Browsing by master's degree program "Maataloustieteiden maisteriohjelma"

The research of this thesis was focused on anaerobic digestion of cow manure mixed with different types of biowaste, especially those material that are available in Finland. The research was conducted by search, collection, and analysis of different data in literature. Topic of the thesis was predetermined by the Co-Creation Lab project of Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), which was seeking solution to achieve carbon neutral cow milk production. The solution was co-approached by three participants conducting thesis from technological, economical, and legislative points of view, in which I was responsible for writing mainly the technological part, and general findings in economic efficiency and legislative terms by the other two co-creators were also included in this thesis. The research was mainly related with the whole cycle of biogas production, including basics about anaerobic digestion (AD), applications of the biogas and digestate as a product and by-product of AD. Substrates for AD were researched with a focus to find the best combination of cow manure (CM) and biowaste in regard with methane yield outcome, especially a mixture of CM and silage waste that suits the cow farming situation in Finland. Methane yields for mono-digestion of various types of biowaste and co-digestion of CM with different biomass were collected and analyzed. Premises for biogas plant establishment were researched briefly, including facility composition, and consideration of feasibility and raw material availability. CM with grass containing 75% timothy and 25% meadow fescue grass at 70%:30% mixing ratio could be the best combination of CM: grass co-digestion, followed by 0.5:0.5 mixed CM and perennial ryegrass. Furthermore, CM mixed with food waste at 52:48% ratio could be the best combination among co-digestion of CM with biowaste other than grass, followed by CM and food waste mixed with 68%:32% ratio, and CM with oat straw mixed at 1:2 ratio could be a considerable combination of CM and crop waste.

Crop monitoring in commercial indoor farming is a commonly used method in assessing the general productivity of the cultivated plants. This assessment practice is typically conducted manually by greenhouse workers and is sometimes supplemented by certain hand-held or stationary devices. An interesting example of novel device-assisted crop monitoring technologies utilizes digital imaging devices and computer-driven image analysis algorithms that have been prominently employed within the field of plant phenotyping. In the context of botanical studies, they have been used in e.g. characterizing various complex interactions between the genotypes of important food crops and their agronomic traits in specific prevailing environmental conditions. Additionally, image-based data acquisition technologies also present very interesting prospects for precision agriculture management practices. They could be harnessed to scan entire greenhouse compartments continuously and acquire massive amounts of data on multiple morphological and physiological aspects of crop growth and development in a non-destructive fashion. The acquired data could be implemented into mathematical greenhouse control models and utilized in a plethora of useful applications, including e.g. estimating and predicting biomass production and yield, detecting and localizing potential abiotic/biotic stress symptoms at an early stage, and ultimately enhancing overall crop production efficiency. In this thesis, these imaging technologies were explored in practice by designing and constructing a growth chamber embedded with automatic climate control and a low-cost multispectral imaging subsystem. The final assembly was tested by conducting a simple experiment involving drought-stressed sweet basil plants (Ocimum basilicum L. cv. ‘Genovese’) to determine how early drought-stress related symptoms could be detected purely from multispectral images. While the system carried out the tasks of automated climate control and continuous image capture adequately, the implemented approach in drought-stress detection was deemed unsuccessful. Significant differences between drought-stressed plants and their respective controls were not observed until visible symptoms were present. This was assumed to be due to incompatibility of the camera module’s spectral sensitivity in detecting changes in water content in plant tissue.

Anthropogenic activities have resulted in huge accumulation of plant nutrients in lake sediments. These nutrients can be recycled back to the overlying water and sustain eutrophication. The release of phosphorus (P) from sediments, i.e. internal P loading, has often been a reason for delay in improvement of lake water quality, after reduced external nutrient loading. By removing the sediment, the internal lake nutrient load can be effectively reduced, and it is widely used in lake water quality restoration. By redirecting the reclaimed nutrients back to primary agricultural production, the need for using mineral fertilizers and virgin materials can be reduced. Currently there is, however, a lack of field-scale experiments and determination of best practices to enable efficient nutrient uptake and minimized nutrient leaching back into the lakes. A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of using P-rich lake sediment in different application methods for growing a mixture of forage grasses. The study focused on soil fertility, plant growth and nutrition, and species composition over a period of four growing seasons in central Estonia. Treatments for reducing nutrient losses included applying the sediment alone (Sed), with surface-incorporated biochar (Sed+BC), and as incorporated with surface-mixed biochar-topsoil mixture (Sed+Soil+BC). A treatment consisting of sandy loam topsoil was set up as control (Soil). The mean dry mass yield in the sediment treatments exceeded the local average grass yields and the N and P uptake rates in above-ground biomass (AGB) exceeded the international estimates for grasses. The sediment had no significant effect on AGB yield in comparison to the control. Similarly, no effect was observed in the yield of weeds, but temporary changes in weed species composition and an increasing trend particularly in nettle abundance on the sediment treatments were recorded. Apart from a transient increase in the amount of soluble potassium, no relevant effects were induced by the incorporated biochar. In conclusion, the sediment performed well and served as a plentiful source of P for grasses for four years. Based on the sufficient concentrations of P, sulphur, calcium and potassium in the plant tissue, yield increase could have been expected but most likely the good fertility of the control topsoil evened out yield differences between growing medium treatments. Based on this study, similar lake sediments can be advised to be used as soil amendments on grass cultivation on an agricultural field. Due to high nutrient concentrations, a lower rate could be applied on a wider field area to control excess in nutrient supply, given that the need of nitrogen fertilization is ensured to match plant-specific requirements.

The overarching theme of the diploma thesis is the increasing digitalization of farms and the growing importance of technological innovations for the improvement of resource efficiency. The purpose of the study was to analyze and envision 4dBarn Ltd’s Boosted Service, a service that focuses on measuring and improving labor efficiency in robotic milking facilities, from both a customer experience and a business perspective. An adapted survey and thematic interviews were used to gather customer experiences from ten customers who had purchased the Boosted Service. The interviews showed that customers were satisfied with the current Boosted Service and generally found the Service’s existing metrics, such as using time-lapse cameras to track cows’ time budgets and monitoring work routines, useful. The KJ Method was used to elucidate the company’s perspective and implemented during a workshop with the company’s founding members to explore their goals for the Boosted Service. According to the results of the KJ Method, the current Boosted Service was found to be labor-intensive and difficult to expand internationally. The short measurement period was seen as problematic for the reliability of the results. In summary, the Boosted service is an integral part of the company's core business, and the information it provides is used to develop other services offered by the company. Among the various visions for the future, mobile application versions were of particular interest to respondents. However, respondents emphasized the need to invest in usability to ensure system usage. Despite significant technological advances in agriculture, respondents were not ready to completely abandon physical farm visits.

In agricultural soils, Nitrogen (N) is an essential nutrient in crop production, and its supply comes from various pools. Understanding the N pools in soil could help farmers make better decisions about N fertilisation, increase productivity, reduce costs, and decrease environmental impacts. N is a challenging element to track in soil due to its seven oxidation states that are large-ly cycled and intermediated by soil organisms between various organic, mineral, and gaseous forms. This thesis aims to find whether C farming practices accumulate N in soil through investi-gating the size of soil N pools and how they relate to each other through a literature survey and data from a four-year carbon (C) farming experiment. The thesis also investigates whether meas-uring the fast-cycling N pools and including them in fertilisation recommendation calculations results in financial savings from N fertiliser cuts. Twenty different Finnish farms were investigated, split between six C farming practices: subsoil-ing, undersown cover crops, ley farming, soil organic amendments, planned grazing, diverse grasses lay. Soil samples were collected at two different depths (0-17 and 17-30 cm) and ana-lysed for total N and C (Total N, Total C), mineral N, Illinois Soil N Test (ISNT N), autoclave citrate extractable protein N (ACE-Protein N), water extractable organic N and C (WSON and WSOC), and microbial activity derived N (PMN) from CO2 burst after rewetting of dry soil (Resp C).The analysis recovered on average 25% of total N, while 75% remained in the non-recovered pool. Clay%, C% and C:Clay explained the variation in Total N (r2=0.90), ISNT N (r2=0.90), pro-tein N (r2=0.93) and the non-recovered N (r2=0.83), but it did not for WSON (r2=0.50), PMN (r2=0.21) and inorganic N (r2=0.20). Four-year C farming management did not result in statisti-cally significant differences in the N pools, even though PMN and WSON were 19% and 11.6% higher in treatment than in control, respectively. The variation was high for both (SD=48 and 42), explaining the non-significance. Strong correlations (Spearman rho, ρ) were observed between Total N - ISNT N, Residual N, and WSON, indicating their predictive capability for total N, while protein N showed weaker correlations. PMN correlated strongly with bacterial respiration C (ρ = 0.94) and WSON (ρ = 0.75) and had a negative strong correlation with the WSOC:WSON ratio (ρ = -0.73). In conclusion, soil's non-recovered N fraction, likely associated with the mineral surfaces and undecomposed particulate organic matter (POM), is the largest portion of total N. Clay%, C% and C:Clay explains the variation in the slow-cycling N pools but not in the fast-cycling ones. The quality of soil organic matter (SOM) is better assessed using WSON, PMN, and the WSOC:WSON ratio. Utilising PMN as a predictor of N release from SOM results in lower N ferti-liser recommendations, leading to cost savings for farmers. This research shows that four years of C farming do not increase the N stock in soil. Further research is needed to determine if C farming practices in a long-term experiment would increase the soil N stocks, significantly affect soil N pool relationships and result in financial savings for farmers.

The cultivation possibilities of American cranberry (V. macrocarpon) have been investigated in Finland, and tunnel cultivation has given promising results. However, the growing season in Finland is short and the ripening of all berries is not guaranteed. Anthocyanins are health promoting color pigments in berries. Light has been found to affect expression of genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis, anthocyanin levels, and quality in Vaccinium berries in pre-, and postharvest. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the effect of wide spectrum-, red-, and blue light, exposure time (7 or 14 days) and the expressions of six selected genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis in different ripening stage in American cranberries under postharvest. Furthermore, the aim was to compare previously measured results of antho-cyanin levels with the selected gene expressions. The genes were CHS, DFR, F3’H, F3’5H, ANS, and UFGT. The ripening stages of berries were green, white, and turning red. The light quality, exposure time, and ripening stages significantly affected the expres-sion of genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis and the levels of anthocyanins. Blue light significantly increased UFGT expressions and anthocyanin levels in green berry stages. The effect of light quality on gene expression decreased during the ripening pro-cess. However, the wide spectrum with longer exposure time significantly increased the levels of anthocyanins in the turning red stage. With the right light quality and exposure time, gene expression related to anthocyanin biosynthesis can be increased, as well as anthocyanin levels in American cranberry under postharvest.

Biochar, produced by heating biomass in oxygen-limited environments, is known for its potential to reduce methane emissions, by altering rumen fermentation. However, the literature lacks exploration on how biochar affects nutrient digestibility and ruminal methane production across various diets. Therefore, we examined the effects of spruce (Picea abies) biochar on several forage plant species options and forage-to-concentrate (F:C) ratios. Two in vitro trials of 24 hours were conducted with Gas Endeavour® equipment at Animal Science laboratory of the University of Helsinki. There were three rumen fluid donor animals and the ratio of rumen fluid and McDougall’s buffer was 1:2 (vol:vol). The first trial tested biochar levels (0%, 0.25%, and 0.5% of diet dry matter (DM)) with four silage options that were pure grass (Phleum pratense – Festuca pratensis), grass mixed 1:1 in DM with red clover (Trifolium pratense), faba bean (Vicia faba), or maize (Zea mays L) at a fixed F:C ratio of 65:35. The concentrate consisted of oats and rapeseed meal. The second trial explored the effects of the biochar (0.5% of diet DM) and an alternative methane inhibitor (product X) alone or combined across 65:35 and 45:55 F:C ratios. Key parameters such as total gas and methane production, DM digestibility, rumen fluid pH, and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations were analyzed. Grass silage (D-value 669, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) 523 g/kg DM) and red clover silage (D-value 626, NDF 362 g/kg DM) were harvested from the first cut. Maize silage was more digestible than faba bean silage (D-value 679 vs. 593 g/kg DM) and contained more starch (278 vs. 48 g/kg DM). High forage diet (65:35) had higher NDF content (453 vs 407 g/kg DM) and lower starch content (114 vs 179 g/kg DM) than low forage diet (45:55). Biochar's effect on DM digestibility and the production of rumen methane or carbon dioxide was not significant across different silage plant species and F:C ratios. Grass silage led to lower total methane production compared to silage mixtures (p<0.05), and the combination of biochar and product X in a low forage diet numerically reduced gas production. However, when methane production was calculated per digested DM, no differences were observed. Feeding maize silage increased the total production of methane and carbon dioxide in the rumen compared to faba bean silage (p<0.001), but gas productions per digested DM remained unaffected. Biochar did not significantly affect final rumen pH across silage species. Biochar with grass silage linearly reduced the total VFA content of the rumen fluid (p=0.003) and had tendency for smaller molar proportion of acetic acid in VFA (p= 0.075). In the second trial biochar or product X didn´t have significant effect on rumen fermentation pattern across forage levels. The effects of biochar, silage plant species and F:C ratios on in vitro rumen fermentation and methane production were minimal, despite differences in diet composition.

The feeding behavior of beef cattle is complex and varies depending on different factors such as the nutritive value of the feed, the individual and the environment. By optimizing and improving the feed efficiency, the economics of the production increases. Knowledge of feed intake and feeding behavior can be used to optimize the production and the health and well-being of the animals. The aim of this study was to determine how the cut of grass silage affects the feeding behaviour of bulls and thereby how to optimize the use of silage for animal growth. Simmental bulls got three different silage cuts. The first cut was taken on 25th June (ES1), the second cut on 11th August (ES2) and the third cut on 3rd October (ES3). The feeding was given as total mixed ration (TMR) ad libitum. Each TMR group had 15 bulls (TES1, TES2, TES3). Each TMR group had a diet based on grass silage (550 g/kg DM), the only difference being if the silage was of the first, second or third cut. That way the nutritive value differed among the TMR. Individual information about duration, when, and how much the bulls ate was recorded by the Growsafesystem. The average for the bulls in the feeding groups was calculated based on the individual data. This Master´s thesis researched feed intake, feeding frequency, time for head down, time for feed intake and feed intake rate during one month when the body weight of the bulls was on average 546 kg in the beginning and 607 kg at the end of the study. The dry matter for the three cuts was 201 g/kg for ES1, 298 g/kg for ES2 and 354 g/kg for ES3. D-value was 719, 685 and 739 g/kg DM, respectively. The bulls that ate ES3 had higher dry matter intake (12,1 kg DM/d) and eating rate (94,9 g DM/min) than the two other groups. The bulls that ate ES1 and ES2 had the same feed utilization, which was better than the feed utuilization of the bulls that were given ES3. Feeding frequency was about 15 times per day for all groups. The second cut had the lowest digestibility and the bulls eating the second cut had the longest feed intake time. The bulls that ate the third cut had the highest dry matter intake, but the lowest feed utilization. The study indicates that the D-value of the grass silage used in TMR has a clear impact on dry matter intake of the TMR and eating time and eating rate of the animal.

Reproduction traits are economically important features in pig production. Inbreeding has negative effect on fitness and fertility of the animals. In pig production, the increase of inbreeding reduces litter sizes and increases piglet mortality. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of parents inbreeding to number of piglets born alive, stillbirths and weaned piglets in Finnish Landrace pig population. An additional goal was to estimate heritability of the studied traits. The data used in the thesis was received from Figen Oy including pedigree and reproduction information. R and DMU programs were used for data management and statistical analyses. The number piglets born alive and weaned piglets increased during the years 2012 and 2021. At the same time number of stillborn piglets also increased. The average inbreeding rate of the boars was 0,104 and of sows 0,102. The annual average inbreeding rate of boars and sows increased significantly in the reviewed period. Heritability of investigated traits varied between 0,05 (number of stillborn and weaned piglets in litter) and 0,10 (number of piglets born alive). The inbreeding rate of the boar had statistically significant effect on the number of piglets born alive and weaned; 10 % unit increase in inbreeding coefficient decreased piglets born alive by 0,35 and the number of weaned piglets by 0,24. A negative dependency between increased inbreeding value of sow and litter size was also found in study but these results were not statistically significant. Inbreeding of either of the parents did not have statistically significant effect on the number of stillborn piglets. In the future there should be paid more attention to the increasing level of inbreeding in the Finnish Landrace population.

The objective of the experiment was to study how different additives effect on fermentation quality and aerobic stability of maize silage. Three additives and two maturity stages were used in the labo-ratory scale experiment. Maize silage preserved with different additives was compared to control with no additives. The maize (Pioneer, P7326) used in the study was cultivated at the research farm of the Univer-sity of Helsinki in Viikki on growing season 2018. First silages were made on 21st of August 2018 and after 50 days the second silages were made on 10th of October 2018 92 and 142 days after sowing. The treatments were 1) control 2) formic acid 3) mixture of formic acid, sodium formate, propionic acid and sorbic acid 4) mixture of sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate. Chemical com-positon and buffering capacity of the pre-ensiling maize were determined. Fermentation quality of the silages was also determined. In addition aerobic stability of silages was determined by monitoring the temperature change of silages for 12 days with data loggers. Composition of the maize varied by the maturity stage. Dry matter content in the first maturity stage was 211 g/kg and in the second it was 327 g/kg. Content of water soluble carbohydrates (su-gars) was higher in the first maturity stage. Starch content increased in the second maturity stage considerably. Feed preservation succeeded mainly well and pH of silages in both maturity stages were below four. Sugar content of silages treated with formic acid and mixture of acids was very high in the first maturity stage. Lactic acid content of the control and Na-benzoate and K-sorbate silages was higher than other treatments. Na-benzoate and K-sorbate silage in late maturity stage had noticeably higher acetic acid content. In the silages, there were mainly low content of volatile fatty acids (VFA) and butyric acid was not observed. The silages contained lactic acid as well as acetic acid and only low amount of propionic acid. Silages were aerobically stable except silages of two formic acid silos in the first maturity stage and control silos in the second maturity stage. Temperature started to rise in formic acid silages after 10 days and in control silages after five days from exposure to air. Other silages were aerobically stable during the testing period. The maturity stage affected maize composition and thus ensiling characteristics. Composition differences of maize in different maturity stages cause different challenges in terms of preservation. Different preservation treatments affected the intensity of lactic acid fermentation and silage sugar content and the differences were higher in the first maturity stage. Intensity differences of fermenta-tion and differences in acetic acid content may affect aerobic stability. The use of additives tended to improve aerobic stability of the silages at the late stage of maturity.