SAC Research

Valuing Ecosystems: Policy, Economic and Management Interactions

This Defra funded project looks at husbandry challenges, economics and sustainability of extensively managed hill sheep farms. Partnership between SAC, ADAS and the Macaulay Institute.

The project “Consumer insight for farmers and small food producers in Scotland” is structured as a PhD studentship, but with some additional characteristics.

MACC

Many farmers are considering wintering their cattle outside as a lower cost alternative to housing them through winter.

The aim of this project is to better understand the impact livestock farming in Scotland has on the environment through its carbon footprint, and to report baseline data which can be then used to evaluate the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through changes in management practices.

This project aims to predict the impact of climate change on the UK livestock industry and to assess the measures needed to adapt to a changing climate.

A further study, funded by Defra, to assess the interaction between economics, husbandry and animal welfare in large, extensively managed sheep flocks.

The AsPIRE project sought to improve our understanding of differential performance in peripheral locations through examining a range of intrinsically aspatial dimensions of the local business environment that interact with the effects of relative location - information and society technology, business linkages and networks, social capital, governance and tourism.

The agricultural, ecological and socio-economic importance of high nature value pastoralism in Europe

Key Factors Influencing Economic Relationships & Communication In European Food Chains

The SERA research project ‘Study on Employment in Rural Areas (demographic and employment trends - in particular for young people and women - and typologies of rural areas)’ is funded by the European Commission, DG-Agriculture.

In an increasingly digital world, most of the information supplied to rural businesses is driven by the supplier’s perception of what is needed and rarely founded on the clear analysis of end-user needs.