Productivity of lactating dairy cows fed diets with teff hay as the sole forage

Groundwater depletion is one of the most pressing issues facing the dairy industry in arid regions. One strategy to improve the industry's drought resilience involves feeding drought-tolerant forage crops in place of traditional forage crops such as alfalfa and corn silage. The objective of this study was to assess the productivity of lactating dairy cows fed diets with teff hay (Eragrostis tef) as the sole forage. Teff is a warm-season annual grass native to Ethiopia that is well adapted to drought conditions. Nine multiparous Holstein cows (185 ± 31 d in milk; mean ± standard deviation) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 diets in a 3 × 3 Latin square design with 18-d periods (14 d acclimation and 4 d sampling). Diets were either control, where dietary forage consisted of a combination of corn silage, alfalfa hay, and native grass hay, or 1 of 2 teff diets (teff-A and teff-B), where teff hay [13.97 ± 0.32% crude protein, dry matter (DM) basis] was the sole forage. All 3 diets were formulated for similar DM, crude protein, and nonfiber carbohydrate concentrations. Control and teff-A were matched for concentrations of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) from forage (18.2 ± 0.15% of DM), and teff-B included slightly less, providing 16.6% NDF from forage. Dry matter intake, milk and component production, body weight, body condition score, as well as DM and NDF digestibility were monitored and assessed using mixed model analysis, with significance declared at P < 0.05. Treatment had no effect on dry matter intake (28.1 ± 0.75 kg/d). Similarly, treatment had no effect on milk production (40.7 ± 1.8 kg/d). Concentrations of milk fat (3.90 ± 0.16%) and lactose (4.68 ± 0.07%) were also unaffected by treatment. Teff-A and teff-B increased milk protein concentration compared with the control (3.07 vs. 3.16 ± 0.09%). Treatment had no effect on energy-corrected milk yield (43.4 ± 1.3 kg/d), body weight, or body condition score change. Additionally, treatment had no effect on total-tract DM or NDF digestibility. Results from this study indicate that teff hay has potential to replace alfalfa and corn silage in the diets of lactating dairy cattle without loss of productivity.     

Fitting Drought Duration and Severity with Two-Dimensional Copulas

This study aims to model the joint drought duration and severity distribution using two-dimensional copulas. The method of inference function for margins (IFM method) is employed to construct copulas. Two separate maximum likelihood estimations of univariate marginal distributions are performed first, then followed by a maximization of the bivariate likelihood as a function of the dependence parameters. The drought duration and severity are assumed to be exponential and gamma distributions, respectively. Several copulas are tested to determine the best data fitted copula. Droughts, defined using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), of Wushantou (Taiwan) are employed as an example to illustrate the proposed methodology. The copula fitting results for drought duration and severity are quite satisfactory. The bivariate drought analyses, including the joint probabilities and bivariate return periods, based on the derived copula-based joint distribution are also investigated to demonstrate the advantages of bivariate modeling of droughts.     

宁夏彭阳县旱灾成因分析及抗旱措施研究

干旱是对人类及社会危害极大的一种自然灾害。干旱可分为气象干旱、水文干旱、农业干旱和社会经济干旱。农业干旱是彭阳县发生范围最广、频率最高、灾情最严重的干旱类型,是影响县域经济和社会发展的重要制约因素。本文简要阐述了彭阳县农业干旱发生的规律,探讨了评定干旱的几种方法,并对干旱成因作了详细分析,为掌握农业干旱发生、发展的规律...     

抗旱应急工程项目管理的重要环节分析

受我国经济社会快速发展、城镇化进程加快和全球气候变化加剧的影响,我国受干旱灾害的影响日益加剧,近年来,为应对日益严重的旱灾,每年都会实施一批抗旱应急工程。通过分析抗旱应急工程的特点,结合项目管理理念,提出了针对抗旱应急工程区别于其他建设工程的关键环节的项目管理方法。     

输电线路工频电场分布特性与计算方法辨析

气象条件会对导线的弧垂产生影响并导致线路附近的电场发生变化,这已被广泛关注并在计算中予以考虑。测试仪器在潮湿或雨天读数变大的现象使得部分研究者认为气象条件直接改变了电场大小。为说明潮湿或雨水等气象条件不会直接改变输电线路附近电场大小和分布特性,对电场分布进行了理论分析,并设计了模拟电位分布测试以及不同绝缘状态的测试仪器...     

计及气象因素的电网静态安全指标体系

针对目前计及气象因素的电网静态安全风险评估指标只涉及系统静态安全的某个或数个方面,尚没有一个完整评估指标体系的问题,提出了一个包括静态安全评估指标、运行风险评估指标以及电网薄弱点评估指标在内的电网静态安全风险评估完整指标体系,实现了气象因素对于电网静态安全风险影响的全方位评估。安徽电网的算例证明了所提电网静态安全风险评估框架体系的有效性和正确性。