Plant Biology Commons^™

Visualizing 25 Years Of Change In The Glades Oak Savanna, Zoe Fieberg

Summer Research Showcase

Oak savannas represent one of the most threatened ecosystems in Minnesota due to changing land use management, particularly absence of fire (Davis, 2001). Frequent burns kill fire-sensitive mesophytic tree species, reducing the dominance of woody understory and allowing for restoration of the oak savanna environment. The GLADES (Grid for Landscape Analysis and Demographic Study) site was established in 1988 in East Bethel, Minnesota to study the effect of frequent burning on oak savanna restoration. Through the use of standardized methods of photography, we compared canopy differences across GLADES between 2001 and 2026. Preliminary observations revealed increased canopy density and reduced …

Modeling The Clonal Rosette Composition Of A Bromeliaceae Genet: A Combinatorial Approach, Layla K. Lammers, Erin N. Bodine

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Bromeliaceae, a neo-tropical plant family encompassing over 3,000 species, exhibit two modes of reproduction: sexual reproduction via flowers and seeds, and asexual reproduction via genetically identical clonal rosettes. The vegetative bodies of bromeliads form rosettes with new leaves emerging from the center and clonal rosettes emerging above a single leaf in the rosette, resulting in a genetic individual consisting of a seed-grown rosette and multiple iterations of clonal rosettes. This research develops a combinatorial model of probability that a single genetic individual will include at least n clonal rosettes when a single rosette can produce at most 1 or 2 …

Effects Of Photosynthetic Mode On Growth In Closely Related Tillandsia Species, Jeremy L. Read

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

To examine the effects of photosynthetic mode (C3 vs CAM) on plant productivity, subjects of the sister taxa Tillandsia confertiflora (a C3 species) and Tillandsia latifolia (a CAM species) were grown under controlled conditions via growth chamber over 30 weeks. These subjects were divided into non-stressed and drought stress groups. Subjects were compared for total biomass gained or lost over the time period as well as physiological stress measures and CAM activity. The primary conclusion is that usage of CAM does not show major differences or tradeoffs for overall productivity. Future work is needed to clarify if this holds true …

Summaries Of Arkansas Cotton Research 2025, Fred M. Bourland

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Planted cotton acreage in Arkansas decreased in 2025 to 520,000 acres compared to 650,000 planted acres in 2024. Arkansas producers harvested 515,000 acres, which was a decrease of 125,000 acres from the 640,000 acres harvested in 2024 (https://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/Ag_Overview/stateOverview.php?state=Arkansas&year=2025). The 515,000 harvested acres ranked Arkansas third nationally, trailing only Texas and Georgia in harvested acres (https://esmis.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/release-files/795725/cropan26.pdf). The average cotton yield, as reported by the USDA, was 1,239 lb lint/ac, which ranked fourth nationally, behind California, Louisiana, and Arizona. Arkansas farmers produced an estimated 1.329 million bales, which is a decrease from 1.788 million bales produced in 2024. This production still ranks …

Technological Behaviour Of Pellets Containing Dried Green Crop, Christian Furll

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Pelleted dried green crop presents essential advantages compared to chaff and meal as processing forms. Normally, the solidity of the pellets does not exceed the values required by animal feeding. Abrasion resulting from turnover processes is at present too high, particularly for the discharge of bins. Belt conveyors, vibrating conveyors, and bucket elevators are suitable to convey pellets. Storage of pellets over long periods has to be done by respecting prescribed climate conditions. Zones with excessive portion of abraded par­ticles in the storing pile are a preferred cause for self-heating. Slit-type dosing units as well as dosing units equipped with …

Results Of Comparative Investigations Into The Chevving And Ruminating Activities Of The Dairy Cow Fed Dried Forage From Grass And Leguminous Crops, B Piatkowski, S Nagel

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The chewing and ruminating activities were studied of dairy cows fed grass, alfalfa, and straw of different physical forms. An electronic­ally controlled measuring device was applied. When feeding 8 kg of grass hay (32 % crude fibre in dry matter), the ruminating time was 5: 24 and 1 :49 hours (20,712 and 6,982 ruminat­ing movements) for chopped and ground + pelleted forages, respectively. It declined from 1 : 49 to 0: 0 l hours (from 6,929 to 70 move­ments) when hot-air dried alfalfa (23 % crude fibre) was fed in chopped and ground + pelleted forms, respectively. The ruminating time …

Feed Efficiency In Dairy Cows Of Roughages Preserved And Treated In Different Ways, M Zausch, E Boldt

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Trials were conducted with dairy cows to investigate the feed efficiency of grass-clover mixture (wilted silage, silage made of fresh material with addition of foDTiic acid, artifi­cially dried forage, pellets with varying portions of straw). The results obtained allow to draw the following conclusions:

As regards dry matter intake, digestibility, and feed efficiency, grass-dover for wilted silage should be wilted to give a OM content not exceeding 40 %.

Pelleting artificially dried grass-clover mix­ture and its use in mixed rations together with other separately pelleted components should be avoided.

The best feed efficiency is reached when dried grass-clover is converted …

The Influence Of Dried And Ensiled Grass On Rumen Fermen­Tation, J Voigt, B Piatkowski

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Rumen-fistulated cows were used to study the influence of the forage preservation technique on rumen fermentation and holdup time of the feed in the rumen. Cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata) preserved as wilted silage or dried green crop was fed in the following variants: wilted silage alone; wilted silage + sugar beet + protein supplement; dried green crop alone; dried green crop + sugar beet + protein supplement. As compared with dried green crop, the shares of true protein and sugar in wilted silage were reduced from 9.8 • to 6.4 '.'I􀉧 and from 7.7 to 1.8 %in DM, respectively. In comparison …

Changes In Feeding Value Of Preserved Grass And Legumes By The Action Of High Temperatures, R Prym, F Weissbach

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

High temperatures acting on grass and legumes during preservation and storage, cause nutrient digestibility to deteriorate. Protein digestibility is likely to be most strongly affected. Digest­ibility measurements were performed on sheep to estimate the extent of heat damage suffered by dried green forage and silages. Various laboratory methods were applied for record­ing. such damage. The detennination of the acid-detergent insoluble crude protein portion proved a very suitable approach.

Growth And Nitrogen Retention Of Lambs Fed Alfalfa Dehy­Drated At Different Temperatures, H K. Goering

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Alfalfa was dried at four temperatures ranging from 60 to 180 °C in two experiments to evaluate the effect on composition, diet di­gestibility, and growth by lambs. In Experi­ment I, the alfalfa was supplemented with 0.6 % salt and pelleted. In Experiment 2, alfalfa was supplemented with 24.4 % starch, 18.5% straw, 6% cane molasses, 0.5% sodium phosphate, and 0.6 % salt so that total nitrogen intake was not in excess of the protein require­ment for growth of the lambs. Cell wall, acid­detergent fiber, lignin, acid-detergent insoluble nitrogen, and pepsin insoluble nitrogen in­creased in the alfalfa dried at 180 °C. …

Non-Mechanical Field Losses In Wilting Grasses As Influenced By Different Factors, G Rucker, O Knabe

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

When wilting grasses, non-mechanical field losses of different extent may occur. The main factors influencing the extent of losses were: water content at cutting time, drying rate, temperature, amount of rain, swath den­sity, and content of water-soluble carbohy­drates in the crop.

The Effect Of Mechanical, Thermal And Chemical Treatment On The Loss Of Water From Cut Leaves Of Grasses, Colin Edward Harris

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Laboratory experiments have demonstrated that cut grass -leaves have a high resistance to water loss, probably largely due to the imper­meability of the surface cuticle to water vapour. This resistance can be reduced and drying rate increased by thermal and mechanical treatment, and by exposure to the vapour of boiling petroleum ether. The effectiveness of formic acid and tri-n-butyl phosphate suggests the possibility of using chemicals to increase the drying rate of grass crops cut for hay and dried in the field.

Measures For Increasing The Efficiency Of Hot-Air Drying Of Forage, Siegfried Prufer, Gerd Neubert

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In the GDR, the drying of wilted green forage as well as of whole plants of cereals and grain maize considerably improves the effi­ciency of hot-air drying as a whole. The proc­essing of wilted crop and the inclusion of whole-plant drying in the drying pattern cause the throughput to increase by 30 to 50% and fuel consurnption per ton of dried crop to de­crease by up to 50 %, in comparison with drying of fresh green forage containing 15 to 18 % dry matter. Hot-air drying is particularly suitable for feed production along industrial lines. -Being but little dependent on …

Gdr Standard Plant For Producing Feed Pellets On Straw Basis, Gerheard Schmidt

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Following the international trend, livestock production units are growing in size. Straw, a major feed reserve, must be effectively utilized to meet the growing roughage requirements, especially of ruminants. Therefore, in the GDR a standard feed pelleting plant (type GF A) was developed and put to commercial production. The various machines and equipment em­ployed in the different stages of the GFA pellet­ing technology are explained in detail. The use of that standard feed pelleting plant shows the advantages of processing straw for semi-finished and finished feeds.

The Efficiency Of Producing And Feeding Complete-Ration Feed Briquets Containing Forage Chop, G V. Blagoveshcheski, V M. Sokolov

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Production of forage chop from a clover­timothy mixture is efficient when harvesting the forage between the shooting of clover (35 to 40 cm stand height) and mid-flowering. For high-temperature drying, each vegetative stage of the plants requires a clearly defined regime. When establishing formulas for com­plete-ration feed briquets containing clover­timoihy chop harvested before clover budding, the protein/carbohydrate ratio must be bal­anced by supplementing the ration with 30 p.c. barley meal and 29 p.c. straw; when the mix­ture was harvested during budding, phos­phorus supplementation (one p.c. monocal­cium phosphate) is necessary, whilst the mix­ture harvested during flowering has to be supplemented with …

The Production Of Dry Feeds From Straw And Green Forage In The Gdr, Fritz Berg

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In the GDR, at present about 9% of the feed energy requirement of cattle is covered by dry feeds, above all mechanically processed and chemically treated straw as well as dried green forages. This share is expected to rise to 15 % in forthcoming years. On the basis of technological fundamentals devised by animal nutritionists, corresponding production processes are being developed and perfected. They allow to convert the feedstuffs into a physical and chemical form favourable to high intake; in addition, the feeding value of high-fibre feedstuffs is improved. In this way, the feedstuffs are fed in favourable com­bination as …

Evaluation And Determination Off Actors Defining The Length Of Thin-Stalked Green Forage Chop, Peter Szendro

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

A more exact analysis of the length distribution of chopped material from thin-stalked green forage crops provides more information for the further processing of this material and for comparing the quality of work of the different technologies. Material cut into longer and less homoge­neous chop with heavier destruction of the green plant particles shows properties more suitable for further processing than chop harvested with a self-propelled precision-chop forage harvester. In consideration of the special importance of the questions discussed it seems advisable to continue the experiments and to perform them under production conditions as well; the results thus obtained will …

Organization Of Wilted Silage Production Along Industrial Lines In The Selbelang Inter-Farm Cooperative Crop Produc­Tion Division, Hunter Watzke, Karl Bachmann

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The production of high-quality wilted silages on the basis of highly efficient machines and facilities for harvesting and preservation in the Selbelang inter-farm cooperative crop pro­duction division (KAP) is determined by the use of industrial methods of production. Ob­servance of optimum spans for harvesting forage to be used for the production of wilted silage, and the full utilization of machinery and facilities at rising levels of labour pro­ductivity and declining cost are achieved by way of complex and shift employment of machines, facilities, and workers. The size of machine complexes and their performance are dependent on the shape, equipment and …

Possibilities Of Ensiling Meadow Grass With Different Water Content, Roman Moraczewski, Helena Jurkiewicz

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The paper involves results of investigations into the influence of various methods of grass preservation, different cutting times, and dif­Jerent water contents on the nutrient and min­eral levels in the silage. These results show good possibilities of preserving meadow grass by ensiling. Silage fodder has higher contents of crude protein, crude fibre, crude fat, and ash constituents than are found in hay dried under optimum conditions.

Material And Processing Characteristics Of Grasses And Grass Silages, Manfred Muller, Georg Otto

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Material and processing characteristics are essential initial values for planning of proce­dures in industrialized crop production. From the technological stages and process sequences from grass mowing to removing the silage, the following key operations can be derived: chop­ping,. compressing, storing, and removing. For adequate planning of procedures it is necessary to determine the quantitative relations between the essential factors: chopper throughput, pro­portion of short chop, crude fibre content, and relative final density. A relation suitable for practical application and providing sufficient accuracy is established for estimating the mean dry matter content of a trailer load. If high­quality silage is to …