The current study investigated the influence of selection for body weight (BW) on growth curve parameters in two lines of Japanese quail through a mixed model approach. Live BWs of 1400 Japanese quail were recorded at 3-day intervals from hatching to 42 days of age. Birds were distributed equally across lines (selected and control) and sexes (male and female). The asymptotic weight parameter (β0) values were always higher in Gompertz than Richards models in both lines. The values of β0 were higher in the selected than control lines and in females than males across models. Differences were found in the inflection point for age and weight across lines and sexes. Values of the growth rate parameter (β2) ranged from 0.06 to 0.10 in both models, favouring males over females in both lines. Lower weights at the inflection point of both models were observed in the control line. Determination coefficient (R2) of both models in different genetic groups and sexes was similar. Mean square error (MSE) values of the Gompertz model were lower for females in selected v. control lines. In contrast, MSE values of the Richards model were lower for selected males v. control males. According to the criteria of choice (highest R2 and lowest MSE, Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion), the Richards model was considered the best fitting model for the growth data of males, while the Gompertz model was the best for growth data of female quails in both lines.

Whole-body oxygen (O2) consumption was measured continuously in pigs from the product of blood flow through the pulmonary artery and arterio-venous (AV) difference of blood O2 content across the lungs (pulmonary AV procedure). Blood flow in the pulmonary artery, a measure of cardiac output, was monitored continuously using a transit-time ultrasound flow probe surgically implanted around the artery. The O2 content of pulmonary artery blood, which represents mixed venous blood O2 aturation (SvO2) was recorded continuously by fibre-optic oximetry. The relative constancy of arterial blood oxygen saturation (SaO2), obtained by catheterization of the saphenous artery, obviated the need for continuous monitoring. Complete recovery from surgical procedures, as indicated by the absence of infection and a return to pre-surgery food intake, occurred in 3–5 days. The combination of transit-time ultrasound and fibre-optic oximetry allowed the pulmonary AV procedure to provide continuous data on the oxygen consumption of growing pigs at high temperatures.

That rhizobial strains belonging to pulses not only differ among themselves but also show differences in their effectiveness when Azotobacter isolates are used as co-inoculants has been shown by Sanoria & Ram (1979) and Sanoria & Mallik (1981). This has now been further demonstrated in trials conducted over 2 years using bengal gram. These trials also included a phosphate solubilizing bacterium (Pseudomonas spp.) as an extra inoculant but it had no effect on the responses obtained.

A feeding and balance trial was conducted for 15 weeks on 25 lambs (aged 3–5 months) divided into five groups of 5 animals each on a basal ration consisting of oats, groundnut cake, barley, common salt, green grass and wheat straw. The five groups were fed a mineral supplement as follows:

Group I. Basal ration plus ‘Supermindiff’ mineral mixture (control group).

Group II. Basal ration plus calcined superphosphate.

Group III. Basal ration plus superphosphate.

Group IV. Basal ration plus superphosphate plus oral cobalt chloride (3 mg Co/10 kg body weight).

Group V. Basal ration plus superphosphate plus parenteral vitamin B12 (50 μg/week/ animal).

Calcination of fertilizer-grade superphosphate at 600°C for 2 h reduced the fluorine content from 23350ppm to 1600 ppm. The results show that high fluorine or superphosphate significantly reduced growth rate and retention of calcium and phosphorus and significantly increased blood inorganic phosphorus. Calcination of superphosphate in Group II gave comparable results to the control group (Group I). The oral Co or parenteral vitamin B12 supplementation (Groups IV and V) did not ameliorate the adverse effects of high fluorine in superphosphate.

It is concluded that calcination of superphosphate at 600°C for 2 h yields a suitable defluorinated product which can be used as a phosphorus supplement in the feeding of animals. Fertilizer-grade superphosphate is unsuitable due to its high fluorine content, the adverse effects of which are not mitigated by oral Co or parenteral vitamin B12 supplementation.

Response of wheat to fertilizer-P on soils low and medium in available P increased with increasing doses up to 26 kg P/ha; responses were proportionately greater on medium-P soils. Application of 39 kg P/ha increased the response slightly on low-P but decreased it drastically on medium-P soils. The relatively small response on low-P soils may be due to fixation of fertilizer-P. The results indicate that the maximum response to fertilizer-P may be obtained only when P fixing capacity of the soil is satisfied so that sufficient P for the crop remains in the soil solution. The results of this investigation suggest that fertilizer should be applied on the basis of soil test data of individual fields instead of following regional recommendations.

Several methods for estimating nitrates by reduction to ammonia were examined. The error involved in the use of acid reducing agents in presence of amino groups was emphasised.

A method based on the use of Devarda's alloy and magnesia is recommended.

In the estimation of nitrates in plant extracts, etc., by this method an equal volume of rectified spirit is first added to the solution to precipitate colloidal matter. The precipitate is filtered off and an aliquot part of the filtrate containing the equivalent in nitrate nitrogen of about 0.1 gm. of KNO3 is distilled with steam for 45 minutes with 1 gm. of Devarda's alloy and ½ gm. of freshly ignited magnesia. A blank determination is essential, in which the same volume of filtrate is distilled for the same length of time with ½ gm. of magnesia.

In Kjeldahl estimations in presence of nitrates, where the separate estimation of nitrates is not required, 2 c.c. of 25 per cent. NaOH may be substituted for the magnesia. Relatively this is very much less soda than Devarda recommends. The mixture in this case may be distilled directly for half-an-hour. The nitrates are thus reduced and the ammonia produced is collected before beginning the digestion with sulphuric acid.

This work was carried out under the supervision of Mr F. W. Foreman to whom the author's best thanks are due for much valuable criticism and advice.

A field experiment was made with sorghum hybrid CSH-1 during the rainy seasons of 1968 and 1969 on a sandy loam soil to study the influence of amounts and sources of phosphate fertilizer on phosphorus nutrition. Concentration of P in the crop and uptake increased with increasing amounts of phosphate and with increasing proportions of water-soluble P in triple superphosphate-dicalcium phosphate and triple superphosphate-rock phosphate mixtures. Relative effectiveness values were calculated from P uptake at harvest by a multiple regression method. For triple superphosphate, nitrophosphate (30% water soluble P), dicalcium phosphate and rock phosphate (from Jordan) the values were respectively, 100, 74, 61 and 22.

The deposition on soil of sulphur from the atmosphere through gaseous absorption, or particulate precipitation and deposition on vegetation and to other surfaces, is calculated to account for most of the atmospheric-S deposited in Britain; S collected in rainwater appears to amount to only one-sixth of the total deposition (Chamberlain, 1960). A knowledge of the amounts of S deposited is important agriculturally, particularly in areas far from industry, both where fertilizers are not used, and also when deciding how much fertilizer-S should be used relative to other nutrients. The technical problems of separating the amounts of sulphur deposited by gaseous absorption, particulate precipitation, and in rain are easier in a tropical climate which has well-defined wet and dry seasons and where atmospheric SO2 concentrations are smaller and vary less than in industrial areas.

The potential benefits of high-energy supplements, such as cereal grains, for grazing ruminants are commonly eroded by an accompanying depression in the digestion and intake of the basal herbage (McCullough, 1959). Low ruminal pH (< 6·0) induced by the rapid rate of production of the acids of starch fermentation, and competition between cellulolytie and amylolytic bacteria for limited nutrients, are known to be responsible for inhibition of cellulolysis (Terry, Tilley & Outen, 1969; Stewart, 1977; el Shazly, Dehority & Johnson, 1961). However, there are reports of reduced roughage digestion when nutrients appear to be non-limiting and pH is maintained above 6·0 (Gilchrist et al. 1979; Henning et al. 1980). The possibility remains that intermediates or end products of starch digestion have specific inhibitory effects on the numbers of cellulolytie organisms or on the activity of their extracellular cellulases.

Three separate nitrogen balance experiments were made in three consecutive years. Comparisons of nitrogen retention were made between late-pregnant (15–20 weeks) Greyface (Border Leicester ♂χ Scottish Blackface ♀) ewes given a basal diet of hay and molassed sugar-beet pulp cubes (SBP, 1·25 em diameter x ca. 3cm length) and when given additional nitrogen supplied as urea contained in molassed sugar-beet pulp cubes (SBPU). Both sugar-beet pulp materials were adequately supplemented with minerals and vitamins. Supplementation with urea significantly increased nitrogen retention.

Alfalfa is a model plant defined as less sensitive than others to iron (Fe) deficiency. In the present work, some mechanisms induced in low Fe availability conditions were studied, including the effect of inoculation of alfalfa seeds with Pseudomonas putida. The effect of different Fe contents in the nutrient solution on the growth parameters was evaluated at 3 and 10 days, observing that low Fe conditions promoted biomass accumulation. Activation in the mechanisms of Fe acquisition, through acidification of the media and an increase in the ferric chelate reductase (FCR) activity, was observed in the absence of Fe at 10 days. The presence of P. putida KT2442 in the rhizosphere eliminated FCR activation through the excretion of siderophores. The effect of the siderophores on the modulation of FCR activity was demonstrated using a ppsD mutant strain, unable to segregate them, observing an activation of the activity similar to that observed in the absence of the bacteria. This, together with the demonstrated mechanisms to increase Fe availability, contributed to the conclusion that alfalfa can be used for recovery programmes of soils with low Fe availability.

In view of the celebration of the ‘International Year of Millets,’ millets are popularizing sustainable agricultural output amid challenging climates and nourishing adequately as food and feed. The extent of scientific intervention is the foundation for designing, promoting and popularizing neglected crops on social platforms. Planning future directions and adaptive strategies largely require regular evaluation of research efforts to identify hotspots and research gaps, as identified in the present study by creating a robust text-mining approach that integrates scientometrics using PubMed citation data. Keyword mining reveals that India and China are the leading publication centres on millets, possibly due to their large proportion of cultivation and indigenous nature. It further reveals that the pearl millet is the predominant one, followed by foxtail and finger millet, suggesting that most research is confined to them only; however, other millets, still have a research gap in comparison. The word abiotic stress is associated with high frequency in millet research due to its adaptive nature amid climate change. Thematic representation explored the novel concept of millet's utility as a probiotic and millet bran to ensure nutrient–cereal properties based on the persistency of keywords throughput research progression; however, incurious consumption is associated with harmful ochratoxin. Bio-concept mining and knowledge graph generation divided the millet research output into four large domains, which provides a largely covered bio-concepts for millet research and co-concurrence of emerging bio-concepts to intense progress and finds an adequate literature gap to improve millet research for sustained growth and equilibrate biodiversity.

Lodging is the permanent displacement of stalks due to disrupted secondary cell walls caused by external factors, plant characters and their interaction. Anatomical, morphological and compositional traits are among lodging-inducing plant traits. In comparison with morphological and anatomical features, the correlation of lodging resistance and cell wall composition is not frequently reviewed. In this review, the relation between cell wall composition and lodging resistance of cereal stalks is comprehensively reviewed based on major cell wall components (lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose) and trace minerals. From the body of literatures reviewed across all cereal crops, lignin and cellulose were found to have significant positive correlation with lodging resistance. However, the effect of structural features of cellulose and lignin on lodging resistance was not investigated in most of the studies. This review also highlights the importance of biomass recalcitrance and lodging resistance trade-offs in the spectrum of genetic cell wall modifications.

The aim of the study was to investigate the suitability of subsurface and surface drip irrigation methods in rice farming. The field studies were carried out in split plots in randomized blocks trial design, with three repetitions during 2019 and 2020 in Thrace Region/Türkiye. Irrigation methods, surface drip (DI), subsurface drip (SDI) and conventional flooding (CF) were the main treatments; however, water amounts (I1: Class A-pan evaporation rate × 1.00, I2: Class A-pan evaporation rate × 1.25, I3: Class A-pan evaporation rate × 1.50) were designed as sub-treatments of the study. The results of the statistical analyses indicated that, the rice grain yield was significantly (P < 0.01) affected by the amount of the irrigation water. According to the results; while two different drip irrigation methods did not make a difference to yield and yield components, the difference between drip irrigation and CF was significant (P < 0.01). While the grain yields reached 10.3 and 8.70 t/ha under conditions of CF control during 2019 and 2020, the highest yield values obtained from plots with drip irrigation system and the highest Class A-pan evaporation rate x pan coefficient of 1.50 were 8.10 and 6.90 t/ha during the same two study years, respectively. However, much more effective use of water was observed under conditions of drip system application providing approximately 60–70% water saving v. 20–25% yield loss. In addition, economic analysis results indicated a higher relative profit rate of 1.66 in the case of drip irrigation than 1.41 under CF application.

The fen silts bordering the Wash are among the most important soils for crop production in eastern England. Derived from marine alluvial deposits occurring naturally or as a result of reclamation, they form deep almost stoneless soils containing little coarse sand but much fine sand and silt.

Seven textural classes, ranging from loamy fine sand to silty clay, can be distinguished, but these can be grouped into (1) light silts, typically deep very fine sandy loams with a large available water-holding capacity but weakly developed structure; (2) medium silts, silty loams; and (3) heavy silts, silt loams or silty clay loams, less porous and more retentive of moisture than the light silts.

Formerly under grass, the silts were at first capable of growing good crops of potatoes with P fertilizer alone, but as their organic-matter content decreased, potatoes became increasingly responsive to N.

In 18 potato manurial experiments on silt soils in Holland, Lincolnshire, done between 1953 and 1963, the mean response to N was much larger than on most English soils, but response differed greatly from site to site and year to year; in most trials N was particularly effective in increasing tuber size and yield of ware. With long-continued use of P fertilizer, residues have accumulated and, particularly on light and medium silts, responses were quite small and differed little between sites; P tended to increase tuber numbers, and so to decrease ware percentage. Most silt soils are rich in K, and only small responses to K fertilizer can be expected, but on a few sites on the light silts, identified by soil analysis as being comparatively poor in K, potatoes responded well. Using these experimental results, recommendations are given for the manuring of potatoes on silt soils.

Cooking tests showed little consistent effect of manurial treatment on the amount or degree of tuber blackening.

Studies were conducted to evaluate amounts of fatty acids in the oil as possible indicators of crop maturity in the groundnut, cultivar NC2, grown in St Vincent, Eastern Caribbean. Percentage fatty acids in oil of the composite samples of seeds collected between 99 and 141 days after planting for a period of 3 years (1985–87) was determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Results indicated variation in the amounts of individual fatty acids with crop maturity. There were definite trends, however, with respect to oleic and linoleic acids. As seeds matured, percentage oleic acid increased and percentage linoleic acid decreased, and consequently, the oleic:linoleic acid ratio in oil of the composite seeds increased significantly. The percentage oleic acid peaked significantly at a value of 55.8 ± 0.59 at optimum harvest dates. The results clearly suggested therefore that percentage oleic acid in oil could be used as a reliable reaping index for groundnut.

On the adoption of a sampling method for the estimation of the yield of small experimental plots, the need arose for a threshing machine capable of threshing quickly and accurately the small sampling-units which comprise the sample from an individual plot. These sampling-units contain various numbers of ears from some three or four to twenty or more, and there is no commercial machine which deals adequately with such small quantities of grain. The number of sampling-units from a typical randomised block experiment may amount to 2500, and to thresh and winnow such numbers in two distinct operations would take no inconsiderable time. As a direct result of this, a machine was constructed in which these two operations were successively performed, without the need of handling the intermediate products. It is the object of this paper to describe this machine and the manner in which it was used for this purpose at Rothamsted last season. Wheat, oats and barley were treated, only minor alterations of the size of the screens, the speed of rotation and the strength of the blast for the separation of the chaff being necessary.

A close relationship has been found between the decomposition of feeds in the macro-respirometer and their digestibility. The degree of nitrogen mineralization appears also to conform with certain aspects of protein digestibility. The various relationships are sufficiently close to suggest that the macro-respirometer can be used in a preliminary assessment of the digestibility of feeds.