for informing future soybean planting strategies
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B. Badarch, K. B. Watkins, T. W. Griffin, Crop, Forage & Turfgrass Management, 2024
Knowledge of anticipated long-run yield penalties over a range of planting and harvest time periods is necessary to formulate whole-farm planning models. Until now, gaps existed for several cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) planting by harvest date combinations. Publicly available data from the Arkansas Cotton Research Verification and Sustainability Program deemed suitable for this research included 169 fields from 19 years and 22 counties. Given several relevant plant and harvest weeks had no observations, a response surface was estimated. Results indicated that planting during weeks 18 to 20 minimized yield penalties, but only when harvested in corresponding best weeks. Likewise, yield penalties may be avoided if harvested during weeks 40 to 43, but only when planted in respective best weeks. Ten planting by harvest week combinations were associated with at least 98% attainable yield. Fields planted and harvested outside these ten weeks were susceptible to yield penalties. Penalties during weeks adjacent to optimal combinations tended to be minor, usually less than 5% deviations, but more severe further from the top of the response surface. Fields planted during week 22 then harvested in week 42 expected 21% yield penalty. Current Extension recommendations based on heuristics were validated from these estimates. Results are of interest to equipment manufacturers, agricultural engineers developing machinery, agricultural lenders assessing the risk of equipment loans, farmers considering optimal equipment capacity for acreage, and farm management economists estimating whole-farm profitability. Response surface methods are useful to estimate yield penalties for planting and harvest date combinations via field-scale observation.
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T. W. Griffin, B. Robertson
