33 articles in this issue
Jorge Ruiz,María Bielza,Alberto Garrido,Ana Iglesias
Hydrological drought is expected to have an increasing impact on both crop and fruit yields in arid and semi-arid regions. Some existing crop insurance schemes provide coverage against water deficits in rain-fed agriculture. The Prevented Planting Program... see more
Alfredo J. Grau,Araceli Reig
In a setting of economic and financial crisis, most companies experienced a reduction in their profitability. Thus, our study allows us to identify vertical integration strategies developed by companies to overcome the crisis. This paper is aimed at unvei... see more
Anastasio J. Villanueva,José A. Gómez-Limón,Manuel Arriaza,Macario Rodríguez-Entrena
Agri-environmental schemes (AES) in irrigated olive groves (IOG) in southern Spain were assessed based on farmers’ preferences toward these schemes. A choice experiment was used in this ex-ante assessment, with the inclusion of some innovative elements, s... see more
Laura Martínez-Carrasco,Margarita Brugarolas,Africa Martínez-Poveda,Juan J. Ruiz-Martínez
Choosing a valid procedure to measure willingness to pay (WTP) is crucial for designating optimum price policies or for evaluating the demand for new products. This study compares two methods for obtaining WTP in a food context: a random nth price auction... see more
Etiénne Groot,Luis M. Albisu
Peaches are consumed in Mediterranean countries since ancient times. Nowadays there are few areas in Europe that produce peaches with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), and the Calanda area is one of them. The aim of this work is to describe consumers... see more
Kun Zhou,Allan L. Jensen,Dionysis D. Bochtis,Claus G. Sørensen
Statistics on the machinery performance are essential for farm managers to make better decisions. In this paper, the performance of all machineries in five sequential operations, namely bed forming, stone separation, planting, spraying and harvesting in t... see more
Zhong Tang,Yaoming Li,Zhan Zhao,Tao Sun
Rice panicles which have reached a mature state must be harvested, requiring differently specialized threshing devices and operating parameters to achieve favorable threshing and separating results. The primary objective of this study is to design a trans... see more
Carlos Jerez-Valle,Pedro A. García-López,Mercedes Campos,Felipe Pascual
The cultivation of the olive tree (Olea europaea L.) has great importance in the entire Mediterranean basin, so that the implementation of organic practices in their management directly affects the sustainability of the agricultural system. Bioindication ... see more
José Pereira,João Coutinho,David Fangueiro,Henrique Trindade
The application of organic and mineral fertilisers to soil can result in increased gaseous emissions to the atmosphere such as nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) gases. The aim of this study was to evaluate under laboratory conditions the effects o... see more
Hamed Mansouri,Yaghoub Raei,Abdolreza Nokhbe Zaeim
Climate change and technology development can affect crop productivity in future conditions. Precise estimation of crops yield change as affected by climate and technology in the future is an effective approach for management strategies. The aim of this s... see more
Feliu López-i-Gelats,Marta G. Rivera-Ferre,Cristina Madruga-Andreu,Jordi Bartolomé-Filella
Land abandonment is pervasive in mountainous Europe. In the present situation of price-cost squeeze on pastoral households and general shift in the role of farming, the development of farming abandonment risk regions is generally associated with adoption ... see more
Lourdes Gallego-Calvo,M. Carolina Gatica,Julian Santiago-Moreno,José L. Guzmán,Luis Zarazaga
Interest in the preservation of endangered breeds such as the Blanca Andaluza goat, has increased and some steps should be therefore taken to ensure it. The study was designed to determine the seasonal reproductive pattern of Blanca Andaluza bucks, and wh... see more
Eliana Henriquez-Rodriguez,Marc Tor,Ramona N. Pena,Joan Estany
Data on 74 dry-cured hams from Duroc × Iberian pigs were used to examine whether the tag polymorphism AY487830:g.2228T>C in the promoter region of the stearoyl-CoA desaturase [SCD] gene affect fat desaturation and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) as p... see more
Francisco Crespo,Jaime Gosálvez,Stephen D. Johnston,Joaquina de la Torre
This study investigated the possible additive benefit of ejaculate fractionation and colloidal centrifugation on stallion sperm quality. Using an open-end artificial vagina, the sperm-rich fraction (FRAC-1) was separated from the rest of the ejaculate (FR... see more
Angel Castro,Jose M. Pereira,Carlos Amiama,Javier Bueno
Over the last few years, the adoption of automatic milking systems (AMS) has experienced significant increase. However, hardly any studies have been conducted to investigate the distribution of mastitis pathogens in dairy herds with AMS. Because quick mas... see more
Mónica Barrio,Marcos Vigo,Luis A. Quintela,Juan J. Becerra,Pedro J. García-Herradón,Daniel Martínez-Bello,Francisco I. Fernandez-Sanchez,Alberto Prieto,Juan Cainzos,Ana I. Peña
The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of subclinical endometritis (SE) on the reproductive performance of dairy cows. Ninety-four dairy cows of parity 1 to 8, distributed in 25 herds, were examined once between 30 and 45 days in milk using t... see more
Farokh Kafilzadeh,Vahid Piri,Hamed Karami-Shabankareh
The aim of this study was to evaluate the glucogenic property of glycerol supplementation in the dairy cow’s diet. Sixty primiparous cows (control, n=30, and glycerol supplemented, n=30) were used to measure milk yield and components, blood hormone and me... see more
Sergio P. Iraira,Ana Madruga,María Pérez-Juan,José L. Ruíz-de-la-Torre,María Rodríguez-Prado,Sergio Calsamiglia,Xavier Manteca,Alfred Ferret
Eighteen Simmental heifers were fed concentrate and barley straw offered as a total mixed ration (TMR) or separately as a free choice (FCH) to compare performance, behaviour, and meat quality. The heifers were assigned to treatments in a randomized comple... see more
Rui Charneca,Maria J. Vila-Viçosa,Paulo Infante,José Nunes,Jean Le Dividich
Colostrum production and composition of 45 Alentejano (AL) and 45 crossed (Large–White × Landrace, LL) sows together with consumption and passive immunization of piglets, were evaluated. Piglets were weighed at birth, 24h, and 21 and 28 days of age. Colos... see more
Aser Garcia-Rodriguez,Josune Arranz,Nerea Mandaluniz,Ina Beltrán-de-Heredia,Roberto Ruiz,Idoia Goiri
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of chitosan (CHI) supplementation on production performance and blood parameters in dairy ewes. Twenty-four multiparous Latxa dairy ewes at d 16 of lactation were divided into two groups of 12 ewes e... see more
José Pereira,Henrique Trindade
The aim of this study was evaluate the relationship between the intensity of milk production for a wide range of Portuguese commercial cattle farms and NH3 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from manure management and enteric fermentation. A survey was ca... see more
Joan Lordan,Miquel Pascual,Josep M. Villar,Francisco Fonseca,Josep Papió,Victor Montilla,Josep Rufat
Mulching techniques have emerged in recent years to overcome soil constraints and improve fruit tree productivity. The object of this study was to evaluate the effects of a low-cost organic mulch application in a newly planted peach orchard under a ridge ... see more
Maite Martinez-Eixarch,M. del Mar Català,Núria Tomàs,Eva Pla,Defeng Zhu
Rice tillering is a crucial stage for yield formation. Deep understanding of the relationship between tillering dynamics and yield formation in a particular agrosystem is crucial to boost rice productivity. Research on rice tillering is mainly focused on ... see more
Natalia Georgieva,Ivelina Nikolova,Grozi Delchev
The possibilities for increasing the productivity and control of the pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum L.) in field pea (Pisum sativum L.) organic cultivation by the use of following bioproducts NeemAzal T/S and Pyrethrum FS-EC (insecticides), applied individua... see more
Emiliano Trigo-Córdoba,Yolanda Bouzas-Cid,Ignacio Orriols-Fernández,Emilia Díaz-Losada,Jose M. Mirás-Avalos
Vineyards are usually managed by tilling the inter-rows to avoid competition from other plants for soil water and nutrients. However, in humid and sub-humid climates, such as that of NW Spain, cover crops may be an advantage for controlling vine vegetativ... see more
Ana I. Borrego-Benjumea,José M. Melero-Vara,María J. Basallote-Ureba
Fusarium oxysporum (Fo), F. proliferatum (Fp) and F. solani (Fs) are causal agents associated with roots of asparagus affected by crown and root rot, a disease inflicting serious losses worldwide. The propagule viability of Fusarium spp. was determined on... see more
Leire Molinero-Ruiz,Philippe Delavault,Begoña Pérez-Vich,Maria Pacureanu-Joita,Mariano Bulos,Emiliano Altieri,Juan Domínguez
Broomrape, caused by Orobanche cumana, has affected sunflowers since the early 20th century in Eastern Europe. Currently, it limits sunflower oil production in Southern and Eastern Europe and in some areas of Asia, causing around 50% seed losses when susc... see more
Óscar Dembilio,Josep A. Jaques
The red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, is a palm borer native to South Asia which has spread mainly due to the unintended movement of infested planting material. As a result, this species has become the most destructive palm pest in the world. Th... see more
Nahuel R. Peralta,Pablo L. Cicore,Maria A. Marino,Jose R. Marques da Silva,Jose L. Costa
The spatial variability in soils used for livestock production (i.e. Natraquoll and Natraqualf) at farm and paddock scale is usually very high. Understanding this spatial variation within a field is the first step for site-specific crop management. For th... see more
Isabel Garrido,Nuria Vela,José Fenoll,Ginés Navarro,Gabriel Pérez-Lucas,Simón Navarro
Leaching, the movement of water and chemicals into deeper soil layers and groundwater is a subject of worldwide interest because a high percentage of drinking water is extracted from groundwater. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential l... see more
José Torrent,María C. del Campillo,Vidal Barrón
Soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) depends on the extent and negative charge density of surfaces of soil mineral and organic components. Soil water sorption also depends on the extent of such surfaces, giving thus way to significant relationships between... see more
Alfredo Granados,Francisco J. Martín-Carrasco,Silvestre García de Jalón,Ana Iglesias
Agriculture is a particularly sensitive sector to the potential impacts of climate change. Thus, irrigation infrastructure is required to be robust to cope with these potential threats. The objective of this research is designing more robust irrigation ne... see more