Harvesting Systems Articles
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Using coir as a growing susbstrate - sustainably and ethically
Manufactured from the inner husk of coconuts, coir is, but its very nature, produced in distant, and often developing, countries. This means that there is also an ethical slant to consider, as well as the question of shipping costs and carbon use. As retailers apply more pressure on their suppliers to focus on sustainability and ethics, these points are becoming increasingly important. Growers ...
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Tuning In: Tracking wood from Honduran Forests to U.S. Guitars
This study focuses on two supply chains for mahogany that originate in remote biodiversity-rich forests in Honduras. These supply chains were selected because they involve small forest community cooperatives that, compared with industrial operations, have a lower capacity to respond to market requirements for legal wood, including the U.S. Lacey Act. The study describes two approaches used to ...
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Adoption, utilisation and economic impacts of improved post-harvest technologies in maize production in Kapchorwa District, Uganda
High post-harvest losses, poor quality and lack of value addition at the farm level constrain maize production in Uganda. Concern over these issues prompted the government to introduce improved post-harvest technologies to reduce losses. However, there remain a huge number of farmers still using local post-harvest methods. Farmers are unlikely to accept new technologies unless the perceived ...
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Modelling the success of fruit and vegetable marketing
Previous research showed marketing and consumption losses of fruit and vegetables in Brazil to be 18% of turnover. This study develops a scoring guide that can assist commercial establishments and households in evaluating and mitigating the loss potential for fruit and vegetables within their operations. The scoring model separately addresses losses related to products and losses related to ...
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Nitrogen and harvest frequency effect on yield and cost for four perennial grasses
A USDOE and USDA study concluded that more than 20 million U.S. hectares of cropland, idle cropland, and cropland pasture could be converted from current uses to the production of perennial grasses from which biomass could be harvested for use as biorefinery feedstock. This study was conducted to determine the most efficient species, level of N, and harvest frequency from among four perennial ...
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Nonstructural carbohydrate concentrations in Timothy as affected by N fertilization, stage of development, and time of cutting
Forages with increased total nonstructural carbohydrate (TNC) concentrations improve the N-use efficiency of dairy cows. This study determined the effect of time of cutting (0700 vs. 1500 h), stage of development (heading and anthesis), and N fertilization (30, 50, 70, 90, and 110 kg N ha–1 as NH4NO3) on the fermentable carbohydrate concentration of timothy (Phleum pratense L.) grown in northern ...
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Assessment of Shellfish Practices in Licensed Retail Food Establishments in Response to Increased Vibrio Illnesses in a Landlocked Area
Cases of non-cholera Vibrio illness are typically associated with exposure to shellfish from marine coastal areas (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 2009), not landlocked states such as Colorado. In 2004, a 2.8-fold increase in the incidence of non-cholera Vibrio cases in the Tri-County Health Department (TCHD) jurisdiction of Colorado prompted ...
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Does skip-row planting configuration improve cotton net return?
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) growers want information about alternative planting configurations to reduce seed, technology, and other production costs. We evaluated the impact of solid and 2 x 1 skip-row configurations on net returns for cotton grown in 25-, 76-, and 102-cm rows based on yield and fiber quality data from an experiment in adjacent nonirrigated and irrigated fields at Milan, TN. ...
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Quantifying straw removal through baling and measuring the long-term impact on soil quality and wheat production
Crop residues are considered the feedstock of choice for the production of ethanol, but removing crop residues may negatively impact soil productivity. The objectives were to quantify the proportion of total aboveground crop residues removed through baling and to evaluate the effects of 50 yr of straw removal with baling on soil quality and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production. The first study ...
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Simulation of soil carbon dynamics under sugarcane with the CENTURY model
Currently there is a trend for the expansion of the area cropped with sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.), driven by an increase in the world demand for biofuels, due to economical, environmental, and geopolitical issues. Although sugarcane is traditionally harvested by burning dried leaves and tops, the unburned, mechanized harvest has been progressively adopted. The use of process based models ...
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Mass balance of Cadmium in two contrasting oak forest ecosystems
The mass balance of cadmium in forest ecosystems was parameterized. Soil pH is the main variable controlling retention of Cd in the soil and, hence, determines whether Cd is leached from the system or not. However the extent to which root uptake and biomass accumulation of Cd, or the return of Cd to the soil as internal cycling, influences forest Cd balances is unknown. Also unknown is whether ...
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Proso millet yield and residue mass following direct harvest with a stripper-header
Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) (PM) is an important crop for dryland rotations in the central Great Plains. The crop is traditionally swathed before combining to promote uniform drying of the panicle and to minimize seed shattering losses. Direct harvesting of PM with a stripper-header would eliminate the swathing operation resulting in cost savings, and increased standing crop residues to ...
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Postanthesis moderate wetting drying improves both quality and quantity of rice yield
A major challenge in rice (Oryza sativa L.) production in China is to cope with a declining availability of fresh water without compromising grain yield and grain quality. This study was designed to determine if alternate wetting and moderate soil drying during grain filling could maintain grain yield and grain quality. Two rice cultivars, Zhendao 88 (japonica) and Shanyou 63 (indica), were ...
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Forage pasture production, risk analysis, and the buffering capacity of triticale
Many livestock producers minimize input costs by relying solely on naturalized, mixed-species pasture, but expose themselves to risks associated with forage yields that fluctuate in response to variable environmental conditions. This study was undertaken to assess winter triticale (xTriticosecale spp.) as a potential component of forage systems from the perspective of reducing forage yield risk. ...
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Theoretical considerations on generic modelling of harvest maturity, enzyme status and quality behaviour
There is a growing awareness amongst researchers in the field of fruit and vegetable postharvest that quality is generated in the process of plant growth and all well advanced postharvest techniques and technologies can merely retain, as good as possible, the quality that is already present in the produce. Information and knowledge about the evolution of properties and quality attributes, that ...
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