Agriculture, Volume 5, Issue 3

Although olive mill wastewater (OMW) is often applied onto soil and is known to be phytotoxic, its impact on soil fauna is still unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate how OMW spreading in olive orchards affects Oribatida and Collemb...

Climate change impacts local agricultural systems in detectable and distinguishable ways from large-scale shifts in water, land, and weather patterns to regionally specific distributions of weeds, pests, and diseases. Best management practices for ad...

It is known that properties of activated biochars are tightly associated with those of the original feedstock as well as pyrolysis and activation conditions. This study examined two feedstock types, pine wood shavings and chicken litter, to produce b...

Environmental and health safety of recycled slaughterhouse wastes-derived fertilizer and the produce obtained through its application is not well understood. Waste bovine blood and rumen digesta were mixed, cooked and sun-dried to obtain bovine-blo...

The aim of this study was to determine the morphology of rhizome production, in two contrasting rhizomatous (R) and non-rhizomatous (NR) tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus (Schreb.) Dumort) populations, and to assess whether rhizome production is...

The intake and digestibility of forages is largely influenced by the fibre content and specifically the neutral detergent fibre (NDF). Currently, the focus in commercial diet formulation and the modelling of animal performance is on the total NDF so...

This review is a comprehensive introduction to the effects of poultry exposure to the toxic and carcinogenic mycotoxin aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁). The relationship between AFB₁ sensitivity and metabolism, major direct and indirect effects of AFB₁, recent st...

A widely abundant and invasive forest shrub, Eupatorium adenophorum, was pyrolyzed in a cost-efficient flame curtain kiln to produce biochar. The resulting biochar fulfilled all the requirements for premium quality, according to the European Biochar...

Farmers are increasingly demanding rapid, cost-effective, easy-to-use and non-destructive methods for monitoring changes in the physical and chemical characteristics of crops and plants from the early stages of crop development until harvest. Remote...

Pig manure is an excellent fertilizer and rich source of organic carbon and nitrogen compounds such organic nitrogen (O-N) (95% of total nitrogen) that is plant-unavailable-nitrogen (PUN) and mineralized nitrogen (about 1% of total nitrogen) such as...

Leaf length is a key factor in the economic value of different grass species and cultivars in forage production. It is also important for the survival of individual plants within a sward. The objective of this paper is to discuss the basis of within-...

Biochars are produced by low-oxygen gasification or pyrolysis of organic waste products, and can be co-produced with energy, achieving waste diversion and delivering a soil amendment that can improve agricultural yields. Although many studies have re...

Wheat is increasingly used as a dual-purpose crop (for forage and grain production) worldwide. Plants encounter low temperatures in winter, which commonly results in sugar accumulation. High sugar levels might have a positive impact on forage digesti...

Data on fresh fruit and vegetable shrink in supermarkets is important to help understand where and how much shrink could potentially be reduced by supermarkets to increase their profitability. This study provides: (1) shrink estimates for 24 fresh fr...

Grazing management has been the focus of the research with forage plants in Brazil for many years. Only in the last two decades, however, significant changes and advances have occurred regarding the understanding of the key factors and processes that...

Although alfalfa is moderately tolerant of salinity, the effects of salinity on nutrient composition and forage parameters are poorly understood. In addition, there are no data on the effect of salinity on the antioxidant capacity of alfalfa. We eval...

Agricultural producers are interested in using biomass available on farms to substitute fossil fuels for heat production. However, energy crops like reed canary grass contain high nitrogen (N), sulfur (S), potassium (K) and other ash-forming elements...

Mycotoxins are secondary fungal metabolites, toxic to humans, animals and plants. Among the hundreds of known mycotoxins, aflatoxins, citrinin, patulin, penicillic acid, tenuazonic acid, ochratoxin A, cytochalasins, deoxynivalenol, fumonisins, fusari...

It is known that plant height is a suitable parameter for estimating crop biomass. The aim of this study was to confirm the validity of spatial plant height data, which is derived from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), as a non-destructive estimator...

The two temperate forage legumes containing condensed tannins (CT) that promote ruminant production are birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.; BFT) and sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.; SF). Both are well-adapted to the cool-temperate climate...

There are numerous species of larkspur (Delphinium spp.) in North America. Larkspurs are a major cause of cattle losses on western ranges in the USA, especially on foothill and mountain rangelands. The toxicity of larkspur species is due to various...

A pilot Postharvest Training and Services Center (PTSC) was launched in October 2012 in Arusha, Tanzania as part of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project. The five key components of the PTSC are (1) training of p...

Indospicine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid which occurs in Indigofera species with widespread prevalence in grazing pastures across tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. It accumulates in the tissues of grazing livestock after ingest...

Thermal-based germination models are widely used to predict germination rate and germination timing of plants. However, comparison of model parameters between large numbers of species is rare. In this study, seeds of 27 species including 12 C₄ and 1...

Botrytis cinerea is a fungus that causes gray mold on many fruit crops. Despite the availability of a large number of botryticides, the chemical control of gray mold has been hindered by the emergence of resistant strains. In this paper, tests were d...

This concept paper summarizes key “hotspots” for waste generation along the food supply chain and identifies a range of existing solutions/measures that can help producers, retailers and consumers reduce the amount of food that is wasted. The majorit...

Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) are a newly emerged technology for energy-efficient water and wastewater treatment. Much effort as well as significant progress has been made in advancing this technology towards practical applications treating variou...