Agriculture

Takikawa, Yoshihiro;Matsuda, Yoshinori;Kakutani, Koji;Sonoda, Takahiro;Toyoda, Hideyoshi

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091435pmid: N/A

The current study aimed to create an electrostatic window screen to keep stable flies and houseflies out of cattle barns. The screen comprised three identical framed metal nets arranged in parallel at specific intervals. The central net was connected to a negative-voltage generator to impart a negative charge, while the other two nets were grounded and placed on either side of the charged net. This configuration generated a corona-discharging electric field between the nets. The electric field produced negative ions and ozone around the negatively charged net, deterring houseflies from entering. Additionally, the screen emitted sparks via arc discharge to repel stable flies that did not exhibit avoidance behavior. The spark irradiation was intense enough to swiftly propel flies backward upon entering the electric field, ultimately leading to their demise. In summary, the device functioned as a corona-discharging screen to repel houseflies and as an arc-discharging screen to eliminate stable flies through spark irradiation. This study provides an experimental foundation for the development of an innovative device to manage undesirable flies in cattle barns.

He, Jianfei;Wang, Zaiman;Gao, Bo;Yu, Dongyang;Ma, Yifan;Zhong, Wenneng;Zeng, Zhihao;Guo, Ziyou;Wang, Jun

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091436pmid: N/A

This study aims to analyze the fatigue life of a PTO (power take-off) gearbox used in a paddy field power chassis. The analysis considers factors such as stress concentration, dimensions, surface quality, and load characteristics affecting fatigue life. A finite element simulation was conducted using the Ansys 2022 software to identify the critical point of the PTO shell. The modified nominal stress fatigue analysis method, incorporating a stress adjustment coefficient, was employed to derive the modified S-N curve. Combined with the measured load data of the PTO bench operation, the load data and the 3D model of the PTO shell were imported into the fatigue analysis software n-code to analyze the fatigue life of the PTO gearbox of a paddy field power chassis and compare it with the prediction results from the traditional stress field strength method. The findings indicate that the optimized stress adjustment coefficient method predicts a fatigue life (31,699 h) closer to the actual operational life (20,000 h) compared to the traditional method (39,151 h). This research contributes to the advancement of the analytical techniques for predicting fatigue life in critical components of agricultural machinery.

Zhang, Lili;Xing, Guofang;Liu, Zhenyu;Zhang, Yanqing;Li, Hongbo;Wang, Yuanmeng;Lu, Jiaxin;An, Nan;Zhao, Zhihong;Wang, Zeyu;Han, Yuanhuai;Cui, Qingliang

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091437pmid: N/A

Mechanized harvesting is a crucial step in the agricultural production of foxtail millet (Setaria italica), as its peduncles are susceptible to bending and breaking during the harvesting process, leading to yield losses and deterioration in grain quality. To evaluate the suitability of foxtail millet for mechanical harvesting, this study comprehensively analyzed the biomechanical properties of the peduncles and related biological morphological characteristics of 116 foxtail millet accessions, establishing a system for indicator screening and comprehensive evaluation. Using partial correlation analysis and R-type cluster analysis, four biomechanical and seven related morphological indices of the peduncle were screened from 22 candidate indicators, with their coefficient of variation ranging from 6% to 80%. The entropy method was used to assign weights to the selected indices, with biomechanical factors contributing 47.4%, peduncle morphology 20.2%, spike morphology 27.6%, and plant height 4.8%. The Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Rank-Sum Ratio (RSR) methods were applied to rank and grade the classification of the 116 foxtail millet varieties into four performance groups: Excellent (8 varieties), Good (50 varieties), Moderate (51 varieties), and Poor (7 varieties). This study provides a scientific basis for the selection and evaluation of foxtail millet varieties.

Domanda, Corrado;Blanco, Ileana;Buccolieri, Riccardo;Rustioni, Laura

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091438pmid: N/A

Anti-hail nets have been employed in viticulture to reduce the damage caused by hailstorms, but whether this strategy may have detrimental effects on grape quality in the Mediterranean region is still unknown. This study was carried out in the Salento region during the 2023 harvest to evaluate the grape microclimate and fruit quality attributes of ‘Fiano’ white grapes grown uncovered or covered with either crystal or black nets. The nets had a small but significant effect on the air temperature (about 0.3 °C and 0.1 °C higher with black and crystal nets, respectively) and relative humidity (about 1% lower with both black and crystal nets) in the grape zone. However, no significant variation was recorded for grape colouration (except for the chromaticity coordinate a*) nor for the main skin photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids), the total polyphenolic content, and the total soluble solids. Our preliminary results suggest that anti-hail nets can be effective to protect the grapevines against hailstorms and other adverse weather conditions, without having negative impacts on the colour development and bioactive compounds of white grapes in the Mediterranean region.

Liao, Liyan;Ge, Liqing;He, Xiahong;Li, Tao;Huang, Bin;Zhao, Hanxi;Li, Chaolian;Han, Qingli

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091439pmid: N/A

A two-year field trial was conducted in order to assess techniques to control ginger blast and explore the effects of fumigants on soil bacterial microorganisms and ginger metabolites. This study examined the effects of dazomet and chloropicrin on the control of ginger blast and their influence on ginger yield in Luoping County, Yunnan Province, China. The results showed that in 2022, the control effectiveness of dazomet and chloropicrin treatments on ginger blast was 84.33% and 94.67%, respectively. The corresponding yields were 50,154.40 kg/hm2 and 50,296.90 kg/hm2. In 2023, the control effectiveness of dazomet and chloropicrin treatments on ginger blast were 86.33% and 93.67%, respectively, and the yields were 65,115.83 kg/hm2 and 65,337.93 kg/hm2. In both years, the incidence of ginger blast in the control group reached nearly 100%, leading to the near extinction of the crop. Additionally, in 2023, 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing and non-targeted metabolomics techniques were used to analyze the effects of the fumigants on soil bacterial microorganisms and the metabolites in ginger. The results showed that the diversity and richness of soil bacterial communities were lower than those in the control group at 0 and 120 days after treatment with two fumigants, but the relative abundances of beneficial bacteria such as Pseudomonas increased at 60 days, and the relative abundances of Actinobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, and Bacillus increased at 120 days. The abundance of Firmicutes also increased after 120 days of chloropicrin treatment. The non-targeted metabolic LC–MS results showed that the production of phenols and terpenoids was upregulated after dazomet and chloropicrin treatments. The contents of amino acids and their derivatives were also upregulated. This upregulation of metabolites was beneficial to the flavor quality of ginger and enhanced its anti-inflammatory, anti-tumoral, and antioxidant effects.

Lantos, Csaba;Markó, Ferenc;Mihály, Róbert;Pauk, János

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091440pmid: N/A

The efficient doubled haploid (DH) plant production methods play a key role in accelerating the breeding of new varieties and hybrids in cultivated plants. Consequently, DH plant production methods are continuously improving for barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) breeding and research programs. Two plant regeneration (FHGR and K4NB) and three rooting media (MSr, N6I and ½N6I + Ca) were compared with four F1 barley cross-combinations to clarify the effect of medium on the regeneration of green and albino plantlets and acclimatization. The plant regeneration efficiency was higher using K4NB medium (74.53 green plantlets/100 anthers and 30.85 albino/100 anthers) compared to FHGR (55.77 green plantlets/100anthers and 21.32 albino/100 anthers). The percentage of acclimatization was highest when the K4NB regeneration medium was combined with the MSr rooting medium. Altogether, 61.83% of the anther culture-derived plantlets of 8 cross-combinations acclimatized to the greenhouse conditions, and 1403 acclimatized plantlets were produced from the F1 cross-combinations. Haploid (22.52%), diploid (69.37%) and tetraploid (8.11%) plantlets were identified among the 111 tested green plantlets by flow cytometric analyses. The tetraploid lines can be explored to offer new scopes for future barley research and breeding directions. Nearly one thousand DH plants have been integrated into our barley breeding program.

Yang, Chenggui;Cai, Zhengda;Wu, Mingjie;Yun, Lijun;Chen, Zaiqing;Xia, Yuelong

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091441pmid: N/A

The growth environment of green walnuts is complex. In the actual picking and identification process, interference from near-background colors, occlusion by branches and leaves, and excessive model complexity pose higher demands on the performance of walnut detection algorithms. Therefore, a lightweight walnut detection algorithm suitable for complex environments is proposed based on YOLOv5s. First, the backbone network is reconstructed using the lightweight GhostNet network, laying the foundation for a lightweight model architecture. Next, the C3 structure in the feature fusion layer is optimized by proposing a lightweight C3 structure to enhance the model’s focus on important walnut features. Finally, the loss function is improved to address the problems of target loss and gradient adaptability during training. To further reduce model complexity, the improved algorithm undergoes pruning and knowledge distillation operations, and is then deployed and tested on small edge devices. Experimental results show that compared to the original YOLOv5s model, the improved algorithm reduces the number of parameters by 72.9% and the amount of computation by 84.1%. The mAP0.5 increased by 1.1%, the precision increased by 0.7%, the recall increased by 0.3%, and the FPS is 179.6% of the original model, meeting the real-time detection needs for walnut recognition and providing a reference for walnut harvesting identification.

Zhang, Qian;Hu, Caiqi;Li, Rui

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091442pmid: N/A

In order to solve the problem that, when the vehicle speed of an agricultural distributed dual-wheel electric-drive tractor changes or the system is disturbed by off-load, the traditional PI control cannot be adjusted in time, resulting in the overshoot of steering control or control delay, meaning it then cannot travel along the target trajectory quickly and accurately, a parameter-adaptive dual-dimensional fuzzy PI speed and steering adjustment controller was proposed, which can adjust the PI parameters in real time based on the deviation between vehicle speed, steering, and reference value, as well as the rate of deviation change. Firstly, based on the operational characteristics of agricultural tractors, a dynamic model of a distributed dual-wheel tractor was established, and a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test bench was set up. Fuzzy PI controller algorithms for vehicle speed and steering were designed and developed. In addition, simulations and tests were carried out under no-load and off-load tractor operating conditions with MATLAB/Simulink, respectively. The results indicate that, compared with a traditional PI controller, the fuzzy PI controller exhibits a faster control response and better robustness, reducing overshoot by approximately 60% and the steady-state response time by approximately 25%. When subjected to off-load disturbances, the maximum trajectory offset is controlled within 0.08 m, and the maximum trajectory offset is reduced by 45% compared with a traditional PI controller; therefore, the fuzzy PI control algorithm proposed in this paper makes the tractor’s running trajectory more stable and has stronger anti-interference ability towards off-load disturbances.

Du, Guoming;Han, Le;Yao, Longcheng;Faye, Bonoua

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091443pmid: N/A

Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns and driving mechanisms of cropping patterns’ evolution tailored to local conditions is crucial for the effective allocation of black soil in northeast China and the advancement of agricultural development. This study utilized the Google Earth Engine platform to extract the spatial distribution data of major grain crops in northeast China for the year 2022. Using crop classification data from 2000 to 2022, the spatial overlay analysis method identified cropping pattern types based on spatial and temporal changes. The primary cropping patterns identified were continuous maize cropping, maize–soybean rotation, mixed cropping, and continuous soybean cropping. Simultaneously, this research constructed three distinct crop periods: Period I (2000–2002), Period II (2010–2012), and Period III (2020–2022). Over three periods, these patterns covered 94.73%, 88.76%, and 86.39% of the area, respectively. The evolution of the dominant cropping pattern from Period I to Period II involved the transition from continuous soybean cropping to continuous maize cropping, while from Period II to Period III, the main shift was from continuous maize cropping to maize–soybean mixed cropping. From a spatial perspective, since Period I, maize has increasingly replaced soybean as the dominant crop, with continuous maize cropping expanding northward and continuous soybean cropping contracting. The maize–soybean rotation area also migrated northward, particularly in the core area of the Songnen Plain, evolving mostly into continuous maize cropping. Maize cropping areas exhibited significant regional characteristics, being densely distributed in the Sanjiang Plain and Liaohe Plain, and along major tributaries in northeast China. Consequently, the interplay of the natural environment, economic policies, and agricultural technologies drove these changes. The findings offer valuable insights for optimizing cropping patterns and developing rotation systems in northeast China.

Sriti, Nurjahan;Williamson, Jeffrey;Sargent, Steven;Deng, Zhanao;Liu, Guodong

doi: 10.3390/agriculture14091444pmid: N/A

Blackberry cultivation presents significant opportunities for fruit growers in subtropical regions, where nitrogen (N) is identified as a crucial macronutrient for optimal production. Given the variability in climate and soil conditions, determining the ideal N fertilizer amount can be complex. Effective blackberry cultivation requires careful attention to the principles of nutrient stewardship, including the selection of appropriate N sources, application rates, timing, and placement. Recommended N rates generally range from 25–45 kg/ha in the first year and 45–70 kg/ha in subsequent years, with adjustments based on plant type and regional conditions. The choice of fertilizer, particularly NH4+, is beneficial for blackberry plants, which thrive in acidic soils and show improved biomass and chlorophyll levels with this form of N. Research on N-cycling reveals its importance in supporting new plant growth, such as primocane development. However, improper N management, either excessive or insufficient, can negatively impact flower bud production and, consequently, fruit setting and yield. By using databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science, this review synthesizes existing research on the role of N in blackberry cultivation, emphasizing the importance of precise fertilization practices tailored to regional climate and soil conditions. By highlighting variations in recommended N amounts and underscoring the principles of nutrient stewardship, this review aims to guide growers in achieving sustainable and high-quality blackberry production.