Agricultural Science Commons^™

Impact Of Market Forces On Product Quality And Grassland Condition, David L. Michalk, Jianping Wu, Warwick B. Badgery, David R. Kemp

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Meeting demands for livestock products which are predicted to more than double during the next 20 years, is central to the challenge of feeding the world sustainably. Smallholders will play a key role in achieving global security in animal protein. However, this requires a shift from subsistence to market-oriented farming where production efficiency not the number of livestock is the key focus with the aim of producing ‘more from less’. For grassland-based ruminant production, reducing stocking rate from current unsustainable levels under subsistence management is an essential first step to producing more production and profit from fewer animals. This is …

Stakeholders Integration For Sustainable Use Of Temperate Forage/Livestock Agriculture, Garry D. Lacefield, Don Ball

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Forage/livestock production is complex, and best management options are often site-specific, but some concepts have broad application. The intent of this article is to provide an overview of research-based management approaches that the authors believe are necessary to ensure the sustainability of forage/livestock farms. This overview discussion is needed because livestock agriculture is changing, thus creating both challenges and opportunities for producers. In the last 30 years, beef numbers in the USA have declined by 20%, but production per cow has more than doubled, resulting in increased total production on less land with fewer animals. Similar statistics exist for the …

Socio-Cultural Factors Challenging Development Interventions In Cattle Production In The Remote Areas Of Vietnam, Duong-Nam Ha, Pham-Van Hung, Tran-The Cuong, Ninh-Xuan Trung, Tran-Van Long, Laurie Bonney, Peter A. Lane, Guillaume Duteurtre, Stephen Ives

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The northwest highlands of Vietnam are characterized by high altitude, low infrastructure, and low population densities composed of a wide diversity of different ethnic groups. Their socio-cultural characteristics strongly influence their lifestyle and production systems, including agricultural activities. The majority of these people have suffered from slow economic development, with the highest poverty rate in the country. This is a real need for plausible interventions where behavioral changes of smallholders throughout local value chains would be a critical foundation. Our project implemented in this context of development in the Northwest highlands of Vietnam aims to understand the role of socio-cultural …

Changing Grassland Scenario In Developing Countries--Economical And Social Perspective, Abule Ebro

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grasslands are mainly used for livestock production in developing countries although they have been facing contradictory pressures, i.e., increased demand for natural resources and animal products to cope with rising human populations. On the other, there is a need to preserve the environment and ecosystem. This paper reviewed the causes of grassland changes, the economic and social perspective of changing grasslands with more emphasis on dry lands. Different indicators were used to assess the economic (livestock production, wildlife and tourism, crop production, ecosystem services) and social (traditional institutions, mobility, land tenure and grazing systems) perspectives of changing grassland. The major …

Conservation Of Grassland Plant Genetic Resources Through People Participation, D. R. Malaviya, Ajoy K. Roy, P. Kaushal

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Agrobiodiversity provides the foundation of all food and feed production. Hence, need of the time is to collect, evaluate and utilize the biodiversity globally available. Indian sub-continent is one of the world’s mega centers of crop origins. India possesses 166 species of agri-horticultural crops and 324 species of wild relatives. India is reported to have five grass covers identified. There have been almost nil human interference in terms of selection pressure; hence, the biodiversity is well conserved in these grazing lands. There is need of a system approach to understanding biodiversity that moves significantly beyond taxonomy and species observations. In …

Breeding Strategies To Improve Fodder Legumes With Special Emphasis On Clover And Medics, Ajoy K. Roy, D. R. Malaviya, P. Kaushal

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In India, Forage has a unique integration of agriculture and animal industry in diversified rich cultural environment. Greater part of rural economy in India relies much upon mixed farming system, a well-knit combination of crop production and livestock rearing. In India, grazing-based livestock husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy as around 50% of animals depend on grazing. Pasturelands over an area of 12 Mha constitute the main grazing resources that are available. Nearly 30 pastoral communities in hilly or arid/semi-arid regions in northern and western parts of India, depend on grazing-based livestock production. Nomadic pastoralism, a traditional …

Front Matter [23rd International Grassland Congress Proceedings], National Organizing Committee, International Grassland Congress

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Do Nerica Rice Cultivars Express Resistance To Striga Hermonthica (Del.) Benth. And Striga Asiatica (L.) Kuntze Under Field Conditions?, Jonne Rodenburg, Mamadou Cissoko, Juma Kayeke, Ibnou Dieng, Zeyaur R. Khan, Charles A.O. Midega, Enos A. Onyuka, Julie D. Scholes

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The parasitic weeds Striga asiatica and Striga hermonthica cause high yield losses in rain-fed upland rice in Africa. Two resistance classes (pre- and post-attachment) and several resistant genotypes have been identified among NERICA (New Rice for Africa) cultivars under laboratory conditions (in vitro) previously. However, little is known about expression of this resistance under field conditions. Here we investigated (1) whether resistance exhibited under controlled conditions would express under representative Striga-infested field conditions, and (2) whether NERICA cultivars would achieve relatively good grain yields under Striga-infested conditions. Twenty-five rice cultivars, including all 18 upland NERICA cultivars, were screened in S. …

Target-Directed Biosynthetic Evolution: Redirecting Plant Evolution To Genomically Optimize A Plant’S Pharmacological Profile, Dustin Paul Brown

Theses and Dissertations--Neuroscience

The dissertation describes a novel method for plant drug discovery based on mutation and selection of plant cells. Despite the industry focus on chemical synthesis, plants remain a source of potent and complex bioactive metabolites. Many of these have evolved as defensive compounds targeted on key proteins in the CNS of herbivorous insects, for example the insect dopamine transporter (DAT). Because of homology with the human DAT protein some of these metabolites have high abuse potential, but others may be valuable in treating drug dependence. This dissertation redirects the evolution of a native Lobelia species toward metabolites with greater activity …

Grassland Resources And Protections In The Yellow River Source Zone On The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Xilai Li, Gary J. Brierley, Youming Qiao, George L. W. Perry, Jay King Gao

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

This paper summarises resources and protections of the Yellow River Source Zone on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A concerted effort has been made to address concerns for overgrazing on the alpine steppe and alpine meadow landscapes in the source zone of the Yellow River. An assessment of the impacts of overgrazing includes consideration of the role of small mammals (on the one hand they are considered as a critical ecosystem engineer, on the other they are perceived as a major threatening pest). Analyzed in this paper are management options in the restoration of degraded grasslands.

Importance Of Livestock Production From Grasslands For National And Local Food And Nutritional Security In Developing Countries, Iain A. Wright

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grazing lands cover more than a quarter of the world’s land surface, often on land that is unsuitable for other forms of use. Despite the perception that productivity is inherently low, the contribution of grasslands in food security in developing countries is significant. However the challenges of spatial and temporal variability of primary productivity need to be managed and mobility of livestock is key to this. Appropriate land management and governance arrangements are essential for facilitating this mobility and for creating the circumstances in which technical options for reducing variability and risk in livestock keeping can be deployed and to …

Selection And Basis For 2,4-D (2,4-Dicholorphenoxyacetic Acid) Tolerance In Red Clover (Trifolium Pratense), Tara L. B. Lewis

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

A red clover (Trifolium pratense) population (UK), from a cross between the cultivar Kenland and a 2,4-D tolerant population (Florida), was recurrently selected for 2,4-D tolerance with evaluations after the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th selection cycles. All UK populations were more 2,4-D tolerant than Kenland. The 2,4-D tolerance following the 6^th selection cycle was similar to the Florida population and tolerance was increased following 7 and 8 cycles of selection by removing plants showing 2,4-D injury and doubling the rate of 2,4-D used for selection.

Yield and forage quality were evaluated in …

Nutrient Availability And Dynamics Of Compost Bedded Pack Dairy Barn Waste, Leslie Hammond

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Increased adoption of compost bedded pack dairy barns (CBP), a relatively new housing and manure handling strategy, warrants study to facilitate proper use of CBP waste as a soil amendment. This study: 1) characterized in situ nutrient content and availability of CBP waste in terms of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P); 2) examined the decomposition of surface-applied CBP waste compared to an alternative processed solid waste amendment; 3) examined nutrient dynamics of incorporated CBP waste in high and low soil test phosphorus (STP) environments. Quick anaerobic mineralization assays revealed that bed management affects nutrient content and availability of CBP waste. …

Model And Sensor-Based Recommendation Approaches For In-Season Nitrogen Management In Corn, L. J. Thompson, R. B. Ferguson, N. Kitchen, D. W. Frazen, M. Mamo, H. Yang, J. S. Schepers

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Nitrogen management for corn (Zea mays L.) may be improved by applying a portion of N in-season. This investigation was conducted to evaluate crop modeling (Maize-N) and active crop canopy sensing approaches for recommending in-season N fertilizer rates. These approaches were evaluated during 2012–2013 on 11 field sites, in Missouri, Nebraska, and North Dakota. Nitrogen management also included a no-N treatment (check) and a non-limiting N reference (all at planting). Nitrogen management treatments were assessed for two hybrids and at low and high seeding rates, arranged in a randomized complete block design. In 9 of 11 site-years, the sensor-based …

Front Matter [Preface And List Of Contributors], National Organizing Committee, International Grassland Congress

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Promising Forage Options To Enhance Livestock Production In Mediterranean Climate Agricultural Systems, Serkan Ates, Hayley C. Norman, Hichem Ben Salem, Bradley Nutt, Harun Cicek

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The increasing demand for food, fibre and animal products inevitably requires intensifying agricultural production worldwide. This can present a number of environmental and farming systems challenges in Mediterranean climate areas of the world. Developments of novel strategies, employing ecologically sound intensification practices, are crucial to enhance production in the Mediterranean agropastoral production systems. In this paper, we have discussed forage based systems that improve productivity, profitability, environmental quality and resilience of the farming systems. Key opportunities include better use and integration of diverse genetic resources, new agronomic techniques and the utilization of perennial forage plants that are adapted to land …

New Methodologies For Grasslands Monitoring, Katarzyna Dabrowska-Zielinska, Piotr Goliński, Marit Jorgensen, Jørgen Mølmann, Gregory Taff, Monika Tomaszewska, Barbara Golińska, Maria Budzynska, Martyna Gatkowska

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Monitoring grassland areas to assess changes in their condition over time has been the subject of a lot of research at different scales. Initially the techniques focused on field-based measurements, and modelling. However, several obtained data were site specific. Based on the increase in availability of remote sensing data and products, there is an expectation that remote sensing can provide rapid and definite answers to the challenges of detecting and monitoring grassland conditions and associated changes in productivity. At the time of European Copernicus Programme, the new possibilities of satellite data from the group of Sentinel satellites give the new …

Grazing Management Options For Maintaining Optimum Pasture Composition And Utilization, Glen E. Aiken

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Global demand for meat and dairy products will continue to increase over the 21st century, however, the global forage-based livestock industry will be challenged in meeting production goals with minimal impact of the environment. Sustainable production of grazing livestock will depend on the use of carefully planned grazing management strategies. Development of a grazing management plan involves making two decisions: determining the livestock density at which pastures are stocked and settling on the method used to graze the pastures. Stocking rate indirectly affects output per animal and per hectare through its direct effect on forage mass and pasture composition. A …

Enhancing Grassland Productivity Through Disease Management Of Grass And Forage Species, Tingyu Duan, Chunjie Li, Yanzhong Li, Binhua Yu, Zhibiao Nan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The total area of grassland in China is about 400 million hectares, accounting for 41.7% of the country’s land area, which plays important role in ecological construction and food security assurance of the national. However, diseases of grass and forage limited the development of the pastoral agriculture. There are more than1500 new diseases were reported in the past 16 years with more and more new diseases were discovered. The damage to grassland is becoming more severe with the known diseases prevalent areas expanding.

Management Of Pasture Soils: Biochar Stability, Carbon Storage Potential And Its Effect On Production And Quality, Bhupinder Pal Singh, Yunying Fang, Mark Boersma, Damian Collins, Lukas Van Zwieten, Lynne M. Macdonald

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The use of biochar has been proposed as a stable carbon (C) amendment with long-term carbon (C) storage potential in agricultural soils while improving primary productivity. However, this concept has not been widely tested in contrasting soils under temperate pasture systems. To address this knowledge gap, a ¹³C-labelled biochar, produced from Eucalyptus saligna biomass by slow pyrolysis (450° C; d¹³C -36.7‰) was surface (0"10 cm) applied in C₃ dominated, annual temperate pasture systems across Arenosol, Cambisol and Ferralsol. The results show that only 2% of the applied biochar-C was mineralised in a relatively clay- and C-poor …

Grassland Renovation And Consequences For Nutrient Management, Johannes Isselstein, Manfred Kayser

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Sward degradation is a serious threat to the functioning of grassland and the provision of ecosystem services. Renovation measures are frequently applied in order to restore degraded swards. However, the success is highly variable and substantial tradeoffs are often found following renovation such as among agronomic and environmental services. Starting from a general classification of renovation measures the paper investigates the processes induced by renovation that lead to a change of the vegetation and that affect carbon and nitrogen fluxes. These processes are strongly interrelated and dependent on site, climate and management condition as well as on the time scale. …

Arkansas Cotton Variety Test 2014, Fred Bourland, A. Beach, C. Kennedy, L. Martin, A. Rouse, B. Robertson

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

The primary goal of the Arkansas Cotton Variety Test is to provide unbiased data regarding the agronomic performance of cotton varieties and advanced breeding lines in the major cotton-growing areas of Arkansas. This information helps seed companies establish marketing strategies and assists producers in choosing varieties to plant.

Calibration And Validation Of The Hybrid-Maize Crop Model For Regional Analysis And Application Over The U.S. Corn Belt, Xing Liu, Jeff Andresen, Haishun Yang, Dev Niyogi

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Detailed parameter sensitivity, model validation, and regional calibration of the Hybrid-Maize crop model were undertaken for the purpose of regional agroclimatic assessments. The model was run at both field scale and county scale. The county-scale study was based on 30-yr daily weather data and corn yield data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service survey for 24 locations across the Corn Belt of the United States. The field-scale study was based on AmeriFlux sites at Bondville, Illinois, andMead, Nebraska. By using the one-at-a-time and interaction-explicit factorial design approaches for sensitivity analysis, the study found that the five most sensitive parameters of …

Production, Persistence And Diversity Of Species In Temperate Grasslands, Meredith L. Mitchell, Brendan P. Christy

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Temperate grassland areas are considered to be semi-arid, with rainfall typically between 250 and 500 mm, much of it occurring in the late spring and early summer. Grazing plays an important role in all these grasslands with impacts on diversity and persistence. Against this assumption that seasonal productivity would be more uniform within a pasture that was diverse, the research suggested that species rich pastures were less stable, because this species richness was composed of non-perennial, volunteer and weed species. This paper explores the concept that systems diversity of temperate grassland does not always equate to production. In these systems …

Using Various Lactic Acid Bacteria Strains During Forage Conservation Towards Fermentation, Storage, Nutritive Value And Safety Improvement, Jonas Jatkauskas, Vilma Vrotniakiene

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Many research efforts have been devoted to find ways how to produce silages with maximum nutritive value, good fermentation and low mould and yeast counts. While there are different objectives in using silage additives, the main objectives are to improve fermentation and reduce dry matter loss, and to prevent secondary fermentation at feed out time. This paper presents our most significant and recent investigations on forage inoculation before ensiling that have a potential for beneficial application on grassland and ruminant nutrition.

Traditional Livestock Production And Growth Opportunities In India, S. M. Deb

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Livestock and animal health development projects need to be based on an understanding of livestock production systems because different systems need different approaches particularly in view of degradation of environment combined with population pressure. In India, the livestock production system is primarily traditional, consisting of mixed-farming and pastoral systems, therefore, development of marginal and smallholder mixed farms must aim at intensification of the total production system. Resource-poor farming systems may aim at the improved management of the various livestock species in backyards. Pastoral systems must focus on effective management of grazing pressure. Community pasture management involves application of technologies, land …

Nutrient Movements Through Ruminant Livestock Production Systems, Adegbola T. Adesogan, Jose C. B. Dubeux, Lynn E. Sollenberger

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Considerable attention has been paid to reducing nutrient emissions from ruminant livestock in the last few decades. This area will continue to attract considerable research in the future due to increasing farm sizes in some developed countries as well as the increasing demand for meat and dairy products, particularly in developing countries. This paper discusses the deposition and losses of carbon and nitrogen in soils and plants in grazed and harvested forage systems as well as utilization and losses of both nutrients by ruminants in both systems. The paper also outlines several soil, plant, and animal-focused strategies that can be …

Rainwater Harvesting And Its Impact On Farming Systems, J. S. Samra

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Landless, small holders and other poors supplement their livelihood and adapt to climate change by grazing, stall feeding with crop residues and fodder cultivated under rainfed and irrigated conditions. Improving productivity by conserving rainfall, ground water recharging, harvesting and recycling of rainwater especially in degraded open access or shared land with community participation was quite successful over a wide range of precipitation and ecological situations. Various types of trenches, bunding, vegetative barriers, gully plugs, ponds, check dams, land slides and mine spoils stabilization etc. retained more soil moisture, seeds, vegetative propagules etc. in situ and prevented soil erosion. It regenerated …

Strengthening Livelihood Of Rural Farmer Populations Through Improved Grasslands, Sujatha Premaratne, S. C. Somasiri

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

This paper reviews the current background of the grassland resource with a purpose of livestock perspective to improve the livelihood of rural farmers. The use of grasslands for livestock rearing by rural farmers has been a long tradition. In climate and vegetation contrast, these grasslands are much more diverse. They are likely to play an economical role in increasing the milk production in many Asian countries. With an increase of human population, the traditional feeding, breeding and surviving habitats for livestock have been acutely restricted in many countries. Therefore, a continued effort is needed to maintain production for sustainable management …

Problems And Prospects Of Grassland Development: Policy Issues, S. Ray Smith

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

There are a range of government and non-government policies that affect grassland development around the world. The objective of this paper is to provide examples of successful policies which have been instrumental in the preservation and maintenance of grasslands and to highlight policies which have resulted in negative consequences. This paper will not attempt to provide a complete overview of policies, but instead will provide examples from representative countries. Policies which affect grasslands can be classified into two broad categories: government policies that cover comprehensive landscape issues like the Grassland Household Contract System (GHCS) in China or the Federal Land …