The goal was to determine the digestion rates of carbohydrate fractions A (sugars, oligosaccharides and organic acids), B1 (starch and soluble fiber), NSC (non-structural carbohydrates) and B2 (available NDF) in four tropical grasses using the gas production technique. Samples of whole forage (WF), residue insoluble in 90% ethanol (EIR) and isolated NDF (iNDF) were fermented in vitro and gas production measured. Gas volumes were determined from the following fractions, A = WF minus EIR; B1 = EIR - ND; NSC = WF - iNDF; and B2 = iNDF. Grasses were Andropogon gayanus, Urochloa brizantha, Cynodon plectostachyus, and Megathyrsus maximus each grown in Veracruz, Mexico on four plots (5×5 m), fertilized (relationship equivalent to 0 and 100 kg N/ha) and clipped 35 d after the N fertilization. A complete randomized block design with factorial arrangement 4×2 and two replicates per treatment was used. Factors were grass species and N fertilization. Data were fit using a single-pool exponential model with lag. The volume (mL gas/100 mg OM), rate (%/h) and lag (h) were: WF (22.8; 5.3; 2.1); A (3.2; 15.7; 0.5); B1 (1.5; 15.7; 0.2); and B2 (18.3; 6.6; 5.2). Andropogon and Urochloa had higher NSC content compared to Megathyrsus and Cynodon but lower gas yield per unit of NSC. Rates of digestion for the B2 fraction ranged from 4 to 8 %/h; and NSC digestion rate averaged 15.7 %/h. Nitrogen fertilization reduced carbohydrate pool sizes but did not affect rates of digestion. It is concluded that the rates of digestion of the carbohydrate fractions differs by grass specie.

Low-input cultivated pastures to feed cattle have dominated land use after forest clearing for decades in the western Brazilian Amazon. This study was undertaken to help understand the inherent nutrient supply dynamics underwriting cattle performance on three farms in the state of Acre. We assessed soil chemical and physical properties associated over time with different land uses following forest clearing. This information permitted specifying a conceptual model of nutrient stocks and flows under the observed grazing system, which produced insights about the dynamics of soil nutrient degradation. Above ground forage mass, topsoil nutrient concentrations and soil bulk density were measured. Land covers were Brachiaria spp. grasses, a grass-Pueraria phaseoloides mix, cropland and forest. Most soil nutrient parameters initially decreased after clearing, gradually recovering over time with grass-only pastures; however, 20 yr-old pastures had 20% less forage mass. Most pasture system nutrients on these farms resided in topsoil and roots, where large stocks of mature forage supported soil fertility with recycled nutrients from litter. Estimates of partial topsoil nutrient balances were negative. This suggested that corresponding nutrient stocks and the accumulation of forage mass were probably maintained primarily through the sum of inflows from cattle excreta, the subsoil, soil organic matter, and litter mineralization with scant input of commercial fertilizer. Therefore, herd management to increase animal system productivity via higher stocking rates on vegetatively younger forage requires monitoring of nutrient stocks and flows and fertilization that assures replenishment of the nutrients extracted. Otherwise, rapid depletion of soil nutrient stocks will lead to system degradation and failure.

The objective was to determine in vitro the NDF insoluble protein (NDIP) extension and degradation rate of four tropical grasses by the potential effect of N fertilization. The grasses (Andropogon gayanus, Brachiaria brizantha, Cynodon plectostachyus and Megathyrsus maximus) that grow in Mexico were used. Each grass was grown in four plots (5×5 m), fertilized (relationship equivalent to 0 and 100 kg N/ha) and clipped 35 d after the N fertilization. A complete randomized block design with factorial arrangement 4×2, and two replicates per treatment was used, where the factors were grass species and N fertilization. Non-protein nitrogen (NPN), buffer insoluble protein (IP), NDIP and acid detergent insoluble protein (ADIP) were performed. Freeze-dried samples were incubated at 0, 1.5, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24, 48 and 96 h. After fermentation, the CP content of the NDF residues was determined. An exponential equation was used to determine the rate of the NDIP disappearance. There was no detectable interaction between type of grass and fertilization level. The NDIP (as %CP) averaged 35 % with a range of 10 to 60 %. The NDIP variation was primarily due to species. The extent and rates of degradation of the NDIP were 70.6 % and 7.1 %/h respectively, with no N-fertilization effect. The NDIP was degraded faster (P≤0.05) than NDF (7.7 vs 5.0 %/h). These data show that the NDIP is ruminally degraded and that this fraction significantly contributes to the rumen nitrogen supply.

This article explores social educator actions by academe as cultural agency’s natural partner in ways that echo, connect and create plural discourse among the many dimensions and disciplines of society. Based on collaborations with Mexican partners, we argue this goal is achieved with multiplicative effects when students and faculty, key agents themselves and trainers of intercultural agents, learn first-hand by crossing borders to frame issues and work together to articulate collaborative research problems. In so doing a more inclusive worldview becomes integral context in needs assessments. This has been our long-standing pedagogical approach in leading students−undergraduates and graduates−and faculty from around the world on a multidisciplinary, intergenerational examination of rural and urban development in tropical Latin America. Greater academic agency through more alliances of this kind is needed to better achieve equity goals supported by greater investments targeting community engagement and applied problem-solving. We illustrate this learning framework and provide specific livestock research cases in southern Mexico that reveal potentials realized by bringing academe to the field and the field to academe, as part of a reinforcing educational process that promotes understanding and social transformation.

As in our “Crossing Borders” learning framework addressing agricultural challenges, in this chapter we continue our story of encounters and needed solutions from another perspective. We explained in Chapter 3 that Cornell University has led a wide range of student and faculty from around the world on a multidisciplinary, intergenerational examination of rural and urban development in tropical Latin America for many years.* In 2008–09, Experience Latin America, and Hispanic Theater Production courses were linked through the felicitous circumstance of a substantial core of students taking both courses. This resulted in a mutual collaboration fueling an integrative process building awareness, knowledge, and culture transmitted through performance. Best known by the troupe name, Teatrotaller exists both as a course and as a student organization with the mission of promoting Hispanic culture through the production of high-quality theater

A group model building process based on system dynamics was developed to assess the potential of a cooperative manufacturing and marketing goat cheese in a community near Xalapa. The process identified important outcomes, key variables to consider, parameter values, and relevant scenarios. This information facilitated development of a dynamic simulation model including key biological and economic factors affecting cooperative success. Model analyses indicated that the cooperative potentially could increase community incomes while controlling risk under a range of environmental and market conditions. A system dynamics-based participatory approach can help inform ex ante assessment of potential development and agribusiness interventions.

Herd environments constitute productivity potentials, or aggregate opportunity outcomes, resulting from management actions taken with the available inputs. Management outcomes from cow nutrition, udder health and milking practices were quantified with the help of surveys of 254 dairy producers in southeastern Sicily. Objectives were to disentangle environmental opportunities by disaggregating herd effects into causal inputs. Average ME milk production was 8640kg/lactation for the 183 Friesian herds containing 35 lactating cows and 10 dry cows. Seventy-one Brown Swiss herds averaged 6443kg ME milk from 25 lactating and 10 dry cows. For Friesian (Brown Swiss) herds 10 (11) management practices affected milking performance and 9 (8) practices influenced somatic cell concentration (P<0.05). Multilevel analysis and herd clustering procedures differentiated low from high opportunity herd environments but altering relative weightings among management practices did not further discriminate them. This clustering methodology helps ensure unbiased estimation of management input effects and could help target priority management substitutions and technical support priorities in dairy extension programs.

Feed chemical and kinetic composition and animal performance information was used to evaluate productivity limitations and potentials of dual-purpose member herds of the Genesis farmer organization of central coastal Veracruz, Mexico. The Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System model (Version 6.0) was systematically applied to specific groups of cows in structured simulations to establish probable input-output relationships for typical management, and to estimate probable outcomes from alternative management based on forage-based dietary improvements. Key herd vulnerabilities were pinpointed: chronic energy deficits among dry cows of all ages in late gestation and impeded growth for immature cows. Regardless of the forage season of calving, most cows, if not all, incur energy deficits in the final trimester of gestation; thus reducing the pool of tissue energy and constraining milking performance. Under typical management, cows are smaller and underweight for their age, which limits feed intake capacity, milk production and the probability of early postpartum return to ovarian cyclicity. The substitution of good-quality harvested forage for grazing increased predicted yields by about one-third over typical scenarios for underweight cows. When diets from first parturition properly supported growth and tissue repletion, milk production in second and third lactations was predicted to improve about 60%. Judiciously supplemented diets based on good quality grass and legume forages from first calving were predicted to further increase productivity by about 80% across a three-lactation cow lifetime. These dual-purpose herd owners have large incentives to increase sales income by implementing nutritional strategies like those considered in this study.

Market information was combined with predicted input–output relationships in an economic analysis of alternative nutritional management for dual-purpose member herds of the Genesis farmer organization of central coastal Veracruz, Mexico. Cow productivity outcomes for typical management and alternative feeding scenarios were obtained from structured sets of simulations in a companion study of productivity limitations and potentials using the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System model (Version 6.0). Partial budgeting methods and sensitivity analysis were used to identify economically viable alternatives based on expected change in milk income over feed cost (change in revenues from milk sales less change in feed costs). Herd owners in coastal Veracruz have large economic incentives, from $584 to $1,131 in predicted net margin, to increase milk sales by up to 74% across a three-lactation cow lifetime by improving diets based on good quality grass and legume forages. This increment is equal to, or exceeds, in value the total yield from at least one additional lactation per cow lifetime. Furthermore, marginal rates of return (change in milk income over feed costs divided by change in variable costs when alternative practices are used) of 3.3 ± 0.8 indicate clear economic incentives to remove fundamental productivity vulnerabilities due to chronic energy deficits and impeded growth of immature cows under typical management. Sensitivity analyses indicate that the economic outcomes are robust for a variety of market conditions.

Simulation models are effective tools to examine interactions between livestock, cropping systems, households, and natural resources. Our study objective was to use an integrated livestock and crop model to assess the outcomes from selected suites of management decisions observed in smallholder sheep-cropping systems of Yucatan, Mexico. The scenarios contrasted specialized systems versus mixed farming, and evaluated the outcomes of increased crop-livestock integration. Mixed enterprise scenarios involving sheep provided more income than specialized enterprises, and capitalized on a lower price of on-farm maize grain, efficient utilization of surplus labor, and availability of common land. Labor and management income was greatest for the unintegrated and partially integrated crop and livestock scenarios. It was more profitable for producers to sell excess grain and maize stover, and use common land to feed the livestock, suggesting that increased integration does not always result in improved outcomes. The results are consistent with a system not yet pushed to the point where integration is inevitable. For all sets of scenarios, the model structure was able to accommodate subtle management differences to produce appropriate biophysical, labor, and economic outcomes. We conclude there is potential to use similar model development methods to describe other crop-livestock systems, thus providing tools for learning, scenario analysis, and impact assessment. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A form of large-amplitude elongated-body theory appropriate for the analysis of undulatory fins attached to a rigid body of elliptical section suggests a benefit due to momentum enhancement relative to the fins on their own. This theoretical prediction is experimentally confirmed for the first time. Theoretical momentum enhancement factors for Diodon holocanthus (2.2 and 2.7 for the median and pectoral fins, respectively) compared well to inferred thrust values determined from particle-image velocimetry (PIV) wake measurements (2.2-2.4 and 2.7-2.9). Caudal fin mean theoretical thrust was not significantly different from measured (PIV) values (n = 24, P > 0.05), implying no momentum enhancement. Pectoral-fin thrust was half that of the median and caudal fins due to high fin-jet angles, low circulation and momentum. Average total fin thrust and fish drag were not significantly different (n = 24, P > 0.05). Vortex rings generated by the fins were elliptical, with size dependent on fin chord and stroke amplitude. Hydrodynamic advantages (thrust enhancement at no cost to hydrodynamic efficiency, reduction of side forces minimizing energy wasting yawing motions and body drag) are probably common among rigid-bodied organisms propelled by undulatory fins. A trade-off between momentum enhancement and the rate of momentum generation (thrust force) sets a practical limit to the former. For small fins whilst momentum enhancement is high, absolute thrust is low. In addition, previously suggested limitations on thrust enhancement set by reductions in propulsive force associated with progressive reductions in fin wavelength are found to be biologically unrealistic.

Maize (Zea mays L.) cultivation under the shifting cultivation system of Yucatán, Mexico, is normally limited to 2–3 years due to nutrient depletion and weed pressure. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of manure application and weed control on partial nutrient budgets for maize, and assess the effect of grain-only or whole-plant harvest on nutrient removal. Two farms were selected near Mérida, Mexico, each including two cultivation years. Maize grain, stem, and leaf fractions were harvested and analyzed for N, P, and K concentrations, and compared to quantities added through manure, to generate partial nutrient budgets. Multiple years of cultivation did not change soil organic matter content while extractable P was reduced (53–62%) at both farms and extractable K was lower (22%) for farm 1. Plant fractions contained similar amounts of N, while P accumulated in grain, and stem and leaf contained the largest K pools. Applied treatments affected crop nutrient removal predominantly through crop yield. Partial nutrient budgets suggested that with stover removal, the lower rate of manure may be sufficient to maintain P, but not N or K; whereas with the higher rate of manure all partial budgets were positive, suggesting nutrient accumulation over time.

This special section gained its impetus from the International Conference on 'Biological Applications for Engineering' chaired by Professor Robert Allen (Southampton, UK, 17–19 March 2008) and the resulting publications that followed, reflecting its major topic areas (Robert Allen 2009 Bioinspiration, Biomimetics 4 010201). Continuing interest in bioinspired engineering and biomimetics is addressed in the context of models for engineering applications inspired by aquatic life. A collection of six papers bear upon four subject areas: biomaterials (both mostly inorganic hard structural materials and mostly organic fibres), propulsion (biorobotic fins relevant to understanding the performance and sensory control of manoeuvre and steady swimming of fish, and mechanical models that mimic rapid accelerations), group behaviour (employing fish schooling hydrodynamics to model wind turbine farm performance) and ecologically important engineering structures in river systems (improving fish passageway design). A brief synopsis of the content and significance of the papers follows.

Erosion is of great concern in the Ethiopian highlands. The objective of this study was to determine the soil erosion rates under actual farming conditions by measuring the dimensions and number of rills in 15 agricultural fields in the Debre Mewi watershed near Lake Tana, and to understand farmers’ attitudes towards land conservation through personal interviews with one-third of the watershed households. The annual rill erosion rate was 8 to 32 t ha−1. Greatest rates of erosion occurred at planting early in the season but became negligible in August. Major factors influencing land conservation decisions were the demand of labor and lack of technical support for implementing new conservation measures from experts.

Mixed farming systems constitute a large proportion of agricultural production in the tropics, and provide multiple benefits for the world's poor. However, our understanding of the functioning of these systems is limited. Modeling offers the best approach to quantify outcomes from many interacting causal variables in these systems. The objective of this study was to develop an integrated crop-livestock model to assess biophysical and economic consequences of farming practices exhibited in sheep systems of Yucatan state, Mexico. A Vensim (TM) dynamic stock-flow feedback model was developed to integrate scientific and practical knowledge of management, flock dynamics, sheep production, partitioning of nutrients, labor, and economic components. The model accesses sheep production and manure quantity and quality data generated using the Small Ruminant Nutrition System (SRNS), and interfaces on a daily basis with an Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model that simulates weather, crop, and soil dynamics. Model evaluation indicated that the integrated model adequately represents the complex interactions that occur between farmers, crops, and livestock. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.