Proceedings of the tropical fruits in human nutrition and health conference 2008

Horticultural industries are Queensland’s second largest primary producer, with a total gross value of more than $1.9 billion in 2008. Queensland’s diverse geography and climate supports the production of more than 120 horticultural products. With a growing worldwide demand for quality, nutritious food Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries continues to focus its activities on accelerating growth within the sector. The conference, sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and DPI&F is the first of its kind to examine the latest knowledge on the health properties of tropical fruits. Organising committee member and DPI&F science leader Dr Roger Stanley said the conference would develop international networks to accelerate research in the area.

Hardwood plantation nutrition

Spotted gum nutrition in the Burnett Region of Queensland.

ITC Teak Mineral Nutrition

Resolving nutritional impediments to expansion and growth of teak plantations in Queensland.

Elders Forestry Teak Mineral Nutrition

Resolving nutritional impediments to expansion and growth of teak plantations in Queensland.

Alkane Profiles in Tropical Forages

The role of n-alkanes in animal nutrition research has recently been reviewed by Dove and Mayes (1996). The measurement of voluntary intake (VI) using the naturally occurring odd chain length alkanes C31 or C33 in conjunction with administered even chain length alkanes such as C32 and C36 provides several advantages over the more conventional methods. Much of the development work involving this technology has been carried out with sheep or dairy cattle fed predominantly temperate pasture. Laredo et al., (1991) have published alkane profiles for a number of introduced tropical pasture grasses but no alkane profiles have been published for native tropical pasture grasses. Animal production for a consuming world : proceedings of 9th Congress of the Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies [AAAP] and 23rd Biennial Conference of the Australian Society of Animal Production [ASAP] and 17th Annual Symposium of the University of Sydney, Dairy Research Foundation, [DRF]. 2-7 July 2000, Sydney, Australia.

The physiological and metabolic impacts on sheep and cattle of feed and water deprivation before and during transport

Sheep and cattle are frequently subjected to feed and water deprivation (FWD) for about 12 h before, and then during, transport to reduce digesta load in the gastrointestinal tract. This FWD is marked by weight loss as urine and faeces mainly in the first 24 h but continuing at a reduced rate subsequently. The weight of rumen contents falls although water loss is to some extent masked by saliva inflow. FWD is associated with some stress, particularly when transportation is added. This is indicated by increased levels of plasma cortisol that may be partly responsible for an observed increase in the output of water and N in urine and faeces. Loss of body water induces dehydration that may induce feelings of thirst by effects on the hypothalamus structures through the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. There are suggestions that elevated cortisol levels depress angiotensin activity and prevent sensations of thirst in dehydrated animals, but further research in this area is needed. Dehydration coupled with the discharge of Na in urine challenges the maintenance of homeostasis. In FWD, Na excretion in urine is reduced and, with the reduction in digesta load, Na is gradually returned from the digestive tract to the extracellular fluid space. Control of enteropathogenic bacteria by normal rumen microbes is weakened by FWD and resulting infections may threaten animal health and meat safety. Recovery time is required after transport to restore full feed intake and to ensure that adequate glycogen is present in muscle pre-slaughter to maintain meat quality.

Stochastic model for simulating maize yield

Maize is one of the most important crops in the world. The products generated from this crop are largely used in the starch industry, the animal and human nutrition sector, and biomass energy production and refineries. For these reasons, there is much interest in figuring the potential grain yield of maize genotypes in relation to the environment in which they will be grown, as the productivity directly affects agribusiness or farm profitability. Questions like these can be investigated with ecophysiological crop models, which can be organized according to different philosophies and structures. The main objective of this work is to conceptualize a stochastic model for predicting maize grain yield and productivity under different conditions of water supply while considering the uncertainties of daily climate data. Therefore, one focus is to explain the model construction in detail, and the other is to present some results in light of the philosophy adopted. A deterministic model was built as the basis for the stochastic model. The former performed well in terms of the curve shape of the above-ground dry matter over time as well as the grain yield under full and moderate water deficit conditions. Through the use of a triangular distribution for the harvest index and a bivariate normal distribution of the averaged daily solar radiation and air temperature, the stochastic model satisfactorily simulated grain productivity, i.e., it was found that 10,604 kg ha(-1) is the most likely grain productivity, very similar to the productivity simulated by the deterministic model and for the real conditions based on a field experiment. © 2012 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.