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Unpacking Total Factor Productivity on Dairy Farms using Empirical Evidence
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 31 January 2022; Published online - 4 February 2022This study examines the farm-level factors that influence differences in total factor productivity (TFP) on dairy farms. To this end, a fixed-effects regression approach is applied to panel data for dairy farms obtained from the Farm Accountancy Data Network for Northern Ireland over the period of 2005 to 2016. The findings are largely consistent with existing empirical evidence, showing that herd size, milk yield, stocking density, and share of hired labour have a positive and statistically significant impact on TFP, while labour input per cow, purchased feed input per cow, and share of direct payments in total farm output have a negative and statistically significant impact. The more complex relationships, namely age, education, and investment, have been unpacked using interaction terms and nonlinear approximation. The impact of age is negative, and the drag on productivity grows as age increases. Capital investment and education both have a positive impact on farm-level TFP, as well as on their interaction. Policy recommendations on strategies and best practices to help dairy farms tackle productivity constraints are suggestedThis research was undertaken as part of the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture,
Environment and Rural Affairs Evidence and Innovation Programme [E&I 17/2/04—Productivity
growth in the Dairy sector in Northern Ireland: Trends and drivers]
The effect of biochar and acid activated biochar on ammonia emissions during manure storage
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 2 December 2022; Published online - 5 December 2022Animal manure contains valuable plant nutrients which need to be stored until field application. A significant proportion of slurry nitrogen is volatilized in the form of ammonia (NH3) during storage. This impacts human health, biodiversity, air and water quality and thus urgent action is needed to reduce NH3 emissions. In this experiment, we evaluated the NH3 emission mitigation potential of biochars derived from miscanthus (MB) and solid separated anaerobic digestate (DB), and orthophosphoric acid activated MB (AMB) and DB (ADB) as well as lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA) during four months of liquid manure storage. A slurry without amendment was included as a control (Ctrl). Acid activated and non-activated biochars were applied on top of the slurry maintaining a 7 mm thick surface layer, while LECA was applied in a 2 cm thick layer. NH3 emissions were measured by photoacoustic analyzer. In comparison to Ctrl, acid activated biochar decreased (p < 0.05) NH3 emissions during the slurry storage. Activated biochar reduced the emissions by 37–51% within the first month of slurry storage and achieved a 25–28% emissions reduction efficiency throughout the four month period due to the reduction in emission mitigation efficiency as the storage period progressed. LECA reduced NH3 emissions by 21% during storage. Losses of NH3 as a percentage of total ammoniacal N were 29–31% for activated biochars, 35–39% for non-activated biochars and 33% for LECA. In conclusion, acid activated biochars and LECA could be good floating-covers to mitigate NH3 emissions during manure storage, but activated biochars may have better mitigation potential than LECA.The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support given by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) under Evidence and Innovation (E&I) project Slurry Treatments (19-4-14)
The Role of Runoff Attenuation Features (RAFs) in Natural Flood Management
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 18 November 2022; Published online - 23 November 2022Natural Flood Management (NFM) and catchment-based solutions for flood risk management and environmental problems are wide-ranging and complex. Management of fluvial flood risk in the UK is undergoing a fundamental shift, with a change in emphasis from solely working with structural defences to considering catchment-based measures which attenuate flood runoff. At the heart of this change are NFM and nature-based solutions. One key type of intervention is the Runoff Attenuation Feature (RAF): a class of features that targets runoff flow pathways and creates new temporary flow storage (such as ponds and leaky barriers). However, there is currently a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of NFM and RAFs at larger catchment scales and for managing extreme flood events. Nevertheless, there is a strong evidence base to suggest that well-designed RAFs deliver a range of ecosystem services if installed in the correct location. This paper reviews and critiques the role of RAFs and NFM as an interventionist and holistic approach to lowering runoff rates. The link between RAF design types and their relationship to land use and scale is made. Recent novel innovations and attempts to scale up RAFs are discussed. The role of antecedent conditions, groundwater and the change in residence time of processes is highlighted. The uncertainty and complexity of proving NFM effectiveness underpin a view that new thinking in catchment flood management is needed. New research is required, and many questions are raised about RAFs and NFM. The direction of travel is that a positive and proactive NFM community can now embrace the problem. Proof that RAFs and NFM can address flood management is not likely to be resolved without a great deal of further research but confidence that RAFs do beneficial work is growing and an argument for greater amounts of runoff attenuation is made.The Environment Agency Local Flood Levy and the Northumbria Regional Flood Defence Committee for commissioning and funding the Belford Proactive Flood Solutions project. PQ (lead author) would also like to acknowledge funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) research grant (2018-W-LS-20) and the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Sciences Analytical Services Division (JHI-D2-2). RA would like to acknowledge funding from DAERA Evidence and Innovation Grant (number 19-4-03) which contributed to this article’s preparation
A Global Review of Catch Efficiencies of Towed Fishing Gears Targeting Scallops
No full textPublication history: Published online - 29 October 2022.The catch efficiency of towed fishing gears is the fraction of the target species in the gear
path that were caught and retained. Catch efficiency is fundamental for calculating population
status required for establishing fisheries management reference points. Consequently, catch
efficiency has been estimated for many commercially important scallop (Pectinid) fisheries.
This article synthesizes and discusses estimates of catch efficiency of towed gears used to
target scallops, the methods for estimating catch efficiency and the factors that influence
these estimates. There exists considerable variation in catch efficiency estimates among
studies (0.1 to 0.7), and it is important that this variation is accounted for during surveys
and stock assessments to avoid erroneous advice and estimates. The high variation was
driven by differences in experimental conditions, estimation methods and scallop behavior.
Scallop size and substrate type were the two most common reporting categories discussed
in the studies and consequently should be considered the two most important drivers of
catch efficiency. Other important factors such as gear specifications, and scallop species
were featured in some studies. This review will be highly useful for designing catch efficiency
experiments, survey design and stock assessments by understanding, and accounting for,
catch efficiency variation.This research was not funded by any particular grants. The
authors come from a range of institutions and their general
research time is funded by a variety of sources including
from research councils, charities, fishing industries and
governments
High levels of standardized ileal digestible amino acids improve feed efficiency in slow- growing pigs at late grower- finisher stage
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 4 July 2021; Published online - 6 March 2022.Slow-growing pigs negatively affect production efficiency in conventional pig farms by increasing the occupation time of the facilities and being a limiting factor for the All-In/All-Out swine production systems. This subset of pigs is usually managed with the rest of the pigs, and their nutrient requirements may not be fulfilled. The purpose of the present study was to compare the productive performance of slow- and fast-growing pigs to different standardized ileal digestible (SID) amino acids (AA) dietary levels at late grower–finisher stage. A total of 84 pigs were weighed, tagged, and classified as slow-growing (SG; n = 48; 24.1 ± 1.38 kg) or fast-growing pigs (FG; n = 36; 42.7 ± 1.63 kg) at 11 weeks of age. Pigs were housed in mixed sex pens (n = 8 SG+6 FG/pen) equipped with feeding stations to record daily feed intake per individual pig. Pigs were assigned to three dietary treatments resulting in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement at 15 weeks of age. Isoenergetic diets were formulated by increasing the ideal protein profile based on the following SID lysine (Lys) levels: 0.92%, 1.18% and 1.45%. Pigs were weighed bi-weekly until 21 weeks of age. Fast-growing pigs were 33.7 kg heavier, gained 255 g/day and consumed 625.5 g/day more than SG pigs (p 0.05). However, feed conversion ratio was 0.3 lower for SG pigs fed 1.45% SID Lys/AA compared to SG pigs fed 0.92% SID Lys/AA (p = 0.002). Feed conversion ratio was not different within the FG pigs’ dietary treatments (p > 0.05). The efficiency of SG pigs may be improved when dietary SID AA levels are increased from 0.92 up to 1.45% SID Lys/AA. Thus, nutrient requirements may vary depending on growth rate at the same age, and SG pigs may require higher dietary SID AA levels than FG pigs to achieve similar productive performance.Teagasc Walsh Scholarship. Grant Number: 0415, Open access funding provided by IReL
WOA Institution: Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority
Blended DEAL: IRe
Pathophysiology of Perinatal Asphyxia in Humans and Animal Models
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 28 January 2022; Published online - 1 February 2022Perinatal asphyxia is caused by lack of oxygen delivery (hypoxia) to end organs due to an hypoxemic or ischemic insult occurring in temporal proximity to labor (peripartum) or delivery (intrapartum). Hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy is the clinical manifestation of hypoxic injury to the brain and is usually graded as mild, moderate, or severe. The search for useful biomarkers to precisely predict the severity of lesions in perinatal asphyxia and hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a field of increasing interest. As pathophysiology is not fully comprehended, the gold standard for treatment remains an active area of research. Hypothermia has proven to be an effective neuroprotective strategy and has been implemented in clinical routine. Current studies are exploring various add-on therapies, including erythropoietin, xenon, topiramate, melatonin, and stem cells. This review aims to perform an updated integration of the pathophysiological processes after perinatal asphyxia in humans and animal models to allow us to answer some questions and provide an interim update on progress in this field
Evaluating the opportunity for utilising anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis of livestock manure and grass silage to decarbonise gas infrastructure : A Northern Ireland case study.
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 24 June 2022; Published online - 4 July 2022The need to mitigate climate change and improve energy security has led to an increasing interest in the utilisation of renewable gas to decarbonise natural gas use. Northern Ireland serves as an interesting case study to evaluate how biomethane from manure and silage material can displace natural gas. This is because of high agricultural intensity, the low penetration of gas relative to the wider UK and the modern pipeline infrastructure. This study included spatial mapping of biomethane yield and life cycle assessment for processing scenarios. The results demonstrated that current manure management i.e., storage and application of manure to grassland, results in 344 kg CO2 equivalent/person of greenhouse gases and 9.7 kg/person of ammonia being emitted. In a second scenario where collected manure and underutilised grass silage is routed to anaerobic digestion, the estimated net energy produced is 6124 GWh, with −464 kg CO2 equivalent/person. A third scenario, combining anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis, also produces 6124 GWh and 200 kilo tonnes of biochar (retaining 64% of manure phosphorus), −563 kg CO2 equivalent/person. This research evaluates the opportunity for biomethane while acknowledging that a comprehensive approach which balances energy potentials and nutrient management is required for sustainable biomethane based decarbonisation.This work is supported by the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE). CASE is funded through Invest NI's Competence Centre Programme and aims to transform the sustainable energy sector through business researc
Spatial clusters of Varroa destructor control strategies in Europe
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 18 May 2022; Published online - 29 June 2022Beekeepers have various options to control the parasitic mite Varroa destructor in honey bee colonies, but no empirical data
are available on the methods they apply in practice. We surveyed 28,409 beekeepers maintaining 507,641 colonies in 30
European countries concerning Varroa control methods. The set of 19 diferent Varroa diagnosis and control measures was
taken from the annual COLOSS questionnaire on honey bee colony losses. The most frequent activities were monitoring of
Varroa infestations, drone brood removal, various oxalic acid applications and formic acid applications. Correspondence
analysis and hierarchical clustering on principal components showed that six Varroa control options (not necessarily the most
used ones) signifcantly contribute to defning three distinctive clusters of countries in terms of Varroa control in Europe.
Cluster I (eight Western European countries) is characterized by use of amitraz strips. Cluster II comprises 15 countries from
Scandinavia, the Baltics, and Central-Southern Europe. This cluster is characterized by long-term formic acid treatments.
Cluster III is characterized by dominant usage of amitraz fumigation and formed by seven Eastern European countries. The
median number of diferent treatments applied per beekeeper was lowest in cluster III. Based on estimation of colony numbers
in included countries, we extrapolated the proportions of colonies treated with diferent methods in Europe. This suggests that
circa 62% of colonies in Europe are treated with amitraz, followed by oxalic acid for the next largest percentage of colonies.
We discuss possible factors determining the choice of Varroa control measures in the diferent clustersOpen access funding provided by University of Graz. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. COLOSS and its supporters had no influence on the study design or the decision to publish
Resistome analysis of global livestock and soil microbiomes
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 24 May 2022: Published online - 7 July 2022Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious threat to public health globally; it is estimated
that AMR bacteria caused 1.27 million deaths in 2019, and this is set to rise to 10 million
deaths annually. Agricultural and soil environments act as antimicrobial resistance gene
(ARG) reservoirs, operating as a link between different ecosystems and enabling the mixing
and dissemination of resistance genes. Due to the close interactions between humans
and agricultural environments, these AMR gene reservoirs are a major risk to both human
and animal health. In this study, we aimed to identify the resistance gene reservoirs present
in four microbiomes: poultry, ruminant, swine gastrointestinal (GI) tracts coupled with
those from soil. This large study brings together every poultry, swine, ruminant, and soil
shotgun metagenomic sequence available on the NCBI sequence read archive for the
first time. We use the ResFinder database to identify acquired antimicrobial resistance
genes in over 5,800 metagenomes. ARGs were diverse and widespread within the
metagenomes, with 235, 101, 167, and 182 different resistance genes identified in the
poultry, ruminant, swine, and soil microbiomes, respectively. The tetracycline resistance
genes were the most widespread in the livestock GI microbiomes, including tet(W)_1,
tet(Q)_1, tet(O)_1, and tet(44)_1. The tet(W)_1 resistance gene was found in 99% of
livestock GI tract microbiomes, while tet(Q)_1 was identified in 93%, tet(O)_1 in 82%, and
finally tet(44)_1 in 69%. Metatranscriptomic analysis confirmed these genes were “real”
and expressed in one or more of the livestock GI tract microbiomes, with tet(40)_1 and
tet(O)_1 expressed in all three livestock microbiomes. In soil, the most abundant ARG
was the oleandomycin resistance gene, ole(B)_1. A total of 55 resistance genes were
shared by the four microbiomes, with 11 ARGs actively expressed in two or more
microbiomes. By using all available metagenomes we were able to mine a large number
of samples and describe resistomes in 37 countries. This study provides a global insight
into the diverse and abundant antimicrobial resistance gene reservoirs present in both
livestock and soil microbiomes.This work was supported by the Northern Irish Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
De novo Transcriptome Assembly and Differential Expression Analysis of Catharanthus roseus in Response to Salicylic acid
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 12 September 2022; Published online - 24 October 2022The anti-cancer vinblastine and vincristine alkaloids can only be naturally found in periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus). Both of these alkaloids' accumulations are known to be influenced by salicylic acid (SA). The transcriptome data to reveal the induction effect (s) of SA, however, seem restricted at this time. In this study, the de novo approach of transcriptome assembly was performed on the RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) data in C. roseus. The outcome demonstrated that SA treatment boosted the expression of all the genes in the Terpenoid Indole Alkaloids (TIAs) pathway that produces the vinblastine and vincristine alkaloids. These outcomes supported the time-course measurements of vincristine alkaloid, the end product of the TIAs pathway, and demonstrated that SA spray had a positive impact on transcription and alkaloid synthesis. Additionally, the abundance of transcription factor families including bHLH, C3H, C2H2, MYB, MYB-related, AP2/ ERF, NAC, bZIP, and WRKY suggests a role for a variety of transcription families in response to the SA stimuli. Di-nucleotide and tri-nucleotide SSRs were the most prevalent SSR markers in microsatellite analyses, making up 39% and 34% of all SSR markers, respectively, out of the 77,192 total SSRs discovered