Academic literature on the topic 'Sheep Economic aspects New Zealand'

Genetic improvement programs for livestock and pasture plants have been central to the development of the New Zealand (NZ) pastoral industry. Although genetic improvement of livestock is easily shown to improve animal production on-farm, the link between genetic improvement of pasture plants and animal production is less direct. For several reasons, gains in farm output arising from improved plant performance are more difficult to confirm than those arising from livestock improvement, which has led to some debate in the livestock industries about which plant traits to prioritise in future breeding programs to deliver the greatest benefit. This review investigates this situation, with the aim of understanding how genetic improvement of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), the predominant pasture grass, may more directly contribute towards increased productivity in the NZ dairy industry. The review focuses on the dairy industry, since it is the largest contributor to the total value of NZ agricultural exports. Also, because rates of pasture renewal are greater in the dairy industry compared with the sheep and beef industries, genetic gain in pasture plants is likely to have the greatest impact if the correct plant traits are targeted. The review highlights that many aspects of ryegrass growth and ecology have been manipulated through breeding, with evidence to show that plant performance has been altered as a result. However, it is not clear to what extent these gains have contributed to the economic development of the NZ dairy industry. There are opportunities for breeders and scientists to work together more closely in defining economic traits that positively influence pasture performance and to translate this information to objectives for breeding programs, systematically linking information on the measured traits of ryegrass cultivars to economic values for those traits to assist farmer decision-making regarding the most appropriate cultivars to use in their farm system, and better defining genotype × environment interactions in key productivity traits of modern ryegrass cultivars. Changes in priorities for investment of public- and industry-good funds in forage improvement research and development will be needed if these opportunities are to be captured.

<p>Our review concludes that organic standards need to account for a broader set of criteria in order to retain claims to ‘sustainability’. Measurements of the ecological, economic and social outcomes from over 96 kiwifruit, sheep/beef and dairy farms in New Zealand between 2004 and 2012 by The <em>Agricultural Research Group on Sustainability</em> (ARGOS) project showed some enhanced ecosystem services from organic agriculture that will assist a “land-sharing” approach for sustainable land management. However, the efficiency of provisioning services is reduced in organic systems and this potentially undermines a “land-sparing” strategy to secure food security and ecosystem services. Other aspects of the farm operation that are not considered in the organic standards sometimes had just as much or even a greater effect on ecosystem services than restriction of chemical inputs and synthetic fertilisers. An organic farming version of the <em>New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard</em> will integrate organic standards and wider agricultural best practice into a broad and multidimensional sustainability assessment framework and package of learning tools. There is huge variation in performance of farms within a given farming system. Therefore improving ecosystem services depends as much on locally tuned learning and adjustments of farm practice on individual farms as on uptake of organic or Integrated Management farming system protocols.</p>

Beef and lamb meat production is associated with important cultural, economic and environmental impacts in most countries worldwide. However, it is also related with sustainability challenges. To enable cattle and sheep farming to develop in line with sustainability, existing knowledge need to be implemented and identified knowledge gaps filled. The purpose of this article was to systematically map the scientific literature on environmental, economic and social sustainability at farm-level beef and lamb meat production to identify knowledge gaps and to point to important future actions and areas of research. Papers published January 2000–August 2020 with a geographical origin in Europe, Northern America, and Australia-New Zealand were included. The systematic literature search resulted in a total of 1355 hits; however, after removing papers which were considered out of the scope of the study, and duplicate papers, only 22 and 11 papers related to beef and sheep farming, respectively were retained for further analysis. Of these, only 11 in total included all three sustainability dimensions. Several papers only mentioned one or two of the sustainability dimensions or put them in relation to that/those main dimension covered, thus limiting the extent to which possible synergies or tradeoffs between different sustainability aspects actually can be studied. This indicates a need for a more comprehensive approach when studying farm-level sustainability. Future research would benefit from a more holistic approach and include all dimensions of sustainability within the same study. Further, focus should also be on how to measure and assess sustainability aspects in a standardized way.

Innovation, as a factor influencing the success of farming, is of outstanding importance also in agriculture. Only those businesses (enterprises, companies) can be successful in the longrun which are able to adapt the new technological elements and to make their own developments occasionally and make them suitable for practical utilization.The innovation activities performed by the enterprises, business organizations can be evaluated at firm (microeconomic) and national economy (macroeconomic) levels. In the case of sheep breeding also, a complex evaluation system should be applied, since this is a sector, which has significant rural development and social impacts. The innovation processes are analysed from the identification of the problem inducing research and development until the return of the invested resources.

ABSTRACTAn economic selection index was derived for terminal sire sheep breeds or strains, using physical and financial results from New Zealand export lamb-producing flocks. The aggregate breeding value of the index comprised carcass lean weight and carcass total fat weight. Index measurements were live weight, ultrasonic fat depth and ultrasonic muscle depth. Economic values used for lean and fat weights (NZ$5·65 and NZ$–1·2 per kg, respectively) were the change in profit per kg increase in lean or fat weight from that in the average carcass of lambs slaughtered in 1984/85. The s.d. of the aggregate breeding value was NZS3·20, and the correlation between the full index and the aggregate breeding value was 0·23. This correlation fell to 0·18, 0·15 and 0·07, respectively, when muscle depth or fat depth or muscle and fat depths were omitted from the index. Selection on the full index, or on the index omitting muscle depth was expected to lead to an increase in carcass lean weight and a slight decrease in carcass fat weight. Selection on the index omitting fat depth, or selection on live weight alone, was expected to lead to an increase in both fat and lean weights.

This paper explores the opportunity for New Zealand to establish and sustain an internationally competitive sheep dairy industry. As part of this it evaluates the role of responsible innovation (RI) within the New Zealand sheep dairy (NZSD) industry and whether this can assist in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. In the context of agrifood supply chains RI has received little attention despite the fact that these industries have significant environmental, ethical and social impacts. The research also addresses the lack of evidence as how to put RI into practice and the claim that the practical applicability of RI is not possible. The French sheep dairy industry was used as a comparative case study for the New Zealand industry. Information was gathered through a literature search, the comparative case study and interviews with New Zealand and French industry experts. Comparisons were made between the strategic capabilities and structural forces of the sheep dairy industries in both France and New Zealand. The study found that for the NZSD industry to achieve a competitive advantage it would need to pursue a differentiation strategy that focused on customer responsiveness, innovation, sustainability and quality. Furthermore, the study identified that RI had the potential to assist the NZSD industry by providing distinctive competencies to develop a competitive advantage. This is because there were existing resources and capabilities that provided a platform for differentiation. There were also strategic and economic drivers in the NZSD industry that encouraged RI as a competitive strategy. This indicated that for RI to occur there needed to be economic incentives that encouraged companies to pursue this strategy.

The “anatomy” of the rosette fibulaRosette or thistle fibulas have always attracted attention by virtue of their size and exclusiveness. They are richly decorated with, for example, gilt sheet metal and inlaid pieces of coloured glass. Also in terms of craftsmanship these are complicated pieces as each fibula consists of 40-60 different individual components. It was apparently only women of high status who were buried with one or, in rare instances, two examples. In Oscar Almgren’s classic work on the Northern European fibula types, rosette fibulas are assigned to his group VII – fibulas with a high catch plate – and thereby to the Late Roman Iron Age (AD 150/160 – 375). There is general agreement today that rosette fibulas in Denmark should be dated primarily to C1b (AD 210/220 – 250/260), i.e. generally a short period of use of just one to two generations, and neither has any wear been observed on these artefacts. Rosette fibulas are widespread across a very large area: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Northeast Germany, Poland, the Baltic countries and Moldavia. The present article involves a systematic examination of their method of manufacture and material composition with the aim of distinguishing both geographic groups and possible workshop districts. As a basis for this, an overview has been produced of Danish rosette fibulas, defined here as having at least two rosettes. Denmark is represented by the greatest number, with 60 examples. Of these, 58 originate from inhumation graves, one from a cremation grave and one from a pit. Their geographic distribution is not even but is linked with particular areas such as Northern Jutland around the Limfjord, Southwestern Jutland and the southern part of Central Jutland, Eastern Funen, Eastern Zealand and the southwestern part of Bornholm (fig. 1). In the list of finds, numbers 1-24 are from Jutland, 25-29 are from Funen, 30- 57 from Zealand and 58-60 are from Bornholm. In the rest of Scandnavia these artefacts are rare, with seven examples from Norway and nine from Sweden. In studies of rosette fibulas it is practical to focus separately on functional and ornamental aspects. The former comprises the elements of spring, bow and pin, which are necessary in order for the fibula to be used as a simple safety pin, but also the technique and the metals used is included here. The ornamentation comprises, conversely, many different elements such as, for example, the upper and lower surfaces of the box-shaped spring cover as well as the various rosettes terminating in moulded knobs. Furthermore, the tension lugs, which sit between the spring and the ends of the spring cover. The ornamentation of the bow comprises rosettes and cuffs whereas the catch plate may be fitted with a band and ornamentation on the actual catch itself. The decorative parts are normally made of sheet metal, which is often gilded (figs. 2a, b).Correspondence analysesThe most important results of a series of correspondence analyses show that the material can be divided up into four geographic groups (figs. 9-10). Group 1 is very homogeneous and has its primary distribution on Zealand. Almost half (46%) of all the examples from Zealand fall into this group. They are very well preserved and are represented by many variants. They are made of silver, and other special features are that the bow and catch plate are cast in one piece. The upper surface of the spring cover is constructed of three successive vaulted rosettes (form 1), which are also seen on the bow. The rosettes are wreathed with flattened silver discs and the moulded knobs are encased within sheet silver. Group 2 is similarly represented primarily by examples from Zealand and should be considered as a sub-group of group 1. Group 3 is represented by a few fibulas from Jutland and a single example from Funen. Most of these are poorly preserved and therefore only present in a few variants. Characteristic features, which should be highlighted, include three rosettes on the spring cover, the bow and the catch plate cast in one piece, a flat silver disc around the rosettes and a bow of bronze. The choice of metal follows primarily the Jutish tradition in which bronze is most prominent, whereas the manufacture is according to the tradition on Zealand. In the analysis, this cluster locates itself mid between groups 1 and 2 on the one side and group 4 on the other. Group 4 has its distribution in Jutland as 62.5% of all the fibulas from Jutland fall here. There are also two from Funen. The most important features are that the bow and catch plate are not cast in one piece and the bow consists typically of bronze plated with babbitt metal, whereas the catch plate is often of silver and is, in several cases, ornamented with engraved lines. The pin itself is of bronze or copper, the same applies to the tension lugs. The upper surface of the spring cover comprises a rectangular bronze band clad with a rosette that sits as a central feature around the lower end of the bow. The bow is ornamented with flat rosettes and typically with a domed roundel of blue glass. Basically it is, as already suggested, possible to speak of two traditions, an Eastern Danish and a Jutish. With regard to the identification of possible workshop groups, it can be tentatively concluded that there was one on Zealand and two in Jutland. The five rosette fibulas from Funen show, conversely, no indication of the existence of independent workshops but should be seen rather as a mixture of Jutish and Zealand craft traditions.Typological classification of rosette fibulas and their distributionOn the basis of the primary studies, a typological classification has been carried out of the 36 best examples within six types. As the number of examples is modest, the classification should be taken with some reservation. Only the dominant types will be dealt with in more detail here; these are types 1 and 4. Again, it is the geographic distribution that is apparent, in that type 1 appears on Zealand whereas type 4 is Jutish. Due to its special construction, type 3 is similarly commented upon. The distribution of the other types is, conversely, very scattered as is apparent from the table (fig. 11). Type 1 is defined by having five vaulted rosettes. They are attached by way of a cast pin or a long through rivet and terminating in a moulded knob. The bow and catch plate are cast in one piece. Type 4 is characterised by having three rosettes, including the central rosette. The two rosettes on the bow have inlaid glass roundels or are made of vaulted sheet metal. The spring cover is most often rectangular. Type 3 comprises just three examples. These are characterised by the angle of the bow being greater than 90 degrees, they lack the high catch plate and have a triangular catch-plate cover with a hook to take the pin. The rosettes are soldered to the edge of the spring cover, and they can be circular or semi-circular and of sheet metal with or without blue glass inlays. All three examples come from Southwestern Jutland. Rosette fibulas have a very wide geographic distribution, from Norway in the north to the Black Sea in the south, and from Jutland in the west to the Baltic countries in the east. These spectacular ornaments must have belonged to the elite and their distribution indicates the extensive nature of the various networks at that time and therefore give a good insight into the extent of social mobility. One potential form of contact could have been marital alliances. These may have played an important role for the aristocracy in its wish to maintain their social status as well as their economic and political power. In other aspects of the archaeological record there are indications that women from the aristocratic Himlingeøje families were apparently married off to men in Tuna in Sweden. Rosette fibulas of Scandinavian type have, furthermore, been found in the Ukrainian-Rumanian Moldau area north of the Black Sea, which is perhaps also an indication of marital alliances. Unfortunately, the distinctive and easily recognisable rosette fibulas were only in use for a short period of 30-50 years, after which it again becomes more difficult to evaluate the extent of exchange within the large Germanic area. The work presented here is based on primary observations of most of the rosette fibulas from Denmark. It demonstrates clearly that there is much new information to be obtained from these elitist ornaments. At the same time, the importance is demonstrated yet again of renewed and primary studies of the existing archaeological record. Neither is there any doubt that more sophisticated methods of scientific analyses will, in the future, definitely be able to reveal much more new information and thereby contribute to a better and more sophisticated understanding of the significance of rosette fibulas as an important social marker within the aristocratic environs of the Iron Age.Annagrete Skjødt †Redigeret af Jørgen LundInstitut for Antropologi, Arkæologi, og LingvistikAarhus Universitet

We review three neoplastic wasting diseases affecting sheep generally recorded under common production cycles and with epidemiological and economic relevance in sheep-rearing countries: small intestinal adenocarcinoma (SIA), ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA) and enzootic nasal adenocarcinoma (ENA). SIA is prevalent in Australia and New Zealand but present elsewhere in the world. This neoplasia is a tubular or signet-ring adenocarcinoma mainly located in the middle or distal term of the small intestine. Predisposing factors and aetiology are not known, but genetic factors or environmental carcinogens may be involved. OPA is a contagious lung cancer caused by jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) and has been reported in most sheep-rearing countries, resulting in significant economic losses. The disease is clinically characterized by a chronic respiratory process as a consequence of the development of lung adenocarcinoma. Diagnosis is based on the detection of JSRV in the tumour lesion by immunohistochemistry and PCR. In vivo diagnosis may be difficult, mainly in preclinical cases. ENA is a neoplasia of glands of the nasal mucosa and is associated with enzootic nasal tumour virus 1 (ENTV-1), which is similar to JSRV. ENA enzootically occurs in many countries of the world with the exception of Australia and New Zealand. The pathology associated with this neoplasia corresponds with a space occupying lesion histologically characterized as a low-grade adenocarcinoma. The combination of PCR and immunohistochemistry for diagnosis is advised.

Facial eczema disease (FE) is a secondary photosensitisation disease of ruminants caused by exposure to the mycotoxin sporidesmin. Resistance to FE has a significant genetic component and previous research has included a whole genome scan and investigation of candidate genes. The aim of this study was to use multiple approaches to identify genes associated with resistance to FE. ABC transporters have been considered as putative candidate genes for FE since the yeast ABC transporter, PDR5, was found to modulate sensitivity to sporidesmin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A previous study had shown that hepatic expression of the ovine ABC transporter, ABCB1, was induced following exposure to sporidesmin but only in resistant animals (Longley (1998) PhD Thesis, University of Otago). In the present study, using qRT-PCR, a difference in the expression of ABCB1 between resistant and susceptible animals was not confirmed. It is concluded that ABCB1 is not likely to be a candidate gene for FE. As the full genome sequences for several mammalian species are now available, phylogenetic analyses were used to identify the most likely mammalian ortholog of the yeast PDR5 protein. This analysis found that the yeast PDR5 protein was most closely related to the mammalian ABCG sub-family. The human ABCG sub-family has five members one of which, ABCG2, is a known xenobiotic transporter. Comparative mapping of ABCG2 indicated that it co-localised to a region of the sheep genome weakly associated with resistance to FE. The full-length sequence of ovine ABCG2 was determined and two synonymous polymorphisms were found. These two polymorphisms, together with an intronic SNP were genotyped across a panel of selection-line animals. The allele frequencies of the intronic SNP were found to be significantly different between the selection lines, providing evidence for the association of ABCG2 with resistance to FE. The hepatic expression of ABCG2 was examined but no differential expression between the selection-lines was observed. Global gene expression profiling via microarray analysis was undertaken as a novel approach to identify candidate genes. Differences in gene expression were examined between naïve and sporidesmin-dosed resistant and susceptible animals using a bovine cDNA microarray. A small number of differentially expressed genes were identified. Follow-up studies found that there were a relatively high number of errors in EST identity. Eight differentially expressed genes were selected for confirmation by Northern analysis. Six of these genes were shown to be differentially expressed, but neither the patterns nor the magnitude of the differential expression reflected that observed on the microarray. One of the six genes identified as differentially expressed was catalase, which has previously been implicated in resistance to FE. This finding validates the approach taken using gene expression profiling to identify candidate genes. The final approach used in this study necessitated the development and characterisation of an in vitro system for studying sporidesmin toxicity. The system chosen was a human hepatoma cell line, HepG2. To date the only effective treatment for FE is the prophylactic administration of high levels of zinc sulphate. The mechanism of protection by zinc is unknown, but zinc is known to be a potent modulator of gene expression. Conceptually, any genes modulated by zinc are possible candidates for resistance to FE. It was shown that zinc pre-treatment could protect HepG2 cells against sporidesmin-induced cytotoxicity. Equivalent protection was provided by the addition of zinc in the presence of the transcriptional inhibitor actinomycin D, suggesting that the mechanism of zinc protection is independent of de novo gene transcription. Overall, the goal of this project was to find genes to assist selection of sheep resistant to FE. Toward this goal, this research has identified several new candidate genes and avenues for investigation.

This thesis examines the implementation of tourism strategies in a rural community context. Applying public policy implementation theory to tourism research, this study investigates questions related to connections and collaborations between stakeholders, decision-making and inducing action and the relation between objectives in a strategy document and actual outcomes of a policy process. Two tourism planning strategies in rural peripheral communities of New Zealand�s South Island are investigated adopting a case study approach. While these strategies have in common their geographical and content foci, they differ in terms of commissioning agencies, stakeholder and community involvement, age, resource allocation and planning and implementation approaches. The strategies are four and eleven years old. One is a top-down strategy by a government agency, the other is the result of a community bottom-up process. Using a pragmatic methodical approach and applying a framework that incorporates the implementation environment including stakeholders and decisive events during strategy making, this research assesses the two cases individually and comparatively. Thus applying a non-linear framework and examining strategies that allow for an investigation of longer implementation timeframes, this study overcomes long-standing issues in this type of research. It fills a gap in the literature as it is the first comprehensive analysis of tourism plan implementation to employ public policy implementation theory in one coherent case study approach. The methods applied in this study include semi-structured interviews as well as content analysis of strategy and policy documents, internal documents such as minutes of meetings and newspaper articles. Starting with strategy makers and �key implementers�, a snowballing process was used to identify further interviewees and to also follow the policy process as perceived by the main actors in it. This combination of methods allowed for a discovery of the policy story; it assisted a process-oriented investigation of tourism plan implementation while at the same time providing factual information and verifying stakeholder statements through triangulating interview results with the content analysis of documents. Overall, for both the top-down and the bottom-up planning case, implementation was found to be dynamic and highly dependent on the actors at the grassroots level. Many critical stakeholders are volunteer community members who have little or no experience in tourism planning. Most actors are tourism operators or are otherwise involved with the industry. However, as some actors are not actively involved in the tourism industry but represent interests related to the protection of the social and natural environment, their views and actions have the potential to be anti-tourism development and therefore they evoke conflict. The two planning approaches do not differ significantly in terms of bureaucratic control and political guidance. Institutions such as, for example, district councils or economic development agencies, mainly impact on the availability of resources to plan and implement strategy goals. Whether or not goals are achieved therefore ultimately depends on the commitment and interest of all stakeholders involved. Other important factors for policy success are the stability of stakeholder relationships and the level of information and knowledge held by those stakeholders, particularly in situations where there is little support from agencies. This is evident where a stakeholder�s previous experience in community work and relevant know-how is considered an asset among the volunteers who are responsible for many of the projects. The potential for conflict and the necessity for implementers to �make do� with the funding, knowledge and information they have, accounts for high volatility of priorities and goals during implementation. Key findings that relate to both the tourism planning and the public policy literature refer to the similarities of implementation processes for top-down and bottom-up strategies at a grassroots level, the significant role and decisive influence that inexperienced volunteer implementers have in such settings and the high degree to which policy change takes place during such processes.

In being philosophically based this thesis is concerned with understanding the human condition with particular reference to matters of meaning and how these find expression in systems of government and social policy. This study is based on the premise that concepts determine how the world is viewed and people use a variety of conceptual schemes to answer different classes of questions. Scientific endeavour is based in a scheme that enables questions about the material world to be answered. It cannot however answer classes of questions related to many features of human lives as its methods necessitate the development and use of abstractions and generalisations that are ill-equipped by design to determine what is important to people and what motivates and satisfies them. Therefore, the reality of any particular individual or group cannot be adequately understood in scientific terms. The thesis examines the scientific conceptual framework and minimalist abstractions of the medical model and the quasi-scientific conceptual frameworks of economics and identifies their conceptual limits. It shows that if the medical model is assumed to provide a complete representation of realities in health and is uncritically used as the basis of medical practice it has the potential to overlook the patient as a person and distance medical practice from its social roots which can lead to adverse outcomes for both clinical practice and medicine itself. It also observes that the economic scheme has conceptual limits that create their own distorted representations of reality. A similar dislocation in the meaning of people�s lives occurs when abstractions are made by adopting concepts from other schemes based in science, such as the medical model, without any awareness of their conceptual limits. Further distortions occur when these other accounts are turned into economic ones. Not only is the patient as a person overlooked, so is the patient as an entity. In light of these observations the thesis examines health reforms that have taken place in New Zealand, whereby the economic scheme has been given dominance in the development of public policy and set the parameters for rationality and what can acceptably be said. It shows that in not recognising features of meaning these parameters have led to health sector reforms that have had unintended and adverse consequences for clinical practice, as shown in the particular case of reforms of maternity services. Furthermore these reforms have severed the health sector from its social roots and moral frameworks and created barriers between it and government so that health sector problems that cannot be understood using economic parameters cannot be addressed in forums where public policy is developed.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which represent around 95% or more of the total number of enterprises in many countries, are often considered critical for a country's economy because of their effects on economic output and their contribution to overall employment. However, as a result of globalisation and the deregulation of the New Zealand economy, SMEs in this country have been faced with the need to internationalise in order to grow because of increased domestic competition. Moreover, when they make their move to offshore markets they also face fierce competition. Hence, it is in this largely integrated and competitive global marketplace that it becomes critical for smaller firms to learn about international business to succeed. Therefore, this thesis aimed to understand and explain how internationalising NZ SMEs learn and develop knowledge throughout their internationalisation process. To frame this problem an extensive review of the literature on internationalisation, organisational knowledge and organisational learning was conducted. This assessment revealed a gap related to the evolution of learning and knowledge in SMEs' internationalisation process. It also identified the incremental and born-global internationalisation types, two more common and distinctive internationalisation paths that SMEs follow. The literature described the several common forms of knowledge that played more or less critical roles in these firms' internationalisation. Furthermore, extant research also stated that experiential learning and other learning processes were important for the internationalisation of these firms but it did not delve into the development of these learning processes over time. Finally, the evaluation of the knowledge and learning literatures identified three most distinctive and important forms of knowledge that organisations develop as a result of several learning processes. Anchored on the research problem and the specific research questions, derived from the literature review, and framed by a post-positivist worldview, this study developed a methodology that combined theory building, process-based research and case studies to address the problem. More specifically, the methodology involved the selection of and collection of historical, or retrospective, data from eight cases, four incremental and four early-internationalising firms. The data collected through interviews and document analysis was examined using different process analysis techniques. This research has found that there were important differences in the incremental and early-internationalising firms' learning and knowledge during their creation. Furthermore, the early-internationalising firms identified and implemented an internationalisation strategy from the beginning. Thus, the knowledge about international markets and products acquired through congenital learning and their initial intention to offer their products offshore allowed the early-internationalising firms to expand internationally from their creation or soon after. In contrast, the incremental firms only decided to internationalise after they learned from their experience in their domestic market that they had a successful product that had international potential. Besides their initial internationalisation strategy, or lack of it, and knowledge, other factors, such as firm resources, product and industry characteristics and previous learning and knowledge, influenced these firms' subsequent internationalisation strategy, learning and knowledge. Publication associated with this thesis: Pellegrino, J. (2005) Organisational Learning Processes in Internationalising Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises: a Comparison between Traditional and Born-Global firms. Udevalla Symposium & McGill International Entrepreneurship Conference, Udevalla, Sweden, September 2005.

Geographical indications (GIs) are one form of protective labelling used to indicate the origin of food and alcohol products. The role of protected geographical indicators as a promising sustainable rural development tool is the basis for this research. The protection of geographical indications is a rather controversial subject and much research is still required for both sides of the debate. The research method employed for this study is qualitative critical social science. Two Case studies are used to investigate the benefits brought to rural areas through the protection of GIs. The case studies include the GIs Jersey Royal and Welsh Lamb both from the United Kingdom a member of the European Union (the EU is in favour of extended protection of GIs for all agro-food products under the 1994 WTO/TRIPS agreement on geographical indications). Twenty-five indepth interviews were conducted for this study the duration of the interviews was approximately one hour. The study identifies predominantly indirect links between GIs and sustainable rural development, through economic and social benefits bought to rural areas by the GIs investigated - less of a connection was found to ecological elements. No considerable cost for GI protection was discovered. This finding suggests that GIs are worthwhile for implementation in New Zealand as a rural development tool.

The objectives of this thesis were to investigate patterns of lamb pneumonia prevalence of a large sample of New Zealand flocks including an investigation of spatial patterns, to evaluate farm-level risk factors for lamb pneumonia, to determine the efficacy of a commercially available vaccine for the disease and to estimate the likely cost of lamb pneumonia and pleurisy for New Zealand sheep farmers. Data were collected by ASURE NZ Ltd. meat inspectors at processing plants in Canterbury, Manawatu and Gisborne between December 2000 and September 2001. All lambs processed at these plants were scored for pneumonia (scores: 0, <10% or ≥10% lung surface area affected) involving 1,899,556 lambs from 1,719 farms. Pneumonia prevalence was evaluated for spatial patterns at farm level and for hierarchical patterns at lamb, mob and farm levels (Chapter 3). The average pneumonia prevalence in Canterbury, Feilding and Gisborne was 34.2%, 19.1% and 21.4% respectively. Odds ratios of lambs slaughtered between March and May were vastly higher than those slaughtered in other months indicating longer growth periods due to pneumonia. Since pneumonia scores were more variable between mobs within a flock than between flocks, it was concluded that pneumonia scores were poor indicators for the flock pneumonia level due to their lack of repeatability. There was no statistically significant spatial autocorrelation in pneumonia prevalence for any region, hence lamb pneumonia appeared to be largely independent of topographical and geo-climatic factors. A questionnaire-based case-control study was conducted investigating farm-level factors from a sample of farms with either high (case) or zero (control) pneumonia prevalence at slaughter (Chapter 4). Significant risk factors for case farms were: (1) shearing lambs on the day of weaning, (2) breeding ewe replacements on-farm (3) number of lambs sold (an indicator of flock size) and (4) increased percentage of lambs sold late in the season (March to May). Significant protective factors included: (1) set stocking lambs after weaning, (2) injecting lambs with Vitamin B12 at the time of tailing, (3) injecting lambs with Vitamin B12 at weaning. In Canterbury, flocks with Romney ewes and other ewes had a higher risk of pneumonia than those with fine wool type ewes (Merinos, Corriedales or Halfbreds). In a clinical trial, 8,364 lambs from seven commercial sheep farms with a history of lamb pneumonia were vaccinated with Ovipast Plus® or placebo by systematic random allocation within mob and farm. An assessment of the extent of pneumonic lesions was conducted at slaughter and lamb growth rate was monitored through the growth period (Chapter 5). The vaccination trial showed no statistically significant effect of Ovipast® vaccination on the extent of lung lesions at slaughter or ADG of lambs from the first treatment until slaughter. No significant differences were found between isolation rates of Pasteurella spp and patho-histological classifications from pneumonic lung samples of placebo and vaccinated lambs. A spreadsheet-based stochastic model was constructed to estimate the cost of lamb pneumonia and pleurisy to New Zealand farmers. The estimate was based on data of the effect of pneumonia on lamb growth rate, distributions of pneumonia severity, prevalence of moderate to severe pneumonia (≥10% lung surface area) and pleurisy prevalence (Chapter 6). The simulated annual average cost of pneumonia was NZ $28.1 million and that of pleurisy NZ $25.1 million. The combined cost of pneumonia and pleurisy to New Zealand farmers had an average of NZ $53.2 million (95% stochastic interval = $32.4-$78.9 million), or US $31.9 million per annum. This would equate to NZ $2.32 per lamb. In comparison, animal health, shearing expenses and feed expenses cost NZ $2.37, $2.62 and $1.85 per lamb, respectively. This research has demonstrated sub-clinical pneumonia to be a widespread disease in the New Zealand sheep farming population while previous research has focussed on case studies of affected farms. The estimated costs of pneumonia and pleurisy to New Zealand farmers ($53.2 million) highlight the financial effects of these diseases and the need for further research. We also found that the commercially available vaccine could neither prevent sub-clinical effects (lamb growth rate) nor clinical manifestations (pneumonic lung lesions) of lamb pneumonia. The case-control study has revealed farm-level factors which, in the absence of effective vaccines, indicated management practices that farmers might perceive as opportunities to control lamb pneumonia. However, it is advisable to evaluate the efficiency of such management changes. Pneumonia is aetiologically complex disease involving the interplay of many environmental, host and pathogen factors. It is also a difficult disease to study in the absence of diagnostic tests in live animals. However, further research should focus on the development of management changes until effective vaccines are available. A starting point for this research would be to evaluate the impact of such management changes in reducing the incidence of lamb pneumonia. More specifically, the roles of stress during crowding of lambs for extended periods warrants further investigation. The development of efficient vaccines requires an analysis of pathogens, especially Pasteurella (Mannheimia) haemolytica and Mycoplasma species, the sources of infection, their strain diversity and transmission dynamics.

Succeeding phases of British economic growth prompted strikingly different imperatives for expansion, for natural resource exploitation, and for the social organization of extra-European production. In the eighteenth century, sugar, African slaves, and shipping in the Atlantic world provided one major dynamic of empire. But in the nineteenth century, antipodean settlement and trade, especially that resulting from expanding settler pastoral frontiers, was responsible for some of the most dramatic social and environmental transformations. Plantations occupied relatively little space in the new social geography of world production. By contrast, commercial pastoralism, which took root most energetically in the temperate and semi-arid regions of the newly conquered world, was land-hungry but relatively light in its demands for labour. The Spanish Empire based in Mexico can be considered a forerunner. By the 1580s, within fifty years of their introduction, there were an estimated 4.5 million merino sheep in the Mexican highlands. The livestock economy, incorporating cattle as well as sheep, spread northwards through Mexico to what became California by the eighteenth century. Settler intrusions followed in the vast landmasses of southern Latin America, southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Australia was one of the last-invaded of these territories, and, in respect of the issues that we are exploring, was in some senses distinctive. Unlike Canada and South Africa, there was no long, slow period of trade and interaction with the indigenous population; like the Caribbean, the Aboriginal people were quickly displaced by disease and conquest. The relative scale of the pastoral economy was greater than in any other British colony. Supply of meat and dairy products to rapidly growing ports and urban centres was one priority for livestock farmers. Cattle ranching remained a major feature of livestock production in Australia. Bullock-carts, not dissimilar to South African ox-wagons, were essential for Australian transport up to the 1870s. But for well over a century, from the 1820s to the 1950s and beyond, sheep flooded the southern lands. Although mutton became a significant export from New Zealand and South America, wool was probably the major product of these pastoral hinterlands—and a key focus of production in Australia and South Africa. The growth in antipodean sheep numbers was staggering.

The exploitation of small ruminants (goat and sheep) has always been linked to the development of human civilizations, where they have mainly fed on their derived products such as milk and meat. Currently, the sheep population is around 1 billion head concentrated above 50% in three countries, China, Australia, and New Zealand, contrary to goats with around 720 million heads, distributed mainly in Asia, Africa, and South America. Both species have similar characteristics in some anatomical aspects (a pair of nipples), gestation period (150 days), and presence of seasonal anestrus, differing in terms of magnitude and depth and presence of the male effect. However, they are completely different in feeding habits, nutrient needs, and grazing systems, with differences in terms of the female’s reproductive tract, among other characteristics. Currently, the study of reproduction has intensified over the years in the goats and its counterpart that is the buck. Therefore, in the following topics, the importance of global reproduction of the goat will be discussed, considering that progress has been made today in the application of third generation reproductive techniques and that today they are already consolidated and developed in the bovine species.

The chapter analyses Indigenous traditional knowledge and traditional ecologic knowledge in the context of international intellectual property instruments (IP). In so doing, the chapter studies the major international intellectual property law regimes such as the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and the Convention on Biological Diversity to prove that such instruments are ill suited to protect Indigenous peoples' knowledge and the biological resources in their custody. The New Zealand case Wai 262 shows in detail how international economic pressures often trump any aim to create national sui generis IP instruments to safeguard Indigenous knowledge.

<p>Geotechnical engineering is a resource intensive sector of civil engineering that has a substantial effect on sustainability aspects of many transport, building, water and power projects. Improving sustainability of the geotechnical design solutions is extremely important to achieve sustainable development. Sustainability in geotechnical engineering gained particular importance in New Zealand due to the unacceptably high material and socio-economic losses that resulted from the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence and 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake. The main drivers behind sustainable geotechnical design in New Zealand are discussed. Aspects of geotechnical engineering that may improve civil and geotechnical design in terms of sustainability outcomes are considered. A few design examples utilising innovative design methodologies and resulting in positive sustainability outcomes are described.</p>

Modern concrete silos and grain elevators are a persistent source of interest and fascination for architects, industrial archaeologists, painters, photographers, and artists. The legacy of the Australian examples of the early 1900s is appreciated primarily by a popular culture that allocates value to these structures on aesthetic grounds. Several aspects of construction history associated with this early modern form of civil engineering have been less explored. In the 1920s and 1930s, concrete grain elevator stations blossomed along the railway networks of the Australian Wheat Belts, marking with their vertical presence the landscapes of many rural towns in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia. The Australian reception of this industrial building type of American origin reflects the modern nation-building aspirations of State Governments of the early 1900s. The development of fast-tracked, self-climbing methods for constructing concrete silos, a technology also imported from America, illustrates the critical role of concrete in that effort of nation-building. The rural and urban proliferation of concrete silos in Australia also helped establish a confident local concrete industry that began thriving with automatic systems of movable formwork, mastering and ultimately transferring these construction methods to multi-storey buildings after WWII. Although there is an evident link between grain elevators and the historiographical propaganda of heroic modernism, that nexus should not induce to interpret old concrete silos as a vestige of modern aesthetics. As catalysts of technical and economic development in Australia, Australian wheat silos also bear important significance due to the international technology transfer and local repercussions of their fast-tracked concrete construction methods.

The Horotiu Paa Bridge, also known as the Karapiro Gully Bridge is the largest weathering steel bridge in New Zealand. Construction of the bridge was recently completed in November 2015. The bridge is part of the Cambridge section of the Waikato Expressway in New Zealand. The Waikato Expressway is one of the seven state highways, named the Roads of National Significance, identified by the government as essential to New Zealand's economic prosperity. The bridge spans over the Karapiro Gully with a total length of 200m, consisting of four 50m long equal spans and is 24m wide, servicing 4 lanes of traffic.<p> This paper discusses the design development, key design aspects, innovations and technical challenges for the design of the Horotiu Paa Bridge.