Effect of Enzyme Supplementation on Metabolisable Energy of Corn, Wheat and Triticale Grains in Broiler Chickens Using Total Excreta Collection or Marker Methods

One hundred twenty male broiler chickens of 20 d of age were used to study the effect of enzyme supplementation on the apparent metabolisable energy corrected for nitrogen in corn, wheat and triticale using total excreta collection or marker methods. The average apparent metabolisable energy corrected for nitrogen in corn, wheat and triticale on dry matter basis, were 3480 ±90, 3263 ±61 and 3260 ±54 kcal/kg, respectively. The metabolisable energy of wheat and triticale was significantly (

Predicting working days for secondary tillage and planting operation in fall

Introduction The working day is an important component in selection and analysis of farm machinery systems. The number of working days is affected by various factors such as climate, soil characteristics and type of operation. Daily soil moisture models based on weather long-term data and soil characteristics were almost used for calculating probability of working days. The goal of this study was to develop a simulation model to predict the number of working days for secondary tillage and planting operation in fall at 50, 80 and 90% probability levels. Materials and Methods A Simulation model was developed using 21 years weather data and soil characteristics for calculate daily soil moisture content in Research Station of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. So soil moisture was calculated using daily soil water equation for top 25 centimeter of soil depth. Moisture equal or lower than 85% of soil field capacity and precipitation lower than 4 millimeter (local data) were considered as soil workability criteria. Then the working days were determined for secondary tillage and planting operation at 50, 80 and 90% probability levels in falls. The number of days at 50% probability was the mean over 21 years and the number of days at 80% and 90% were determined for each two weeks period as the average number of working days minus the product of t value and standard deviation of those numbers. Model Evaluation Evaluation of model included a comparison of predicted and the observed the number of working days in Research Station of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during 2002-2010 and sensitivity analysis was implemented to test the effect of changes in soil workability criterion (80, 90, 95 and 100% of soil field capacity), drainage coefficient (25 % decrease and increase) and soil field capacity (40% increase) on simulation results. Results and Discussion Comparison of predicted and observed days showed that correlation coefficient was 0.998 and the difference between the simulated data and observed data was not significant at the 5% level. Results from sensitivity analysis in Table 3 showed that when soil workability, drainage coefficient and field capacity increased, the number of working days increased, but model sensitivity was very low to drainage coefficient and soil field capacity. In general, the most important factor is precipitation in this weather conditions. The number of working days for secondary tillage and planting operation for each period in fall are shown in Table 4. Conclusions A simulation model was developed for predicting the number of working days for secondary tillage and planting operation in fall. This model was based on weather long-term data and soil characteristics for the Research Station of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The most important factor was precipitation and the model had low sensitivity to drainage coefficient and soil field capacity. The number of working days in 50%, 80% and 90% probability levels for period of ten days was on average 9.94, 9.21, 8.57 days for 23th September to 22th October and 9.77, 8.02, 6.41 days for 23th October to 21th November and 9.68, 7.48 and 5.24 for 22th November to 21th December, respectively

Documentation of Farming Management with GIS and ArcView: A Case Study for Agricultural Research Station of Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

Abstract\ud This survey was conducted for base documentation of farm management with GIS and ArcView based on a 5-year data of the agricultural research station of faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran as a case study. Soil properties and water quality were determined and the necessary data were recorded and analyzed by Excel, ArcView and ArcMap. Then, data (2003-08) available on farming practices were transformed to the appropriate maps. Maps for water resources and quality, soil suitability and farming practices and management (e.g. type of crops, rotation etc) were drawn. This is a prototype database and could be expended for and applied to large farming operations. Based on the result of soil and water analysis water quality of this farm is suitable to medium, texture of soil is medium to heavy with a relatively deep profile and permeability. Soil suitability classes were II and IIs. \ud \ud Keywords: Spatial information, Database, Geographic information system, Precision farmin

Analysis of different inputs share and determination of energy Indices in broilers production in Mashhad city

Introduction The high energy consumption is one of the serious problems in poultry industry. The poultry industry consume about five percent of total energy sources in different countries, with consideration of losses, it increases up to 16-20%. In the year 2003 also, the Iranian chicken meat consumption per capita was 13.3 kg, while in the year 2013 it increased to 25.9 kg (FAO, 2014). It shows that in the diet of Iranian people, the chicken meat has become a strategic food. Poultry industry is one of the biggest and most developed industries in Iran. In the past two decays, mainly due to population growth and increase demand of white meats, it is necessary to change and improve energy efficiency in this industry. Technical efficiency of broiler farms in the central region of Saudi Arabia was analyzed through stochastic frontier approach (Alrwis and Francis, 2003). They reported that many farms under study work lower than their total capacity. In the research, the output was chicken meat weight in the term of the kilogram per one period and the inputs were the number of chicks, feed, the total of all variable expenses and fixed input except chicks and feed and the total cost of fixed inputs including building, equipment and machinery used for the broiler houses. They found that the small and large size broiler farms in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia were produced chicken with mean technical efficiency 83 and 88%, respectively (Alrwis and Francis, 2003). Efficiency measurement of broiler production units in Hamadan province was investigated by Fotros and Solgi (2003). They reported that the minimum, maximum and mean technical efficiency under variable return to scale were 12.7, 100 and 64.4%, respectively. Their results showed that technical efficiency at 16.5 (14 units) and 42.35% (24 units) of farms were more than 90 and 70%, respectively (Fotros and Salgi, 2003). Khorasan Razavi province after Esfahan and Mazandaran provinces is the third largest producer of broilers in Iran. This research was performed because it is necessary to have energy consumption status; also there is a few data about broiler’s energy consumption in Mashhad. In this research, the data of Mashhad’s broilers was analyzed by Data Envelopment Analysis Method. The other objectives of this study were to separate efficient and inefficient units to use energy resource efficiently and determine total energy saving. Materials and Methods This study was performed in 2013 in Mashhad, Iran. The data were collected through interviews and questionnaires from 36 poultry farmers for a growing period of April to May. Input energies were the feed, fuel (gas and gas oil), electricity, labor, equipment and chicken, and the output energies were the chicken meat and the manure. The energy consumption for each element was calculated by multiplied amount of inputs/outputs to energy equivalents. Results and Discussion The total of input and output energies were obtained 125.2, 24.9 GJ/1000Birds, respectively. Energy indices such as energy ratio, energy efficiency and specific energy were determined to be 0.2, 0.019 kg/MJ and 52.55 MJ/kg, respectively. The highest share of energy consumption were 50.84 and 42.43%, for fuel (natural gas and diesel fuel) and feed respectively, the lowest share among the input energies were 0.39 and 0.06%, for chicken and labor respectively. Comparison of energy in three levels of farm sizes (≤15000, 15000-30000 and ≥30000 chicks) showed the energy ratio for large farms were higher than the other levels. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate the poultry efficiency. The results showed that 13 poultry units had average technical efficiency (0.93) in the definition of Constant Returns to Scale (CRS), and 21 poultry units had pure technical efficiency (0.99) in the definition of Variable Returns to Scale (VRS). Conclusions The Fuel (natural gas and diesel fuel) consumption energy had the highest shares of energy consumption; it is because of the low efficient heating equipment in poultry houses and low fuel prices in Iran. Energy efficiency of broiler farms in Mashhad was obtained 0.2 that show low energy efficiency. Improvements in energy efficiency could be achieved by increasing yield or reducing inputs energies

Effects of Planting Date, Time and Methods of Weed Control on Weed Density and Biomass in Cumin Fields

Abstract Two field experiments were carried out in order to evaluate the effect of planting date, method and date of weed control on weed density and biomass in the experimental research field, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, during 2006 and 2007. Treatments included planting date (30 December, 20 January and 30 February), weeding date (first true leaf, start of branching and beginning of flowering stages) and weed control methods (hand weeding, fire treatment and control). The results showed that there were significant differences in the number of weeds between different sowing dates, weeding dates and control methods. The highest mean density and biomass of weeds were obtained on the planting date, 30 February, and when weed was controlled at the first leaf appearance stage with fire treatment. The most appropriate time for weed control was at the beginning of cumin flowering. Fire treatment reduced weed growth in the first half of growing season. However, hand weeding significantly reduced weed density and biomass in the second half of cumin growing season. The first planting date caused the lowest mean weed biomass and the highest cumin yield compared to later planting dates. Hand weeding treatment contained lower mean weed density and biomass compared to fire treatment, however, cumin yield was lower in hand weeding plots than fire treatment. Keywords: Cultural control, Cuminum cyminum, Fire, Hand weeding, Control tim

Towards Surgical Robots:Understanding Interaction Challenges in Knee Surgery

Knee arthroscopy is a very common elective surgery, which is performed globally. Research has stated that there are currently several issues surrounding this surgery which reveal surgeons are frustrated with their instruments, cause unintended damage, and have high levels of cognitive and physical demands. The aim of this research is to explore in greater detail what is actually occurring during surgery and gain insights from the knee surgeons to illuminate the current frailties entangled with knee arthroscopy. This research consists of a field study observing four consultant orthopaedic knee surgeons performing knee arthroscopies, of which a total of 15 surgeries were video-recorded. Cards were created based on the analysis of the videos, which were then used to prompt further reflection in interviews with two of the four knee surgeons. From this study we endeavour to explore how knee surgeons currently employ instruments during knee surgery and the challenges that they experience. Our findings focus on a surgeon's perspective on the following challenges: (1) instrument limitations, (2) limited visibility, and (3) physical and cognitive pressures. Based on these limitations, we explore how current robotic surgical platforms could be introduced as a first step towards designing surgical robots for knee arthroscopy, that will result in more desirable patient outcomes as well as greater satisfaction for the knee surgeons