Early or Normal Cut Grass Silage for Dairy Cows in Organic Farming

Early cut organic grass silage (roundbales) was compared with silage harvested 17 days (180 daydegrees) later in a continuous production experiment with 32 Norwegian Red dairy cows in early lactation. The experiment was carried out in Bodø, Norway. A half of the cows received a feed ration with 40% concentrates (H), and the other half 10% (L) on an annual energy basis. Feeding early cut silage of an organic ley increased feed intake, milk yield and milk protein concentration compared with normal cut. Left-overs of concentrates were a problem in the experiment and ways to improve the palatability of on farm produced cereals have to be developed. Early cut crop yields were only about half of the crop yield at normal cut. Therefore early cut may only be recommended to farmers in northern Norway when acerage is not a limiting factor

The effect of preservation method of barley, maturity of grass silage, and type of protein supplementation on sensoric milk quality in organic farming

Three continuous production experiments and three short term cross over experiments were carried out in Northern Norway to investigate different feeding strategies for dairy cows in organic farming. This paper focuses on the effects on sensoric milk quality. Half of the 32 Norwegian red dairy cows in the production experiments were fed 40% (HC) concentrates (on energy basis per year) and the other half 10% (LC). Twelve cows (HC) participated in the short term cross over experiments. The experimental factors in the continuous production experiments were barley preservation method (P1), grass silage maturity (P2) and type of protein supplement (P3), and in the short term cross over experiments barley preservation method (C1), type of protein supplement (C2) and time for fishmeal feeding (C3). In all experiments the cows were offered grass silage ad libitum, restricted amounts of cereals and protein feeds, and mineral and vitamin supplements. The sensoric quality of milk was in general high. In the production experiments, milk from cows in HC had slightly higher quality than from cows in LC (significant in P2, p = 0.04). Neither the preservation method of barley (dried or ensiled with molasses), maturity of grass silage or type of protein supplement (fishmeal or peameal) influenced the sensoric milk quality significantly. Also in the cross over experiments no effect of the studied factors was found in milk flavour and odour. Early harvested grass silage gave significantly lower FFA contents than grass silage cut at normal time (P2) and FM gave significantly lower FFA concentrations than peameal (P3). These results indicate that organic farmers with different feeding regimes can produce milk of first class sensoric quality. Also the content of FFA has been low in all experiments (except C1). However, feeding regimes containing low levels of concentrates may reduce milk taste slightly

Effect of barley preservation method on milk production and milk quality in organic farming

The effect of dried vs. ensiled barley (cv. Arve) on feed intake, milk yield and quality in organic production was tested in two experiments in Northern Norway. In the first experiment, two groups were given either 40% or 10% concentrated feed (barley) per cow and year, calculated on energy basis. Grass silage was fed ad. lib. Both drying and ensiling preserved barley properly and resulted in approximately the same feed intake and milk production. Cows in the group with 10% barley had lower milk protein concentration than cows in the group with 40% barley. The palatability of barley was in general low, and several cows refused parts of their allowances throughout the experiment. The second experiment had a cross over design with three treatments. The trial was designed to evaluate the effect of preservation method for barley on sensoric milk quality. The cows were fed well-preserved grass silage ad lib. and supplemented with 5.8 kg DM of either dried barley, barley ensiled with molasses, or barley ensiled with a propionic acid-containing additive. All types of barley were well preserved and no negative effect of ensiled barley was observed

The effect of fishmeal or peameal on milk fatty acid composition in organic farming

Feed fatty acid (FA) composition influences the FA composition of cow milk. In a continuous production experiment with 32 Norwegian red dairy cows fishmeal (FM) was compared to peameal (PM) as protein supplement to home-grown cereals and grass silage in organic farming. The protein supplements were together with cereals formulated to be isonitrogeneous and isoenergetic (NEL) and were compared at high (HC) and low concentrate (LC) level. The concentrate rations did not affect the intake of silage. Fishmeal resulted in significantly higher milk yield (kg) with a lower fat concentration (HC) compared to PM. Lower concentrations of urea and FFA were found in milk produced with FM compared to PM. Milk flavour and odour was equal or better when FM rather than PM was fed. Fishmeal diets increased significantly the proportions of several long-chain FAs: oleic acid (C18:1c9), vaccenic acid (C18:1c11), CLA (C18:2c9,t11, not significant at HC), C20:0, C18:1t10, and DHA (C22:6 n-3) in milk fat compared to PM. DHA, which is found in high concentrations in FM (14 g/100g FAME), had the most significant increase. The proportion of C18:3 n-3 (ALA) was significantly lower when FM was fed compared to PM. The percentage of saturated FA was significantly lower and the percentage of monounsaturated FA was higher when FM rather than PM was fed. For cows on HC the n-6/n-3 ratio was lower in the FM group than in the PM group, and the ratio was lower at LC than at HC (p = 0.006, interaction p = 0.02). Fishmeal diets included higher proportions of oats than PM diets. Oats have high content of oleic acid and may therefore have influenced the composition of FAs in milk fat as well as the protein supplements. Fishmeal increased the proportion of beneficial FAs without reducing the sensoric quality of milk. It remains unclear whether this is an effect of protein source or an effect of the higher oat proportions in FM diets

On the Procrustean analogue of individual differences scaling (INDSCAL)

In this paper, individual differences scaling (INDSCAL) is revisited, considering INDSCAL as being embedded within a hierarchy of individual difference scaling models. We explore the members of this family, distinguishing (i) models, (ii) the role of identification and substantive constraints, (iii) criteria for fitting models and (iv) algorithms to optimise the criteria. Model formulations may be based either on data that are in the form of proximities or on configurational matrices. In its configurational version, individual difference scaling may be formulated as a form of generalized Procrustes analysis. Algorithms are introduced for fitting the new models. An application from sensory evaluation illustrates the performance of the methods and their solutions

A note on quasiconformal maps with Holder-continuous dilatation

Here we give an alternate proof of a sufficient condition due to J. Mateu, J. Orobitg, and J. Verdera for a quasiconformal map of the plane with dilatation supported in a smooth domain to be bi-Lipschitz. We also extend this theorem to cover boundaries with certain types of corners.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

GenomeGraphs: integrated genomic data visualization with R.

BackgroundBiological studies involve a growing number of distinct high-throughput experiments to characterize samples of interest. There is a lack of methods to visualize these different genomic datasets in a versatile manner. In addition, genomic data analysis requires integrated visualization of experimental data along with constantly changing genomic annotation and statistical analyses.ResultsWe developed GenomeGraphs, as an add-on software package for the statistical programming environment R, to facilitate integrated visualization of genomic datasets. GenomeGraphs uses the biomaRt package to perform on-line annotation queries to Ensembl and translates these to gene/transcript structures in viewports of the grid graphics package. This allows genomic annotation to be plotted together with experimental data. GenomeGraphs can also be used to plot custom annotation tracks in combination with different experimental data types together in one plot using the same genomic coordinate system.ConclusionGenomeGraphs is a flexible and extensible software package which can be used to visualize a multitude of genomic datasets within the statistical programming environment R

Analytical determination of participation in superconducting coplanar architectures

Superconducting qubits are sensitive to a variety of loss mechanisms which include dielectric loss from interfaces. The calculation of participation near the key interfaces of planar designs can be accomplished through an analytical description of the electric field density based on conformal mapping. In this way, a two-dimensional approximation to coplanar waveguide and capacitor designs produces values of the participation as a function of depth from the top metallization layer as well as the volume participation within a given thickness from this surface by reducing the problem to a surface integration over the region of interest. These quantities are compared to finite element method numerical solutions, which validate the values at large distances from the coplanar metallization but diverge near the edges of the metallization features due to the singular nature of the electric fields. A simple approximation to the electric field energy at shallow depths (relative to the waveguide width) is also presented that closely replicates the numerical results based on conformal mapping and those reported in prior literature. These techniques are applied to the calculation of surface participation within a transmon qubit design, where the effects due to shunting capacitors can be easily integrated with those associated with metallization comprising the local environment of the qubit junction.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure

Morpho-kinematic analysis of the point-symmetric, bipolar planetary nebulae Hb 5 and K 3-17, a pathway to poly-polarity

The kinematics of the bipolar planetary nebulae Hb~5 and K 3-17 are investigated in detail by means of a comprehensive set of spatially resolved high spectral resolution, long-slit spectra. Both objects share particularly interesting characteristics, such as a complex filamentary, rosette-type nucleus, axial point-symmetry and very fast bipolar outflows. The kinematic information of Hb~5 is combined with {\it HST} imagery to construct a detailed 3D model of the nebula using the code SHAPE. The model shows that the large scale lobes are growing in a non-homologous way. The filamentary loops in the core are proven to actually be secondary lobes emerging from what appears to be a randomly punctured, dense, gaseous core and the material that forms the point symmetric structure flows within the lobes with a distinct kinematic pattern and its interaction with the lobes has had a shaping effect on them. Hb~5 and K~3-17 may represent a class of fast evolving planetary nebulae that will develop poly-polar characteristics once the nebular core evolves and expands.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. To appear in The Astrophysical Journa