1. Treatment in bulk of the grain of wheat, barley, winter oats and spring oats with a proprietary dust, and two experimental dusts A and B which contained organic compounds of mercury, had no harmful effect on germination when drilling followed shortly after treatment. In the case of spring oats, drilling was delayed 7½ weeks after treatment without any harmful effects on germination.

2. The proprietary and experimental dusts both proved effective in controlling bunt disease of wheat, and the leaf-stripe and net-blotch diseases of barley.

3. In the case of barley, the proprietary and experimental dusts both increased the speed of “brairding” but not the final plant population. This hastening of seedling growth did not lead to a higher yield.

4. In the case of winter oats, only the experimental dust A gave a significant increase in plant population and a satisfactory control of the loose smut disease.

A study using 1150 lambs to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters of some weight and fleece traits was carried out on coarse-wool Barki sheep. The weight traits were birth, weaning, yearling weights and daily gains whereas fleece traits included kemp score, staple length and greasy-fleece weight.

Heritability estimates of weight traits were within the range 0·25–0·30. Those of fleece traits were 0·16, 0·21 and 0·43. The repeatability estimates of fleece traits were 0·18, 0·38 and 0·53 for staple length, greasy-fleece weight and kemp score respectively.

Phenotypic correlations between body weight and fleece traits were mostly positive. Genetic correlations between greasy-fleece weight and body weights were mostly positive and of medium values. Those between kemp score and body weights were mostly negative, ranging from medium-high to high.

The Agricultural and Related Industries Study Group of the Operational Research Society held a one-day meeting on ‘Decision Support Systems for Profitable Livestock Production’ on 18 November 1992 at the Meat and Livestock Commission, Milton Keynes, UK. The Group promotes the use of the scientific method in solving management problems. The aim of the meeting was to look at the contribution of advances in modelling towards improving management and hence profitability in livestock production. The first four papers concerned feeding and the remaining two breeding. A large part of the discussion could perhaps best be summed up by the regression equation which related dry matter intake and waste output from a cow. When the output was zero, the intake was reduced by 50%!

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.

Blood potassium and haemoglobin types were investigated in three breeds of sheep in India. Both high and low blood potassium types and all three haemoglobin types—A, B, and AB—were found to be present in two of the breeds examined, namely Bikaneri and Corriedale x Bikaneri. Mandia sheep had both potassium types but only two haemoglobin types—B and AB. Haemoglobin B and high potassium types predominated in all the three breeds; this would clearly point to the comparative suitability of these animals for relatively drier parts of India.

(1) Current literature has been cited to support the view that the country of origin of Red Clover has a very important bearing on the suitability of the seed for crop production in any particular locality; it is therefore a matter that should be considered of just as much and perhaps more importance, than germination and purity. There seems to be little doubt but that, generally speaking, locally grown seed or at least seed harvested in countries no warmer or but little warmer than the district where the seed is to be sown, is likely to produce plants which will “stand” the longest and in many instances produce the heaviest hay crops in the first year after sowing.

The experiment, conducted at Bahia, Brazil, from May to August 2010, aimed to evaluate the nitrogen (N) balance, urea excretion and microbial protein synthesis in lactating goats fed pelleted concentrates with the addition of crude protein (CP), obtained by replacing alfalfa hay with soybean meal. The diets consisted of different levels of CP and 200 g of roughage (Tifton 85 hay)/kg. Maize and mesquite bran were used as the energy source, with maize replaced by mesquite bran in the ratio of 1·7:1. Eight female Saanen goats were used, confined in individual pens and allocated to a 4 × 4 Latin square design. The N balance in the body was positive, and loss of body weight (–0·03 g/day) was observed for the diet with 190 g CP/kg. The concentration (mg/dl) of urea in urine, milk and blood plasma was positively influenced in a linear form, and the highest rate of increase was found in urine, with 2 mg/dl for every 10 g CP/kg added to the diet. The microbial protein synthesis was not affected, but the diets reduced the microbial protein (44 g/day) and its ruminal production efficiency (30 g/kg total digestible nutrients). The levels above 190 g of CP are not recommended because of the energy expenditure required to excrete the urea.

Maize is one of the three staple foods in the world. The white variety represents 60% of the maize importation with a world consumption of 1125 million tons in 2019/2020. Currently, new technologies could contribute to the analysis of this seed, supporting quality control and improvement. This study aims to carry out the morphological and proteomic comparison between the hybrid MR2008 and its parental lines LUG03 and CML491 through mass spectrometry and bioinformatics analysis. Herein, we identified that 34.8% of the hybrid proteome differs from the parental proteome. Also, ontological and morphological analyses determined that the hybrid exhibits more characteristics related to CML491 than LUG03, for example, metabolic pathways and enzymes, such as anthocyanidin 3-O-glucosyltransferase (UniProt P16166). This analysis allowed the identification of dominant characters, metabolic pathways and confirms the utility of this methodology in agricultural practices, mainly in processes of selection and quality control of a crop.

In a 2 × 4 factorial experiment, the laying performance of hens given diets with or without blood meal and four concentrations (0, 5·71, 11·43 and 17·14 g/kg) of added magnesium chloride was measured for 280 days. The inclusion of 50 g/kg blood meal in the laying diet reduced the rate of laying (P < 0·05), egg weight (P < 0·01), egg output (P < 0·01), food intake (P < 0·01), body weight gain (P < 0·01) and body weight at 457 days (P < 0·05). It increased the height of albumen (P < 0·05), Haugh unit score (P < 0·01) and shell colour intensity (P < 0·05) of fresh eggs. The inclusion of increasing dietary concentrations of magnesium chloride reduced (P < 0·01) the specific gravity of eggs but had no significant effect on any of the other egg quality or production characteristics. The dietary treatments had no significant effect on Haugh units of stored eggs.

Two uniformity trials were carried out, one using S. 22 and the other Irish Italian ryegrass. In both trials the plants were grown at 6 in spacing and were harvested in basic units of 1 yd. If no allowance was made for guard rows the smallest plots were the most efficient in that they required a smaller total area of ground and fewer plants to detect a specified difference. For comparative purposes, the size of trial required to detect a difference of 7% of the mean was used. Allowing for 1 guard row round each plot, 2 yd plots were as efficient as those of 1 yd and had the advantage of requiring fewer replications. The effects of plot and block shape were considerable. In general long narrow plots in short wide blocks were more efficient. The choice of plot and block shape is most important. For a given plot size a poor shape may be less than half as efficient as a good one.

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.

Two studies were conducted between 1991 and 1993 to assess the impact of grazing improved v. natural pasture at different stocking densities on animal and vegetation responses. In the first grazing season, goats of the West African Dwarf (WAD) breed were grazed at four stocking densities – 1·90, 2·86, 3·86 or 4·71 TLU/ha (Tropical Livestock Unit = 250 kg liveweight). Wet-season grazing lasted for 14 weeks while assessment was continued until kids were weaned at 120 days of age. There were significant (P < 0·05) changes in the content of legume and forbs in response to variations in stocking density. Liveweight gain per head was significantly (P < 0·05) higher at low than at high stocking density. The same trend was maintained with most aspects of reproductive performance. Goats at low stocking density were of a higher (P < 0·05) body condition score at parturition and had larger litter sizes than does stocked at high stocking density. Kid birth weight and liveweight gain were significantly (P < 0·001) higher at low than at high stocking density. The overall weight loss in does during nursing was similar at the different stocking densities.

In the following year, comparisons were made between three stocking densities, 2·11, 3·17 and 4·23 TLU/ha, on improved and unimproved pastures. Over 14 weeks of wet-season grazing, there was a significant (P < 0·01) decline in available dry matter except at the lowest stocking density on both pasture types. Weight gain per head decreased with increase in stocking density while the reverse was true for weight gain per unit of land. No significant differences were observed for reproductive performance between pasture types or stocking densities. Kid growth rate up to weaning declined with increase in stocking density (P < 0·001) while kid mortality rose with increase in stocking density (P < 0·01). Weight losses in nursing does were higher (P < 0·05) at low than at high stocking density.

Glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT) play a central role in plant nitrogen (N) metabolism. In order to study the effect of powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, Bgt) on N metabolism, field experiments were carried out to evaluate GS and GOGAT activity, GS expression and grain protein content (GPC) in susceptible (Xi'nong 979) and resistant (Zhengmai 103) wheat cultivars under three treatments. The three treatments were no inoculation (CK), inoculated once with Bgt (MP) and inoculated nine times with Bgt (HP). For Xi'nong 979, the activities of GS and GOGAT in grains as well as GS activity in flag leaves increased at 10–15 days after anthesis (DAA), and decreased significantly at 15 or 20–30 DAA in HP and MP. However, GS activity in grains decreased from 20 DAA, which was later than that of flag leaves (15 DAA). At the same time, GS expression in grains was up-regulated at early stage, with GS1 at 10 DAA and GS2 at 15 DAA, followed by a continuous down-regulation. This result indicated that GS and GOGAT activity as well as GS expression were inhibited by powdery mildew, indicating that N metabolism in grains was inhibited at 20–30 DAA. The current study also found out that the yield of the susceptible cultivar decreased significantly, while its GPC increased obviously in HP. It was shown that the increase of GPC was not due to the enhancement of N metabolism, but due to the passive increase caused by yield reduction.

In our previous papers we have shown that the black pigment found in the mammary tissue of sows of various coloured breeds is related to the colour rather than to the sexual condition of the pig. We have also pointed out that this conclusion is contrary to the statements of bacon curers who rely on the presence of this pigment for an indication as to whether or not a sow is ‘on heat.’ Their method of testing the condition of the sow has been described by us in a former paper. It follows from the assumption made by the bacon curers that pigment should not be present in the ‘belly pieces’ of spayed sows (or to be strictly accurate, of sows spayed in early life, before the mammary ducts and glands have undergone development).

Three field trials with Italian ryegrass showed that solid N fertilizers usually gave larger yields than solutions containing 5% N but the differences were significant in only three of thirteen comparisons. More N was taken up from solid fertilizers than from solutions; the differences were not significant at 561b N/acre but were at 1121b N/acre. Grass given solutions had smaller percentage of N and the differences in the percentage of N were significant in eight of ten comparisons. In pot experiments with Italian ryegrass, solutions containing 3.3% N were less effective than solid fertilizers, but solutions containing 1.8% N were equally effective. Possible causes of solutions being less effective are discussed.

A field trial was conducted during 1982–3 and 1983–4 on a loamy sand soil to study the effect of magnesium application to the soil and in foliar spray in relation to various levels of nitrogen on the growth and yield of wheat. Results indicate that wheat responde significantly to magnesium application only at the higher level of nitrogen. At the higher level of N (120 kg/ha), the response of wheat to magnesium application (10 kg/ha) to the soil and in foliar spray was 56 and 68 kg grain/kg Mg, respectively. However, the corresponding values at a low level of N (60 kg/ha) were only 14 and 15 kg grain/kg Mg. Magnesium at the higher level of N increased the chlorophyll content of leaves, leaf area index, interception of photosynthetically active radiation, number of ear-bearing tillers and number of grains per ear. The higher level of magnesium (20 kg/ha) did not result in extra beneficial effect compared with the lower level of Mg (10 kg/ha). Maximum interception of photosynthetically active radiation by the wheat canopy coincided with the attainment of maximum leaf area index and chlorophyll content of leaves at 90 days after sowing.

The object of these experiments was to compare the effect of dung, artificial manures and lime on yield and botanical composition of meadow hay.

The soil is a light loam derived from a coal measures sandstone, and is naturally sour. The poor type of herbage it produces is typical of a large acreage of land in the West Riding.

The northern halves of the plots were limed, and the results obtained show striking differences between the limed and unlimed halves which must be taken into account in any comparison made between the different manurial treatments.