Accumulation of Zearalenone in Herbage of Winter Pasture Situated in West Poland

The importance of winter pastures in beef production in Europe has been growing steadily. In Poland, especially in its western part, there are already farms which utilise pasture swards during late autumn and winter. The major problem, however, is the quality of forage ingested by animals as it tends to deteriorate with the passage of the vegetation season with danger of accumulation of various mycotoxins (Laser et al., 2003) of which the most important is zearalenone (ZEA)

Productivity of Grasslands in Wielkopolska in Conditions of Weather Variables Changes in the Last 34 Years

The purpose of this study was the assessment of the effect of climatic changes since 1985 on the productivity of grasslands in Wielkopolska region (Poland). The weather data (precipitation sum, mean, maximum and minimum air temperature, insolation, relative air humidity and wind speed) were collected from 1985 to 2018 at five weather stations located in the region that belong to the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. Using this data, trends of Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) were determined. Grassland productivity was estimated from data collected by the Central Statistical Office, that refer to meadow hay production for each commune and each of the three regrowths. For the analysis of the effects of climatic trends on grassland productivity in Wielkopolska, linear regression was used. It was concluded that the climatic changes in the Wielkopolska region for the last 34 years were expressed as the increase of mean yearly air temperature, precipitation sum, as well as of the Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration (ET). The significance of these changes was evidenced for air temperature (p= 0.0006) and for the ET (p= 0.004). The analysis carried out for individual months showed that (i) mean air temperature was significantly rising in summer, from June to September, as well in April and November, (ii) precipitation sum changes were not significant, and (iii) the ET was rising in April and September. The significant SPEI trends analysed for different periods (from 1 to 12 months) indicate that soil moisture conditions in the region were deteriorating. No significant effect of the SPEI trends on annual grassland yield and the yield of 2nd regrowth in Wielkopolska was found. The significant relationship was found for the 3-months SPEI in spring which negatively affected hay yield in the first regrowth (p= 0.011- 0.021) and for SPEI calculated for different periods decreasing the grassland productivity in third regrowth

Hierarchy of integrable Hamiltonians describing of nonlinear n-wave interaction

In the paper we construct an hierarchy of integrable Hamiltonian systems which describe the variation of n-wave envelopes in nonlinear dielectric medium. The exact solutions for some special Hamiltonians are given in terms of elliptic functions of the first kind.Comment: 17 page

Effect of Seed Rate of Trifolium repens in Pasture Overdrilling

In the region of Wielkopolska, unfavourable climatic conditions, particularly periodical shortage of precipitation, have contributed to a rapid degradation of pastures in dairy farms. In grass-clover mixtures Trifolium repens (Tr) is found to disappear very quickly from the sward. In consequence the DM yield and herbage quality in summer is low. One of the methods of improving of pasture sward and reducing the seasonality of forage production is overdrilling (OD). Many factors affect the success of this undertaking (Sheldrick 2000). This research investigated the response to one easily adjustable factor, that of seed rate (SR)

Analysis of the Attitude of Farmers towards Innovations in the Management of Grasslands in Poland

Innovations in the management of grasslands in Poland are important to preserve them as a source of different ecosystem services. In the farmers point of view the most promising is forage production for herbivores, particularly dairy cows. Individual farmers have different opinions about innovations. To stimulate innovations in grassland-based farming systems in Poland, it is important to determine the drivers for their promotion and to define the barriers to overcome problems by their implementation. Analysis of the attitude of Polish farmers towards innovations on grasslands were conducted within the H2020 Inno4Grass project. The majority of respondents were young and had relatively well-developed farms. An on-line questionnaire on innovations on grassland was developed using SurveyMonkey. The questionnaire studied the attitude of grassland farmers towards innovations, e.g. their importance, factors influencing decisions of their adaption, barriers and drivers. Answers were scored on a Likert scale. Furthermore, some general questions were asked: available grassland area, main type of animal, farmer age, etc. The questionnaire was available from winter 2017/2018 onwards and closed at the end of June 2018. At the time of closing the questionnaire, 157 valid responses were obtained. Dairy cows were the most common animal type in grassland farms, followed by beef cattle. The majority of respondents indicated that innovations are important or very important in general, in grassland and in grazing, respectively 92%, 88% and 62%. The most important influencing factors on farmer’s decisions with respect to grasslands (\u3e 60%) were own values and norms, image of the farm/the sector, family, consumers and advisors. Farmers pointed out that the most important driver for innovation is money/profit/better income (17.5%), followed by time saving/improved labour conditions (14.2%) and animal health (11.6%). In the opinion of the respondents, the main barriers to innovations in grasslands are money/costs too high/benefits too low (23.9%), too little technology on farm (15.0%) and risk (13.6%)

Plant diversity greatly enhances weed suppression in intensively managed grasslands

Weed suppression was investigated in a field experiment across 31 international sites. The study included 15 plant communities at each site, based on two grasses and two legumes, each sown in monoculture and 11 four-species mixtures varying in the relative proportions of the four species. At each site, one grass and one legume species was selected as fast establishing and the other two species were selected for persistence. Average weed biomass in mixtures over the whole experiment was 52% less (95% confidence interval, 30 to 75%) than in the most suppressive monoculture (transgressive suppression). Transgressive suppression of weed biomass persisted over each year for each mixture. Weed biomass was consistently low and relatively similar across all mixtures and years. Average sown species biomass was greater in all mixtures than in any monoculture. The suppressive effect of sown forage species on weeds in mixtures was achieved without any herbicide use. At each site, weed biomass for almost every mixture was lower than the average across the four monocultures. The average proportion of weed biomass in mixtures was less than in the most suppressive monoculture in two thirds of sites. Mixtures outyielded monocultures, and mixture yield comprised far lower weed biomass

Exactly solvable models for multiatomic molecular Bose-Einstein condensates

I introduce two family of exactly solvable models for multiatomic hetero-nuclear and homo-nuclear molecular Bose-Einstein condensates through the algebraic Bethe ansatz method. The conserved quantities of the respective models are also showed.Comment: 11 page

Investigations on tensile strength of plant material using a modern measuring stand

Investigations were carried out in years 2008–2009 on plant material obtained from two cultivar testing experiments in Brody. Leaf blades were collected randomly in 30 replications at the stage of pasture maturity from each plot. Simultaneously, biometric studies were performed involving the determination of the leaf weight as well as the width of leaf blades. Tensile strength of rachilla was assessed using inflorescences of various grass genotypes of the Lolium-Festuca complex derived from experiments in Brody and in Szelejewo in the first year of their utilisation. A prototype measuring stand was used to carry out experiments on the tensile strength of leaf blades as well as rachillae of different grass genotypes. It was found that in tensile strength investigations of plant material such as the employed in these studies leaf blades and rachillae as well as seed retention strength in spikelet of various grass genotypes, it is feasible to use a modern measuring stand whose main element was a test machine operating in the range from 30 N to 300 mN on the basis of subassemblies of the HBM Company

Evaluation of Cervus elaphus foraging activity on revitalised mid-forest meadows based on analysis of sward browsing intensity

Celem niniejszej pracy jest ocena aktywności żerowej jelenia europejskiego na łąkach śródleśnych poddanych renowacji z wykorzystaniem różnych metod. Badania przeprowadzone na obiektach doświadczalnych wykazały, że zdecydowana większość aktywności żerowej zwierząt miała miejsce na powierzchniach odnowionych przy pomocy metody pełnej uprawy połączonej z wysiewem specjalistycznych mieszanek nasiennych. Stosunkowo niewielki efekt dało zastosowanie metody podsiewu. Żerowa-nie na obiektach kontrolnych miało charakter incydentalny, co pozwala wnioskować, że ruń tych powierzchni łąk nie spełniała wymagań pokarmowych jelenia europejskiego.Aim of this study is evaluation of red deer foraging activity on renovated mid-forest meadows using different methods. Research, carried out on experimental sites, showed, that most of grazing activity of animals falls on areas renovated by full tillage method combined with sowing of specialised seed mixtures. Relative low effect occurs by using of oversowing method. Foraging activity on control areas was very low, this allow to conclude that sward of this mid-forest meadows didn’t fulfil nutritional needs of red deer