OUTPU T 29 OUTPU T 30 OUTPU T 31 OUTPU T 32 OUTPU T 25 OUTPU T 26 OUTPU T 27 OUTPU T 28 OUTPU T 21 OUTPU T 22 OUTPU T 23 OUTPU T 24 OUTPU T 17 OUTPU T 18 OUTPU T 19 OUTPU T 20 OUTPU T 13 OUTPU T 14 OUTPU T 15 OUTPU T 16 OUTPU T 9 OUTPU T 10 OUTPU T 11 OUTPU T 12 OUTPU T 5 OUTPU T 6 OUTPU T 7 OUTPU T 8 OUTPU T 1 OUTPU T 2 OUTPU T 3 OUTPU T 4 29 30 31 32 25 26 27 28 21 22 23 24 17 18 19 20 13 14 15 16 9

A User’s Guide

Discovered in late 1817, cadmium is currently one of the most important occupational and environmental pollutants. It is associated with renal, neurological, skeletal and other toxic effects, including reproductive toxicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity. There is still much to find out about its mechanisms of action, biomarkers of critical effects, and ways to reduce health risks. At present, there is no clinically efficient agent to treat cadmium poisoning due to predominantly intracellular location of cadmium ions. This article gives a brief review of cadmium-induced oxidative stress and its interactions with essential elements zinc and magnesium as relevant mechanisms of cadmium toxicity. It draws on available literature data and our own results, which indicate that dietary supplementation of either essential element has beneficial effect under condition of cadmium exposure. We have also tackled the reasons why magnesium addition prevails over zinc and discussed the protective role of magnesium during cadmium exposure. These findings could help to solve the problem of prophylaxis and therapy of increased cadmium body burden.

/pdf/cadmium-toxicity-revisited-focus-on-oxidative-stress-26swnhmruj.pdf

Cadmium Toxicity Revisited: Focus on Oxidative Stress Induction and Interactions with Zinc and Magnesium

Important role of alfalfa in development of animal husbandry, is based on high potential for production of biomass. Reaching of high green (over 80 t ha-1) and dry matter yield (approx. 20 t ha-1) with low investment during all period of utilization makes alfalfa production very economical. Divergent selection materials were used to create high productive domestic alfalfa cultivars with excellent field persistence, which is important factor for high and stable yield during entire exploitation period. On the other hand, alfalfa is a rich source of crude protein with excellent digestibility. Proteins from alfalfa herbage are the cheapest source of protein in animal feed. Content of crude protein strongly depend on development stage of plant material and can be 200 to 240 g kg-1 DM, while crude protein yield can be over 3.5 t ha-1. Besides that, alfalfa herbage had a high content of macro and micro element, which are so important for animal health. It is usually grown in pure stand, although it's a good component of grass-legumes mixtures. Alfalfa biomass can be used in several ways, usually as hay, but also as high quality silages, haylages, dehydrated in form of briquettes or by grazing. Symbiotic N2 fixation gives alfalfa not just economical, but very high ecological importance, too. It's a reason why alfalfa, besides important role in conventional husbandry is getting great role in sustainable agriculture and organic production. All those characteristics confirm, that alfalfa is a really 'queen' of forages.

/pdf/alfalfa-most-important-perennial-forage-legume-in-animal-q03uuvh5z4.pdf

Alfalfa-most important perennial forage legume in animal husbandry

Today, we have been witnessing a steady tendency in the increase of global demand for maize, wheat, soybeans, and their products due to the steady growth and strengthening of the livestock industry. Thus, animal feed safety has gradually become more important, with mycotoxins representing one of the most significant hazards. Mycotoxins comprise different classes of secondary metabolites of molds. With regard to animal feed, aflatoxins, fumonisins, ochratoxins, trichothecenes, and zearalenone are the more prevalent ones. In this review, several constraints posed by these contaminants at economical and commercial levels will be discussed, along with the legislation established in the European Union to restrict mycotoxins levels in animal feed. In addition, the occurrence of legislated mycotoxins in raw materials and their by-products for the feeds of interest, as well as in the feeds, will be reviewed. Finally, an overview of the different sample pretreatment and detection techniques reported for mycotoxin analysis will be presented, the main weaknesses of current methods will be highlighted.

Prevalent Mycotoxins in Animal Feed: Occurrence and Analytical Methods

Although yield and total biomass produced by annual legumes remain major objectives for breeders, other issues such as environment-friendly, resource use efficiency including symbiotic performance, resilient production in the context of climate change, adaptation to sustainable cropping systems (reducing leaching, greenhouse gas emissions and pesticide residues), adaptation to diverse uses (seeds for feed, food, non-food, forage or green manure) and finally new ecological services such as pollinator protection, imply the need for definition of new ideotypes and development of innovative genotypes to enhance their commercialization. Taken as a whole, this means more complex and integrated objectives for breeders. Several illustrations will be given of breeding such complex traits for different annual legume species. Genetic diversity for root development and for the ability to establish efficient symbioses with rhizobia and mycorrhiza can contribute to better resource management (N, P, water). Shoot archit...

/pdf/breeding-annual-grain-legumes-for-sustainable-agriculture-3uudro9fsm.pdf

Breeding Annual Grain Legumes for Sustainable Agriculture: New Methods to Approach Complex Traits and Target New Cultivar Ideotypes

Managing N inputs in wheat production systems is an important issue in order to achieve maximum profitable production, and minimum negative environmental impact. The aim of this investigation carried out in dry land farming in the Vojvodina province (Serbia) was to estimate the effects of different N fertilization levels (0, 75, and 150 kg N ha-1) on some quantitative traits, rain-use efficiency (RUE), N agronomic efficiency (NAE), and N use efficiency (NUE) in two Serbian winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars 'Pobeda' and 'Renesansa'. 'Pobeda' had higher grain yield (4437 kg ha-1) and RUE (8.32 kg ha-1 mm-1) than 'Renesansa' (4265 kg ha-1 and 8 kg ha-1 mm-1, respectively). Grain yield (4652 kg ha-1) and NUE (31.46 kg kg-1 N) were higher in the 2010-2011 season (favorable weather conditions) than in the 2011-2012 (4050 kg ha-1 and 27.59 kg kg-1 N, respectively). The highly significant effect on grain yield (4396 and 4494 kg ha-1), RUE (8.24 and 8.45 kg ha-1 mm-1), NAE (3.11 and 2.21 kg kg-1 N) and NUE (58.62 and 29.96 kg kg-1 N) had levels of 75 and 150 kg N ha-1. NAE and NUE declined at high N rates. Based on the results of this study, farmers should be advised that the use of large amounts of N increases production costs and reduce the economic benefits. The increase in wheat production is possible by selecting adapted genotypes with improved NUE.

/pdf/nitrogen-fertilizer-influence-on-wheat-yield-and-use-nlb6mt0cpx.pdf

Nitrogen fertilizer influence on wheat yield and use efficiency under different environmental conditions

In this study the presence of moulds and mycotoxins in samples of stored maize grains in the period from October 2011 to September 2012 was investigated. Mycological analyses of whole and broken grains showed the presence of species from the genera Alternaria, Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium, Rhizopus and others. Among the Aspergillus and Fusarium genera as potentially toxigenic fungi, Aspergillus flavus was identified with the highest percentage on broken grains (20.38%) whereas F. verticilioides was the predominant species in the whole maize grains (34.04%). In addition, it was obtained that tested samples of stored maize grains were 100% positive with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), zearalenone (ZON), deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisin B1 (FB1) with an average concentration of 1.39 μg kg -1 , 71.79 μg kg -1 , 128.17 μg kg -1 , and 1610.83 μg kg -1 , respectively. A significant positive correlation was found between the moisture content and the presence of Fusarium spp. on the broken grains (r = 0.44) and between the moisture content and the concentration of DON (r = 0.61). However, a significant negative correlation was found between moisture content and FB1 (r = -0.34), and between the concentration of ZON and DON mycotoxins (r = -0.58).

/pdf/moulds-and-mycotoxins-in-stored-maize-grains-5e4vwvzex5.pdf

Moulds and mycotoxins in stored maize grains

The aim of this investigation was to estimate the effects of foliar
 fertilization on quantitative traits (plant height, first pod height, number
 of nodes per plant, number of pods per plant, number of grain per plant,
 grain yield per plant, 1000-grain weight and grain yield) in two soybean
 cultivars (Balkan and Becejka). Studied cultivars belong to different
 maturity groups (Balkan - I and Becejka - 0). Four treatments of
 fertilization were tested: control (no fertilization), Urea (46 kg N ha-1),
 Urea (46 kg N ha-1) + Wuxal super (5 l ha-1) and Urea (46 kg N ha-1) +
 Ferticare I (5 kg ha-1). Wuxal super and Ferticare I were foliar applied two
 times at the R2-R3 growth stage. The field experiments were carried out in
 dry land farming in the region of Vojvodina province at location Putinci (45°
 00′ N Lat., 19° 58′ E Long.), during the years 2007 and 2008. In both
 research years, Balkan had higher values for all investigated traits than
 Becejka. Results showed that foliar fertilizers significantly increased the
 values for all quantitative traits. Ferticare I is more effective than Wuxal
 super in soybean because this fertilizer has higher concentration of
 macronutrients. Foliar fertilization of soybean reduced the negative impact
 of small amounts of rainfall during the summer months on grain yield.
 [Projekat Ministarstva nauke republike Srbije, br. TR 31053]

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/ft.aspx?id=1450-91561501133M

Effect of foliar fertilization on soybean grain yield

Genotype and Year Effect on Grain Yield and Nutritive Values of Maize (Zea mays L.)

The aim of this investigation was to estimate the effects of crop density on the plant height (PH), ear height (EH), leaf number per plant (LN), ear length (EL), number of rows per ear (NRE), number of grain per row (NGR), number of grain per ear (NGE), grain weight per ear (GWE), cob weight (CW), 1000-grain weight (1000-GW), ear diameter (ED) and grain yield (GY) in staygreen maize hybrid Dijamant 6 (FAO maturity group 600). Three crop densities (51020 plants ha -1 , 59524 plants ha -1 and 71429 plants ha -1 ) were tested. The field experiment was carried out during 2006 and 2007 at Srem region (Putinci: latitude 44° 59′ 19\" N; longitude 19° 58′ 11\" E). Plots were organized as completely randomized block system design in four replications. PH (284.3 cm), EH (119.9 cm), LN (13.9), EL (20.8 cm), GWE (232.5 g), CW (56.4 g), 1000-GW (378.4 g) and GY (13.56 t ha -1 ) were significantly higher in 2006 (favorable climatic conditions) than in 2007 (258.5 cm, 112.8 cm, 13.2, 17.9 cm, 192.9 g, 46.9 g, 232.7 g and 11.50 t ha -1 , respectively). Increasing crop density significantly increased the PH, EH and GY, and significantly decreases the EL, NGR, NGE, GWE, CW and 100-GW. The crop density of 71429 plants ha -1 is the optimal for growing this hybrid in Srem region. On that crop density hybrid more efficiently used available resources and achieved the highest grain yield.

Zorica Tomic

Papers

Nitrogen fertilizer influence on wheat yield and use efficiency under different environmental conditions

Moulds and mycotoxins in stored maize grains

Effect of foliar fertilization on soybean grain yield

Genotype and Year Effect on Grain Yield and Nutritive Values of Maize (Zea mays L.)

The effect of crop density on maize grain yield