<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The delivery of fresh food is challenged by various uncertainties present in daily logistics operations. To facilitate successful operations, this work reviews the recent work on model-driven decision support systems to identify research gaps and derive implications. Introduced systems in literature mainly employ simulation or optimization methods and focus on the consideration of industry specifics such as short shelf lives and the importance of efficient temperature control. Therefore, food quality models are often integrated to enable one to monitor quality throughout supply chain operations and adjust planning procedure respectively. To strengthen research, future work focusing on a stronger consideration of customer-related factors and holistic approaches considering various interdependencies present in fresh food logistics operations are required.</abstract>

Model-driven decision support to facilitate efficient fresh food deliveries

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Silages of hybrids of napier grass (CO-3 or CO-4) and sorghum and their combinations (50% napier grass hybrid + 50% of sorghum) were tested under three cutting intervals (4, 6 and 8 weeks). Sorghum silage had a leafy and soft texture with a fruity smell, which proved its desirable character with normal lactic acid fermentation. As such, it was with its comparatively higher dry matter content at the 6 or 8 weeks cutting interval, more suitable for ensiling. The crude protein concentration was not modified by the ensiling process, which was proved by the low ammoniacal nitrogen content. Sorghum silage had lower pH values at all three cutting intervals. On the basis of the NH3-N/TN content (&lt;10%), all silages could be considered as of good quality. Sorghum silage could be considered as the best among tested silages as compared with hybrid napier var. CO-3 or CO-4. The optimum quality of the sorghum silage with the highest soluble carbohydrates concentration and lactic acid >3% could be obtained at the 6-week cutting interval.</abstract>

Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture

Institute of Animal Nutrition and Functional Plant Compounds

Evaluation of silages of hybrids of napier grass and sorghum in the low country wet zone of Sri Lanka

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Loss of biodiversity is one of the major challenges of the anthropocene. Various indices are used to quantify biodiversity. For vertebrates, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) uses the Living Planet Index (LPI). It is calculated globally as well as separately for the species occurring in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine biomes. Action to prevent biodiversity loss can be taken by countries or provinces, so it is important to understand the changes in biodiversity at local scales. We present LPIs for vertebrates in Austria, both unweighted and weighted, according to species richness. Vertebrate populations seem to have declined strongly in Austria, and their abundance was stabilized at about 60% of the initial population size in the base year 1990—the LPI declined from 1 in 1990 to ~0.6 (unweighted) or ~0.7 (weighted) in 2015. This is almost double the global decline for the same period. LPIs were calculated separately for the terrestrial biome (~0.6), the freshwater biome (~0.9), birds (~0.7), and native species (~0.6). These indices give evidence that conservation measure to halt biodiversity loss in Austria is necessary and show where more data are needed. In Austria, more research is needed especially on populations of reptile species.</abstract>

Monitoring vertebrate abundance in Austria: developments over 30 years

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The application of organic residues should ensure a sufficient air capacity (AC) and plant available water capacity (AWC) to improve the soil aeration and water supply for plant roots, whereas the air permeability (ka) primarily depends on the number of functional and, therefore, connected pores. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of digestates derived from maize (<italic>Zea mays</italic> L.), sugar beet (<italic>Beta vulgaris</italic> L.), and wheat (<italic>Triticum aestivum</italic> L.) in ratios of 100%, 80%, and 20%, respectively; compost of shrub debris; and sewage sludge on AC, AWC, and ka values, including the pore continuity indices (c2, c3) of a loamy Ap horizon of a haplic Luvisol. The results indicate that AC values increase from 0.142 of up to 0.191 cm3 cm−3, but pore continuities and AWC values decrease from 0.143 down to 0.111 cm3 cm−3, except for wheat-containing digestate (20w80b), which shows an opposite trend. The application of organic residues can compensate low AC values but not the AWC values. The wheat-containing digestate should be preferred for improving the water-holding capacity and, therefore, the water supply for plant roots.</abstract>

Research Area 1 “Landscape Functioning, Working Group “Hydropedologie”

Institute of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

Effect of organic residues on soil properties of loamy topsoil of haplic Luvisol in Northern Germany

<trans-abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The composition of milk fat is gaining importance in the dairy industry. In addition to classical analytical methods – such as gas chromatography (GC) – more time- and cost-effective rapid methods are now available for determining the milk fat composition. In the present study, the accuracy of fatty acid concentrations determined by mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) was evaluated with the “MilkoScan FT6000 Software Package”. The fatty acid contents determined with the GC were considered as “gold standard”. For this purpose, selected milk samples from individual farms or tank milk samples of farms in Carinthia (dairy “Kärntnermilch”) were used. Three times a year (November 2017, March 2018, June 2018), delivery milk samples were taken from five farms (2 organic and 3 conventional farms) of Kärntnermilch and from three milk collection rounds (tank milk samples from 2 organic and 1 conventional round). All organic farms followed the production guidelines of “Bio-Wiesenmilch”. Based on the GC-dataset and an additional comprehensive MIR data set of farms in Carinthia (January 2019 and June 2019), the effects of the management (organic “Bio-Wiesenmilch” versus conventional “GMO-free”) and period (summer versus winter feeding situation) on the milk fatty acid concentrations were investigated. Since the “Bio-Wiesenmilch” production scheme of the Kärntnermilch aims at grassland and pasture-based feeding systems, the possibilities for checking the ration composition via MIR fatty acid data sets had also been evaluated. The proportions of relevant fatty acid groups in milk were significantly different between the production systems (organic versus conventional) and periods (summer versus winter feeding situation). In the milk samples of the organic farms, the proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) and omega-3-acids (ω-3-FA) were significantly higher than in those of the conventional farms. Regardless of the production system, the CLA, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) concentrations in the summer milk samples were higher than those in the winter milk samples. The seasonal effects were more pronounced in the organic system than in the conventional system. The MIR analysis results were highly correlated (r = 0.95) with the results of the GC analysis for the concentrations of UFA, saturated fatty acids (SFA) and MUFA. However, there were systematic deviations that have to be taken into account when interpreting the results. For the PUFA only a moderate correlation (r = 0.57) was found between the two methods. Additionally, a substantial variance was found, 95 of the MIR results for PUFA differed between −9.5 % and −40.4 % from the GC results. From the results of the study and from the literature it can be derived that MIR fatty acid results alone allow no clear and direct conclusions on the feeding strategy (e. g. dietary proportion of pasture, concentrated feed or maize silage). However, the MIR results could be used as a rough screening tool for farm advisory concepts.</trans-abstract>

andreas.steinwidder@raumberg-gumpenstein.at

Höheren Bundeslehr- und Forschungsanstalt für Landwirtschaft HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU)

Department für nachhaltige Agrarsysteme, Institut für Nutztierwissenschaften

Mid-infrared results on fatty acid pattern of milk from dairy farms

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Die Bodenkultur: Journal of Land Management, Food and Environment

“Die Bodenkultur: Journal of Land Management, Food and Environment” is an interdisciplinary forum dedicated to all aspects of research in the rural area. Our aim is to provide an international outlet for new results in all disciplines of land management, food, environment and related sciences.  The journal publishes in an open access model.  Rejection Rate   10 % (2014)   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.  Copyright Policy  The work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.  Peer Review process  The journal uses a double-blind reviewing process, thus authors remain anonymous to referees and referees remain anonymous to authors. 