Trade-offs between biomass use and soil cover. The case of rice-based cropping systems in the lake Alaotra region of Madagascar

Farmers in the Lake Alaotra region of Madagascar are currently evaluating a range of conservation agriculture (CA) cropping systems. Most of the expected agroecological functions of CA (weed control, erosion control and water retention) are related to the degree of soil cover. Under farmers’ conditions, the grain and biomass productivity of these systems is highly variable and the biomass is used for several purposes. In this study, we measured biomass production of cover crops and crops in farmers’ fields. Further, we derived relationships to predict the soil cover that can be generated for a particular quantity of mulch. We used these relationships to explore the variability of soil cover that can be generated in farmers’ fields, and to estimate howmuch of the biomass can be removed for use as livestock feed, while retaining sufficient soil cover. Three different kinds of cropping systems were investigated in 91 farmers’ fields. The first two cropping sequences were on the hillsides: (i) maize + pulse (Vigna unguiculata or Dolichos lablab) in year 1, followed by upland rice in year 2; (ii) the second crop sequence included several years of Stylosanthes guianensis followed by upland rice; (iii) the third crop sequence was in lowland paddy fields: Vicia villosa or D. lablab, which was followed by rice within the same year and repeated every year. The biomass available prior to rice sowing varied from 3.6 t ha-1 with S. guianensis to 7.3 t ha-1 with V. villosa. The relationship between the mulch quantity (M) and soil cover (C) was measured using digital imaging and was well described by the following equation: C = 1 - exp(-Am × M), where Am is an area-to-mass ratio with R2 > 0.99 in all cases. The calculated average soil cover varied from 56 to 97% for maize + V. unguiculata and V. villosa, respectively. In order to maintain 90% soil cover at rice sowing, the average amount of biomass of V. villosa that could be removed was at least 3 t ha-1 for three quarters of the fields. This quantity was less for other annual or biennial cropping systems. On average the V. villosa aboveground biomass contained 236 kg N ha-1. The study showed that for the conditions of farmers of Malagasy, the production and conservation of biomass is not always sufficient to fulfil all the above-cited agroecological functions of mulch. Inventory of the soil cover capacity for different types of mulch may help farmers to decide how much biomass they can remove from the fiel

Modélisation De La Croissance Du Pachypodium Brévicaule Sur Sol Quartzitique De Mont Ibity

This study is focused on a sampling of Pachypodium brevicaule on quartzitic soil on Mount Ibity in the central part of Madagascar. In this article, a mathematical model of the growth of the plant is presented, based on climatic parameters and interfaces have been created on the Matlab program to display the results. According to our model, the factors influencing the development of plant growth are multiple. Generally, spring is conducive to diameter growth; the rainy season is favorable for height growth; the month of September corresponds to the maximum number of leaves observed. The mathematical model used agrees with our observations from the analyzed sample concerning the evolution of its growth. The study of the growth of Pachypodium brevicaule linked to the soil provides avenues for optimizing production crops in the sector

Analysis of the nutritional and productive behaviour of dairy cows under three rotation bands of pastures, Pichincha, Ecuador

This research was carried out on Pennisetum clandestinum-based pastures to identify the effect of three (3) types of stocking methods with similar forage allowance (8.2 kg of dry matter for 100 kg of live weight) but differing by the occupation times of the rotations (3 h, 24 h, and continuous) on the behaviour and the production of dairy cows. The experimental scheme consisted in three herds of four Holstein Friesian cows grazing three paddocks, one per rotationtype, for one week and replicated three times in a cross-over design. Pasture height and biomass were measured before and after each grazing week and on a daily basis, two cows per herd were monitored during daytime with activity sensors and their milk production was recorded. The main results showed that in all treatments the cows reduced the height of the sward by 40% on average. The cows in the continuous treatment spent more time in meals and tended to have higher average speed during the day than in the 3-h rotation ascribed to a higher exploration of the whole gradable area every day in the continuous treatment and to more time idling animals in the 3-h treatment in anticipation of the opening of new areas to graze over the course of day. Despite those difference in activity, milk production did not differ neither in quantity with an average of 12.4 0.14 kg per day, nor in quality (i.e., fat, protein, non-fatty solids, total solids). We conclude that under our grazing conditions with an intermediate forage allowance and low producing cows, applying a labour intensive stocking method requiring to open new areas every 3 hours does not lead to a significant production increase

Evaluation of the ingestive behaviour of the dairy cow under two systems of rotation with slope

The ingestive behaviour of grazing animals is modulated by the vegetation characteristics, topography and the type of stocking method. This research was carried out in 2019, at the Rumipamba CADER-UCE. It aimed to evaluate the impact of two contrasting stocking methods of dairy cows grazing a pasture with an average of slope >8.5%. Four dairy cows were set to graze a 0.4 ha paddock for 5 days for continuous stocking methods, while for the electric fence methods the dairy cows were restricted to 0.2 ha and the fence was moved uphill every 3 hours, repeating this process four times a day. Cow were equipped with activity sensors for 12 h per day. The whole procedure was repeated 2 times after realizing an equalization cuts and both paddocks, a rest time of 30 days and a random reassignment of paddocks to one of the treatments. The cows showed a difference in terms of the percentage of grazing P=0.0072, being higher with the electric fence (55% of the measurement time). From rising-plate-meter estimates of available biomass along the grazing periods, we calculated despite similar forage allowances (electric fence = 48.06 kg DM/cow/d and continuous = 48.21 DM/cow/d) a higher forage intake was obtained in the electric fence treatment (17.5 kg DM/cow/d) compared the continuous stocking (15.7 kg DM/cow/d) (P=0.006). In terms of milk production animals grazing under the differences electrical fence stocking method tended (P=0.0985) to produce more milk (17.39 kg/d) than those grazing in the continuous system (15.16 kg/d) due to the influence of the slope (P=0.05), while for milk quality the protein content was higher for the electric fence (33.7 g/l) than the continuous method (30.5 g/l) (P=0.039). None of the other milk properties differed between methods (P>0.05)

Analysis of the nutritional and productive behaviour of dairy cows under three rotation bands of pastures, Pichincha, Ecuador

peer reviewedThis research was carried out on Pennisetum clandestinum-based pastures to identify the effect of three (3) types of stocking methods with similar forage allowance (8.2 kg of dry matter for 100 kg of live weight) but differing by the occupation times of the rotations (3 h, 24 h, and continuous) on the behaviour and the production of dairy cows. The experimental scheme consisted in three herds of four Holstein Friesian cows grazing three paddocks, one per rotation type, for one week and replicated three times in a cross-over design. Pasture height and biomass were measured before and after each grazing week and on a daily basis, two cows per herd were monitored during daytime with activity sensors and their milk production was recorded. The main results showed that in all treatments the cows reduced the height of the sward by 40 % on average. The cows in the continuous treatment spent more time in meals and tended to have higher average speed during the day than in the 3-h rotation ascribed to a higher exploration of the whole gradable area every day in the continuous treatment and to more time idling animals in the 3-h treatment in anticipation of the opening of new areas to graze over the course of day. Despite those difference in activity, milk production did not differ neither in quantity with an average of 12.4 ± 0.14 kg per day, nor in quality (i.e., fat, protein, non-fatty solids, total solids). We conclude that under our grazing conditions with an intermediate forage allowance and low producing cows, applying a labour intensive stocking method requiring to open new areas every 3 hours does not lead to a significant production increase

Feature Extraction and Random Forest to Identify Sheep Behavior from Accelerometer Data

Sensor technologies play an essential part in the agricultural community and many other scientific and commercial communities. Accelerometer signals and Machine Learning techniques can be used to identify and observe behaviours of animals without the need for an exhaustive human observation which is labour intensive and time consuming. This study employed random forest algorithm to identify grazing, walking, scratching, and inactivity (standing, resting) of 8 Hebridean ewes located in Cheshire, Shotwick in the UK. We gathered accelerometer data from a sensor device which was fitted on the collar of the animals. The selection of the algorithm was based on previous research by which random forest achieved the best results among other benchmark techniques. Therefore, in this study, more focus was given to feature engineering to improve prediction performance. Seventeen features from time and frequency domain were calculated from the accelerometer measurements and the magnitude of the acceleration. Feature elimination was utilised in which highly correlated ones were removed, and only nine out of seventeen features were selected. The algorithm achieved an overall accuracy of 99.43% and a kappa value of 98.66%. The accuracy for grazing, walking, scratching, and inactive was 99.08%, 99.13%, 99.90%, and 99.85%, respectively. The overall results showed that there is a significant improvement over previous methods and studies for all mutually exclusive behaviours. Those results are promising, and the technique could be further tested for future real-time activity recognition

Accurate monitoring of the rumination behaviour of cattle using IMU signals from a mobile device

peer reviewedImproving the monitoring of rumination in cattle could help in assessing of the welfare status and their risk of acidosis. In this work, the monitoring of cattle’s behaviour was performed using the inertial measurement unit (IMU) present in smartphones mounted on the neck of cows. The processing of both time and frequency domains of the IMU signals was capable to detect accurately the main behaviours (grazing, rumination and other) and highlight the characteristics of the rumination process. The algorithm for analysis of rumination was more accurate for grazing cattle than for silage-fed cattle in stables.AgricultureIsLife 1-