Metabolizable energy (ME) required for basal metabolism, activity and growth was considered as the criterion for targeting specific increases in body weight (100 g/week) of broiler chicks during the grower phase (5-20 weeks) and its impact was evaluated on breeder performance. Broiler female chicks (460) from a synthetic dam line were randomly distributed to 4 test groups with 23 replicates of ...

the purpose followed in this study was to identify the restraining factors affecting date grower organizations, development in khuzestan province. the statistical population consisted of two independent groups including 584 members of date grower organizations and 30 experts from the related governmental agencies. a sample of 120 farmers from date growers' group was chosen through stratifi...

Using an unknown input observer, with an output linearising feedback, an online estimator for the ventilation flow or rate is developed for natural ventilated greenhouses. The paper shows how to design, implement and tune such an estimator in practice and shows that it performs well. Furthermore the practical value for the grower is discussed. Copyright © 2005 IFAC

The growth-promoting effects of two dietary acidifiers based on formic acid were studied with 320 fattening pigs from ca 2 kg to ca 05 kg of body weight. The sorbate-coated formic acid contained formic acid and ammonium formate which were absorbed in diatomaceous earth and coated with potassium sorbate. The investigated liquid blend contained formic and lactic acids as the major components. The...

Pigs are confronted with changes in farming practices that may affect performance and animal well-being. The sanitary conditions of the farm can have an impact on the ability of pigs to adapt to these changes. This study aimed to analyse how weaned pigs respond to common farming practices of changes in diet and housing in terms of performance, health and behaviour, and how these responses are a...

Two experiments were conducted to determine the nutritive value of copra meal for grower and finisher pigs (40–95 kg). 21 The apparent nutrient digestibility of copra meal, when included at 200 and 400 g kg in the diet of both the grower and finisher pig, was determined in experiment 1. In experiment 2, productive performance was determined in group fed pigs 21 (n 5 360) offered diets ad libitu...

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of Bacillus, Saccharomyces and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on performance and nutrient digestibility in grower and finisher pigs. In Exp. 1, 80 pigs (32 females and 48 males), 28.7±0.9 kg body weight (BW), were randomly divided into 4 treatment groups balanced for sex and weight (5 pigs per pen, 4 pens per treatm...

Two replicate experiments were done to investigate if special diets provided to broilers in their last phase of life could reduce the negative effects of feed withdrawal and transport without an increased content of the digestive tract. In each experiment, 240 broilers were used. The experiments consisted of 2 interventions: the feed intervention and the transport intervention. The feed interve...

The Dutch sugar industry and sugarbeet research initiated the project SUSY (Speeding Up Sugar Yield) as a reaction to the reform of the European Union sugar regime. The project was aimed at softening the reform’s impact on grower income by improving their knowledge on raising sugar yield and identifying possible cost savings. From each sugarbeet growing region in The Netherlands, 26 pairs of ‘t...

The paper describes a simplified dynamic model of a greenhouse tomato crop, and the optimal control problem related to the seasonal benefit of the grower. A HJB formalism is used and the explicit form of the Krotov–Bellman function is obtained for different growth stages. Simulation results are shown. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.