Societal expectations of livestock farming in relation to environmental effects in Europe

The potential environmental effects of livestock farming are mainly associated with intensification of poultry, pig and dairy cow production systems. The major impacts are mainly caused by housing of livestock, which can lead to air and water pollution associated with nitrogen and phosphorus emissions and losses from manure. European countries regulate the potential for these types of pollution through a number of mechanisms, which have received wide public acceptance. In grazing systems, nitrogen pollution, associated with the use of nitrogen fertilizer, is also the subject of legislation. Perhaps because of this regulatory approach, surveys of the public have found that human food quality and animal welfare are more important issues than effects on air and water quality when considering livestock systems.Variation in stocking rates of grazing ruminants can change the structure and composition of pastures with potential impacts on biodiversity and the production of methane, a greenhouse gas. In European countries, maximum stocking rates have been set to reduce these impacts. Surveys of the European public have suggested that they are willing to pay for the mitigation of these environmental effects but that they also value strongly the cultural component of grazed livestock systems. There are few underlying concepts about how society views the environmental impacts of livestock systems. These are used to conclude that current attitudes are likely to prevail in the next decade.     

Towards sustainable farming systems: Effectiveness and deficiency of the French procedure of sustainable agriculture

There is a widespread consensus about the importance of sustainable agriculture. In France, the Farming Orientation Law of July 1999 has set down a precise procedure for the implementation of sustainable agriculture: the contrat territorial d’exploitation – or territorial farm contract (TFC). This paper aims to analyse the TFC effectiveness. An analysis has been made of the TFCs signed in the Midi-Pyrenees Region in south-western France, using statistical analysis and qualitative surveys of a sample of farms. The results show that the most valuable effects have been mainly economic. Effects regarding social and environmental aspects were very limited. But from the point of view of an integrated approach, indirect effects of TFCs can be observed on social and environmental aspects. These results are explained, on the one hand, by farmers’ motivations guided by economic objectives, and on the other hand, by the dominance of professional farming organisations in the implementation of TFC’s procedure. Given these results, two ways of improving the elaboration procedure for TFCs are proposed. Firstly, technical improvements can be made to the diagnostic assessment of farms, and to the choice of actions addressed by the contract. Secondly, organisational improvements can be applied to TFCs elaboration and implementation process, in order to adopt a participatory approach which would involve all rural stakeholders.     

Cropping systems and crop residue management in the Trans-Gangetic Plains: Issues and challenges for conservation agriculture from village surveys

Conservation agriculture practices are being advocated to help sustain crop productivity gains and secure environmental sustainability in the Trans-Gangetic Plains, India’s Green Revolution heartland. The paper illustrates the use of village surveys as a quasi-quantitative system analysis tool to derive implications for agricultural research and development. Drawing from village surveys in 170 communities, the paper assesses current crop residue management practices in Punjab and Haryana’s rice-wheat, basmati-wheat and non-rice-wheat cropping systems. The prevalence of wheat as the winter crop implies an intensive collection, trading and use of wheat straw as basal feed for dairy livestock; which contrasts with the diverse crop residue management of the monsoon crops. The increased use of combine harvesters has spurred the rapid advent of mechanical wheat straw reapers whereas the bulk of combine harvested rice straw is burned in situ. Present crop residue management practices are largely incompatible with year-round mulch retention despite significant biomass production. The research and development community faces the challenge of evening out straw use and management over seasons to ensure at least partial residue retention if its calls for conservation agriculture in this important sub-region are to succeed. The paper also reiterates the worrying decline of groundwater tables associated with the rice-wheat system.     

基于ARM的过滤器控制器的研究

在简介自动清洗过滤器工作原理、控制发展设计需求的基础上,比较分析了国内外成熟应用自动反冲洗控制系统,并找出目前控制系统存在问题,针对存在的问题提出基于ARM7的自动反冲洗控制系统,利用模块化结构、触摸式人机界面和丰富通讯接口,满足不同灌溉规模水处理需求。其相关技术产品研发与应用,能够摆脱过国外滤器厂商对控制器的垄断,将进一步促进我国自动反冲洗过滤器控制和产业化水平。     

Analysing agricultural users’ patterns of behaviour: The case of OPTIRas™, a decision support system for starch crop selection

Redesigning IT systems for specific user groups encompasses a lot of effort with respect to analysing and understanding user behaviour. The goal of this paper is to provide insights into patterns of behaviour of agricultural users, during the usage of a decision support system called OPTIRas™. This system aids agricultural users in their cultivar selection activities. We analyse logs resulting from OPTIRas™, and we get insights into user’s navigational patterns. We claim that the results of our analysis can be used to support the redesign of decision support systems in order to address specific agricultural users’ characteristics.     

汽油机转速反馈自适应控制

对汽油机转速反馈自适应点火微机控制进行了研究，对发动机点火采用开环与自适应相结合的控制方法，以发动机的转速变化为反馈信号，将发动机点火提前角控制在最佳值，试验结果表明，转速反馈自适应点火控制是可行的，它能提高控制精度和响应速度，能提高发动机的综合性能。     

Evaluation of the API 50CH and API ZYM systems for rapid characterization of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus, causal agent of potato ring rot

API 50CH and API ZYM systems were used to characterize fifty-three strains of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus from different geographic locations and several reference strains of the same and different species, including other potato pathogens. Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus strains displayed a high level of homogeneity, both in carbohydrate utilization and in enzymatic activity. Using API 50CH and API ZYM it was possible to differentiate C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus strains from the remaining taxa analysed in this study, which included representative strains of the other subspecies of C. michiganensis as well as other bacterial pathogens affecting potatoes. Therefore, these systems could be used as an effective method to characterize C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus. Such a procedure would constitute an alternative system to the conventional nutritional and physiological identification tests currently included in the official methods employed in the European Union to detect and identify this bacterium. The results obtained with the API systems agreed with the current taxonomic classification of C. michiganensis, clearly separating sepedonicus from the other subspecies belonging to this species.     

A long‐term study of burning effects on a plant pathogen in tallgrass prairie

Tallgrass prairie species have evolved with regular exposure to fire. However, burning has been used as a management tool for reducing plant disease in agricultural systems, posing the question of how plant pathogens of tallgrass prairie would be affected by burning. The rust fungus Puccinia dioicae, infecting Erigeron strigosus (Asteraceae), was studied for 8 years in long‐term experiments to evaluate the effects of burning in native tallgrass prairie. This experiment also allowed evaluation of the effects of nutrient additions, although E. strigosus was rare in the plots with added nutrients in most years. Burning reduced rust severity in most years, but effects from additions of nutrients were rarely observed. There was high interannual variation in rust severity within a location, suggesting that weather may be the most important of these three abiotic factors in determining infection. An analysis of weather variables associated with disease severity found that solar radiation in the month prior to sampling was associated with severity in unburned plots; temperature approximately 2 months prior to sampling was also associated with severity in burned plots. High interannual variation also suggests that the effects of this pathogen on its host would be sporadic and difficult to study in short‐term experiments.     

Partial nomadism in large‐bodied bream (Abramis brama)

The recent focus on a common movement ecology paradigm has increased awareness about the importance of distinguishing different movement patterns for understanding their specific impact on animal ecology and evolution. One specific form of movement is nomadism, where animals move between habitats in an arrhythmic fashion. Although not yet described in detail for freshwater fish, nomadism between lakes within drainage systems could affect local lake food webs in an otherwise unpredictable fashion. In this study, we used passive telemetry to describe inter‐lake movements of 1,280 individually tagged adult benthivorous bream (Abramis brama) over nine contiguous years in a drainage system with two paired lakes. The movements can best be described as partial nomadism, where a part of the population is neither resident nor migratory, but instead moves between lakes in a variable, arrhythmic fashion, often with long residency in one lake before moving to the other. We found extensive between‐year variation in the proportion and direction of bream moving, with higher movement propensity being partly associated with lower somatic condition. Notably, movements out of lakes were significantly more in direction of the neighbouring lake than away from the paired lakes, suggesting that at least direction was not random. Since bream are important ecosystem engineers, fluctuating densities of adult bream could affect ecological stability in lakes. Our study suggests that fish populations in interconnected lakes within drainages should not be treated as isolated units, and we discuss this in relation to lake ecology and the importance for lake ecosystem management.