Fertility of Holstein cows and heifers submitted to timed artificial insemination and receiving one or two doses (12 h apart) of semen     

Miguel Mellado  Lucía M. Treviño  María I. Chavez  Francisco G. Véliz  Ulises Macías-Cruz  Leonel Avendaño-Reyes  José E. García 《Reproduction in domestic animals》2023,58(1):39-47

The objective of this retrospective study was to assess the effect of receiving a single (n = 50,285) or double (n = 4392) artificial insemination (AI), 12 h apart, within a timed artificial insemination protocol on pregnancy per AI (P/AI) in nulliparous heifers (inseminated with either sex-sorted or conventional semen) and pluriparous Holstein cows in a commercial dairy herd. Also, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between temperature-humidity index (THI) and time of the first AI and fertility. Fertility of cows receiving two AI with normothermia (THI <68) was higher (p < .05) than cows receiving a single AI (42.9% vs. 36.4%). P/AI of cows receiving two AI with severe heat stress (THI >85) was higher (p < .05) than cows receiving a single AI (21.0% vs. 12.6%). Regardless of heat stress conditions, applying the first AI in the morning increased (p < .05) P/AI in cows with double AI than in cows whose first AI occurred in the afternoon (38.4 vs. 33.3%). With moderate heat stress, and sexed-sorted semen, P/AI to timed AI was higher (65.0 vs. 51.9%; p < .05) in heifers receiving double AI than those serviced once. It was concluded that double AI, 12 h apart, enhanced fertility at timed AI than herd mates with a single AI, particularly with heat stress at breeding.  相似文献   

Genomic prediction for meat and carcass traits in Nellore cattle using a Markov blanket algorithm     

Fernando Brito Lopes  Fernando Baldi  Ludmilla Costa Brunes  Marcos Fernando Oliveira e Costa  Eduardo da Costa Eifert  Guilherme Jordão Magalhães Rosa  Raysildo Barbosa Lobo  Cláudio Ulhoa Magnabosco 《Zeitschrift für Tierzüchtung und Züchtungsbiologie》2023,140(1):1-12

This study was carried out to evaluate the advantage of preselecting SNP markers using Markov blanket algorithm regarding the accuracy of genomic prediction for carcass and meat quality traits in Nellore cattle. This study considered 3675, 3680, 3660 and 524 records of rib eye area (REA), back fat thickness (BF), rump fat (RF), and Warner–Bratzler shear force (WBSF), respectively, from the Nellore Brazil Breeding Program. The animals have been genotyped using low-density SNP panel (30 k), and subsequently imputed for arrays with 777 k SNPs. Four Bayesian specifications of genomic regression models, namely Bayes A, Bayes B, Bayes Cπ and Bayesian Ridge Regression methods were compared in terms of prediction accuracy using a five folds cross-validation. Prediction accuracy for REA, BF and RF was all similar using the Bayesian Alphabet models, ranging from 0.75 to 0.95. For WBSF, the predictive ability was higher using Bayes B (0.47) than other methods (0.39 to 0.42). Although the prediction accuracies using Markov blanket of SNP markers were lower than those using all SNPs, for WBSF the relative gain was lower than 13%. With a subset of informative SNPs markers, identified using Markov blanket, probably, is possible to capture a large proportion of the genetic variance for WBSF. The development of low-density and customized arrays using Markov blanket might be cost-effective to perform a genomic selection for this trait, increasing the number of evaluated animals, improving the management decisions based on genomic information and applying genomic selection on a large scale.  相似文献   

Using midday stem water potential for scheduling deficit irrigation in mid–late maturing peach trees under Mediterranean conditions     

José Manuel Mirás-Avalos  Francisco Pérez-Sarmiento  Rosalía Alcobendas  Juan José Alarcón  Oussama Mounzer  Emilio Nicolás 《Irrigation Science》2016,34(2):161-173

Irrigation techniques that reduce water applications are increasingly applied in areas with scarce water resources. In this study, the effect of two regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) strategies on peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch cv. “Catherine”] performance was studied over three growing seasons. The experimental site was located in Murcia (SE Spain), a Mediterranean region. Two RDI strategies (restricting water applications at stage II of fruit development and postharvest) based on stem water potential (Ψ_s) thresholds (?1.5 and ?1.8 MPa during fruit growth and ?1.5 and ?2.0 MPa during postharvest) were compared to a fully irrigated control. Soil water content (θ_v), Ψ_s, gas exchange parameters, vegetative growth, crop load, yield and fruit quality were determined. RDI treatments showed significantly lower values of θ_v and Ψ_s than control trees when irrigation water was restricted, causing reductions in stomatal conductance and photosynthesis rates. Vegetative growth was reduced by RDI, as lower shoot lengths and pruning weights were observed under those treatments when compared to control. However, fruit size and yield were unaffected, and fruit quality was slightly improved by RDI. Water savings from 43 to 65 % were achieved depending on the year and the RDI strategy, and no negative carryover effect was detected during the study period. In conclusion, RDI strategies using Ψ_s thresholds for scheduling irrigation in mid–late maturing peach trees under Mediterranean conditions are viable options to save water without compromising yield and even improving fruit quality.  相似文献   

Resource allocation tradeoffs in Manila’s peri-urban vegetable production systems: An application of multiple objective programming     

Sergio R. Francisco  Mubarik Ali 《Agricultural Systems》2006

This paper designed and developed a multi-objective programming (MOP) model to illustrate the dynamic relationship among technologies, productive activities, constraints and farmers’ objectives in the peri-urban vegetable production system and use the model as an economic tool in analysing probable consequences of a given action or innovation on the farm. The best compromise solution was generated using four analytical steps, as follows: single-objective optimization (to determine the ideal and anti-ideal values of the objective functions); constrained optimization (to generate the set of Pareto non-dominated solutions); cluster analysis (to trim down efficient set into smaller homogeneous groups); and compromise programming (to determine where the best compromise solution lies).  相似文献   

Quality and maximum profit of industrial tomato as affected by distribution uniformity of drip irrigation system     

Francisco L. Santos 《Irrigation and Drainage Systems》1996,10(3):281-294

The tomato industry reformed its system of payment by weight of tomato, introducing a corrective system based on percent level of fruit dry matter produced. Such a decision implies significant changes in the management of irrigation systems, with a need to emphasize the technological quality of the marketable product. Three levels of distribution uniformity of the irrigation system are analysed, and related production functions of crop yield and percent of dry matter are presented as well as their use on the optimisation of dry matter, expected revenues and seasonal applied water. Results are critically influenced by the distribution uniformity. They demonstrate the inter-relationship between crop production, percent fruit dry matter and irrigation management, and the importance of considering non-uniformity in the economic analysis of industrial tomato production. Decreases in uniformity lead to a reduction in dry matter production per unit land. Decreases in dry matter are also observed with increasing levels of seasonally applied water, with the optimal level always lower than the required for maximum yield. Such interaction suggests a continuous and inverse relationship between profit and water applied. However, due to the corrective system of payment, by levels of percent of dry matter produced, for some uniformity, the expected revenue follows the yield-water production function instead of the dry matter function. This fact introduces disturbances in the optimal water applied inducing higher than expected levels of water applied for profit maximisation. The simulated data also show that incentives to switch to new systems or management practices able to raise the distribution uniformity result more from profit losses than increases in water price.  相似文献   

Artificial inoculation and susceptibility of Pinus armandii to Dothistroma septosporum     

Zuzana Jánošíková  Emília Ondrušková  Katarína Adamčíková 《Forest Pathology》2023,53(5):e12826

Dothistroma needle blight (DNB) is a serious needle disease of conifers that primarily affects pine species (Pinus spp.). Dothistroma septosporum is one of the DNB pathogens that has a diverse range of host species excluding Pinus armandii. In 15 inoculated P. armandii seedlings, D. septosporum acervuli were observed in 43 infected needles of ten seedlings with a mean disease severity of 1.11% at 25 weeks after inoculations, demonstrating the potential of D. septosporum to cause symptoms on the needles of P. armandii via artificial inoculation. The disease severity of P. armandii was similar to the positive control, Pinus nigra (median 0.75 for P. armandii to 0.70 for P. nigra), thus, P. armandii acts under artificial conditions as a susceptible host species.  相似文献   

Management strategy influences landscape patterns of high-severity burn patches in the southwestern United States     

Singleton  Megan P.  Thode  Andrea E.  Sánchez Meador  Andrew J.  Iniguez  Jose M.  Stevens  Jens T. 《Landscape Ecology》2021,36(12):3429-3449

Landscape Ecology - Spatial patterns of high-severity wildfire in forests affect vegetation recovery pathways, watershed dynamics, and wildlife habitat across landscapes. Yet, less is known about...  相似文献   

Multivariate analysis of invasive plant species distributions in southern US forests     

Lázaro-Lobo  Adrián  Ramirez-Reyes  Carlos  Lucardi  Rima D.  Ervin  Gary N. 《Landscape Ecology》2021,36(12):3539-3555

Landscape Ecology - Invasive plants cause significant impacts in forested areas throughout the world. However, little is known about the relative importance of environmental drivers on the...  相似文献   

Contrasting edge and pasture matrix effects on ant diversity from fragmented landscapes across multiple spatial scales     

Lasmar  Chaim J.  Queiroz  Antônio C. M.  Rosa  Clarissa  Carvalho  Nathália S.  Schmidt  Fernando A.  Solar  Ricardo R. C.  Paolucci  Lucas N.  Cuissi  Rafael G.  Ribas  Carla R. 《Landscape Ecology》2021,36(9):2583-2597

Landscape Ecology - Harmful effects of habitat loss and fragmentation can be detected across multiple spatial scales, yet most studies that aim to characterize these effects take place at a single...  相似文献   

Bentazone Leaching in Spanish Soils     

Esperanza Romero  Francisco Snchez-Rasero  Aranzazu Pea  Clara de la Colina  Gonzalo Dios 《Pest management science》1996,47(1):7-15

Adsorption, incubation and soil-column experiments with bentazone [3-isopropyl-1H-2,1,3-benzothiadiazin-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide] were carried out in ten different soils from the marches surrounding the Doñana National Park (Huelva, SW Spain). Adsorption isotherms for the different soils showed a good fit with the Freundlich equation. Bentazone was poorly adsorbed in all the soils studied, with no significant relationship between theK_f values and soil characteristics. A significant correlation was obtained between the soil organic matter content and the distribution constant values (K_d) calculated at an equilibrium concentration of 200 μg cm⁻³. The low adsorption and non-degradation of bentazone on these soils suggest that the herbicide readily percolates through soils to reach the surface and ground waters. The mobility of bentazone through three soil columns was also studied. The mass balances carried out showed that bentazone was totally eluted from the soil columns. The theoretical model applied to explain bentazone leaching under our experimental conditions seems to be suitable for soil columns with a uniform water-flow rate.  相似文献