Livestock Articles
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Variation in the herd composition counts of sika deer
Herd composition counts (HCC) are commonly used to assess population status in deer. We evaluated the reliability of HCC of sika deer (Cervus nippon Temminck) using repeated counts and by comparing estimated sex ratios and calf-to-female ratios of marked deer on Nakanoshima Island, Hokkaido, Japan between April 1999 and October 2000. Although both total counts and sex and age ratios fluctuated ...
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Herb layer productivity under different light gaps in the forests of Western Ghats of Karnataka, India
A productivity estimation of tree, shrub and herb layer biomass was undertaken in Uttara Kannada, a Western Ghats district in Karnataka in differentially managed forests. In addition to biomass, light gap in these sample sites was also estimated to understand the relationship between the light interception pattern at different canopy layers and their productivity. The studies indicate that tree ...
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Research prizes: a new kind of incentive for innovation in African agriculture
This paper identifies market failures that limit agricultural R&D for Africa and other resource-poor environments, and proposes a way to complement existing institutions with cash prizes for the dissemination of successful new technologies adopted by low-income farmers. The proposed prize institution would use agronomic experiments and farm surveys to document the value of innovations after their ...
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Bt-cotton boosts the gross margin of small-scale cotton producers in South Africa
This paper explores some of the issues involved in the Genetic Modification (GM) debate by focusing on one crop that has been modified for pest resistance, cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), and commercially released to small-scale farmers in the Makhathini Flats, KwaZulu Natal, the Republic of South Africa. This was the first commercial release of a GM variety (Bt-cotton) in Sub-Saharan Africa, and ...
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An odor predictive model for rendering applications
Abstract The rendering process consists of crushing and heating animal remains to produce by-products. The U.S. produces approximately 30 billion pounds of inedible animal by-products annually, exporting a market value of US$ 1.5 billion. Benefits of the rendering process include reducing total waste material, and helping the livestock industry stay competitive over vegetable protein ...
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Mercury in the Northern Crayfish, Orconectes virilis (Hagen), in New England, USA
Biologists and policy makers continue to seek environmental correlates of mercury bioavailability in aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we assessed the effects of drainage basin, habitat type, size class, and sex on mercury concentrations in the northern crayfish, Orconectes virilis (Hagen). Drainage basin, habitat type, and size class had significant effects on mercury concentration in crayfish ...
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Distribution of neotropical migratory bird species across an urbanizing landscape
Urbanization leads to long-term modification of landscapes by habitat loss, fragmentation, and the creation of new habitats. Species’ distributions respond to these modifications of habitat availability, but the combination of parameters and scale at which habitat alteration most strongly influences species distributions is poorly understood. We evaluated responses of neotropical migratory birds, ...
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Regional Assessment of Nutrient and Pesticide Leaching in the Vegetable Production Area of Rattaphum Catchment, Thailand
Regional groundwater vulnerability maps to indicate the impact of leaching of chemicals under different management scenarios were prepared for the Rattaphum Catchment using several leaching models and GIS techniques. The Attenuation Factor (AF) model was used to simulate the leaching potential of several pesticides for selected soils in the catchment under different rates of recharge from ...
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Comparative Sublethal Toxicity of Nine Pesticides on Olfactory Learning Performances of the Honeybee Apis mellifera
Using a conditioned proboscis extension response (PER) assay, honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) can be trained to associate an odor stimulus with a sucrose reward. Previous studies have shown that observations of conditioned PER were of interest for assessing the behavioral effects of pesticides on the honeybee. In the present study, the effects of sublethal concentrations of nine pesticides on ...
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Sustainability of Current Agricultural Practices in The Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Cameron Highlands is a mountainous region with steep slopes. Gradients exceeding 20∘ are common. The climate is favourable to the cultivation of tea, sub-tropical vegetables and flowers (under rain-shelter). Crop production is sustained by high fertiliser and manure applications. However, agriculture in this environment is characterised by high levels of soil erosion and environmental ...
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Paradigm of value-driven and community-based precision farming
This paper describes a Japanese model of community-based precision farming and learning groups of farmers and companies. The community-based precision farming is a new regional farming system to get high profitability and reliability under regional and environmental constraints, promoted by wisdom farmers and technology platform, through creating both information-oriented fields and ...
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Sustainability of Current Agricultural Practices in The Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Cameron Highlands is a mountainous region with steep slopes. Gradients exceeding 20◦ are common. The climate is favourable to the cultivation of tea, sub-tropical vegetables and flowers (under rain-shelter). Crop production is sustained by high fertiliser and manure applications. However, agriculture in this environment is characterised by high levels of soil erosion and environmental ...
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Canopy dynamics and human caused disturbance on a semi-arid landscape in the Rocky Mountains, USA
Invasion of grasslands by woody plants has been identified as a key indicator of changes in ecosystem structure and function in arid and semi-arid rangelands throughout the world. We investigated changes in the balance between woody and herbaceous components of a semi-arid landscape in western Colorado (USA) using historical aerial photography. Aerial photographs from 1937, 1965–67, and 1994 were ...
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Comparison of data from two vegetation monitoring methods in semi-natural grasslands
Two vegetation-monitoring methods were compared: subplot frequency analysis (SF) and visual estimation of percentage cover (VE). Two independent observers collected data from two semi-natural, species-rich grasslands on three different occasions during the growth-season. During the last data collection period, survey times were also recorded. The two different data sets from the two methods were ...
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Mastrus ridibundus parasitoids eavesdrop on cocoon-spinning codling moth, Cydia pomonella, larvae
Cocoon-spinning larvae of the codling moth, Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Olethreutidae) employ a pheromone that attracts or arrests conspecifics seeking pupation sites. Such intraspecific communication signals are important cues for illicit receivers such as parasitoids to exploit. We tested the hypothesis that the prepupal C. pomonella parasitoid Mastrus ridibundus Gravenhorst (Hymenoptera: ...
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Waste stream utilisation for sustainable viticulture
ABSTRACTField trials were established at four vineyards in January 1999 to evaluate the effects of four mulch mixtures on different soil and plant parameters. Mulches were made from wine industry and other commercially available plant and animal wastes. Soil, grape petioles, grape leaves and grape juice were analysed over three seasons. The mulches applied released considerable quantities of ...
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Regional Assessment of Nutrient and Pesticide Leaching in the Vegetable Production Area of Rattaphum Catchment, Thailand
Regional groundwater vulnerability maps to indicate the impact of leaching of chemicals under different management scenarios were prepared for the Rattaphum Catchment using several leaching models and GIS techniques. The Attenuation Factor (AF) model was used to simulate the leaching potential of several pesticides for selected soils in the catchment under different rates of recharge from ...
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Qualitative Stakeholder Analysis for the Development of Sustainable Monitoring Systems for Farm Animal Welfare
Continued concern for animal welfare may be alleviated when welfare would be monitored on farms. Monitoring can be characterized as an information system where various stakeholders periodically exchange relevant information. Stakeholders include producers, consumers, retailers, the government, scientists, and others. Valuating animal welfare in the animal-product market chain is regarded as a key ...
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Valuing new product development and analysing license agreements for intellectual property
Strategic investments in research and development (R&D) possess challenging features for valuation: the relationship between research effort and a marketable product is highly uncertain and there is always the possibility for some exogenous event or competitor behaviour to render the whole effort valueless. The R&D project studied here concerns the breeding of new fruit varieties in a programme ...
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Controversy about agricultural technology lessons from the green revolution
The development and introduction of transgenically modified organisms to enhance crop and animal production has generated considerable controversy about potential food safety and environmental impacts. The introduction, in tropical Latin America and Asia, of high yielding varieties of wheat, maize and rice beginning in the late 1960s was also controversial. Critics argued that the new technology ...
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