Effect of replacing calcium salts of palm oil distillate with rapeseed oil, milled or whole rapeseeds on milk fatty-acid composition in cows fed maize silage-based diets

Inclusion of rapeseed feeds in dairy cow diets has the potential to reduce milk fat saturated fatty acid (SFA) and increase cis-monounsaturated fatty acid (cis-MUFA) content but effectiveness may depend on the form in which the rapeseed is presented. Four mid-lactation Holstein dairy cows were allocated to four maize silage-based dietary treatments according to a 4 x 4 Latin Square design, with 28-day experimental periods. Treatments consisted of a control diet (C containing 49 g/kg dry matter (DM) of calcium salts of palm oil distillate (CPO), or 49 g/kg DM of oil supplied as whole rapeseeds (WR), rapeseeds milled with wheat (MR) or rapeseed oil (RO). Replacing CPO with rapeseed feeds had no effect (P > 0.05) on milk fat and protein content, while milk yields were higher (P < 0.05) for RO and MR compared with WR (37.1, 38.1 and 34.3 kg/day, respectively). Substituting CPO with RO or MR reduced (P < 0.05) milk fat total SFA content (69.6, 55.6, 71.7 and 61.5 g/100g fatty acids for C, RO, WR and MR, respectively) and enhanced (P < 0.05) milk cis-9 18:1 MUFA concentrations (corresponding values 18.6, 24.3, 17.0 and 23.0 g/100g fatty acids) compared with C and WR. Treatments RO and MR also increased (P < 0.05) milk trans-MUFA content (4.4, 6.8, 10.5 g/100g fatty acids, C MR and RO, respectively). A lack of significant changes in milk fat composition when replacing CPO with WR suggests limited bioavailability of fatty acids in intact rapeseeds. In conclusion, replacing a commercial palm oil-based fat supplement in the diet with milled rapeseeds or rapeseed oil represented an effective strategy to alter milk fatty acid composition with the potential to improve human health. Inclusion of processed rapeseeds offered a good compromise for reducing milk SFA and increasing cis-MUFA, whilst minimising milk trans-MUFA and negative effects on animal performance.

Relationship between milk consumption and prostate cancer: a short review

Epidemiological evidence based on both case–control and prospective cohort studies points to an overall positive relationship between consumption of milk/dairy products and the risk of developing prostate cancer. There are inconsistencies in the data, but taken together, the increased relative risk does not seem to be high. A number of mechanisms have been proposed to account for the relationship, with most attention being focused on the involvement of calcium/vitamin D, insulin-like growth factor-1 and oestrogens, although it is unlikely that a single factor in milk is implicated. In any event, any added risk of prostate cancer from increased milk consumption has to be set alongside other evidence, which shows that increased milk consumption can provide substantially reduced risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and colorectal cancer, particularly because cardiovascular disease accounts for vastly more deaths than prostate cancer (although the latter is of course restricted to men).

Influence of foliar diseases and their control by fungicides on grain yield and quality in wheat

Twenty-eight field experiments on sandy-loam soils in the UK (1982-2003) are reviewed by relating the extension of the green area duration of the flag leaf (GLADF) by fungicides to effects on yield and quality of winter wheat. Over all experiments mean grain yield = 8.85t ha(-1) at 85% DM. With regards quality, mean values were: thousand grain weight (TGW) = 44.5 g; specific weight (SWT) = 76.9 kg hl(-1); crude protein concentration (CP (N x 5.7)) = 12.5 % DM; Hagberg falling number (HFN) = 285 s; and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)-sedimentation volume = 69ml. For each day (d) that fungicides increased GLADF there were associated average increases in yield (0.144 1 ha(-1) d(-1), se 0.0049, df = 333), TGW (0.56 gd(-1), se = 0.017) and SWT (0.22 kg hl(-1) d(-1), se 0.011). Some curvature was evident in all these relationships. When GLADF was delayed beyond 700 degrees Cd after anthesis, as was possible in cool wet seasons, responses were curtailed, or less reliable. Despite this apparent terminal sink limitation, fungicide effects on sink size, eg endosperm cell numbers or maximum water mass per grain, were not prerequisites for large effects on grain yield, TGW or SWT. Fungicide effects on CP were variable. Although the average response of CP was negative (-0.029%DM/d; se = 0.00338), this depended on cultivar and disease controlled. Controlling biotrophs such as rusts, (Puccinia spp.) tended to increase CP, whereas controlling a more necrotrophic pathogen (Septoria tritici) usually reducedCP. Irrespective of pathogen controlled, delaying senescence of the flag leaf was associated with increased nitrogen yields in the grain (averaging 2.24 kg N ha-1 d(-1), se = 0.0848) due to both increased N uptake into the above ground crop, and also more efficient remobilisation of N from leaf laminas. When sulphur availability appeared to be adequate, fungicide x cultivar interactions were similar on S as for CP, although N:S ratios tended to decline (i.e. improve for bread making) when S. tritici was controlled. On average, SDS-sedimentation volume declined (-0. 18 ml/d, se = 0.027) with increased GLADF, broadly commensurate with the average effect on CP. Hagberg falling number decreased as fungicide increased GLADF (-2.73 s/d, se = 0.178), indicating an increase in alpha-amylase activity.

Bayes estimates of distance-to-market: Transactions costs, cooperatives and milk-market development in the Ethiopian highlands

Rationalizing non-participation as a resource deficiency in the household, this paper identifies strategies for milk-market development in the Ethiopian highlands. The additional amounts of covariates required for Positive marketable surplus -'distances-to market'-are computed from a model in which production and sales are correlated; sales are left-censored at some Unobserved thresholds production efficiencies are heterogeneous: and the data are in the form of a panel. Incorporating these features into the modeling exercise ant because they are fundamental to the data-generating environment. There are four reasons. First, because production and sales decisions are enacted within the same household, both decisions are affected by the same exogenous shocks, and production and sales are therefore likely to be correlated. Second. because selling, involves time and time is arguably the most important resource available to a subsistence household, the minimum Sales amount is not zero but, rather, some unobserved threshold that lies beyond zero. Third. the Potential existence of heterogeneous abilities in management, ones that lie latent from the econometrician's perspective, suggest that production efficiencies should be permitted to vary across households. Fourth, we observe a single set of households during multiple visits in a single production year. The results convey clearly that institutional and production) innovations alone are insufficient to encourage participation. Market-precipitating innovation requires complementary inputs, especially improvements in human capital and reductions in risk. Copyright (c) 20 08 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A revised Tobit procedure for mitigating bias in the presence of non-zero censoring with an application to milk-market participation in the Ethiopian highlands

Fixed transactions costs that prohibit exchange engender bias in supply analysis due to censoring of the sample observations. The associated bias in conventional regression procedures applied to censored data and the construction of robust methods for mitigating bias have been preoccupations of applied economists since Tobin [Econometrica 26 (1958) 24]. This literature assumes that the true point of censoring in the data is zero and, when this is not the case, imparts a bias to parameter estimates of the censored regression model. We conjecture that this bias can be significant; affirm this from experiments; and suggest techniques for mitigating this bias using Bayesian procedures. The bias-mitigating procedures are based on modifications of the key step that facilitates Bayesian estimation of the censored regression model; are easy to implement; work well in both small and large samples; and lead to significantly improved inference in the censored regression model. These findings are important in light of the widespread use of the zero-censored Tobit regression and we investigate their consequences using data on milk-market participation in the Ethiopian highlands. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.