Browsing by master's degree program "Master's Programme in Agricultural Sciences"

Dairy cattle breeding has been driven by economics since the 1930s. For a longer period, the costeffectiveness of dairy farming has been poor, and the farmers have been forced to look for all possible ways to improve economics, through either reducing costs or increasing profit. Finland had in 2018 6250 dairy farms, which all differ from each other by size, economics and production environment. Finland participates to Nordic Cattle Genetic Evaluation (NAV) and uses Nordic Total Merit (NTM) as a joint total merit index for Finland, Denmark and Sweden. It has not been published, whether Finnish dairy farms would need more farm specific total merit indices. Breeding goal preferences do differ not only between farms but also between production types, since organic farmers tend to put more emphasis on production, compared to conventional. The aim of this study was to study whether economic values on breeding goal traits differ between farms and production types. Herd specific economic values were counted for ten breeding goal traits. The study was fulfilled with seven dairy herds, who differed from each other by herd size and production environment. Two of the herds were organic. The calculation of economic values was based on a bioeconomic model SimHerd. It is a stochastic simulation model, which simulates the herd in weekly steps, taking all events in a cow’s life into account. Traits analyzed in this study were chosen according to hypotheses of their economic values. Traits analyzed were ECM yield, mastitis, conception rate of cows, conception rate of heifers, cow mortality, calf mortality, claw and leg diseases, feed efficiency, body weight and other culling. Prices and variable costs as well as the phenotypic data of the farms was collected from the year 2018. Finnish milk production is highly dependent of subsidies, but due to their complexity, only direct subsidies for milk were considered in this study. Relations between traits were cut off from the model before simulation. The maximum number of cows for each farm was set to 1000 to improve the reliability of the simulations. Each trait was simulated three times: with the phenotypic data and then twice with changing the parameter. According to the results, the relative economic value of ECM yield was the highest for all farms. The highest economic values differ between farms, but on average the next highest economic values were for body weight, conception rate of cows and cow mortality. These economic values were in the same range for both conventional and organic farms. When relative economic values are presented as percentages of the sum of standardized economic values, traits affecting longevity cover together the greatest percentage. With improved longevity the cows have more productive years, which means greater lifetime milk yield, less replacement cots and smaller environmental impact. When results were compared between farms, they showed no need for farm specific TMI. A different TMI for organic production would need a further research.

Transient expression is a preferred way to produce proteins compared to stable transformation because it is suitable for rapid screening of constructs. pEAQ-HT vectors are easy and quick vectors without the need for viral replication, and they are developed for transient expression. They promote high expression levels and allow the insertion of multiple expression cassettes in a single plasmid. Agroinfiltration is a widely used method to induce transient gene expression in plants because it is efficient and straightforward. This study aimed to improve heterologous protein expression using Gateway compatible pEAQ-HT-DEST vectors. The genes G2PS1, 2 and 3 were subcloned to these and pK2GW7 derived expression vectors and infiltrated into tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) leaves. pK2GW7 derived expression vectors were used as a reference when samples were analyzed by western blotting, ELISA and HPLC. Tobacco should produce 6-methyl-4-hydroxy-2-pyrone and 4,7-dihydroxy-5-methylcoumarin when one of these genes is expressed, but they both have not yet been observed at the same time. Higher expression levels could allow us to see that. That would be important for further studies because if the synthesis could get started under agroinfiltration, co-transformation with reductases can lead to gerberin, parasorboside and 4-hydroxy-5-methylcoumarin biosynthesis, thus proving function. Western blotting was successful and showed a stronger signal with all pEAQ-HT derived expression vectors compared to pK2GW7 derived expression vectors. Samples collected seven days after agroinfiltration showed a stronger signal than samples collected two days after infiltration. Results from ELISA also showed more protein from pEAQ-HT vectors even though quantitative data was not obtained. HPLC showed only 6-methyl-4-hydroxy-2-pyrone but not 4,7-dihydroxy-5-methylcoumarin. Previous studies have also shown increased expression using pEAQ-HT vectors. Hence, using pEAQ-HT vectors does increase transient gene expression compared to conventional binary vectors. Even though pEAQ-HT vectors are proved to work efficiently, there are already studies about improving them.

Modern agriculture is based on intensive farming practices where plant production farms rely on external mineral fertilizers and carbon stocks of the soils are decreasing. At the same time, regional clusters of animal production farms are struggling with excessive manure that increases the risk of nutrient leaching from their fields. To overcome problems related to nutrient loss, eu-trophication of watersheds and greenhouse gas emissions from food production, several national projects aim to promote farmers to use recycled fertilizers. The latter are fertilizers or soil condi-tioners which can be processed from side products such as animal manure, green manure, mu-nicipal biowaste, by-products from food industry or sludges from wood industry. The aim of this study was to determine how different recycled fertilizer products affect grain yield and yield quality of oat as well as how the products perform in relation to nitrogen input. The field experiment was founded in southern Finland where oat was cultivated for three successive years in a five-year rotation. Liquid ammonium sulfate, meat and bone meal pellets and biogas sludge were compared with commercial mineral fertilizer. The control treatments were unfertilized plots and mineral fertilization treatments with three different nitrogen levels between 44–161 kg/ha. There were no statistically significant differences between treatments in terms of grain yield, except for favorable growing season 2017 when unfertilized plots produced the lowest yield. Nor were there differences in protein, starch, fiber or ash content of grains among recycled and min-eral fertilizers over the three years. The grain yield was positively correlated with the amount of soluble and total nitrogen. Having the lowest application level, meat and bone meal produced the highest yield per nitrogen input among fertilizer treatments. The yield results show that ammonium sulfate, meat and bone meal and biogas slurry can be as effective as mineral fertilizers in oat production, if they have the same amount of soluble nitro-gen. Good fertility of the research plot and drought stress during the two following years mitigat-ed differences among treatments so that nitrogen fertilization proved itself useful only in the grow-ing season 2017. To gather enough data and determine the long-term effect of recycled fertiliz-ers, further research should be distributed into several pilot farms. Moreover, the current Finnish fertilizer recommendations should be updated towards experimental nutrient balance models. This could encourage farmers to gather information of the yield-limiting factors and prevent over fertili-zation in poorly responsive soils.

The modern food production consumes substantial amounts of fossil energy. Meanwhile, the bioenergy that is embedded in the side streams of food production – such as manure and excess grass biomass, is lost. That energy could be utilized by anaerobic digestion in biogas plants, which would also contribute to an efficient nutrient cycling since the nutrient-rich digestate can be used as a fertilizer. Agroecological symbiosis is a local model for a sustainable food system that is based on the cooperative actions of food production stakeholders around a biogas plant. The aim of this study was to discover what the application of agroecological symbiosis would mean for energy self-sufficiency, nutrient cycling, food production and the structure of agriculture on municipal level. The study subject area was the agricultural area in the municipality of Saltvik on Åland, where grassland for forage and pasture cover 40 % and grains 38 % of the agricultural land area. There are 0,56 livestock units per agricultural hectare. The current state of the food production was modelled based on local farming statistics. Based on that, three scenarios (S1-S3) with increasingly wide modifications were created. In the first scenario (S1), only the digestion of side streams in a biogas plant was added compared to the current system. On the second scenario (S2), 25 % of the agricultural land area devoted to grain production was altered to green manure leys, and in the third scenario (S3) 50 %. The reduction of grain area led to a lower degree of local self-sufficiency of grain feed, which was corrected by reducing the number of animals. The released share of grassland for forage was used for cultivating peas for direct human use. That way the scenarios represented a possible situation, where plant-based food production is increased and animal-based is decreased. The energy self-sufficiency was estimated by the relation of potential bioenergy production and fossil energy use. The rate of energy self-sufficiency rose scenario by scenario, as it was 58 % in S1, 69 % in S2 and 83 % in S3 due to the increased amount of bioenergy produced, as well as the decreased amount of fossil energy used. Simultaneously the portion of recycled nutrients used for fertilization was increased. Compared to the 46 % share of recycled nitrogen in the current system, 5, 9 and 17 percentage units more were used in the S1-S3, respectively. As for phosphorus the corresponding percentage units compared to the original 70 % were 3, 4 and 5 in S1-S3, respectively. The local self-sufficiency of feed remained unchanged and the food production nearly unchanged in each scenario compared to the current state. The study demonstrated the current potential to produce renewable energy in Saltvik based on agricultural side streams to a degree that would cover over half of the current fossil energy use of local food production. By shifting the focus of food production towards plant production, and by expanding the area of green manure furthermore increased the energy and nutrient self-sufficiency.

Recognizing and evaluating the benefits of trees is important for creating sustainable, safe and recreational urban spaces. i-Tree Eco software is developed by USDA for evaluation and valuation of ecosystem services of urban trees and forests. The objective of this research was to find out how does the quality of collected data affect i-Tree Eco modelling. Two different types of data and modelling results were compared in this research. All trees of the park Kupittaanpuisto in Turku were measured and evaluated according to the i-Tree guidance in late summer 2018 (later inventory). The contrasting data was selected from the tree register maintained by the city of Turku (later tree register). i-Tree Eco models several ecosystem services, of which carbon storage, carbon sequestration, avoided surface water runoff and pollution removal were analyzed in this research. The software estimates the structural value of the trees considering the land use and tree condition as well. The results show that the quality of data affects modelling results. Based on the total inventory data, the amounts of carbon sequestration, avoided surface water runoff and pollution removal were higher than the amounts modelled according to the tree register data. On the other hand, the structural value and carbon storage were bigger based on the register data than on the total inventory measurements. Lack of canopy dimensions and estimates of canopy condition had an impact on the modelling results. According to the total inventory, there were 1315 trees in the Kupittaanpuisto (ca. 34 ha), the structural value was approx. 2 430 000 €, carbon storage was 563 t, annual carbon sequestration 12 t, annual avoided surface water runoff 811 m3 and annual pollution removal 307 kg. On grounds of this research it can be stated that canopy measurements and canopy condition estimates are needed to make more accurate estimates of ecosystem services when using i-Tree Eco. This research showed that trees in the Kupittaanpuisto produce many ecosystem services and the trees are valuable. In the future, the results can be used as a reference for other research projects on ecosystem services of urban trees in the Nordic countries.

Linear scoring of livestock and farm animals has been in use since the 1980’s. In Europe, the first linear evaluations in horse breeding were conducted in 1989. In Finland, the linear evaluation was introduced into breeding evaluation of warmblood horses in 2015. So far, there is only a limited amount of research available about the heritabilities calculated from linear evaluation. Some of the studies have shown that the judge has a statistically significant effect on the linear conformation evaluation of the horse. The heritabilites from these studies have varied within different researches. The highest siginificant heritabilities have been found for conformation traits. For now, only warmblood horses are being evaluated linearly in Finland. The aim of this study was to estimate the heritabilities of the leg and movement traits from show data between 2015 – 2019 and to estimate the genetic correlations between different traits. All in all 26 traits were analyzed in the study. There were 915 horses in the data. Observations were gathered from 29 different shows in Finland. Both geldings, mares and stallions were represented in the data, mares being the largest group of gender. From one singular age group, the two – year- old mares had the greatest amount of observations. Based on the year of birth, horses born in 2015 had the most observations. The year of birth did not, however, have any significance on the results. Both the age and the gender of the horse did have a statistic significance on the results. Also the location of the show and the year of observation had some significance. Heritibilities of leg traits based on this data were extremely low, ranging between 0,00 – 0,11. The heritabilities of type and movement traits ranged between 0,00 and 0,28. Standard errors of heritabilities ranged between 0,09 – 0,14. Genetic correlations between the traits ranged between weak to strong. Standard errors of genetic correlations ranged between 0,04 – 0,13. To get reliable heritability parameters, more data and research is needed about the linear scoring of horses.

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli hankkia tietoa karjakohtaisesta elinikäistuottavuudesta ja siihen kytkeytyvistä tekijöistä Suomessa. Aineisto kerättiin valiolaisilta Tuotosseurantaan kuuluvilta maitotiloilta. Varsinainen tutkimusaineisto koostui yli 120 lehmän tiloista ja aineiston lopullinen määrä oli 191 tilaa. Tutkimusosuus koostui kahdesta osiosta. Tilastoanalyysia varten luotiin uusi yhdistetty muuttuja EKM/elinpäivä maitoa meijeriin, jossa yhdistettiin käytettävissä olevia tuotosindi-kaattoreita. Monimuuttujaisen lineaarisen regressioanalyysimallin avulla testattiin valittujen hyvinvointi- ja tuotosindikaattoreiden yhteyttä luotuun vastemuuttujaan. Tilasto-osuuden jälkeen toteutettiin tapaustutkimus haastattelemalla kymmentä yrittäjää heidän korkeiden elin-ikäistuottavuustietojensa taustoista. Tilastoanalyysissa havaittiin lypsytavan, poistettujen lehmien keski-iän, keskituotoksen, kokonaisjalostusarvon, lehmien ja ensikoiden poistoprosenttien ja poikimavälin selittävän reilun kolmasosan tilojen välisestä vaihtelusta tutkimusaineiston tiloilla. Lypsytapa nousi tuloksissa merkittävimmäksi selittäväksi tekijäksi siten, että asemalypsytiloilla EKM/elinpäivä maitoa meijeriin oli keskimäärin noin 1,56 kg suurempi kuin automaattilypsytiloilla. Taustalla voivat olla automaattilypsytilojen vaatimukset lehmien jalka- ja utarerakenteen suhteen. Näiden eläimen rakenteeseen yhdistyvien tekijöiden heikko laatu oli myös tapaustutkimuksessa usein poiston taustalla. Tilakohtaisessa tapaustutkimusosuudessa tärkeimmiksi tekijöiksi elinikäistuottavuuden taustalla nousivat matala hoitokynnys, ennakoiva eläinterveydenhuolto ja varhainen puuttuminen jo sairauden subkliinisessä vaiheessa. Toisaalta haastatteluissa kävi ilmi myös yrittäjien myönteinen suhtautuminen työhönsä, arvostus lehmiään kohtaan ja korkea motivaatio panostaa eläinten terveyteen ja hyvinvointiin. Tähän tutkimukseen luotua yhdistettyä muuttujaa EKM/elinpäivä maitoa meijeriin voidaan tietynlaisena osatuottavuusmittarina. Sen avulla voidaan kuitenkin tarkastella karjakohtaisen kestävyyden ja tuottavuuden yhdistelmää ja niiden muodostumista. Nykyaikaisen maitotilan toiminnassa voidaankin ajatella yhdistyvän kolme osa-aluetta: taloudellinen kannattavuus, ekologisuus ja eläinten hyvinvointi. Toisaalta eri osa-alueet voivat myös tukea toisiaan, kun tilan toiminta on oikein johdettua ja toimenpiteet osataan kohdistaa oikein ja eri osa-alueiden toimintamekanismeista ja kytköksistä toisiinsa on riittävästi tietoa. Vaikka elinikäistuottavuutta ei tässä tutkimuksessa kytketty taloudelliseen kannattavuuteen, voidaan kestävien, pitkäikäisten lehmien ajatella avaavan mahdollisuuksia myös jalostusvalinnan tehostamiseen. Maidontuotantoon voidaan valita vain parhaiden lehmäyksilöiden vasikat, kun uudistustarve pienenee ja jalostukseen käytettävät lehmät voidaan valita suuremmasta joukosta eläimiä. Tutkimus tulee tällaisenaan Valion Voimalehmä-hankkeen käyttöön.

Residual feed intake (RFI) is a measurement method used in animals to determine feed efficiency. Improving feed efficiency has been found to be more cost-effective than maximizing daily gain. Determining the feed efficiency is laborious as the measurement periods are long and expensive. The problem is the limited capacity of the measuring devices in relation to the number of animals, because the animals daily dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG) and metabolic body weight (MMBW) must be measured over a sufficiently long continuous period. The aim of the study was to optimize the measurement of residual feed intake to reduce workload. In this case, the costs of measurement would be lower, and the utilization rate of measuring equipment would be improved. The study sought a critical limit on the amount of data required. Measurements were removed from the data until it was found that the reliability of the results was affected. The hypothesis was that the fewer measurements and the shorter the measurement period, the greater the risk of error in the results. The study material included 105 dairy bulls and the experiment lasted 56 days. DMI was measured for each animal and the animals were weighed once a week during the experiment, a total of nine times (double weighings at the beginning, middle and end of the measurement period). The growth curves were used to calculate the ADG and MMBW of the animals. In addition, the area of the area of the cross-section of the longissimus muscle (M.longissimus dorsi) and the thickness of the back fat of each bull were measured with an ultrasound device at the end of the experiment. RFI was calculated for seven different measurement periods. The original 56-day period was shortened to seven days at a time until the period was 28 days. Ultrasound measurements were added to the 56-day measurement period model only. In addition, the number of weighing was reduced from nine to five and three times from the original 56-day model. The addition of ultrasound measurements weakened the statistical model compared to the initial 56-day measurement period. The animal RFI results changed the most in the 28-day and 35-day models. The reliability of the results decreased the least in the 49-day and five-weighing models. The ADG and MMBW averages remained almost the same in the models until 35 days. The shorter the measurement period, the more the DMI values changed. Based on the results, shortening length of the RFI measurement period to 42 days had no market effect on the results. A 42-day measurement period is enough for DMI, but a longer measurement period is recommended for ADG. Three weighings did not change the ADG as much as the 49-day measurement period and was more reliable than the 42-day measurement period. Adding longissimus muscle and back fat to the RFI model did not improve the reliability of the model and thus did not provide added value. Based on this study, ultrasonic measurements are not required to determine RFI, and the workload can also be reduced by shortening the measurement period or reducing weighing times.

Tomaatit ovat tärkeimpiä luomutuotteita Suomessa. Pohjoismaisissa oloissa luomutomaatteja kasvatetaan pääasiassa kasvihuoneissa rajoitetussa kasvualustassa. Luomukasvihuonetuotanto eroaa tavanomaisesta tuotannosta eniten kasvinravinteiden käytössä. Tutkimuksen tavoitteina oli selvittää luonnonmukaisen kasvualustojen ja kasvinravitsemuksen vaikutusta tomaatin satoon ja sadon laatuun. Kasvihuonetutkimuksessa kirsikkatomaatilla (Solanum lycopersicum) tutkittiin kolmea kaupallista luomukasvualustaa ja kahta kokeeseen suunniteltua luomujakojuurikasvualustaa, joita verrattiin tavanomaiseen kivennäislannoitettuun kontrollialustaan. Luomukasvualustoja lannoitettiin pelkästään siipikarjanlannasta valmistetuilla kiinteillä lannoitteilla. Jakojuurialustat erosivat toisistaan vain lannoituksen määrän suhteen. Kokeessa seurattiin kasvualustojen ravinnepitoisuuksia, sadon määrää ja laatua ja tomaattien vegetatiivista kasvua. Kasvualustoista kerättiin satoa 28 viikon ajan. Yhtä kaupallista kasvualustaa lukuun ottamatta kaikki luomukasvualustat tuottivat yhtä suuren sadon kuin kivennäislannoitettuun kontrolli. Heikoimmat sadot ja vegetatiivisen kasvun tuotti kasvualusta, jonka rakenne ei tukenut lisättyjen ravinnepanosten liukenemista ja mineralisoitumista kasveille helposti käytettävään muotoon. Kontrolli tuotti tilastollisesti eniten kauppakelvottomia hedelmiä. Kasvualusta ja lannoiteratkaisut eivät vaikuttaneet hedelmien liukoisten kuiva-aineiden pitoisuuteen, mutta kontrollin hedelmien titrautuva happamuus oli 25 – 30 % luomukasvualustoja suurempi kasvukauden alussa. Titrautuvan happamuuden kasvu alentaa tomaattien sokeri/happo -suhdetta, mikä viittaa kontrollissa olevan huonomman makuisia tomaatteja. Kokeessa käytetyt jakojuurialustat eivät eronneet tilastollisesti toisistaan sadon määrän, laadun tai vegetatiivisen kasvun suhteen. Kasvualustan rakenne on erityisen tärkeää lannoituksen onnistumisen kannalta. Luomukasvualustoilla ja luomulannoituksella voidaan saada samansuuruinen ja laadukkaampi sato tavanomaiseen tuotantoon verrattuna, jos kasvualustan ravinteiden riittävyydestä pidetään huoli.

Maissi on yksivuotinen heinäkasvi, jonka viljely Suomessa on lisääntynyt merkittävästi ja viljelyala on ollut viime vuosina yli tuhat hehtaaria. Suomessa viljeltävä maissi korjataan tuleentumattomana nautakarjan karkearehuksi. Maissisäilörehu sisältää paljon tärkkelystä ja on siksi erittäin energiapitoinen karkearehu. Maissin viljelyvarmuuden lisääntyessä se saattaisi olla hyvä karkearehuvaihtoehto nurmen rinnalle riskien hajauttamista ajatellen. Maissin etuna viljelykasvina on sen tehokas vedenkäyttökyky sekä yhdellä korjuukerralla saatava suuri sato. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää maissisäilörehun vaikutuksia lypsylehmien maidontuotantoon, dieetin sulavuuteen ja typen hyväksikäyttöön, kun nurmisäilörehua korvataan osittain maissisäilörehulla. Tutkimus toteutettiin kolmena 3 x 3 latinalaisena neliönä, joissa oli mukana 9 ayrshire-rotuista lehmää. Lehmät olivat parsissa ja ne lypsettiin kaksi kertaa päivässä. Kokeen lehmät olivat poikineet 2 – 4 kertaa ja kokeen alkaessa niiden poikimisesta oli keskimäärin 69 ± 17,4 (SD) päivää. Tutkimuksessa oli kolme erilaista koeruokintaa, joiden karkearehuvaihtoehdot olivat puhdas nurmisäilörehu (kuiva-aine 316 g/kg, D-arvo 652 g/kg ka) sekä seokset, joissa 25 % tai 50 % nurmisäilörehun kuiva-aineesta korvattiin maissisäilörehulla (kuiva-aine 359 g/kg, D-arvo 679 g/kg ka). Karkearehuseoksia täydennettiin väkirehun tilaseoksella (ohra, kaura, härkäpapu, herne, melassileike, kivennäinen, propyleeniglykoli). Seosrehujen karkearehu-väkirehu -suhde oli 65:35 kuiva-aineessa. Lehmille oli tarjolla vapaasti seosrehua ja vettä. Lisäksi lehmät saivat täysrehua 7 kg/pv. Nurmisäilörehun korvaaminen maissisäilörehulla nosti lineaarisesti lehmien kuiva-ainesyöntiä (24,3 vs. 25,3 vs. 26,0 kg ka/pv) ja maitotuotosta (32,8 vs. 33,3 vs. 34,0 kg/pv). Maidon rasvapitoisuus nousi 5,6 %, kun nurmisäilörehun kuiva-aineesta korvattiin 50 % maissisäilörehulla. Valkuaispitoisuuteen maissisäilörehulla ei ollut vaikutusta. Paras energiakorjattu maitotuotos (33,2 kg vs. 33,6 kg vs. 35,3 kg) saavutettiin, kun karkearehun kuiva-aineesta 50 % oli maissisäilörehua. Maissisäilörehun osuuden lisääntyessä ruokinnassa ravintoaineiden sulavuus heikkeni ja typen hyväksikäyttö (N tuotos/ N saanti) parani (0,286 vs. 0,291 vs. 0,306). Tutkimuksen perusteella nurmisäilörehun osittainen korvaaminen maissisäilörehulla nostaa lehmien maitotuotosta ja maidon rasvapitoisuutta. Myös typen hyväksikäyttö paranee maissisäilörehun osuuden noustessa. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella jopa puolet nurmisäilörehusta kannattaa korvata maissisäilörehulla.