• Authors:
    • Becher, R.
  • Source: Plant Breeding
  • Volume: 126
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: Polymerase chain reaction-based microsatellite markers are valuable tools for molecular breeding because of their co-dominant inheritance and their applicability for high-throughput analysis. Being still very limited for oats, their number has to be increased significantly to cover the entire genome. For these purposes, a set of 7031 recently published expressed sequence tags (ESTs) was screened for microsatellites with dinucleotide, trinucleotide and tetranucleotide repeat motifs. Subsequent in silico analysis resulted in the development of 216 primer pairs for Avena EST-derived microsatellite loci ( AME). Using a sample set of 12 oat lines, 107 of 195 functional primers could be assayed as polymorphic. The marker variability averaged out at three alleles per locus and a polymorphic information content (PIC) value of 0.42. This variability documents their suitability for molecular oat-breeding purposes. Finally, 51 of the AME loci could be placed within the known reference map of 'Kanota' * 'Ogle' that previously contained only 12 microsatellite loci. Thus, a remarkable enhancing of the number of mapped oat microsatellite loci could be achieved.
  • Authors:
    • Weiss, M. J.
    • Pike, K. S.
    • Buntin, G. D.
    • Webster, J. A.
  • Source: Handbook of small grain insects
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: This handbook is designed primarily for the practitioners of integrated pest management programmes in small grains, growers, crop consultants, extension agents, and company agronomists and sales representatives. Its primary objective is to provide fundamental and useful information about managing (through cultural, plant resistance, biological and chemical methods) small grain insects throughout the United States and Canada. Although it focuses on insect pests of small grains, noninsect pests (e.g. mites) also are covered. Crops covered in this handbook are wheat, barley, oats, rye and triticale, with an emphasis on wheat. The first three sections provide information about small grains and their production, principles and practices of small grain insect management, and an overview of the pest injury to small grains by insects, weeds, and plant pathogens. The remainder of the handbook is devoted to discussions of insect and mite pests of small grains and to beneficial organisms, including insect pathogens, parasitoids and predators.
  • Authors:
    • Simon, M.
    • Monaco, C.
    • Cordo, C.
  • Source: Australasian Plant Pathology
  • Volume: 36
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: Two Septoria Monitoring Nursery sets were tested for resistance in the field during three consecutive years. Different concentrations of oat grains covered with mycelia of Septoria tritici were applied as inoculum. The position of the disease on the plants and the severity of the Septoria leaf blotch infection were recorded at two growth stages. A comparison between leaf pulverisation and grain application as a source of conidia was made in the last year. The percentages of necrotic lesions and pycnidial coverage were recorded on the upper three leaves of the plants at the same growth stages as for previous years. With grain inoculation, the infection reached the 7th leaf of the plants with the maximum concentration applied at tillering stage. The best concentration to obtain the highest discrimination among resistances is 120 g/m 2. In the comparison of inoculation techniques, the results showed a higher necrosis and pycnidial coverage following leaf pulverisation than with the grain application treatment.
  • Authors:
    • Dimitrova, T.
  • Source: Herbologia
  • Volume: 8
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: Field experiments were conducted in Pleven, Bulgaria, from 2003 to 2005, on slightly leached chernozem and a natural background of weed infestation, to determine the effect of weeds and their control by using the herbicide imazamox alone or combined with an adjuvant (Desh) and with oat as a cover crop, on the grain productivity of spring forage pea. It was found that at a high weed infestation degree and under the conditions of the study, the reduction of spring forage pea yield reached approximately 33%, imazamox 40 a.i./litre at 24 ml a.i./ha + 500 ml Desh/ha could be applied to spring forage pea at the 3-5 leaf stage to control the annual mono- and dicotyledonous weeds. The treatment with the herbicide at the mentioned rate resulted in a decrease of weed infestation degree by 96% and an increase of grain yield by 43% (on average for a 3-year period). Oat, sown as a cover crop for pea, decreased the weed infestation degree by 55% and the grain yield was 17% higher than that from the pure untreated stand.
  • Authors:
    • Puzynski, S.
    • Wrzesinska, E.
    • Dzienia, S.
  • Source: Folia Universitatis Agriculturae Stetinensis
  • Volume: 255
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: Drawski Landscape Park is located in the centre of Drawskie Lake District in the Zachodniopomorskie Voivodship, Poland. The park covers 41 430 ha with 10.5% of lakes belonging to the following communes: Barwice, Borne Sulinowo, Czaplinek, Ostrowice, Poczyn Zdroj and Zocieniec. The condition for agricultural production in these communes are mostly medium-favourable. Soils have predominately medium as well as poor and very poor properties. The land use in administrative boundaries of the communes is varied, the lowest share of agricultural area at 19.6% is in Borne Sulinowo commune whereas the highest at 50.2% is in Barwice. In agricultural land use structure, the share of arable land among communes ranged from 82.4% in Borne Sulinowo to 88.3% in Czaplinek, and grasslands from 11.6% in Czaplinek, to 17.5% in Borne Sulinowo. Relatively high share of afforestated areas (30.0-57.3%), as well as low population density (17-81 persons per km 2), favours development of tourism in these communes. Small farms (with less than 5 ha of agricultural land) are dominant and they operate on poor soils which causes problems. Areas sown with cereals have been recorded at 76.7-89.3%, potatoes at 1.6 to 6.8%, industrial crops at 2.8 to 12.1% and fodder crops at 0.4 to 8.7%. The major crops among cereals are rye- 24.1 to 49.2% and wheat- 17.7 to 35.2%. The biggest share (26.4%) of oat among cereals is in Barwice commune. The share of potato is in the range of 1.6-6.8%, whereas oilseed rape and agrimony is planted on 2.8 to 12.1% of sown area. The number of livestock unit per 100 ha of agricultural area is very low (12.0-29.0 LU), which do not provide the required amount of manure.
  • Authors:
    • Libardi, P. L.
    • Fernandes, F. C. S.
    • Silva, M. M. da
  • Source: Acta Scientiarum Agronomy
  • Volume: 29
  • Issue: Suplemento Espec
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: The present study evaluated the effect of nitrogen levels and splittings on the chemical characteristics of a soil cropped with maize in succession to black oats at the establishment of the no tillage system. The experiment was carried out in a Red-Yellow Latosol (typic Hapludox), with 14% of clay in the 0-0.20 m soil layer. The work consisted of two maize crops (2003/04 and 2004/05) and a black oats one in between, as cover crop. The experimental design was randomized blocks in an incomplete factorial scheme, with four replications. Treatments consisted of nitrogen levels (60, 120 and 180 kg ha -1) and one control without nitrogen, besides the splittings (30 or 60 kg ha -1 at sowing, the balance in cover and 60 kg ha -1 at sowing, remaining top dressed). The following soil variables were evaluated: Ca, Mg, K, organic matter, P, H+Al, Al, sum of bases, CEC, pH and base saturation V(%). Ammonium sulfate fertilization top dressed promoted a pH decrease in all treatments after the second maize crop and the increase in the level of N decreased the contents of soil Ca, Mg and K.
  • Authors:
    • Souza, R. A.
    • Crispino, C. C.
    • Franchini, J. C.
    • Torres, E.
    • Hungria, M.
  • Source: Soil & Tillage Research
  • Volume: 92
  • Issue: 1/2
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: The objective of this work was to identify soil parameters potentially useful to monitor soil quality under different soil management and crop rotation systems. Microbiological and chemical parameters were evaluated in a field experiment in the State of Parana, southern Brazil, in response to soil management [no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT)] and crop rotation [including grain (soybean, S; maize, M; wheat, W) and legume (lupin, L.) and non-legume (oat, O) covers] systems. Three crop rotation systems were evaluated: (1) (O/M/O/S/W/S/L/M/O/S), (2) (O/S/L/M/O/S/W/S/L/M), and (3) (O/S/W/S/L/M/O/M/W/M), and soil parameters were monitored after the fifth year. Before ploughing, CO 2-emission rates were similar in NT and CT soils, but plough increased it by an average of 57%. Carbon dioxide emission was 13% higher with lupin residues than with wheat straw; decomposition rates were rapid with both soil management systems. Amounts of microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen (MB-C and MB-N, respectively) were 80 and 104% higher in NT than in CT, respectively; however, in general these parameters were not affected by crop rotation. Efficiency of the microbial community was significantly higher in NT: metabolic quotient ( qCO 2) was 55% lower than in CT. Soluble C and N levels were 37 and 24% greater in NT than in CT, respectively, with no effects of crop rotation. Furthermore, ratios of soluble C and N contents to MB-C and MB-N were consistently lower in NT, indicating higher immobilization of C and N per unit of MB. The decrease in qCO 2 and the increase in MB-C under NT allowed enhancements in soil C stocks, such that in the 0-40 cm profile, a gain of 2500 kg of C ha -1 was observed in relation to CT. Carbon stocks also varied with crop rotation, with net changes at 0-40 cm of 726, 1167 and -394 kg C ha -1 year, in rotations 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Similar results were obtained for the N stocks, with 410 kg N ha -1 gained in NT, while crop rotations 1, 2 and 3 accumulated 71, 137 and 37 kg of N ha -1 year -1, respectively. On average, microbial biomass corresponded to 2.4 and 1.7% of the total soil C, and 5.2 and 3.2% of the N in NT and CT systems, respectively. Soil management was the main factor affecting soil C and N levels, but enhancement also resulted from the ratios of legumes and non-legumes in the rotations. The results emphasize the importance of microorganisms as reservoirs of C and N in tropical soils. Furthermore, the parameters associated with microbiological activity were more responsive to soil management and crop rotation effects than were total stocks of C and N, demonstrating their usefulness as indicators of soil quality in the tropics.
  • Authors:
    • Hermansen, J.
    • Horsted, K.
  • Source: Animal
  • Volume: 1
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: In many cases health and welfare problems are observed in organic egg production systems, as are high environmental risks related to nutrient leaching. These disadvantages might be reduced if the layers are allowed to utilise their ability to forage to a higher degree thereby reducing the import of nutrients into the system and stimulating the hens to perform a natural behaviour. However, very little is known about the ability of modern high-producing layers to take advantage of foraging to cover their nutritional needs, and the aim of the present work was to clarify this subject. Six flocks, each of 26 hens and one cock, were moved regularly in a rotation between different forage crops for a period of 130 days. Half of the flocks were fed typical layer feed for organic layers and half were fed whole wheat. The forage crops consisted of grass/clover, pea/vetch/oats, lupin and quinoa. At the beginning of the experiment, wheat-fed hens had a lower intake of supplementary feed (wheat) and a lower laying rate, egg weight and body weight. However, after a period of 6 to 7 weeks, the intake of wheat increased to approximately 100 g per hen per day and the laying rate increased to the same level as for the hens fed layer feed. For both groups of hens egg weight and body weight increased during the remaining part of the experiment. Crop analysis revealed different food preferences for hens fed layer feed and wheat-fed hens. Wheat-fed hens ate less of the cultivated seeds, whereas the amounts of plant material, oyster shells, insoluble grit stone and soil were larger in the crops from wheat-fed hens. Floor eggs were significantly more frequent in the hens fed layer feed, whereas wheat-fed hens only rarely laid floor eggs. Irrespective of treatment, hens were found to have excellent health and welfare. We conclude that nutrient-restricted, high-producing organic layers are capable of finding and utilising considerable amounts of different feed items from a cultivated foraging area without negative effects on their health and welfare.
  • Authors:
    • Moravcikova, P.
    • Kuniak, L.
    • Hozova, B.
    • Gajdosova, A.
  • Source: Czech Journal of Food Sciences
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue: 6
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: Water-insoluble beta-(1,3)-D-glucan (lichenan) was determined in 43 samples of various cereal (i.e., oats, barley, wheat, millet) and pseudocereal (i.e., buckwheat, amaranth) cultivars using a modified procedure with fungal alpha-amylase (Fermizyme P 300). The content of water-insoluble beta-glucan varied with dependence on the cereal species and cultivars. The highest content was observed in covered oat cultivars (Cyril and the new breeding cultivar PS-100), ranging from 26.7 to 28.2 g/100 g dry matter (d.m.), followed by less traditional cereals such as millet ( Panicum miliaceum), amaranth ( Amaranthus sp.), and buckwheat ( Fagopyrum) - more than 20 g/100 g d. m. A somewhat lower average content of water-insoluble beta-glucan was found in wheat - 12.7-16.2 g/100 g d. m., in spelt wheat - 8.5 g/100 g d. m., and in oats - varying between 15.3 and 18.7 g/100 g d. m.
  • Authors:
    • Dotlacil, L.
    • Kucera, L.
    • Leisova, L.
  • Source: Czech Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding
  • Volume: 43
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2007
  • Summary: Barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) and oat ( Avena sativa L.) are important crop species. 1865 accessions of winter barley, 2707 accessions of spring barley and 1998 accessions of oat are maintained in RICP Gene bank. The expert core collection is used to be established as a tool for germplasm study, conservation of genetic variability and for the identification of useful genes. The main aim of this study was to evaluate genetic diversity of barley and oat genotypes within the expert core collections. Genetic variation of 176 barley accessions was analyzed using 26 microsatellite loci, covering all 6 chromosomes. 330 oat accessions were analyzed using 26 microsatellite loci that are mapped only into linkage groups. For 26 barley microsatellite loci, 328 alleles were detected. The average number of alleles per locus was 12.6. In oat, for 26 oat microsatellite loci, 353 alleles were detected. The average number of alleles per locus was 13.6. The average DI (diversity index) was 0.11 in barley and 0.09 in oat. Dendrogram and PCA (Principal Component Analysis) based on microsatellite data showed a different influence of the place of origin, age of variety and pedigree on grouping into clusters. PCA showed that the breeding process had a negative impact on the level of genetic diversity and therefore there is a necessity of barley and oat germplasm conservation.