Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2024
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This study investigates cow behaviour when visiting two GreenFeed Emission Monitoring (GEM) units within a Part-Time Grazing (PTG) system. Two separate PTG systems were assessed in Sweden and Norway, involving Nordic Red and Norwegian Red dairy cows, respectively. In Sweden, 24 cows were allocated to treatments with restricted access to pasture, either daytime or nighttime grazing. Meanwhile, the Norwegian PTG involved 33 cows with free pasture access, categorized by varying training levels (Partially or Fully). In both PTG systems, cows were exposed to GEM units positioned indoors (Indoor) and in the grazing pastures (Pasture), with individual visitations recorded. Significant variations in visitation patterns were observed. In the restricted access PTG, Nighttime grazing access cows exhibited reduced visits to the Indoor GEM unit but increased visits to the Pasture GEM unit compared to Daytime grazing. Conversely, within the free access PTG, fully trained cows demonstrated elevated visits to the pasture GEM unit and total visits compared to their partially trained counterparts. These findings highlight the influence of temporal conditions and training levels on cow-visiting behaviour within PTG systems.
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Presentation of preliminary findings from a feed trial conducted winter 2024, where the effect of feeding lactating dairy cows a 100% ensiled grass pulp diet was measured on production parameters, GHG-emissions, behaviour and metabolic markers, compared to regular whole plant silage from the same ley and harvest dates
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Introduction: Production of strawberries in greenhouses and polytunnels is gaining popularity worldwide. This study investigated the effect of reuse of coir and peat, two substrates commonly adapted to soilless strawberry production, as well as stand-alone wood fiber from Norway spruce, a promising substrate candidate. Methods: The experiment was performed in a polytunnel at NIBIO Apelsvoll, Norway, and evaluated both virgin substrates, as well as spent materials that were used in one or two years. Yield, berry quality and plant architecture of the strawberry cultivar ‘Malling Centenary’ were registered. In addition, chemical and physical properties of virgin and reused substrates were investigated. Results: While plants grown in peat and wood fiber had highest yield in the first year of production, the berry yield was slightly reduced when these substrates were utilized for the second and third time. However, yield was comparable to the yield level attained in new and reused coir. Interestingly, berries grown in wood fiber had a tendency to a higher sugar accumulation. This substrate also produced the highest plants. Stand-alone wood fiber was the substrate with the highest accumulation of nitrogen during the three consecutive production cycles. All three investigated materials revealed a trend for decreased potassium accumulation. Wood fiber is characterized by the highest percentage of cellulose, however after three years of production the cellulose content was reducedto the same levels as for coir and peat. Discussion: Implementation of wood fiber as a growing medium, as well as general practice of substrate reuse can be therefore an achievable strategy for more sustainable berry production.
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Context In high-latitude regions, variable weather conditions during the growing season and in winter cause considerable variation in forage grass productivity. Tools for predicting grassland status and yield, such as field measurements, satellite image analysis and process-based simulation models, can be combined in decision support for grassland management. Here, we calibrated and validated the BASic GRAssland (BASGRA) model against dry matter and Leaf area index data from temporary grasslands in northern Norway. Objective The objective of this study was to compare the performance of model versions calibrated against i) only region-specific ground data, ii) both region-specific ground and Sentinel-2 satellite data and, iii) field trial data from other regions. Methods Ground and satellite sensed data including biomass dry matter, leaf area index, and autumn and spring ground cover from 2020 to 2022 were acquired from 13 non-permanent grassland fields at four locations. These data were input to BASGRA calibrations together with soil and daily weather data, and information about cutting and nitrogen fertilizer application regimes. The effect of the winter season was taken into account in simulations by initiating the simulations either in autumn or in early spring. Results Within datasets, initiating the model in spring resulted in higher dry matter prediction accuracy (normalised RMSE 22.3–54.0 %) than initiating the model in autumn (normalised RMSE 41.1–93.4 %). Regional specific calibrations resulted in more accurate biomass predictions than calibrations from other regions while using satellite sensing data in addition to ground data resulted in only minor changes in biomass prediction accuracy. Conclusion All regional calibrations against data from northern Norway changed model parameter values and improved dry matter prediction accuracy compared with the reference calibration parameter values. Including satellite-sensed data in addition to ground data in calibrations did not further increase prediction accuracy compared with using only ground data. Implications Our findings show that regional data from farmers’ fields can substantially improve the performance of the BASGRA model compared to using controlled field trial data from other regions. This emphasises the need to account for regional diversity in non-permanent grassland when estimating grassland production potential and stress impact across geographic regions. Further use of satellite data in grassland model calibrations would probably benefit from more detailed assessments of the effect of grass growth characteristics and light and cloud conditions on estimates of grassland leaf area index and biomass from remote sensing.
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In high latitude regions, variability in weather and climate conditions during the winter season cause a considerable variation in forage grass productivity and animal feed supply between years and locations. Tools to estimate or predict winter survival and yield, such as ground registrations, satellite image analysis and process-based simulation models, can be combined in decision support for grassland management. In this study, we simulated grassland winter survival using the BAsic GRAssland (BASGRA) model. The model was initialized after the last cut in the autumn. Its performance to simulate ground coverage in the early spring, either assessed by on-site ground registrations or from Sentinel-2 satellite images, was evaluated. Grass fields at Malangen and Målselv in Northern Norway were simulated for the winter seasons 2020–2021 and 2021–2022. Model input including daily air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and wind speed data were obtained from weather stations nearby the grass fields. The initial values of biomass, leaf area and tiller density in the autumn were based on ground registration in October. Preliminary results show considerable variation in both simulated winter survival and prediction accuracy of observed spring ground coverage between the locations and two winter seasons.
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Semi-natural hay meadows are among the most species-rich habitats in Norway as well as in Europe. To maintain the biodiversity of hay meadows, it is important to understand local management regimes and the land use history that has shaped them and their biodiversity. There is however a general erosion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), related to hay meadows and other semi-natural habitats. This review aims to examine historical and written sources of land use practices related to hay meadows and to discuss the implications of a re-introduction of TEK in present and future management practices. Traditional land use practices and TEK obtained from written sources from four Norwegian regions and for the country as a whole are compared with present management practices. Written sources show that hay meadows have been managed in a complex but flexible way. Today's management regimes of hay meadows in Norway are streamlined and strongly simplified, most often involving only one late mowing and in some cases grazing. This simplification may result in loss of biodiversity. The potential to include more variety of management practices in hay meadows, by utilizing knowledge from written sources more systematically in combination with farmers’ experienced knowledge (TEK) should be better utilized. Such an approach may secure both the biodiversity in hay meadows and TEK for the future. Former and present landscape ecological contexts in the infield-outlying land system show that management should be done for larger landscapes rather than small, isolated hay meadows, to optimize biodiversity conservation. For this study, we conducted a Norwegian literature review, based on ethnographical and ethnobotanical sources, as well as historical and present agricultural statistics, historical maps, results from research projects, and other sources. Our findings are discussed with similar European studies focusing on the historical management of hay meadows.