Chemical defoliants are widely used in cotton (Gossypium L.) to accelerate leaf abscission and boll maturation, as well as, to facilitate mechanical harvesting. The current study was conducted to determine the interactive effect of cotton cultivars and spraying time of defoliant on defoliation, boll opening, fibre yield and quality. An experiment was performed with four cultivars and three defoliant spraying time during 2019 and 2020 in split plot design with three replications. At harvest, the defoliation and boll opening rate of all treatments after spraying defoliant was 94.6 and 85.4%, while the blank control (water) was 73.9 and 79.1%, respectively. After spraying defoliant, the effects of defoliation rate, boll opening rate, fibre yield and quality were different among cultivars, indicating that different cultivars had different responses to defoliant. Among them, L7619 was the most sensitive to defoliant, with the average defoliation rate of 95.6% and a seed cotton yield reduction of 882.9 kg/ha. Among the different time of applications, late spraying (17 September, B3) of defoliant recorded the highest defoliation rate (97.3%), boll opening rate (89.8%), seed cotton yield (3991 kg/ha) and steadily increased the fibre strength by 0.59 cN/tex compared with the control. Late spraying of defoliant had little or even no adverse effect on the remaining fibre quality traits (length, uniformity, micronaire and elongation). In general, these results suggested that the appropriate time for spraying defoliant can be determined based on the sensitivity of the cotton cultivar, the weather conditions at the field and the harvest time.

It is often stated that organic rice has a higher content of healthy phytochemicals than ordinary rice, and the facts on this claim obtained experimentally are rare. Riceberry is a new rice variety in Thailand. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of organic practice and conventional practice on the content of chemical composition and bioactive compounds in Riceberry rice. The results showed that agricultural practices were not significantly different for grain yield in the first year, but they were different in the second year. Rice produced by organic practice had a higher content of iron, gamma-aminobutyric acid, total phenolic and anthocyanin (4.15, 1.67, 41.3 and 20.1 mg/100 g dry weight in the first year, and 4.06, 3.37, 89.7 and 14.7 mg/100 g dry weight in the second year) than that produced by conventional practice (2.25, 1.11, 38.8 and 6.89 mg/100 g dry in the first year, and 1.96, 2.77, 54.1 and 5.71 mg/100 g dry in the second year). Rice produced by organic practice also had lower sugar content (2.92 g/100 g dry weight in the first year, and 1.99 g/100 g dry weight in the second year) than that produced by conventional practice (3.46 g/100 g dry weight in the first year, and 2.81 g/100 g dry weight in the second year). Gamma oryzanol and antioxidant capacity were also lower in organic rice compared to conventional rice. This study indicated that organic Riceberry rice had a higher quality compared to non-organic rice.

Timely grazing decision-making requires routine information on the herbage mass (HM) and pasture growth rate (GR). The aim of this study was to compare the correspondence, cost and reliability of two indirect methods –the comparative yield method (COMPYLD) and the pasture-meter (CDAX)– to estimate HM and weekly GR of a 42 ha grazing area. Weekly assessments from April 2017 to October 2018 were made with both methods to estimate HM and GR of 13 individual paddocks. In addition, estimated GR were compared to aerial net primary productivity (ANPP) estimated using remote sensing (SAT). Estimated HM was 22% lower for COMPYLD than CDAX (HMCOMPYLD = 33 + 0.78*HMCDAX, R2 = 0.61, CV = 17%, RMSE = 291 kgDM/ha). The correspondence between methods of estimated weekly GR of individual paddocks was weak (GRCDAX = 0.18*GRCOMPYLD + 19.1, R2 = 0.05, CV = 73%, RMSE = 21.8 kgDM/ha/d). However, when integrated in three-week moving-averages, over the complete grazing area, COMPYLD and CDAX yielded similar GR up to 35 kg DM/ha/d. Accumulating GR of the grazing area over one year resulted similar to annual SAT-estimated ANPP. These results imply that, on one hand, decisions based on nominal HM, such as target HM and grazing strip size, would need to be adjusted depending on the method, but on the other hand, decisions based in temporal trends or GR, such as size and timing of set-aside areas for reserves, would be unaffected by method. Compared with COMPYLD, CDAX would be advantageous whenever high labour costs offset higher amortization, maintenance and fuel costs, provided there is an alternative in place to monitor during downtime periods.

The current study aimed to investigate biofortification of maize grown under different irrigation intervals, i.e. 15, 20 and 25 days (hereinafter referred to as IR15, IR20 and IR25, respectively), using foliar application treatments (silicon (Si), zinc (Zn), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), Si + Zn, Si + AgNPs, Zn + AgNPs and Si + Zn + AgNPs) in two growing seasons, 2020 and 2021. A split-plot design with four replications was used, where irrigation intervals and foliar treatments were assigned in main plots and subplots, respectively. IR15 received a total of 7925 m3/ha irrigation water divided over seven irrigations, while IR20 received 5690 m3/ha divided over five irrigations and IR25 received 4564 m3/ha divided over four irrigations. The highest yield and grain quality were observed in plants irrigated at 15-day intervals. Spraying the canopy with Si, Zn and AgNPs, either individually or in combination, reduced the negative impact of water stress caused by longer irrigation intervals on plant growth, yield, yield components and grain protein content. In IR15 + AgNPs + Zn, most of the studied parameters, except for proline content, showed a high positive impact, especially on 100-kernel weight (KW). In contrast, IR25 + Si + AgNPs + Zn showed the highest positive effects on proline and protein contents but a negative impact on the harvest index. Collectively, IR15 + Si + AgNPs + Zn resulted in the highest values of all studied parameters, followed by IR15 + Si + AgNPs and IR15 + Si + Zn. In conclusion, our results suggest that an irrigation interval of 15 days combined with application of Si, Zn and AgNPs has the potential to improve yield and quality of maize under water deficit stress.

In the present study, we investigated the influence of different mid-stage N compensation timings on agronomic and physiological traits associated with grain yield and quality in field experiments. Two japonica rice cultivars with a good tasting quality (Nangeng 9108 and Nangeng 5055) were examined under eight N compensation timings (N1–N6: one-time N compensation at 7-2 weeks before heading; N7: split N compensation at 5 and 3 weeks before heading; N8: split N compensation at 4 and 2 weeks before heading) and a control with no N compensation. The highest yield was obtained with N7, followed by N3. The yield advantage is mainly attributable to the improved population structure (higher productive tiller rate with a stable number of effective panicles), higher total number of spikelets per unit area (large panicles with more grains per panicle), larger leaf area index in the late period and higher photosynthetic production capacity (more dry matter accumulation and transportation in the middle and late periods). Delaying N compensation timing improved the processing and nutritional quality of rice, but decreased the quality of appearance and cooking/eating traits. Our results suggest that, from the perspective of achieving relative coordination between high yield and high quality of japonica rice, the optimal N compensation should be divided equally at 5 and 3 weeks before heading. However, if simplifying the number of operations and the pursuit of eating quality were considered, one-time N compensation should be conducted at 5 weeks before heading.

This study quantifies the effect of fertilizer and irrigation management on water use efficiency (WUE), crop growth and crop yield in sub-humid to semi-arid conditions of Limpopo Province, South Africa. An approach of coupling a cropping system model (DSSAT) with an agro-hydrological model (SWAT) was developed and applied to simulate crop yield at the field and catchment scale. Simulation results indicated that the application of fertilizer has a greater positive effect on maize yield than irrigation. WUE ranged from 0.10–0.57 kg/m3 (rainfed) to 0.84–1.39 kg/m3 (irrigated) and was positively correlated with fertilizer application rate. The combined application of the variants with deficit irrigation and fertilizer rate (120:60 kg N:P/ha) for maize turned out to be the best option, giving the highest WUE and increasing average yield by up to 5.7 t/ha compared to no fertilization and rainfed cultivation (1.3 t/ha). The simulated results at the catchment scale showed the considerable spatial variability of maize yield across agricultural fields with different soils, slopes and climate conditions. The average annual simulated maize yield across the catchment corresponding to the highest WUE ranged from 4.0 to 7.0 t/ha. The yield gaps ranged from 3.0 to 6.0 t/ha under deficit irrigation combined with 120N:60P kg/ha and ranged from 0.2 to 1.5 t/ha when only applying deficit irrigation but no fertilizer. This information can support regional decision makers to find appropriate interventions that aim at improving crop yield and WUE for catchments/regions.

Dedicated bioenergy crops such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) can be grown on marginally productive lands and positively influence soil properties. However, nitrogen management, and landscape can alter soil structural attributes under bioenergy crop production. This study investigated the impacts of long-term nitrogen fertilization (0-N, 0 kg N/ha; 56-N, 56 kg N/ha and 112-N, 112 kg N/ha) and landscape positions (shoulder and footslope) on soil organic carbon (SOC) and structural attributes under switchgrass production. The 112-N rate enhanced the proportion of 2–4 mm water-stable aggregates by 49%, aggregate associated carbon in 2–4 mm and >4 mm aggregates by 16 and 24%, respectively, aggregate associated nitrogen in >4 mm aggregates by 33% and reduced soil bulk density by 19% compared to the 0-N rate. Footslope position increased the proportion of 2–4 mm water-stable aggregates by 26% and lowered bulk density by 8% compared to the shoulder position. Results showed a significant N-rate × landscape position interaction on SOC and glomalin related soil protein content in bulk soil. Overall, this study showed that nitrogen application to switchgrass planted at footslope on a marginally yielding cropland improved soil structure and physical conditions.

Understanding the photosynthetic behaviour, radiation use efficiency (RUE) and water use efficiency (WUE) of potatoes in response to diurnal and seasonal fluctuations in weather, is important for optimizing growth and production. The net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon dioxide (CO2), is a parameter used to measure the balance between gross CO2 assimilation (also referred to as gross primary production (GPP)) and ecosystem respiration (Reco). The objectives of this study were (i) to quantify the NEE of potato grown in two contrasting agro-ecologies and partition NEE into Reco and GPP; (ii) to describe seasonal patterns in daily photosynthesis, RUE and WUE in potato; and (iii) to analyse the variability in photosynthesis rate, RUE and WUE as affected by weather and crop growth stage. We measured CO2 and water vapour fluxes using eddy covariance techniques in potato fields in two production regions of South Africa. The winter crop had higher mean RUE and WUE values, whereas the summer crop absorbed more CO2. RUE had a negative relationship with incident radiation. To optimize dry matter production, WUE and RUE, potato crops must be well established and develop a full canopy early during the season. Maintaining the crop for a longer period in the field has yield benefits, although they appear to decline over time due to reduced efficiencies as the crop matures. The RUE observed over the growing period in the present study was high, relative to findings by other field studies, despite relatively warm growing conditions that were likely sub-optimal for potato.

This study sought to compare the efficiency of different nitrogen (N) fertilizer forms applied to perennial ryegrass swards that were rotationally grazed by dairy cows or sheep under Irish conditions for two or three years. A 3 × 2 factorial random complete block design plot arrangement was used to compare calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN), urea and urea + N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (urea + NBPT) at 150 and 250 kg N/ha per year. Zero nitrogen plots were also added to allow for N efficiency to be calculated. The study was conducted at four sites, giving three years of data collection at two sites and two years at the other two sites. All four sites observed similar responses to N fertilizer type and N fertilizer rate. Significant differences were observed between the 150 kg N/ha and 250 kg N/ha treatments for pre-grazing herbage yield (1346 and 1588 kg DM/ha, respectively; P < 0.001) and total herbage production (12 290 and 14 448 kg DM/ha, respectively; P < 0.001). There was no difference but a tendency for pre-grazing herbage yield to be higher for CAN and urea + NBPT than urea (1485, 1480 and 1436 kg DM/ha, for CAN, urea + NBPT and urea, respectively; P = 0.091). Total herbage production was significantly higher for CAN and urea + NBPT than urea (13 478, 13 542 and 13 087 kg DM/ha, respectively; P = 0.004). In conclusion, there was an overall benefit detected over the 10 site-years from using urea protected with NBPT v. using urea.

Field experiment to assess the impact of radiation, temperature and foliar N application on rice was conducted. The treatments comprised of four sunlight levels, [control, 50% intensity during start to maximum tillering (R15–45), maximum tillering to booting (R46–75) and panicle emergence to maturity (R76–105) corresponding to 15–45, 46–75 and 76–105 days after transplanting] and 5 levels of foliar nitrogen [control, spray of 3% urea solution in water before (NB), midway (NM), afterwards (NA) and midway + afterwards (NMA) reduction in sunlight]. Results showed that leaf chlorophyll had an inverse relationship with radiation intensity. The R46–75 significantly reduced effective tillers (13.1–16.4%), R46–75 and R76–105 reduced grains/panicle (7.15–12.5%) as compared to control. NB produced significantly higher effective tillers (21.9–24.7%) and grains/panicle (12.2–12.9%) as compared to control. The reduction in sunlight and application of foliar nitrogen increased the minimum cooking time and decreased elongation ratio. Averaged over locations, R15–45, R46–75 and R76–105 decreased the yield significantly as compared to control by 9.29–11.3, 14.4–16.3 and 8.17–10.6%, respectively. The NB significantly increased grain yield as compared to control by 10.3% (Ludhiana) and 9.45% (Hoshiarpur). A decrease in maximum temperature (Tmax) by 2.85–5.70% (1–2°C) of 35.1°C, at 1416 μmol/m2/s of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) increased rice productivity by 10.6–21.0%, while a similar decrease in PAR by 2.85–5.70% at a Tmax of 35.1°C, decreased the productivity by 2.05–4.10%. So, decrease in Tmax due to cloudy weather might have a positive influence while negative impact of deficit radiation may be mitigated by foliar application of 3% urea prior to/during the cloudy weather.

Activity biosensors have been used recently to measure and diagnose the physiological status of dairy cows. However, owing to the variety of commercialized activity biosensors available in the market, activity data generated by a biosensor need to be standardized to predict the status of an animal and make relevant decisions. Hence, the objective of this study was to develop a standardization method for accommodating activity measurements from different sensors. Twelve Holstein dairy cows were monitored to collect 12 862 activity data from four types of sensors over five months. After confirming similar cyclic activity patterns from the sensors through correlation and regression analyses, the gamma distribution was employed to calculate the cumulative probability of the values of each biosensor. Then, the activity values were assigned to three levels (i.e., idle, normal and active) based on the defined proportion of each level, and the values at each level from the four sensors were compared. The results showed that the number of measurements belonging to the same level was similar, with less than a 10% difference at a specific threshold value. In addition, more than 87% of the heat alerts generated by the internal algorithm of three of the four biosensors could be assigned to the active level, suggesting that the current standardization method successfully integrated the activity measurements from different biosensors. The developed probability-based standardization method is expected to be applicable to other biosensors for livestock, which will lead to the development of models and solutions for precision livestock farming.

Process-based crop models (PBCM) for sugarcane present many genotype parameters compared to other crops, making it harder to calibrate. Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) has thus become an important tool for understanding, calibrating and further developing PBCMs. This work used a recently updated Agronomic Modular Simulator for Sugarcane (SAMUCA) to simulate crop growth and development, conducted with two treatments: with green cane trash blanket (GCTB) and under bare soil (BARE). Using the extended Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity (eFAST) algorithm, GSA was performed on the 24 genotype parameters of SAMUCA. The objective was to determine the sample size (SZ): how many samplings are necessary to quantify the sensitivity indices. Additionally, we aimed to assess the influence of parameter range variation and identify which genotype parameters explain the highest variance in simulations of the SAMUCA model under BARE and GCTB conditions. The results showed that SZ greatly affected the convergence and sensitivity indices, and the SZ required here needed to be >2049 for the analysis to cover all variables. Two sets of parameter ranges were used for analysis (the first used maximum and integer values of each parameter reported in the literature; the second applied 25% perturbation to the previously calibrated values). The results indicated that the parameter range affected the parameters' order of importance. Furthermore, we identified that at different phenological stages of sugarcane development, distinct parameters were responsible for explaining the most variance of the output. However, there was no difference among ratoons or interference in the results of BARE or GCTB.

Sustainability of maize production systems is threatened by poor economic returns and resource intensiveness. Therefore, an experiment was conducted at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during 2016–17 to 2017–18 to assess the effect of tillage and microbial inoculantsintegrated phosphorus (P) management on productivity, quality, economic outcome and energy dynamics of maize. Three tillage practices viz., CT–R (conventional tillage with no residue), ZT–R (zero tillage with no residue) and ZT + R (zero tillage with wheat crop residue at 2.5 Mg/ha) were assigned in main plots and five P management practices viz., P1 (control–NK as per recommendation, but no P), P2 (17.2 kg P/ha), P3 (17.2 kg P/ha + PSB), P4 (17.2 kg P/ha + compost inoculants) and P5 (34.4 kg P/ha) were allocated in subplots in three times replicated split-plot design. The maximum grain yield (5.96 Mg/ha), protein content (9.13%), protein yield (546 kg/ha) and gross energy returns (209 × 103 MJ/ha) were recorded under ZT + R while higher benefit: cost ratio (B: C ratio – the amount of economic gain per unit investment) (1.53) and energy efficiency (12.5) was noticed under ZT–R. Among the P management practices, the application of 34.4 kg P/ha recorded the highest grain yield (6.45 Mg/ha), protein content (9.34%), protein yield (603 kg/ha), B: C ratio (1.65) and energy efficiency (10.1). The results suggested that the application of P at the rate of 34.4 kg/ha under ZT + R is an economically robust approach for the quality maize production in semi-arid region.

Planting patterns have significant effects on rice growth. Nonetheless, little is known about differences in annual crop yield and resource utilization among mechanized rice planting patterns in a rice–wheat cropping system. Field experiments were conducted from 2014 to 2017 using three treatments: pot seedling transplanting for rice and row sowing for wheat (PST-RS), carpet seedling transplanting for rice and row sowing for wheat (CST-RS) and row sowing for both crops (RS-RS). The results showed that, compared with RS-RS, PST-RS and CST-RS prolonged annual crop growth duration by 25–26 and 13–15 days, increased effective accumulated temperature by 399 and 212°C days and increased cumulative solar radiation by 454 and 228 MJ/m2 because of the earlier sowing of rice by 28 and 16 days in PST-RS and CST-RS, respectively. Compared with RS-RS, the annual crop yield of PST-RS and CST-RS increased by 3.1–3.8 and 2.0–2.6 t/ha, respectively, because of the increase in the number of spikelets/kernels per hectare, aboveground biomass, mean leaf area index and grain–leaf ratio. In addition, temperature production efficiency, solar radiation production efficiency and solar radiation use efficiency were higher in PST-RS, followed by CST-RS and RS-RS. These results suggest that mechanized rice planting patterns such as PST-RS increase annual crop production in rice–wheat cropping systems by increasing yield and solar energy utilization.

Understanding the reasons for the yield gap between potential and actual yield can provide insights for enhancing canola production by adapting measures for ensuring food security. The canola yield gap under different management practices (e.g. water, nitrogen, N- and sowing dates) was quantified using research trials that were conducted at on-station and historical data (1980–2016) and the CROPGRO-Canola model for Punjab, Pakistan. The integrated approach revealed that low inputs of N, the amount of irrigation, sowing date and the use of seeds from home stocks were the principal causes for a low yield. The CROPGRO-Canola model was able to simulate the canola yield from research trials (R2 = >0.90) and farm survey data (R2 = 0.63). The average yield gap between potential (YP), N-limited (YNL), water-limited (YWL), N- and water-limited (YNWL), and overall farmer field yield (YOFF) was 50, 46, 62 and 72%, respectively. The yield-gap with achievable yield (YA) for YNL, YWL, YNWL and YOFF was 34, 28, 49 and 63%, respectively. Overall, the results showed that a high canola yield for farmers’ fields can be obtained by selecting appropriate varieties and sowing dates with N rate of 120 kg/ha and efficient irrigation management. However, further studies are necessary to fully comprehend the underlying causes for the low actual yield and the high yield variability of farmers’ fields.

The use of repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) options for the analysis of in vitro ruminal fermentation gas production profiles is illustrated. Because of the different variances and covariance structures among profile observations, ordinary ANOVA for more than two-time points is not recommended. To mitigate this problem, the Greenhouse–Geisser epsilon correction can be applied to reduce the degrees of freedom, inflated by violation of the sphericity assumption, for F ratio probability calculations. After this correction, the Box–Greenhouse–Geisser ANOVA (modified ANOVA) layout appears similar to the layout of a split-plot design ANOVA with whole plots divided into subplots (incubation time). Any F tests in the main plot part are valid but F tests involving the time factor from the subplot part need modification because time factor, by its very nature, cannot be allocated at random. Application of multivariate ANOVA, distance multivariate ANOVA, ante-dependence and mixed model analysis are also considered. All these options lend themselves to wide application in the applied biological sciences.

This study aimed to examine and compare the effectiveness of a novel spray-dried inoculant and a commercial freeze-dried additive on the fermentation quality, aerobic stability and bacterial population of vetch-oat silage. An entirely random design used a 3 × 4 factorial arrangement of treatments, with and without lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculants and four fermentation periods. Physicochemical parameters, microbiological counts and 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis on Nanopore MinION were conducted to characterize the ensiling process. Both LAB inoculants increased dry matter, crude protein, lactic, acetic and propionic acid contents, while reducing pH, neutral detergent fibre, ammonia nitrogen/total nitrogen and ethanol concentrations compared to the control group. Overall, the native inoculant decreased the cell load of coliforms, yeasts and moulds. In addition, bio-inoculants enhanced the aerobic stability of vetch-oat intercrops. After ensiling, bacterial alpha diversity decreased noticeably; inoculation reduced the number of observed operational taxonomic units and the Shannon and Simpson indices. Notably, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus in the control group was lower than in treated silages, while the relative values of Staphylococcus increased sharply in the uninoculated group. In conclusion, the native strains showed promise for usage as a bio-inoculant in the ensiling of vetch-oat at a mixture rate of 1:1, producing an immediate impact as well as a favourable effect on the post-opening phase. This represents the first report on 16S rRNA gene-based nanopore metagenomics applied to the bacterial analysis of vetch-oat silage, providing a microbiological insight where native and commercial strains dominate the natural epiphytic community.

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.