Browsing by master's degree program "Maataloustieteiden maisteriohjelma"

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.

Gastrointestinal parasites (GIP) and resistance against anthelmintics are and will be one of the biggest challenges for the sheep husbandry. Research within this area is very important today and it is important to figure out new methods to identify individuals with high burden of parasites and to treat just these individuals. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of GIP on activity patterns and weight gain in first season grazing lambs. A sub-study accompanied with the aim was to see if the manually made behavioural observations supported data from the sensors. The study took place at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) during the summer of 2019. The study was divided into two experimental periods. In the first experimental period 30 ewes and their 60 twins were used. Of those, 58 lambs continued to the second experimental period. Two groups were dewormed with ivermectin (high group) and two groups were untreated (low group). All lambs were fitted with sensors, and the data was downloaded once a week, at the same time with the weighting of animals. Individual faecal samples were collected four times. The pasture where the lambs grazed was a first-year pasture. Sward height was measured, and herbage samples were collected three times during the experiment. Herbage samples were analysed for nutritional and mineral content. The manual behavioural observations were made two days a week during five weeks. The high group had higher weight (28.9 kg) in the beginning of the experiment, compared with the low group (28.1 kg). On the contrary, the high group had lower weight (42.7 kg), compared with the low group (44.8 kg) at the end of the experiment. According to data from the sensors there were differences in lying time and motion index (MI) during the 7-10 first days after weaning. The low group laid down more, compared with the high group. The low group had higher MI compared with the high group. During the whole experiment there were no differences in lying time, lying bouts or MI. The manual behavioural observations showed that “standing still” had significantly more registrations for the high group compared to the low group. It is possible to see differences in behaviour with sensors at an early stage of parasitic infection, even with low levels of parasites. This means, that there is a potential to use automatic behaviour observations as a diagnostics tool during infection of GIP.

Polttoaineen voimakas hintakehitys, ympäristöarvojen korostuminen ja työkoneiden tehokkuuden jatkuva kasvu on aiheuttanut tilanteen, jossa polttomoottorikäyttöisten laitteiden mahdollisuudet kehittyä ovat enää rajalliset ja avuksi tarvitaan vaihtoehtoisia voimanlähteitä. Vaihtoehtoiset voimansiirto ratkaisut ovat alkaneet yleistyä työkonekäytössä ja ne ovat nopeasti alkaneet korvata perinteisiä ratkaisuja etenkin alemmissa teholuokissa. Kehitys on kuitenkin ollut nopeaa, ja erilaisia hybridi- ja täyssähköratkaisuja on esitelty laajasti eri työkone- ja laitemarkkinoille. Etenkin sähkökäyttöiset ratkaisut ovat yleistyneet erittäin nopeasti, mikä aiheuttaa haasteita niiden huolto ja ylläpitoa suorittaville henkilöille ja yrityksille. Ajoneuvopuolella sähköistyksen tuomiin haasteisiin on varauduttu jo pidemmän aikaa, mutta työkonepuolella varautuminen on ollut vaatimattomampaa. Tämä johtuu pääosin teknologian nopeasta kehityksestä, mikä on mahdollistanut myös maastossa ja vaativissa olosuhteissa käytettävien työkoneiden sähköistämisen. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli tutkia hybridiajoneuvojen huollon erityisvaatimuksia korjaamoilla ja kenttähuollossa ja niiden vaikutusta työtä suorittaviin työntekijöihin ja esihenkilöihin. Tutkimus toteutettiin kirjallisuuskatsauksena, jonka avulla selvitettiin eri henkilöstön koulutustarpeita, erilaisten huoltotilojen ja erikoislaitteiden tarvetta sekä turvallisuusnäkökohtia aiempien tutkimusten, standardien ja eurooppalaisten lakien, säädösten ja määräysten kautta. Työssä havaittiin että korkeajänniteajoneuvojen huolto edellyttää henkilöstön lisäkoulutusta, huoltotilojen varustelua sekä uusien luokiteltujen työkalujen hankintaa. Koulutuksen kustannuksia olisi mahdollista jakaa valmistajien ja oppilaitosten välillä mutta työtilojen varustelu jää yritysten vastuulle.

Kaivannaisfosfori on merkittävin fosfaattilannoitteiden lähde maailman maataloudessa. Fosforia on kuitenkin rajallinen määrä maapallolla ja kaivannaisfosforin varannot uhkaavat ehtyä 50-500 vuoden aikana. Maailman maatalous joutuu sopeutumaan tulevaisuudessa kaivannaisfosforin vähenemiseen, jolloin fosforin talteen saaminen erilaisin kierrätysmenetelmin tulee olemaan merkittävä kiertotalouden osa. Kierrätyslannoitteiden mahdollisuuksia on yleisesti tutkittu viime aikoina paljon, mutta niiden vaikutusta kauran fosforin ottoon on tutkittu melko vähän. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkastelun kohteena oli kauran (Avena sativa. L Obelix) fosforin otto vuosina 2017 ja 2018 Uudellamaalla sijaitsevalla koelohkolla. Tutkittavina kierrätyslannoitteina olivat lihaluujauho, matokomposti, mädätejäännös ja ammoniumsulfaatti. Kontrollina tutkimuksessa olivat väkilannoiteruutu sekä lannoittamaton ruutu. Koepellon lannoitushistoria oli suomalaisittain tyypillinen ja pellon fosforitaso oli tutkimuksen alkuvaiheessa luokiteltu hyväksi tai korkeaksi. Vuoden 2017 kasvukausi oli pitkäaikaiseen keskiarvoon (1981-2010) nähden kylmä ja sateinen, kun taas vuosi 2018 oli erityisen lämmin ja kuiva. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella näillä kierrätyslannoitteilla ei ollut merkitsevää eroa kauran fosforin ottoon kumpanakaan vuonna verrattuna väkilannoitteeseen tai lannoittamattomaan käsittelyyn. Merkitsevä ero näkyi kuitenkin vuoden 2017 fosforin otossa lihaluujauhon ja mädätejäännöksen välillä (p=0,0159 vertailussa lannoittamattoman käsittelyn ja p=0,0206 vertailussa väkilannoitekäsittelyn kanssa). Maaperän fosforitaseissa ei havaittu merkitseviä eroja käsittelyiden välillä. Kierrätyslannoitekäsittelyiden välillä havaittiin merkitsevä ero niiden vaikutuksessa maaperän pH-arvoon (p=0,045 vertailussa lannoittamattoman ruudun ja p=0,036 vertailussa väkilannoitekäsittelyn kanssa) vuonna 2018. Tukeyn HSD-testissä ei kuitenkaan tapahtunut jakaantumista eri alajoukkoihin. Koepellon ennestään hyvä ravinnetilanne on voinut vaikuttaa kokeessa tasaamalla eroja eri käsittelyiden välillä.

Harvesting pure red clover as silage gives new possibilities to optimize forage feeding of cattle for different animal groups and compromises between plants during cultivating, harvesting, wilting or ensiling are not needed as with mixed swards. This pilot scale preservation study was made as part of Opti-Palko project and the aim was to resolve best practices to ensile pure red clover. Si-lages was made from second harvest pure stands of Selma red-clover and Nuutti timothy and 50% / 50% mixture of those. The crops were ensiled immediately after harvesting and after wilting in dryer. There were five additive treatments comprising of three different acid-based products (formic acid based AIV 2 Plus Na (AIV2), AIV Via (VIA) which includes high proportion of propionic acid, un-corrosive acid mixture buffered with sodium formate (AIVB)) and heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria inoculant Josilac Combi (LAB) and control (KON). Control silages were untreated. Silages were ensilaged in vacuum bags which were opened after a storage period of 12 weeks. After opening chemical composition, microbial quality and aerobic stability were analyzed. The effect of preservatives, dry matter content (DM) (low DM: 114-135 g / kg, high DM ka: 252-305 g / kg) and the proportion of red clover (100-50-0 %) on silage quality and aerobic stability was studied. Sta-tistically significant results between treatments were observed. Wilting increased the quality of silages and well-fermented pure red clover silages were achieved when acid-based additives were used. For example, the concentration of volatile fatty acids was significantly lower than in KON and LAB treatments. In low DM KON and LAB silages very high in acetic acid which didn’t improve aerobic stability in this study but resulted in aerobic unstable silages after around 60 hours. With acid-based additive treated red clover silages, the ratio of ammonia N to total N increased with increasing DM content, which was opposite when compared to other plant materials. This might be due to polyphenoloxidase enzyme (PPO) in red clover, which inhibits the degradation of pro-tein. This study resulted that using silage preservatives is necessary in low DM silages. pH and the content of acetic acid increased with portion of red clover, but lactic acid, propionic acid and etha-nol decreased statistically significantly. AIVB treated silages resulted with same level of quality than other acid-based additive treaded red clover silages, even it was highly buffered to be non-corrosive. The results of this study are useful when choosing preservatives for red clover and gives a new perspective for harvesting silage from pure stands.

The intensification of milk production has increased the size of farms and reduced the use of pastures in recent decades worldwide. The interest in farm animal welfare and the climate impact of dairy products is growing. Offering dairy cows full-time pasture access has declined, but there are other possibilities to provide outdoor access for dairy cows. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of two outdoor management systems on the feeding behaviors and productivity of lactating dairy cows. This study was conducted at the University of Helsinki research barn’s freestall and adjacent pastureland in Viikki. The experimental design was a replicated 3x3 Latin square. Twenty-seven Ayrshire cows were divided into nine squares. During the experiment, cows went through three 21-day periods. Cows in squares were assigned to the following treatments: partial access to pasture with sufficient forage for grazing (pasture), partial access to pasture without grazeable forage (paddock), and indoor confinement. Milk yield and ECM were greater in the paddock than in the pasture treatment. Part-time grazing led to an energy deficit because pasture cows had the lowest milk yield. Outdoor access reduced the content of saturated fatty acids and increased the content of monounsaturated fatty acids in milk. Pasture cows spent 30% of their outdoor time eating and paddock cows 27%. Paddock cows used 15% of their total eating time eating TMR and 12% attempting to graze. Pasture cows ruminated the most between 12:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and indoor cows ruminated more than outdoor cows between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Outdoor cows ruminated more than indoor cows from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The cows on the pasture produced less methane per day than the paddock cows. However, methane production in g/kg ECM was not different among groups. According to this study, grazing seems to be a motivating activity for dairy cows. Providing TMR outdoors can be beneficial for the welfare of dairy cows because it enables a choice between feeds and helps to maintain milk yields. Partial outdoor access changed the diurnal pattern of rumination but not the total time used for rumination. There were no differences in milk’s polyunsaturated fatty acid contents between treatments, but eating fresh grass modified the cow’s milk to be healthier.

Fragaria x ananassa is a widely appreciated berry with its production growing all around the world. Thus, there will be a huge demand for strawberry breeding in the future especially since the climate change is casting an extra shadow upon the growing conditions which is also why there is a need for better understanding of different cultivar types. There are everbearing and seasonally flowering cultivars of both Fragaria x ananassa and Fragaria vesca. The seasonally flowering types such as ʻHapilʼ flower once during the growing season whereas everbearing types such as ʻCalypsoʼ flower for a longer period. The gene behind the change in the flowering habit has been tracked to the photoperiodic pathway of F. vesca although the gene behind the trait in F x ananassa remains unknown. The aim of this project was to compare flowering and vegetative responses of in vitro propagated everbearing F x ananassa cultivar ʻCalypsoʼ and seasonally flowering ʻHapilʼ in long and short day photoperiodic conditions in order to find out differences between everbearing and seasonally flowering cultivars. This was done by collecting data from phenotype observations linked to the vegetative and generative stages of the development of strawberries. The phenotype data was then combined with gene expression data of FaSOC1, FaTFL1, FaGA20ox4 and FaAP1 which are genes known to work on the photoperiodic pathway that regulates the switch between the vegetative and generative development of both F x ananassa and F. vesca. In addition, the expression of an everbearing phenotype associated gene FaFT2 was analysed. This study was a part of a larger project aimed to find out the genetic basis for the everbearing habit of F x ananassa. Part of the ʻCalypsoʼ plants were induced to flower already during the acclimatization period and the rest at the very beginning of the treatment period which then caused differential flowering times between the ʻCalypsoʼ groups. Short day grown ʻHapilʼ was induced to flower between weeks three and six whereas long day grown ʻHapilsʼ remained vegetative. Phenotypic observations were also backed up by the expression of FaTFL1 and FaAP1. Instead the FaSOC1 expression was repressed in short day conditions more than in the long days regardless of the cultivar type. ‘Calypsos’ were capable of producing runners regardless of photoperiod or flower induction. Consequently the runner production seemed to be regulated by factors outside of the photoperiodic pathway. However, the expression of runnering associated FaGA20ox4 was low and variable due to the sampling strategy. Interestingly most of the axillary meristems of short day grown ‘Hapils’ remained dormant for an unknown reason. Expression of FaFT2 was low on the apical meristems and further support for the role of the gene in everbearing phenotype was not found.