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.
2021
Abstract
The large surface area of bunker silos imposes challenges with heating caused by plant respiration during initial ensiling. This study aimed to explore if application of a formic- and propionic acid-based additive would improve grass silage quality, reduce losses, and increase aerobic stability in bunker silos. At each of three harvests, every second tractor load was filled with either untreated or acid treated precision chopped crop, and ensiled in each of two identical bunker silos, 6 m × 27 m with three 3.5 m high walls, without roof. Each load in both bunker silos was compacted by two packing machines. Initially, an 8.3 t farm tractor worked for 10 min. followed by a 14.5 t wheel loader for 10 min. Silos were filled to approximately half of their capacity. Due to showers during all three harvests, crop dry matter (DM) concentrations were only 195, 186 and 213 g/kg, respectively. During unloading for feeding, silage DM density and DM concentrations were respectively 7% and 5% higher (P < 0.01) in acid treated (A) than in control (C) silage. This was presumably due to early cell rupture caused by the applied acid, and thereby higher effluent release from A than C silage. Additive treatment did not influence the amount of wasted silage. Invisible losses, that included crop respiration, effluent runoff, anaerobic fermentation, aerobic deterioration from the silo face, and gaseous losses were numerically higher in A than C silos on fresh weight basis, but slightly lower on DM basis. The proportion of harvested crop DM that was offered to animals was 837 and 829 g/kg for A and C silage, respectively (NS). Additive treatment reduced the proportion of non-protein N in total N, restricted silage fermentation to lactic and acetic acid, reduced NH3-N-values, and increased ethanol fermentation (P < 0.01). Silage DM intake index was higher for A than C silage (P < 0.001). Aerobic stability was not significantly influenced by additive treatment. The concentration of spores of Clostridium tyrobutyricum in spot silage samples from bunker silo faces was low or moderate, and did not differ according to additive treatment. Silo shoulder and side samples contained, however, significantly higher spore concentrations than mid and top samples.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Compact and healthy seedlings of Brassica increase the crop production and improve vegetable quality. Different climatic conditions and extensive light can cause young plants to become elongated and spindly. We investigated the effects of end-of-day (EOD) treatment on plant height (cm) of the seedlings of three cultivars of each of the following species: cauliflower (‘Delfino’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Momentum’), broccoli (‘Achilles’, ‘Ironman’ and ‘Steel’), Brussels sprouts (‘Gladius’, ‘Brigitte’ and ‘Maximus’) and swede (‘Vigod’, ‘Vige’ and ‘Neve’) using red light (RL) with wavelength of 600 nm and intensity of 10 μmol m2 s‑1 as a supplement to natural light. All seedlings were planted in an experimental field. Yield of the mentioned species and vitamin C content were measured after harvest. Night EOD treatment resulted in 7% shorter and more compact plants in broccoli (p=0.04). There were yield differences (31-44%) among cultivars within the cauliflower (p=0.001), broccoli (p=0.01) and Brussels sprouts (p=0.001). There were significant differences in vitamin C content among cultivars in all four Brassica species (p<0.01). This study provides new information about the effect of night break treatment with red light on seedling length in broccoli, yield differences in cultivars of cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts and on vitamin C content in different cultivars of four studied Brassica species.
Authors
Pia Heltoft ThomsenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
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No abstract has been registered
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No abstract has been registered
Authors
Vibeke Lind Angela Dagmar Schwarm Marcello Mele Alice Cappucci Giulia Foggi Özge Sizmaz Eleni Tsiplakou Alberto Stanislao Atzori Joni Van Mullem Nico PeirenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Vibeke LindAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
As the demand for proteins increases with growing populations, farmed seaweed is a potential option for use directly as an ingredient for food, feed, or other applications, as it does not require agricultural areas. In this study, a life cycle assessment was utilised to calculate the environmental performance and evaluate possible improvements of the entire value chain from production of sugar kelp seedings to extracted protein. The impacts of both technical- and biological factors on the environmental outcomes were examined, and sensitivity and uncertainty analyses were conducted to analyse the impact of the uncertainty of the input variables on the variance of the environmental impact results of seaweed protein production. The current production of seaweed protein was found to have a global warming potential (GWP) that is four times higher than that of soy protein from Brazil. Further, of the 23 scenarios modelled, two resulted in lower GWPs and energy consumption per kg of seaweed protein relative to soy protein. These results present possibilities for improving the environmental impact of seaweed protein production. The most important variables for producing seaweed protein with low environmental impact are the source of drying energy for seaweed, followed by a high protein content in the dry matter, and a high dry matter in the harvested seaweed. In the two best scenarios modelled in this study, the dry matter content was 20% and the protein content 19.2% and 24.3% in dry matter. This resulted in a lower environmental impact for seaweed protein production than that of soy protein from Brazil. These scenarios should be the basis for a more environmental protein production in the future.
Authors
Matthias KoeslingAbstract
No abstract has been registered