With high dry matter yields of high quality forage, high soluble carbohydrate levels and a suitability for harvest by cutting and removing, the forage legume sulla (Hedysarum coronarium) has the potential to be an important silage crop in New Zealand. In three experiments the ensiling potential of sulla was compared with conventional pasture using a mini-silo system which allows for rapid evalu...

Land use changes in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) of south Florida may alter microbial activity and organic matter decomposition and ultimately influence the fate of P in soil. The objectives of this study were to determine effects of long-term cultivation and fertilization on microbial activity and P dynamics for contrasting land uses in the EAA. Soils (0-15 cm) under pasture for 100 ...

Changes of land use/land cover have a significant impact on runoff by altering the surface evaporation, soil moisture conditions and the amount of trapped ground cover, which directly impact the sustainable development of the watershed ecology. In this paper, based on remote sensing images, we simulate runoff of land-use changes of different slopes using GIS technology and SWAT model in Erhai w...

We studied nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes and soil nitrogen (N) cycling following forest conversion to pasture in the central Amazon near Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Two undisturbed forest sites and 27 pasture sites of 0.5 to 60 years were sampled once each during wet and dry seasons. In addition to soil-atmosphere fluxes of N2O we measured 27 soil chemical, soil microbiological and soil physical varia...

Recent research on grassland problems has made prominent the importance of strain in pasture species, The strains of grasses and clovers sown determine to a very large extent for what purpose the pasture is most suited, what its carrying capacity will be, and also the extent of its useful life, i',iost of the pasture species when studied show some strain difference, and so it is the object of t...

This article investigates the behavioral drivers of pasture creation and associated implications for deforestation in a 22,000 km2 agricultural frontier spanning the base of Mexico‘s southern Yucatán. After developing a theoretical model that highlights the role of social networks and information spillovers with respect to the decision to begin cattle ranching, we use household data to estimate...

An improved understanding of the ecology of fleas on California ground squirrels, Otospermophilus beecheyi, is warranted given the role of fleas in the transmission, and perhaps persistence, of the plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis. We sampled O. beecheyi on a seasonal basis from three study sites, each representing a different land use type (preserve, pasture, and agriculture) in the Sa...

Ecological studies on soil nematodes were made in a tropical rice field and pasture. Parasitic species were more diversified in the pasture than in the rice field. Eighty-six and sixty percent of total nematodes occurred in the top 10 cm in rice field and pasture, respectively. Nematodes were not randomly or uniformly dispersed but aggregated. Parasitic forms were most abundant and correlated w...

A dramatic increase in agricultural production can be observed during the past decades in Brazil, mostly due to increases in yield. Furthermore the sugarcane production increased based on area expansion, mainly over pasture areas. In the same period Brazil became a leading global beef producer. Brazilian official agricultural statistics time series data on agricultural production from 1980 unti...

Concentrations of selected macro minerals (Ca, P, Na, K, and Mg) were determined from coolseason annual grass pasture forages over four consecutive late fall-winter-spring grazing seasons (2001-2005). Forage samples were taken from eight experimental pastures used in beef cattle grazing trials. Two, 2-yr experiments were conducted; animal and pasture data were reported previously (Myer and Blou...