Forage potential and silage quality of four varieties of saccharine sorghum

Abstract: The objective of this work was to evaluate four cultivars of saccharine sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) regarding productivity, chemical composition of plant parts, and quality of the ensiling process. The tested varieties of saccharine sorghum were BRS 506, BRS 508, BRS 509, and BRS 511. The experiment was divided into two trials, which assessed: production, morphological composition, and nutritional quality of the saccharine varieties; and fermentation quality and nutritional value of the silage produced from the saccharine varieties. Of the tested varieties, BRS 509 and BRS 511 showed the highest total dry matter (DM) production. The BRS 508 variety presented the highest in vitro digestibility of the whole plant (70.65% DM). During ensiling, the BRS 509 variety showed the lowest DM loss (8.87%). The highest effluent production was observed for BRS 506 and BRS 508, with yields of 521.87 and 393.16 kg Mg-1 ensiled DM, respectively. The BRS 511 variety is the most recommended because of the best results for plant production and nutritional quality. Regarding the ensiling process, BRS 509 presents the lowest fermentation losses and the highest nutritional value of silage.

Yield in double cropping system as affected by N fertilization rate with pig slurry in a Catalonia dryland region

Intensive swine production is an important agricultural and economical activity in Europe. The high availability of pig slurry (PS) lead to attractive fertilization strategy to reduce costs, therefore is mainly applied as fertilizer in agricultural systems. The optimization N fertilization in these areas should be taken in into to avoid nitrates losses by lixiviation and to achieve maximum efficiency in crop nutrition. Many studies have shown that PS applications can achieve satisfactory yields in different crops by partially or completely replacing synthetic fertilizers. In addition, for the last years, in Northeast Spain (Catalonia) has been widely extended the double-cropping forage system.

Integração agricultura-pecuária em plantio direto: produção de forragem e resíduo de palha após pastejo

O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar, no sistema integração agricultura-pecuária, a possibilidade de utilizar uma cultura para pastejo cujos resíduos permitam produção de palha suficiente para a manutenção do plantio direto, bem como avaliar a produção da forrageira e do resíduo em diferentes distâncias em relação ao centro do pivô, em três épocas, e o desempenho econômico do sistema. Avaliaram-se o impacto do pastejo rotacionado de sorgo forrageiro em plantio direto, sob irrigação em um pivô central de 75 ha, sobre a produção de matéria seca do sorgo forrageiro, a quantidade de resíduos, o custo de produção e o ganho de peso animal. O ensaio foi conduzido num Latossolo Vermelho Distrófico. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o de blocos ao acaso, com parcelas subdivididas, com quatro tratamentos principais: locais de amostragem em diferentes distâncias em relação ao centro do pivô; três tratamentos secundários (ciclos de pastejos) e sete repetições (sete piquetes de 9,37 ha para pastejo, dispostos na forma de pizza). Os resultados permitiram concluir que: a produção do sorgo forrageiro foi suficiente para permitir um ganho 621 kg ha-1 de peso vivo e a quantidade de resíduos de sorgo após o pastejo foi suficiente para suprir o aporte anual de matéria seca de palha necessária para a manutenção do plantio direto; a área, após os pastejos, continuou passível de ser explorada no sistema de plantio direto, e o sistema pesquisado mostrou-se técnica e economicamente viável.

Qualidade física e química do solo em função do sistema de produção e da aplicação superficial de silicato e calcário em experimento de longa duração

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

An Innovative Crop-Forage Intercrop System: Early Cycle Soybean Cultivars and Palisadegrass

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Even-sowing pattern strategies for a low-input agricultural system in forage maize

The objective of this study was to verify the effectiveness of new patterns of sowing and to achieve a low-input organic system in two different environments (northern and southern Europe). The study was motivated by the hypothesis that more even sowing patterns (triangular and square) would significantly enhance the growth and yield of forage maize under widely varying conditions, compared with traditional mechanised rectangular seed patterns. An experiment was conducted in Madrid and duplicated in Copenhagen during 2010. A random block design was used with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement based on two seed-sowing patterns: traditional (rectangular) and new (even) and two weed-management conditions (herbicide use and a low-input system). In both weed-management conditions and locations, the production of aerial maize biomass was greater for the new square seed patterns. In addition, the new pattern showed a greater effectiveness in the control of weeds, both at the initial crop stages (36 and 33% fewer weeds m-2 at the 4- and 8-leaf stages, respectively, in the Copenhagen field experiment) and at the final stage. The final weed biomass for the new pattern was 568 kg ha-1 lower for the Copenhagen experiment and 277 kg ha-1 lower in Madrid field experiments. In the light of these results, the new pattern could potentially reduce the use of herbicides. The results of the experiments support the hypothesis formulated at the beginning of this study that even-sowing patterns would be relatively favourable for the growth and yield of the maize crop. In the near future, new machinery could be used to achieve new seed patterns for the optimisation of biomass yield under low-input systems. This approach is effective because it promotes natural crop-weed competition.

Ants Can Learn to Forage on One-Way Trails

The trails formed by many ant species between nest and food source are two-way roads on which outgoing and returning workers meet and touch each other all along. The way to get back home, after grasping a food load, is to take the same route on which they have arrived from the nest. In many species such trails are chemically marked by pheromones providing orientation cues for the ants to find their way. Other species rely on their vision and use landmarks as cues. We have developed a method to stop foraging ants from shuttling on two-way trails. The only way to forage is to take two separate roads, as they cannot go back on their steps after arriving at the food or at the nest. The condition qualifies as a problem because all their orientation cues-chemical, visual or any other - are disrupted, as all of them cannot but lead the ants back to the route on which they arrived. We have found that workers of the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens rubropilosa can solve the problem. They could not only find the alternative way, but also used the unidirectional traffic system to forage effectively. We suggest that their ability is an evolutionary consequence of the need to deal with environmental irregularities that cannot be negotiated by means of excessively stereotyped behavior, and that it is but an example of a widespread phenomenon. We also suggest that our method can be adapted to other species, invertebrate and vertebrate, in the study of orientation, memory, perception, learning and communication.

Silicon distribution and accumulation in shoot tissue of the tropical forage grass Brachiaria brizantha

Silicon (Si) accumulation in organs and cells is one of the most prominent characteristics of plants of the family Poaceae. Many species from this family are used as forage plants for animal feeding. The present study investigates in Brachiaria brizantha (Hochst. ex A. Rich.) Stapf. cv. Marandu: (1) the dry matter production and Si content in shoot due to soil Si fertilizations; (2) the Si distribution among shoot parts; and (3) the silica deposition and localization in leaves. Plants of B. brizantha cv. Marandu were grown under contrasting Si supplies in soil and nutrient solution. Silica deposition and distribution in grass leaf blades were observed using light microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDXS). Silicon concentration in the B. brizantha shoot increased according to the Si supply. Silicon in grass leaves decreased following the order: mature leaf blades > recently expanded leaf blades > non-expanded leaf blades. Silicon accumulates mainly on the upper (adaxial) epidermis of the grass leaf blades and, especially, on the bulliform cells. The Si distribution on adaxial leaf blade surface is non uniform and reflects a silica deposition exclusively on the cell wall of bulliform cells.

Evaluation of zearalenone in vitro removal by Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from bovine forage

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a mycotoxin that has relatively low acute toxicity. However, it is a potent oestrogen, interfering with the reproductive tract of animals. Among other effects, ZEN decreases animals fertility, and induces fibrosis in the uterus, breast cancer and endometrial carcinoma (Zinedine et al., 2007). Anti-mycotoxin additives (AMA) are defined as a group of products that, when added to animal feed, are capable of adsorbing, inactivating, or neutralizing mycotoxins in the gastrointestinal tract of animals. One example of these products are adsorbents based on yeast cell walls, a safe and beneficial animal feed additive (Abreu et al., 2008). When based on active cells, yeast based products also act as a probiotic, contributing to improve the general animal health because it stimulates their immune system and promotes the integrity of intestinal mucosa (Albino et al., 2006). Strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from silage were tested for their ZEN removal capability. Their effect on - and b-zearalenol (-ZOL and b-ZOL) was also tested. Strains were grown on YPD separately supplemented with ZEN, -ZOL and b-ZOL, and their elimination from culture media was quantified over time by HPLC-FL.

Trophic dynamics in the northern Humboldt Current system: insights from stable isotopes and stomach content analyses

The northern Humboldt Current system (NHCS) off Peru is one of the most productive world marine regions. It represents less than 0.1% of the world ocean surface but presently sustains about 10% of the world fish catch, with the Peruvian anchovy or anchoveta Engraulis ringens as emblematic fish resource. Compared with other eastern boundary upwelling systems, the higher fish productivity of the NHCS cannot be explained by a corresponding higher primary productivity. On another hand, the NHCS is the region where El Niño, and climate variability in general, is most notable. Also, surface oxygenated waters overlie an intense and extremely shallow Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ). In this context, the main objective of this study is to better understand the trophic flows in the NHCS using both stomach content and stable isotope analyses. The study focuses on a variety of organisms from low trophic levels such as zooplankton to top predators (seabirds and fur seals). The approach combines both long-term and specific studies on emblematic species such as anchoveta, and sardine Sardinops sagax and a more inclusive analysis considering the 'global' food web in the recent years (2008 – 2012) using stable isotope analysis. Revisiting anchovy and sardine we show that whereas phytoplankton largely dominated anchoveta and sardine diets in terms of numerical abundance, the carbon content of prey items indicated that zooplankton was by far the most important dietary component. Indeed for anchovy euphausiids contributed 67.5% of dietary carbon, followed by copepods (26.3%). Selecting the largest prey, the euphausiids, provide an energetic advantage for anchoveta in its ecosystem where oxygen depletion imposes strong metabolic constrain to pelagic fish. Sardine feed on smaller zooplankton than do anchoveta, with sardine diet consisting of smaller copepods and fewer euphausiids than anchoveta diet. Hence, trophic competition between sardine and anchovy in the northern Humboldt Current system is minimized by their partitioning of the zooplankton food resource based on prey size, as has been reported in other systems. These results suggest an ecological role for pelagic fish that challenges previous understanding of their position in the foodweb (zooplanktophagous instead of phytophagous), the functioning and the trophic models of the NHCS. Finally to obtain a more comprehensive vision of the relative trophic position of NHCS main components we used stable isotope analyses. For that purpose we analyzed the δ13C and δ15N stable isotope values of thirteen taxonomic categories collected off Peru from 2008 - 2011, i.e., zooplankton, fish, squids and air-breathing top predators. The δ15N isotope signature was strongly impacted by the species, the body length and the latitude. Along the Peruvian coast, the OMZ get more intense and shallow south of ~7.5ºS impacting the baseline nitrogen stable isotopes. Employing a linear mixed-effects modelling approach taking into account the latitudinal and body length effects, we provide a new vision of the relative trophic position of key ecosystem components. Also we confirm stomach content-based results on anchoveta Engraulis ringens and highlight the potential remarkable importance of an often neglected ecosystem component, the squat lobster Pleuroncodes monodon. Indeed, our results support the hypothesis according to which this species forage to some extent on fish eggs and larvae and can thus predate on the first life stages of exploited species. However, the δ13C values of these two species suggest that anchoveta and squat lobster do not exactly share the same habitat. This would potentially reduce some direct competition and/or predation.

Trophic ecology of jumbo squid and predatory fishes in the Northern Humboldt Current System

This work provides a contribution to a better understanding of the trophic ecology of important predators in the Northern Humboldt Current System, the jack mackerel (Trachurus murphyi), the chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) and the jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) by the characterization of the highly variable feeding patterns of these species at different spatiotemporal scales. We provided new knowledge on the comparative trophic behaviour of these species, defined as opportunistic in previous investigations. For that purpose we applied a variety of statistical methods to an extensive dataset of 27,188 non-empty stomachs. We defined the spatial organization of the forage fauna of these predators and documented changes in prey composition according to predators’ size and spatiotemporal features of environment. Our results highligh the key role played by the dissolved oxygen. We also deciphered an important paradox on the jumbo squid diet: why do they hardly forage on the huge anchovy (Engraulis ringens) biomass distributed of coastal Peru? We showed that the shallow oxygen minimum zone present off coastal Peru could hamper the co-occurrence of jumbo squids and anchovies. In addition, we proposed a conceptual model on jumbo squid trophic ecology including the ontogenetic cycle, oxygen and prey availability. Moreover we showed that the trophic behaviour of jack mackerel and chub mackerel is adapted to forage on more accessible species such as for example the squat lobster Pleurocondes monodon and Zoea larvae. Besides, both predators present a trophic overlap. But jack mackerel was not as oracious as chub mackerel, contradictorily to what was observed by others authors. Fish diet presented a high spatiotemporal variability, and the shelf break appeared as a strong biogeographical frontier. Diet composition of our fish predators was not necessarily a consistent indicator of changes in prey biomass. El Niño events had a weak effect on the stomach fullness and diet composition of chub mackerel and jack mackerel. Moreover, decadal changes in diet diversity challenged the classic paradigm of positive correlation between species richness and temperature. Finally, the global patterns that we described in this work, illustrated the opportunistic foraging behaviour, life strategies and the high degree of plasticity of these species. Such behaviour allows adaptation to changes in the environment.

ASPECTS OF THE SILVOPASTORAL SYSTEM CORRELATED WITH PROPERTIES OF A TYPIC QUARTZIPSAMMENT (ENTISOL) IN MATO GROSSO DO SUL, BRAZIL

In Brazil, grazing mismanagement may lead to soil and pasture degradation. To impede this process, integrated cropping systems such as silvopasture have been an effective alternative, allied with precision agriculture based on soil mapping for site-specific management. In this study, we aimed to define the soil property that best sheds light on the variability of eucalyptus and forage yield. The experiment was conducted in the 2011/12 crop year in Ribas do Rio Pardo, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil. We analyzed linear and spatial correlations between eucalyptus traits and physical properties of a Typic Quartzipsamment at two depths (0.00-0.10 and 0.10-0.20 m). For that purpose, we set up a geostatistical grid for collection at 72 points. Gravimetric moisture in the 0.00-0.10 m layer is an important index of soil physical quality, showing correlation to eucalyptus circumference at breast height (CBH) in a Typic Quartzipsamment. With an increase in resistance to penetration in the soil surface layer, there is an increase in eucalyptus height and in neutral detergent fiber content in the forage crop. From a spatial point of view, the height of eucalyptus and the neutral detergent fiber of forage can be estimated by co-kriging analysis with soil resistance to penetration. Resistance to penetration values above 2.3 MPa indicated higher yielding sites.

Production of annual winter forage sown before and after soybean harvest under different nitrogen fertilization levels

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect on forage yield of sowing winter forage species before and after soybean harvest, at different nitrogen application levels. The experiment was set out in a randomized block design with a strip-split plot arrangement, and three replicates. Sowing methods (18 days before soybean harvest and six days after soybean harvest) were allocated in the main plots, and the combination among forage species (Avena strigosa cv. IAPAR 61 + Lolium multiflorum; A. strigosa cv. Comum + L. multiflorum; A. strigosa cv. Comum + L. multiflorum + Vicia villosa; A. strigosa cv. Comum + L. multiflorum + Raphanus sativus; and L. multiflorum) and nitrogen levels (0, 140, 280 and 420 kg ha-1) in the plots and subplots, respectively. Forage sowing before the soybean harvest made it possible to anticipate first grazing by 14 days, with satisfactory establishment of forage species without affecting forage production. This method permitted a longer grazing period, preventing the need for soil disking, besides allowing the use of no-tillage system. The mixture of forage species enables higher forage yield for pasture in relation to single species pastures, with response to nitrogen fertilization up to 360 kg ha-1.

Fusarium wilt incidence and common bean yield according to the preceding crop and the soil tillage system

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of preceding crops and tillage systems on the incidence of Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) yield. The cultivar BRS Valente was cultivated under center‑pivot irrigation in the winter seasons of 2003, 2004 and 2005, after several preceding crops established in the summer seasons. Preceding crops included the legumes Cajanus cajan (pigeon pea), Stylosanthes guianensis, and Crotalaria spectabilis; the grasses Pennisetum glaucum (millet), Sorghum bicolor (forage sorghum), Panicum maximum, and Urochloa brizantha; and a consortium of maize (Zea mays) and U. brizantha (Santa Fé system). Experiments followed a strip‑plot design, with four replicates. Fusarium wilt incidence was higher in the no‑tillage system. Higher disease incidences corresponded to lower bean yields in 2003 and 2004. Previous summer cropping with U. brizantha, U. brizantha + maize consortium, and millet showed the lowest disease incidence. Therefore, the choice of preceding crops must be taken into account for managing Fusarium wilt on irrigated common bean crops in the Brazilian Cerrado.

Operational parameters of soybean seeding in santa fe system

The use of no tillage system associated with the crop-livestock integration is an alternate managing that promotes the accumulation of dry matter in the soil, an essential fact to make the system sustainable and profitable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the operational performance of a planter-tractor set on maize straws intercropped with Urochloa, in different seeding modes. The soybean crop was seed on the intercropping of two forage species (Urochloa brizantha and Urochloa ruziziensis) in five cropping systems: MBL (Maize with Urochloa in the maize seeding row, mixed with base fertilizer and deposited at 0.10 m), MBE (Maize with Urochloa seeded between rows at the same day of seeding maize), MBC (Urochloa between rows of maize seeded with the covering fertilizer at the V4 stage), MBLA (Maize with Urochloa by broadcast seeding at the V4 stage ) and MS (Single Maize: control). The following variables were evaluated: dry mass of maize straw, dry mass of forages and total dry mass of straw; and for the operational parameters the speed of seeding, wheel slippage, traction force and average power at the drawbar. The results showed that the amount of straw produced by maize intercropping with Urochloa, interferes in the operational performance of the tractor-planter at the operation of soybean seeding, i.e., areas with higher amount of straw promote greater energy demand, as well as higher wheel slippage.