The effect of defoliation of vetch, barley and their mixtures on forage yield, quality and residual effects on succeeding crops in the rainfed areas of Pakistan

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Introduction and management of vetch/barley forage mixtures in the rainfed areas of Pakistan 1. Forage yield

To investigate the introduction of vetch/barley forage mixtures with a range of harvesting treatments in the winter season of Mediterranean-type environments, studies were carried out during 1994–97 at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, which has an annual rainfall of around 1000 mm, and at a much drier site at the Arid Zone Research Centre (AZRC) at Quetta in Pakistan, which has an annual rainfall of around (223 mm). Common vetch (V), barley (B), and their mixtures at seed ratios of V75B25, V50B50, and V25B75 were sown and 3 harvest time treatments (pre-flowering, full flowering, and maturity) were imposed. At NARC, there were significant differences (P < 0·01) in dry matter production between crop mixture ratios and between different harvest times. Mixtures of vetch and barley were generally more productive than any of the sole crops, with the yield of the best mixture V75B25 (7·6 t/ha) being almost twice as productive as sole vetch. Productivity at the full flowering stage was lower (5·3 t/ha) than that recorded at maturity (7·0 t/ha) and for the dual-cut pre-flowering harvest treatment (6·2 t/ha). At AZRC, the same trends as at NARC were observed but with lower yields because of the substantially lower and less well distributed rainfall and suboptimal temperatures. The highest dry matter was obtained with the treatment V75B25 (3·3 t/ha), which was approximately 50% higher in yield than sole vetch or sole barley (around 2 t/ha). Dry matter was highest at the maturity stage (3·2 t/ha) and lowest at the flowering stage (2·3 t/ha), except in the sole vetch crop which was lowest in yield at the pre-flowering stage (2·7 t/ha), implying a minor interaction between seed mixture and harvesting stage

Introduction and management of vetch/barley forage mixtures in the rainfed areas of Pakistan 2. Forage quality

The effects of a range of harvesting times and vetch/barley mixture ratios on forage quality were investigated in Mediterranean-type environments at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, which has an annual rainfall of around 1000 mm, and at a much drier site at the Arid Zone Research Centre (AZRC) at Quetta in Pakistan, during 1994–97. Common vetch (V), barley (B), and their mixtures at seed ratios of V75B25, V50B50, and V25B75 were sown, and 3 harvest time treatments (pre-flowering, full flowering, and maturity) were imposed. At NARC, there were significant differences (P 1 t/ha), pure barley was least productive (<300 kg/ha), with pure vetch being intermediate in protein yield (700–800 kg/ha). All 3 mixtures of vetch and barley had higher DDM (4-5 t/ha) and ME values of 5–6·5 104 MJ/ha (highest for treatment V75B25) compared with both of the sole crops. DDM and ME in mixtures declined as the proportion of barley in the seed ratio in the mixtures increased, but pure barley had still somewhat more DDM (3·6 t/ha) and ME (43 344 MJ/ha) than pure vetch (3·2 t DDM/ha and 42 035 MJ ME/ha). At AZRC, the same trends as at NARC were observed but with lower yields because of the substantially lower and less well distributed rainfall and suboptimal temperatures

Introduction and management of vetch/barley forage mixtures in the rainfed areas of Pakistan 3. Residual effects on following cereal crops

The residual effects of winter-sown forage mixtures grown in the northern rainfed parts of Punjab province and south-eastern North West Frontier Province in Pakistan were examined. Studies were carried out during 1994–97 primarily at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, which has an annual rainfall of around 1000 mm and, secondarily, at a much drier site at the Arid Zone Research Centre (AZRC) at Quetta. Common vetch (V), barley (B), and their mixtures at seed ratios of V75B25, V50B50, and V25B75 were sown and 3 harvest time treatments (pre-flowering, full flowering, and maturity) were imposed. Sorghum, and then wheat, were grown as succeeding crops to monitor the residual effects of the introduction and management of legume forage mixtures. Significant residual effects on the dry matter production and nitrogen (N) content of sorghum (P 4 t/ha) with an N content of 29 kg/ha was found following pure vetch and sorghum and the lowest dry matter (3·4 t/ha) and N (23 kg/ha) following pure barley and sorghum. At AZRC, the same trends in sorghum were observed as at NARC but with reduced yields due to the substantially lower and less well distributed rainfall and suboptimal temperatures, which restricted the productivity of the initial crops in the sequence

Characteristics, management, and outcomes of patients with left‐sided infective endocarditis complicated by heart failure: a substudy of the ESC‐EORP EURO‐ENDO (European infective endocarditis) registry

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Critical care usage after major gastrointestinal and liver surgery: a prospective, multicentre observational study

Background Patient selection for critical care admission must balance patient safety with optimal resource allocation. This study aimed to determine the relationship between critical care admission, and postoperative mortality after abdominal surgery. Methods This prespecified secondary analysis of a multicentre, prospective, observational study included consecutive patients enrolled in the DISCOVER study from UK and Republic of Ireland undergoing major gastrointestinal and liver surgery between October and December 2014. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore associations between critical care admission (planned and unplanned) and mortality, and inter-centre variation in critical care admission after emergency laparotomy. Results Of 4529 patients included, 37.8% (n=1713) underwent planned critical care admissions from theatre. Some 3.1% (n=86/2816) admitted to ward-level care subsequently underwent unplanned critical care admission. Overall 30-day mortality was 2.9% (n=133/4519), and the risk-adjusted association between 30-day mortality and critical care admission was higher in unplanned [odds ratio (OR): 8.65, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.51–19.97) than planned admissions (OR: 2.32, 95% CI: 1.43–3.85). Some 26.7% of patients (n=1210/4529) underwent emergency laparotomies. After adjustment, 49.3% (95% CI: 46.8–51.9%, P<0.001) were predicted to have planned critical care admissions, with 7% (n=10/145) of centres outside the 95% CI. Conclusions After risk adjustment, no 30-day survival benefit was identified for either planned or unplanned postoperative admissions to critical care within this cohort. This likely represents appropriate admission of the highest-risk patients. Planned admissions in selected, intermediate-risk patients may present a strategy to mitigate the risk of unplanned admission. Substantial inter-centre variation exists in planned critical care admissions after emergency laparotomies