Yield of white clover and orchard grass cultivated in mining passives adding black earth and compost as a substrate.

Mining environmental liabilities generate environmental pollution. The objective of the present study was to determine the yield of white clover (Trifolium repens) and orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata) cultivated in mining environmental passives adding black earth and compost as a substrate in the Buenaventura Julcani Huancavelica Company. The treatments were the combinations: 4: 3.1: 3.1: 3:1.1 kg of RP: RP, TN: RP, C: RP, TN, C respectively. They were distributed in four treatments with twelve experimental units for each species of leguminous and gramineous grass, we worked according to the completely randomized design (DCA) with a 2 x 4 factorial arrangement, the experimental unit being a treatment with twelve repetitions. The variables evaluated were: germination percentage (TG) and stem survival percentage (TST). For the statistical analysis, the SPSS software was used.

Water productivity and growth parameters of Fawn-tall fescue and Tekapo-orchard grass under deficit irrigation in arid zones.

This study aimed to determine the drought stress response of Fawn-tall fescue and Tekapo-orchard grass and investigate a drought stress resistance marker. Grass genotypes were grown under four Irrigation treatments I1 equivalent to 0.3 standard crop evapotranspiration (ETc), I2 equivalent to 0.65 ETc, I3 equivalent to 0.75 ETc, and I4 equivalent to 1.2 ETc. Plant height, fresh weight, dry weight were measured and the Water productivity (WP) were calculated. The results showed a reduction in the growth of both grass genotypes as the drought stress increased as indicated by the shorter plants and reduction in fresh and dry weight. However, the WP results showed that the Fawn-tall fescue endured the drought stress better than the Tekapo-orchard grass as indicated by the constant values of the plant WP across the tested irrigation treatments. The results was confirmed by the amplification of dehydrin genes where Fawn-tall fescue was found to be homozygous for dehydrin genes.

Root mass vertical distribution of perennial cool-season grasses grown in pure or mixed swards / Distribuição vertical da massa de raízes de gramíneas perenes de inverno cultivadas puras e em mistura

In this study we tested whether the root biomass of mixtures composed by grass species is greater than their respective monocultures. The treatments were monocultures of Arrhenatherum elatius, Festuca arundinacea, Dactylis glomerata, and a mixture of them, cultivated in a rich-soil environment. Root biomass was evaluated on a single evaluation per season at three soil depths (0-5, 5-10, and 10-20 cm). Mixed swards presented the greatest root biomass, and this was explained by a greater concentration in the topsoil layer (0-5 cm). These findings reinforce the need for permanent soil conservation practices to not jeopardize the benefits of the more abundant root biomass reported in the mixed swards.

O presente estudo testou se a biomassa radicular de misturas compostas por gramíneas é maior do que os seus respectivos monocultivos. Os tratamentos foram monocultivos de Arrhenatherum elatius, Festuca arundinacea, Dactylis glomerata e uma mistura delas, cultivadas em um solo rico em nutrientes. A biomassa da raiz foi avaliada uma vez por estação em três profundidades de solo (0-5, 5-10 e 10-20 cm). Os pastos mistos apresentaram a maior biomassa radicular e isso pode ser explicado pela maior concentração de raízes na camada superficial do solo (0-5 cm). Esses achados reforçam a necessidade de práticas permanentes de conservação do solo para não prejudicar os benefícios da biomassa radicular mais abundante encontrada nos pastos mistos.

Enteric methane production and ruminal fermentation of forage brassica diets fed in continuous culture.

The aim of the current study was to determine nutrient digestibility, VFA production, N metabolism, and CH4 production of canola (Brassica napus L.), rapeseed (B. napus L.), turnip (Brassica rapa L.), and annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) fed with orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) in continuous culture. Diets were randomly assigned to fermentors in a 4 × 4 Latin square design using 7 d for adaptation and 3 d for collection. Diets were: 1) 50% orchardgrass + 50% annual ryegrass (ARG); 2) 50% orchardgrass + 50% canola (CAN); 3) 50% orchardgrass + 50% rapeseed (RAP); and 4) 50% orchardgrass + 50% turnip (TUR). Feedings (82 g DM/d) occurred four times daily throughout 4, 10-d periods at 730, 1030, 1400, and 1900 h. Methane samples were collected every 10 min using a photoacoustic gas analyzer (LumaSense Technologies, Inc.; Santa Clara, CA) during the last 3 d of the experiment. Effluent samples were collected on d 8, 9, and 10, composited by fermentor, and analyzed for VFA and pH as well as DM, OM, CP, and fiber fractions for determination of nutrient digestibility. Forage samples were analyzed for CP, NDF, ADF, minerals, and glucosinolate (GLS) concentrations. Data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS. Apparent DM, OM, and NDF digestibilities and true DM and OM digestibilities were similar (P > 0.28) among diets (45.1, 63.2, 44.1, 67.1, and 87.2%, respectively). Total VFA (87.2 mol/100 mol), pH (6.47), and acetate (A: 44.6 mol/100 mol) were also not different (P > 0.20) among diets. The A:P (P = propionate) ratio was greater (P < 0.01) in ARG and CAN than RAP and TUR. Daily CH4 production was greater (P < 0.01) in ARG than all other diets (68.9 vs. 11.2 mg/d). Methane, whether expressed as g per g of OM, NDF, digestible OM, or digestible NDF fed was greatest (P < 0.01) in ARG but similar (P > 0.18) among brassica diets. A significant negative correlation was observed between total GLS and CH4 production. However, when multiple regression analysis on CH4 production was completed, neither total GLS nor individual GLS were a significant component of the model. Addition of brassicas provided similar nutrient digestibility to ARG while reducing daily CH4 production, potentially making brassicas an alternative for ARG in pasture-based ruminant diets.

Agricultural parameters of perennial winter grasses / Parâmetros agronômicos de gramíneas perenes de clima temperado

Introduction of forage cultivars of different countries can be an option for technology short-term transfer for access to vegetative materials for better production potential. The objective of this study was to evaluate cultivars of temperate climate perennial grasses from Uruguay and New Zealand in soil and climatic conditions in Santa Catarina State, during the years 2010 to 2012. Two simultaneous experiments were conducted, in four physiographic regions of the State: West, Midwest, South Plateau and North Plateau. In trial 1 cultivars of Lolium perenne, festulolium and oats perennial and in trial 2 cultivars of Festuca arundinaceae and dactylis were evaluated. There was interaction between cultivars and localization in both trials, during the two years of evaluation. Perennial ryegrass and festulolium significantly reduced dry matter production (DMP) over the period in the West, Midwest and Northern Plateau and it is recommended only for South Plateau region. Perennial oats may be indicated for the two regions Plateau. In trial 2, the fescue cv. Epagri 312 (control) and cv. Aurora stood out in four locations, with average values of 9 and 7 t ha-1 of dry matter, respectively for the first and second periods of evaluation.(AU)

A introdução de cultivares de forrageiras oriundas de diferentes países pode ser uma opção de transferência de tecnologia a curto prazo para acesso a materiais vegetativos de melhor potencial produtivo. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar cultivares de gramíneas perenes de clima temperado provenientes do Uruguai e Nova Zelândia às condições edafoclimáticas do estado de Santa Catarina, durante os anos de 2010 a 2012. Foram conduzidos, simultaneamente, dois ensaios, em quatro regiões fisiográficas do Estado: Oeste, Meio Oeste, Planalto Sul e Planalto Norte. No ensaio 1 foram avaliados cultivares de Lolium perenne, festulolium e aveia-perene e no ensaio 2 cultivares de Festuca arundinaceae e dáctilo. Houve interação entre cultivares e locais, nos dois ensaios, nos dois anos de avaliação. Azevém-perene e festulolium reduziram significativamente a produção de massa seca (MS) ao longo do período nas regiões Oeste, Meio Oeste e Planalto Norte, sendo recomendado apenas para a região do Planalto Sul. A aveia-perene pode ser indicada para as duas regiões de Planalto, onde perenizou. No ensaio 2, as festucas cv. Epagri 312 (testemunha) e cv. Aurora destacaram-se nos quatro locais, com valores médios de 9 e 7 t ha-1 de MS, respectivamente, para o primeiro e segundo períodos de avaliação.(AU)

Agricultural parameters of perennial winter grasses / Parâmetros agronômicos de gramíneas perenes de clima temperado

Introduction of forage cultivars of different countries can be an option for technology short-term transfer for access to vegetative materials for better production potential. The objective of this study was to evaluate cultivars of temperate climate perennial grasses from Uruguay and New Zealand in soil and climatic conditions in Santa Catarina State, during the years 2010 to 2012. Two simultaneous experiments were conducted, in four physiographic regions of the State: West, Midwest, South Plateau and North Plateau. In trial 1 cultivars of Lolium perenne, festulolium and oats perennial and in trial 2 cultivars of Festuca arundinaceae and dactylis were evaluated. There was interaction between cultivars and localization in both trials, during the two years of evaluation. Perennial ryegrass and festulolium significantly reduced dry matter production (DMP) over the period in the West, Midwest and Northern Plateau and it is recommended only for South Plateau region. Perennial oats may be indicated for the two regions Plateau. In trial 2, the fescue cv. Epagri 312 (control) and cv. Aurora stood out in four locations, with average values of 9 and 7 t ha-1 of dry matter, respectively for the first and second periods of evaluation.

A introdução de cultivares de forrageiras oriundas de diferentes países pode ser uma opção de transferência de tecnologia a curto prazo para acesso a materiais vegetativos de melhor potencial produtivo. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar cultivares de gramíneas perenes de clima temperado provenientes do Uruguai e Nova Zelândia às condições edafoclimáticas do estado de Santa Catarina, durante os anos de 2010 a 2012. Foram conduzidos, simultaneamente, dois ensaios, em quatro regiões fisiográficas do Estado: Oeste, Meio Oeste, Planalto Sul e Planalto Norte. No ensaio 1 foram avaliados cultivares de Lolium perenne, festulolium e aveia-perene e no ensaio 2 cultivares de Festuca arundinaceae e dáctilo. Houve interação entre cultivares e locais, nos dois ensaios, nos dois anos de avaliação. Azevém-perene e festulolium reduziram significativamente a produção de massa seca (MS) ao longo do período nas regiões Oeste, Meio Oeste e Planalto Norte, sendo recomendado apenas para a região do Planalto Sul. A aveia-perene pode ser indicada para as duas regiões de Planalto, onde perenizou. No ensaio 2, as festucas cv. Epagri 312 (testemunha) e cv. Aurora destacaram-se nos quatro locais, com valores médios de 9 e 7 t ha-1 de MS, respectivamente, para o primeiro e segundo períodos de avaliação.

Optimization of SCoT-PCR reaction system in Dactylis glomerata by orthogonal design.

The effects of 5 factors (template DNA, Mg(2+), dNTPs, Taq DNA polymerase, and primer) on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were investigated to optimize the start codon targeted polymor-phism (SCoT)-PCR system of Dactylis glomerata L., using an orthogo-nal design L16 (4(5)). A suitable SCoT-PCR system for D. glomerata was established; the 20 µL reaction volume contained 3.0 mM Mg(2+), 0.2 mM dNTPs, 1.0 U Taq DNA polymerase, 0.2 µM primer, 20 ng tem-plate DNA, and 2 µL 10X buffer. Each factor had a different effect on the amplification reaction, and the concentration of dNTPs had the larg-est effect on the SCoT-PCR system. We tested 10 orchardgrass samples to determine and verify the stability of the reaction system. The results showed that amplified bands from diverse materials were clear, stable, and rich in polymorphisms, indicating that the optimized system was very stable.

Influence of fresh alfalfa supplementation on fat skatole and indole concentration and chop odour and flavour in lambs grazing a cocksfoot pasture.

We investigated the influence of the level of fresh alfalfa supplementation on fat skatole and indole concentration and chop sensory attributes in grazing lambs. Four groups of nine male Romane lambs grazing a cocksfoot pasture were supplemented with various levels of alfalfa for at least 60days before slaughter. Perirenal fat skatole concentration was higher for lambs that consumed alfalfa than for those that consumed only cocksfoot. The intensity of 'animal' odour in the lean part of the chop and of 'animal' flavour in both the lean and fat parts of the chop, evaluated by a trained sensory panel, increased from the lowest level of alfalfa supplementation onwards and did not increase further with increasing levels of alfalfa supplementation. The outcome of this study therefore suggests that these sensory attributes may reach a plateau when perirenal fat skatole concentration is in the range 0.16-0.24µg/g of liquid fat.

Genetic diversity and structure of natural Dactylis glomerata L. populations revealed by morphological and microsatellite-based (SSR/ISSR) markers.

Dactylis glomerata L. is an important forage species in the Mediterranean region, and in other regions with a similar climate. Genetic material from 3 locations in north, central, and south Greece was studied, using morphological traits, SSR, and ISSR molecular markers. Morphological analysis revealed differences among the geographic locations studied for all morphological traits, except the number of reproductive tillers. Moreover, the highest phenotypic variation was observed on the accessions from south, while the lowest was observed on the accessions from the north. Although the results of the molecular marker analysis are indicative, a high level of genetic diversity at the species level was revealed by ISSRs (GST=0.291) and SSRs (FST=0.186). Analysis of molecular variance showed that a high level of genetic diversity existed for ISSRs and SSRs within populations (62 and 83%, respectively), rather than among populations (38 and 17%, respectively). Cluster analysis divided the 3 populations in 2 groups, with the population originating from the island of Crete forming 1 group, while the populations from north Greece (Taxiarchis) and central Greece (Pertouli) were clustered in a 2nd group. In general, the results indicate that SSRs are more informative compared to ISSRs about the genetic variation within a population, whereas the ISSRs were more informative about the genetic diversity among populations However, a similar trend in diversity (genotypic and phenotypic) was observed in the morphological traits and microsatellite-based (SSR/ISSR) markers at the locations studied.

Analysis of diversity and relationships among orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) accessions using start codon-targeted markers.

Orchardgrass, or cocksfoot, is an important perennial forage grass worldwide. The comprehensive understanding of orchardgrass accessions will benefit germplasm collection and breeding progress, and it will enhance efforts to improve forage yield and quality. Therefore, 24 novel, simple, polymorphic, and reliable start codon-targeted (SCoT) markers were used to analyze the diversity and genetic relationships among 95 orchardgrass accessions. In total, 273 polymorphic bands were detected with an average of 11.4 bands per primer. The average polymorphic rate for the species was 83.4%, suggesting a high discriminating ability of the SCoT technique for orchardgrass. The molecular variance analysis revealed that 69.13 and 30.87% of variation resided within and among groups, respectively, demonstrating that the orchardgrass germplasms had a higher level of genetic diversity within groups than among geographical regions and distributions. The distinct geographical divergence of orchardgrass was revealed between North America and Oceania. The unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram revealed a separation of 7 main clusters between 95 accessions according to the geographical origin. Furthermore, each cluster was divided into subgroups mainly according to the origin of its state. The genetic divergence of orchardgrass might be influenced by the ecogeographical conditions, climatic types, breeding systems and gene flow with variations in cultures, bird migration, and breeder selection. These results could facilitate orchardgrass germplasm collection, management, and breeding worldwide.

Morphological and genetic characteristics of hybrid combinations of Dactylis glomerata.

Six F1 populations derived from crosses among 4 orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) cultivars were studied by morphological and simple sequence repeat molecular markers to test for hybrid vigor and a correlation between genetic distance and heterosis. Heterosis was observed for days to length of culm, leaf traits, tiller numbers, etc. Significant differences between obverse and inverse crosses were found for eleven traits. A cytoplasmic effect existed for the agronomic traits considered in this study. The correlations between genetic distance and heterosis were investigated by analyzing the performance of 3 crosses. The results showed that genetic distance was significantly correlated with tiller number (r = 0.834) and negatively correlated with length of culm (r = -0.889). However, there was no significant correlation with heterosis for the other traits, including yield; the correlation coefficient were too small to allow prediction of orchardgrass heterosis from the parental genetics.

Identification of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) cultivars by using simple sequence repeat markers.

The accurate identification of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) cultivars is necessary to ensure purity for consumers, the effective utilization of cultivars, and to protect the intellectual property for breeders. Therefore, this study aimed to use SSR to construct DNA fingerprinting of orchardgrass cultivars. The genetic diversity of 32 orchardgrass cultivars originated from 21 countries, but grown in China, was assessed using a set of 29 SSR markers distributed across 9 linkage groups of the orchardgrass genome. A total of 229 bands were detected, with an average of 7.9 bands per marker. The average polymorphic rate for the species was 92.1%. The polymorphism information content ranged from 0.771 to 0.893. The genetic similarity ranged from 0.55 to 0.84, which confirmed a high level of genetic diversity among orchardgrass cultivars. The unweighted pair-group method, in combination with the arithmetic mean algorithm (UPGMA) dendrogram and principal coordinate analysis, showed a separation of 6 major clusters among 32 cultivars. The number of distinguishable cultivars ranged from 3 to 23, with an average of 12.1 per primer. Moreover, 11 bands that showed stable and repeatable SSR patterns were amplified by A01E14, A01K14, and D02K13. These bands were used to develop the DNA fingerprints for 32 orchardgrass cultivars. In the DNA fingerprints constructed, each cultivar had a unique fingerprinting pattern that was easily distinguished from the others. These results indicate that the SSR marker was polymorphic, and reliable for use in potential large-scale DNA fingerprinting of orchardgrass cultivars.

Genetic variation and comparison of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) cultivars and wild accessions as revealed by SSR markers.

Orchardgrass is a highly variable, perennial forage grass that is cultivated throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world. Despite its economic importance, the genetic relationship and distance among and within cultivars are largely unknown but would be of great interest for breeding programs. We investigated the molecular variation and structure of cultivar populations, compared the level of genetic diversity among cultivars (Baoxing, Anba, Bote, and Kaimo), subspecies (Dactylis glomerata ssp Woronowii) and advanced breeding line (YA02-116) to determine whether there is still sufficient genetic diversity within presently used cultivars for future breeding progress in China. Twenty individuals were analyzed from each of six accessions using SSR markers; 114 easily scored bands were generated from 15 SSR primer pairs, with an average of 7.6 alleles per locus. The polymorphic rate was 100% among the 120 individuals, reflecting a high degree of genetic diversity. Among the six accessions, the highest genetic diversity was observed in Kaimo (H = 0.2518; I = 0.3916; P = 87.3%) and 02-116 had a lower level of genetic diversity (H = 0.1806; I = 0.2788; P = 58.73%) compared with other cultivars tested. An of molecular variance revealed a much larger genetic variation within accessions (65%) than between them (35%). This observation suggests that these cultivars have potential for providing rich genetic resource for further breeding program. Furthermore, the study also indicated that Chinese orchardgrass breeding has involved strong selection for adaptation to forage production, which may result in restricted genetic base of orchardgrass cultivar.