Controlled-release fertilizers (CRF) use a controlled-release technology to enhance the nutrient use efficiency of crops. Many factors affect the release of nutrients from the waterborne polymer-coated CRF, but the effects of thermal post-treatments remain unclear. In this study, a waterborne polyacrylate-coated CRF was post-treated at different temperatures (30 °C, 60 °C, and 80 °C) and durati...

Growth performance, feed conversion efficiency and nutrient utilization of mutton synthetic, selected and randombred Malpura populations of lambs (60days) were evaluated. The mutton synthetic lambs reached the 25kg body weight in 73days of intensive feeding while the selected and randombred Malpura populations of lambs reached the same weight in 91 and 136days, respectively (P<0.01). The fitted...

In economic terms, muscle is the most important tissue for pig producers. Research has been largely focused, therefore, on the means by which to increase carcass muscle content, as well as the efficiency of nutrient use for muscle growth. Since a major component in this tissue is protein, the rate at which protein is continuously synthesized and degraded, i.e. the rate of protein turnover, is r...

Today's Sargasso Sea is nutrient starved, except for episodic upwelling events caused by wind-driven winter mixing and eddies. Enhanced diatom opal burial in Sargasso Sea sediments indicates that silicic acid, a limiting nutrient today, may have been more available in subsurface waters during Heinrich Stadials, millennial-scale climate perturbations of the last glacial and deglaciation. Here we...

Feedstock crops selected for bioenergy production to date are almost exclusively perennial grasses because of favorable physiological traits that enhance growth, water use, and nutrient assimilation efficiency. Grasses, however, tend to rely primarily on physical defenses, such as silica, to deter herbivores. Silica impedes processing of feedstocks and introduces a trade-off between managing fo...

Organic farming technology may be relatively unknown to farmers at the time when they switch from conventional into organic farming. Therefore, experience gained over time and learning by doing may be important determinants in the efficiency of organic farming. It may also take time to reach the optimal nutrient stock of soil and optimal nutrient supply for arable crops under organic farming. T...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of physicochemical properties of gerbera (Gerbera Jamesonii L.) to silica nanoparticles (Nanoparticle-SiO2) and calcium chelate (Ca-Chelate) in nutrient solutions. A factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with two factors was conducted in four replicates. The first factor the concentration of Nanoparticle-SiO2 in nutr...

Managing agricultural nutrients to provide a safe and secure food supply while protecting the environment remains one of the great challenges for the 21st century. The fourth International Nutrient Management Symposium (INMS), held in 2011 at the University of Delaware, addressed these issues via presentations, panel sessions, and field tours focused on latest technologies and policies availabl...

The process of nutrient transfer through an ecosystem is an important determinant of production, food-chain length, and species diversity. The general view is that the rate and efficiency of nutrient transfer up the food chain is constrained by herbivore-specific capacity to secure N-rich compounds for survival and production. Using feeding trials with artificial food, we show, however, that ph...

This study focuses on the development of a method which makes it possible to remove a maximum amount of water from urine whilst keeping nutrient losses as low as possible. With this goal in mind, three different urine drying systems, so-called as batch, circulation and continuous systems, were designed and assessed in Can Tho University. Their operations are based upon the principle of solar di...