Disposal of poultry litter, a widely available organic manure in the southeastern USA because of a largescale poultry industry, is a major concern because of its contamination in surfaceand groundwater through N leaching and P runoff. Application of poultry litter in no-tilled intensive cropping system could increase soil C and N sequestration compared with the conventional-tilled system with i...

Grazing is the cheapest way to feed cattle on a cost per pound of nutrient basis. However, producers with limited land resources in Kentucky have been able to use commodities or grain by-products to increase cattle numbers due to low cost and availability of these inputs. Extending the grazing season is one solution that would enable producers to reduce costs and expand production with little o...

The major proteinase activity in extracts of larval midguts from the southern corn rootworm (SCR), Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi, was identified as a cysteine proteinase that prefers substrates containing an arginine residue in the P1 position. Gelatin-zymogram analysis of the midgut proteinases indicated that the artificial diet-fed SCR, corn root-fed SCR, and root-fed western corn rootwo...

This paper describes the physical and tensile properties of corn bracts during a whole harvest period by using two cultivars, aiming to realize efficient peeling with minimum energy performance decrease incidence ear damage. The value range change rule were obtained combining mechanical experiments numerical statistics. Meanwhile, mathematical models established for depending on bract moisture ...

The adoption rate of winter cover crops (WCCs) as an effective conservation management practice to help reduce agricultural nutrient loads in the Chesapeake Bay (CB) is increasing. However, the WCC potential for water quality improvement has not been fully realized at the watershed scale. This study was conducted to evaluate the long-term impact of WCCs on hydrology and NO3-N loads in two adjac...

The use of organic residues as soil additives is increasing, but, depending on their composition and application methods, these organic amendments can stimulate the emissions of CO(2) and N(2)O. The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of management practices in irrigated sweet corn (Zea mays L.) on CO(2) and N(2)O emissions and to relate emissions to environmental factors. In a ...

Insecticides use in field crops has grown increasingly prophylactic, which poses a potentially unnecessary risk to arthropod decomposers. These decomposers — including millipedes (Diplopoda), soil mites (Acari, mostly Oribatida), and Collembola act as alternative prey for generalist predators, facilitate crop-residue breakdown, can influence nutrient cycling. However, the abundance activity of ...