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Tannins and essential oils (EOs) have been previously described for their properties to mitigate ruminal methane and ammonia. Their combination might be even more efficient, as they have different modes of action on rumen pathways. This study aimed to screen in vitro the mitigating properties of variously combining tannins with EO in a total of 48 treatments: 12 single additives, 10 mg of EO or 20 mg of tannins/g diet, to establish their basal efficiency; 36 combinations of 20 mg of tannins/g + 10–15 mg of EO. Quebracho (Q) and chestnut (C) tannins defined C, Q and C/Q groups of mixtures with EO blends, formulated with oregano, thyme and clove EO, citrus peel, carvacrol, thymol, eugenol, α-pinene, and bornyl acetate. Supplements were added to a control diet, which was also incubated alone as a basis for comparisons with supplemented treatments, in a total of six runs. Effects on rumen pH, protozoal count, and proportions of individual volatile fatty acids (VFA) were limited. The tannins extracts seemed to cause most of the mitigating effects by suppressing ammonia by up to 31% and methane yield by up to 15%, with the highest reductions obtained with tannins-based supplements. However, this occurred by contemporary affecting the feeding value of the substrate, as indicated by reductions in total VFA and in vitro organic matter digestibility. Overall, six mixtures of C and Q groups were the most efficient and they need further studies to understand the mechanisms of actions and the synergistic effects occurring among compounds., Italian Journal of Animal Science, 21 (1), ISSN:1594-4077, ISSN:1828-051X

The transition from conventional arable towards silvoarable systems can increase the delivery of ecosystem services. Nevertheless, the assessment of crop yield under agroforestry condition is crucial to evaluate of the reliability of these systems and to increase the knowledge base needed to support their design. Although the feasibility of poplar short rotation coppice (SRC) silvoarable alley-cropping systems has been widely investigated, few studies have addressed the agronomic response of crops intercropped with poplar SRC in narrow alleys, especially in Mediterranean environments. Thus, this paper treats the effects of SRC poplar rows on soybean and sorghum productivity in a 2-year rotation implemented in an alley-cropping system. A field experiment was carried out in 2018 and 2019 with the objective of measuring and evaluating effects of light availability variation, as affected by the growing rate of 2-year coppice cycle poplar SRC rows, and the soil characteristics on soybean-sorghum and sorghum–soybean rotations. Above-ground biomass, grain yield and crops residue showed a significant reduction in the tree–crop interface up to 74% and sorghum proved to be less tolerant to light reduction compared to soybean. Our results demonstrated that light is the most important factor for sorghum cultivation, despite grain yield was also influenced by the soil characteristics such as pH, while soybean is affected also by soil moisture and water retention capacity. The design of crop rotation in an SRC-based agroforestry system needs to consider the different agronomic performance of different crops and the harvest cycle of tree rows.

The aims of the present study were to evaluate the preventive and the therapeutic effect of Stodi® as phytogenic feed additive rich in phenolic substances on the calf diarrhea, during the first 24 days of life. A total of 40 calves were included and randomly divided into Group C (control group) and Group T (treated group) with placebo or treatment administration started from the third day of life (T0). Calves belonged to group C received 2 L of warm water, while the calves assigned to group T received 2L of warm water plus 30 g of Stodi®. Solutions administration was maintained until day 21 (T21) that was the end of the experimental period. Calves were weighed at T0 and T21 to assess the average daily gain (ADG). Physical examination and fecal score evaluation were performed daily. The duration of a diarrheic episode, the age of the first diarrhea outbreak (TDE) and the frequency of diarrheic episodes were recorded. Complete blood count, methemoglobin and liver enzymes were evaluated at T0 and at T21 in all the calves by spectrophotometer and clinical chemistry analysis, respectively. Data were analyzed using a mixed model. A Chi-square and a Mann-Whitney test were also performed. No difference was found for ADG between the groups. The difference of mean age at TDE was not statistically significant between C and T group. The number of calves with diarrhea in the C group tended to be higher than that of T group (p = 0.13). Calves in group C spent more days with clinical sign of diarrhea compared to group T (p = 0.016). Complete blood count, methemoglobin and liver enzymes were within the reference ranges. The feed additive Stodi® seemed to be effective in shortening neonatal diarrhea episodes in calves thanks to the administration of 30 g per day of product. The fixed dosage of Stodi® used in our study did not show a preventive effect to reduce the incidence of calf diarrhea.

Measuring at high frequency soil Auxes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) in agricultural soils requires appropriate technology. With this aim, a prototype was developed and tested in agricultural soils for 5 months, within the framework of the LIFE project AGRESTIC. The prototype is composed by two automatic GHG stations for measuring CO 2 (LI-COR LI-850) and N 2 O (Teledyne GFC-7002TU) fluxes from soil and an IT infrastructure for data management. The two GHG stations were installed one in Ravenna, Italy, (Ca Bosco farm) and the other in Foggia, Italy, (Caione farm), where two different cropping systems were compared. Along the period going from January 1st to May 31st, 2020 the two GHG stations proved to be robust to field conditions (e.g. wind, rain, freeze etc.). The quality of the measurements was different in the two sites, with more than 90% of good measurements in Ravenna and more than 60% in Foggia.

Plant Leaf Area Index (LAI) is a key variable for several land surface processes related to vegetation dynamics. Satellite systems offer the opportunity to estimate LAI by remote, allowing to reduce costs for crop monitoring over large areas. Indeed, LAI, is a process variable of several models used for the prediction of crop biomass accumulation, yield and canopy coverage over space and time. Uncertainty of LAI estimation by means of Vegetation Indices extrapolated from multispectral satellite images is related to several factors: (i) crop type (due to the variability of plant architectures, the light extinction coefficient highly variable among crop species), (ii) the effect of environmental covariates, which affects the crop development together with the farm management. This study aimed at evaluating how the ground-LAI (Leaf Area Index) measurements and satellite vegetation indexes from Sentinel 2 reflectance were affected by the variety of crop type and the uncertainties related to different farm managements. We used Sentinel-2 imagery spanning across the growth seasons, over three agricultural sites located in the Mediterranean agroecosystem (Central Italy) and we produced satellite NDVI index to estimate LAI by remote over the sites. In the same period, with a monthly stratified random ground sampling design, the three agricultural farms with prevalent herbaceous crop cover were monitored in terms of ground- LAI variations. The novelty and the added value extracted from the results was that the uncertainty induced by farm management (FARM) variability can be relevant as much as the one caused by crop type (CROP) and seasonality (TIME) variations when ground-LAI measurements and satellite NDVI were analyzed by a set of non-liner regression models.

Preserving soils is a major challenge in ensuring sustainable agriculture for the future. Soil erosion by water is a critical issue in the Mediterranean regions and usually occurs when high-erosive precipitation is in temporal association with poor vegetation cover and density. Modelling soil erosion risks over large spatial scales suffers from the scarcity of accurate information on land cover, rainfall erosivity and their intra-annual dynamics. We estimated the soil erosion risk on arable land in a Mediterranean area (Grosseto Province, southern Tuscany, Italy) and investigated its potential reduction as a response to the change in intra-annual distribution of land cover due to the increase of perennial forage crops. A GIS-based (R)USLE model was employed and a scenario analysis was performed by setting criteria for raising the performance of perennial forage crops. Statistical data on agricultural crops provided an insight into current intra-annual land cover dynamics. Rainfall erosivity was computed on the basis of 22-year hourly precipitation data. The model was used to: i) quantify the potential soil losses of arable land in the study area, ii) identify those areas highly affected by erosion risks iii) explore the potential for soil conservation of perennial crops, thereby enabling appropriate preventive measures to be identified. The erosion rates, averaged over an area of about 140’000 ha, are estimated to 33.42 Mg ha−1 y−1. More than 59% of the study area was subjected to soil losses higher than 11 Mg ha−1 y−1 (from moderate to severe erosion) and the highest rates are estimated for steep inland areas. Arable land with severe soil erosion rates (higher than 33 Mg ha−1 y−1) represent about 35% of the whole study area. The risk of soil loss by water erosion in the study area is estimated to be reduced on average by 36% if perennial crops are increased in terms of 35% of the total arable land. The soil erosion data produced compared well with the published local and regional data. This study thus provides useful preliminary information for landscape planning authorities and can be used as a decision support tool in quantifying the implications of management policies.