Better Farming - October 2016

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Better Farming

October 2016

FAR

AFIELD

University of

Wisconsin-

Madison

hypocalcaemia

prevention

study revealed

in the July issue

Journal of

Endocrinology

that

cows injected daily with serotonin

produced more calcium. Hypocalcae-

mia, a metabolic disorder, decreases

pregnancy rates in dairy cows and

affects calcium levels.

In an email, Laura Hernandez, one

of the study’s authors and assistant

professor of lactation biology,

described serotonin as “critical for

calcium uptake and transport into

the mammary gland,” and for “aiding

in calcium mobilization throughout

the body.” In Holsteins, serotonin

raised blood calcium but in Jerseys

the neurotransmitter generated more

milk calcium. Investigation is needed

to determine why the difference exists

and whether serotonin can prevent

hypocalcaemia in cows, Hernandez

said.

Study discovers happy cows make more calcium

New research out of the

University of

Illinois

may shake up some of your

preconceptions of the age of nitrogen

in your corn and soybean fields.

Praveen Kumar

, a civil and envi-

ronmental engineering professor, and

Dong Kook Woo

, a graduate student,

found the nitrogen in soybean fields

typically had a lower average age than

that in corn fields. This finding is

perhaps counterintuitive, as nitrogen

is typically applied to corn and not

beans. In a university release, Woo

attributed the lower average age of

nitrogen in soybean fields to soybeans

taking up old nitrogen.

Kumar and Woo also expected the

age of the nitrogen would increase as

it travelled lower into the soil. They

observed, however, a “relatively

higher nitrogen age in the upper

layers, compared with the age of the

nitrate that dissolves in water, which

doesn’t have that barrier and can

migrate down through the soil.” The

researchers attributed this finding to

the accumulation of ammonium, one

form of nitrogen, in the topsoil.

“Ammonium has a

positive charge, which

adheres to the soil

particles and prevents it

from leaching to the

deeper layers,”Woo

explained in the release.

Their research was

based on studies of the

corn-corn-soybean rotation Midwest-

ern U.S. farmers typically use.

The paper was published in the

July issue of

Water Resources Re-

search

The age of nitrogen in fields

Australian researchers

have developed a new

variety of wheat to

give the country’s

producers an advan-

tage in the global

markets, according to

SeedWorld

Buyers examine protein content

when purchasing wheat for flour.

Australian farmers, particularly on

sandy soils, apply nitrogen to boost

protein.

Even with this fertilizer applica-

tion, Australian wheat’s protein

content often isn’t high enough to

satisfy its biggest customer, the South

East Asia market.

According to the

Australian

Broadcasting Corporation

, Tungsten,

the new variety researchers at

Mur-

doch University

developed, achieves

14 per cent or more protein using less

nitrogen than older varieties.

Tungsten will be commercially

available in Australia in 2017.

New Aussie wheat variety boasts more protein

Researchers in the Netherlands are

studying new ways to address soil

degradation with the use of healthy

soil microbes.

In some test plots,

Martijn

Brezemer

, a biologist at the Nether-

lands Institute of Ecology, and his

team removed unproductive topsoil.

Next, they applied a centimetre or

two of transplanted soil to the

remaining subsoil.

In other plots the researchers

applied the same small layer of

transplanted topsoil directly on the

unproductive topsoil.

In both sets of plots, the “new”

topsoil came from either grassland or

heathland areas.

The transplanted soil was a catalyst

for transformation which gradually

helped to shift the plots towards the

donor grassland or heathland ecosys-

tems. (The research was conducted

over six years.) Results were most

pronounced when the unproductive

topsoil was removed.

Brezemer’s work contributes to

ongoing attempts to understand soil

microbes.

The study was published in

Nature

Plants

in July.

Topsoil transplant triggers transformation of unproductive soil: study

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