• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 1997

Holstein Friesian and Jersey crossbreds are being widely introduced in the state of Gujarat in India. This paper evaluates feeding practices at farm level and examines whether the crossbreds fit into the existing mixed farm systems. Over a period of four years milk-offtake and feeds offered were recorded for 1331 cows at fortnightly intervals. The breed and the amount of concentrates fed contributed most to the variation in milk offtake. The introduction of crossbred cattle has a major impact on smallholder mixed farming systems. Crossbreds produced, on average, 1.8 times more milk than Desi, Gir, and Kankrej cows. They were fed 1.4 times more concentrates, and about 1.2 times more green and dry feeds than local cows. The major limiting constraint is the quality of the roughages offered. Farmers with crossbreds try to adjust their feeding of concentrates according to the needs of their cows. On tribal farms, local cows produced less milk than on non-tribal farms, whereas crossbreds produced the same amount of milk on both tribal and non-tribal farms. Crossbreds fit into the farming systems of both tribal and non-tribal farmers. The differences in agro-climatic characteristics between different areas in Gujarat were not reflected in differences in milk offtakes.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2018

A mixed farming system that includes organic rice production and freshwater fish farming is being called into attention in Korean agricultural industry and rural areas in order to improve farm management and environmental conservation. This study was conducted to evaluate the environmental and ecological value of such mixed farming practices. Expert assessment and rapid assessment method (RAM) of wetland evaluation were employed for this study. Experts have responded that biodiversity conservation including amphibian and reptile habitat (2.39), aquatic insect habitat (2.36), Fishery habitat (2.34), vegetation diversity (2.13), avian habitat (2.05), and experience and education were the most important function of mixed farming. The wetland function evaluation conducted using modified RAM indicated that rice-fish mixed system showed improvements in most of the evaluated functions, compared to the conventional rice paddies. The overall wetland function of rice paddies in rice-fish mixed system was greatly improved as compared with the conventional rice paddies. Rice paddies are known to play an important role in biodiversity maintenance, and provide ecosystem services such as climate modulation and carbon reduction. Rice-fish mixed system of farming may not only improve various ecosystem services of rice paddies, but may increase farm income through value added fish farming, as well as promotion of social services such as education and maintenance of tradition. Additional research is needed for quantitative analysis of the values gained from the most improved wetland function when mixed farming system is actually put into practice, and to utilize the results in advertising of the organic rice, and in various sectors such as food, education and direct payment policy.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.57-71
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• 2009

Crop-livestock mixed farming systems depend on the efficiency with which nutrients are conserved and recycled. Home-grown forage is used as animal feed and animal excretions are applied to cultivated crop lands as manure. The objective of this study was to develop a mixed farming system model for dairy cattle in Japan. The model consisted of four sub-models: the nutrient requirement model, based on the Japanese Feeding Standards to determine requirements for energy, crude protein, dry matter intake, calcium, phosphorus and vitamin A; the optimum diet formulation model for determining the optimum diets that satisfy nutrient requirements at lowest cost, using linear programming; the herd dynamic model to calculate the numbers of cows in each reproductive cycle; and the whole farm optimization model to evaluate whole farm management from economic and environmental viewpoints and to optimize strategies for the target farm or system. To examine the model' validity, its predictions were compared against best practices for dairy farm management. Sensitivity analyses indicated that higher yielding cows lead to better economic results but higher emvironmental load in dairy cattle systems integrated with forage crop production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.621-628
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• 1997

This study aimed to quantify the impact of crossbreeding at farm level, in mixed farm systems in Gujarat. Households with crossbred cattle did not differ from households without crossbreds in terms of farm resources, crop gross margins and off-farm income. The use of crossbred animals did increase livestock gross margins by 64% and household income by 22%. The three agro-ecological zones included in this study differed considerably according to farm system and household income. However, in all three zones, households with crossbreds had higher livestock gross margins than households without crossbreds. There was no real difference in work load and labour division between households with and without crossbreds. There was also no difference in the use of bullocks for draught purposes between the two types of households. In particular buffaloes are being replaced by crossbred cattle. There was a large variation in farm income, largely because of land area. The milk offake per average cow and the number of buffaloes also related positively to farm income in both types of households. Crossbreeding has proved technically and financially viable in different Gujarat mixed farming systems. It can be concluded that crossbreeding is an important development option for landless farmers.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.286-294
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• 2020

This study aims to economically evaluate rice production and various ecological services provided by organic rice paddy carrying out rice-fish mixed farming. It was also conducted to find a stable structure for increasing the income of rice-producing farmers and promoting ecological services by evaluating the economic feasibility of organic rice paddy for rice-fish mixed farming. As a result of the analysis of expected effects by ecological service functions according to the types of agriculture in the rice-fish mixed farming, general conventional paddy fields were evaluated to have an effect of continuously decreasing biodiversity such as amphibian reptiles, aquatic insects, bird habitats, experience and ecological education, and vegetation diversity, while the biodiversity of organic and rice-fish mixed paddy fields was assessed to increase. As a result of evaluating the economic value, as the area for fish production increases compared to the common practice and organic paddy fields, rice production decreases, but fish production increases and total income was analyzed to increase. In addition, if the value of ecosystem service functions is assessed in the future, it will increase further. It is hoped that these findings will be used as basic data for solving oversupply problems in the rice industry, preserving safe farm income, and improving sustainable farming and ecosystem service functions.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.97-110
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• 2000

An organic agriculture should be managed by mixed farming in farm unit as a closed recycling system. Due to restricted purchased of fertilizers from outside, organic farmer has to deal with limited amount of nutrient source in farm unit. Especially the supply of the essential nutrient, nitrogen, mostly depends on legumes fixing nitrogen optimizing the site-adapted crop rotation. Dynamics of humus and metabolic plant carbon and active soil carbon compartment in active and passive humuspool by rotation system was explained, and dynamics of potentially mineralizable nitrogen in organic nitrogen and biomass was discussed. It was also discussed comparison of ammonia emission, potential greenhouse effect, primary energy input, acidification potential, CO2 emission between organic and conventional farming, the nitrate-nitrogen dynamic in the soil profile by organic, integrated and conventional farming system. In conclusion, it was suggested for Korean Organic Agriculture that the importance of legumes and green manures in rotation system for increase/maintenance of soil ferfility, and was pointed out the need of investment for environment impact of Korean organic farming implement.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.19 no.spc
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• pp.178-181
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• 2011

The test was carried out at a test field at the Wanju Eco-Farming Complex from 2009 to 2010 to figure out the proper application of fertilizers when growing rice at the Eco-Farming Complex. The result showed that when compared to the basal application of compost as fertilizer, applying supplementary compost after natural re-seeding of chinese milk vetch (CMV) helped balance soil nutrition and maintained rice yields.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.295-305
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• 2013

Purpose: Recent research showed that total mixed ration (TMR) feeding for pigs improved the productivity and reduced feed cost and manure odor. An automatic TMR feeding system was developed for this study because the conventional feeder cannot deliver the TMR containing roughage. Methods: Conventional feeding systems and physical properties of TMR were surveyed, and performance tests of the conventional feeder were conducted to develop a TMR feeder. Based on the TMR feeder was developed and installed, driving, measuring weight, radio frequency identification (RFID) reading, and discharging test for feeding were conducted to ensure the performance. Results: Moisture content, density, and angle of repose of the TMR 1 (mixture of 30% cut IRG silage and 70% concentrates) were 31.6%, 387 $kg/m^3$, and $51^{\circ}$, respectively. Moisture content, density, and angle of repose of the TMR 2 (mixture of 45% concentrates, 30% cut IRG silage and by-products, 10% bean curd refuse, 10% others, and 5% fermenter) were 22.2%, 544 $kg/m^3$, and $50^{\circ}$, respectively. The coefficient of variation (C.V.) of conventional concentrate feeding were 1.9~4.1%, and C.V. of TMR containing 1~3% cut IRG roughage feeding by conventional feeder were 9~42%. The conventional disc type feeder was not suitable for TMR feeding because the supply unit was clogged. The C.V. of TMR 1 was 0.6~7.9% when 0.5~10 kg of the TMR supplied, and it was suitable for feeding grow-finish pigs and sows. On the contrary, the C.V. with TMR 2 was 28% when 0.5 kg of the TMR supplied, and it was not suitable for feeding sows. Conclusions: The TMR feeder developed in this study was suitable for feeding grow-finish pigs because the feeder performed stably with over 5.0 kg feed. However, the feeder showed a lack of accuracy for feeding sows because the amount of each feed was more than 0.5 kg per a feeding. Therefore, the improvement of outlet structure for accurate feeding is needed for sow feeding.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.733-745
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• 2001

This review paper discusses the relevance and potential importance of food-feed systems in Asian agricultural systems, and in particular the role and contribution of legumes to these systems. A food-feed system is one that maintains, if not increases, the yield of food crops, sustains soil fertility, and provides dietary nutrients for animals. It involves a cropping pattern within which the feed crop has many beneficial effects without competing for land, soil nutrients and water with the food crops. The agricultural environment is described with reference to the priority agro-ecological zones and prevailing mixed farming systems in Asia. Within these systems, animal production is severely hampered by critical feed shortages which can however, be alleviated by the integration of suitable leguminous forages into the cropping systems. The review also focuses on the role and potential importance of leguminous forages in terms of biodiversity, their uses in farming systems, beneficial effects on animal performance, and draws attention to six case studies in different countries that clearly demonstrate many benefits of developing such food-feed systems. Considerable opportunities exist for widening the use of forage legumes in the development of systems with several complementary advantages (e.g. fenceline, cover crops, fodder banks, forage source and erosion control) to improve the development of sustainable crop-animal systems in Asia.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.69-82
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated the bacterial community structure in organic rice-fish mixed farming paddy soil by using high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that compared with the organic rice cultivated soil, the content of AP (available phosphorus) increased by 310.23 % and the content of OM (organic matter) increased by 168.83%. The most abundant phyla in paddy soils were Proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes, and Chloroflexi, whose relative abundance was above 47.83%. Among the dominant genera, the relative abundance of Limisphaera in paddy soils was observed. Alpha diversity indicated that the bacterial diversity of paddy soils was similar among each other. The bacterial community structure was affected by the relative abundance of bacteria, not the species of bacteria. Principal Coordinated Analysis (PCoA) results showed that the bacterial communities in organic rice-fish mixed farming soil and organic paddy soil were correlated to each other; the bacterial community structure was distinctively grouped by four different systems (paddy soil under organic rice-fish mixed farming system, organic rice cultivation, and conventional rice cultivation), where the first two are closely related to each other than the third one. The results provide basal support for organic agri-cultivation while improving an ecological value at the same time.