• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.279-284
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• 2011

Protected vegetable production area is greater than 26% of the total vegetable production area in Korea, and portion of protected production area is increasing for flowers and fruits. To secure stable productivity and profitability, continuous and intensive monitoring and control of protected crop production environment is critical, which is labor- and time-consuming. Failure to maintain proper environmental conditions (e.g., light, temperature, humidity) leads to significant damage to crop growth and quality, therefore farmers should visit or be present close to the production area. To overcome these problems, application of remote monitoring and control of crop production environment has been increasing. Wireless monitoring and control systems have used CDMA, internet, and smart phone communications. Levels of technology adoption are different for farmers' needs for their cropping systems. In this paper, potential of wireless remote monitoring of protected agricultural environment using CDMA SMS text messages was reported. Monitoring variables were outside weather (precipitation, wind direction and velocity, temperature, and humidity), inside ambient condition (temperature, humidity, $CO_2$ level, and light intensity), irrigation status (irrigation flow rate and pressure), and soil condition (volumetric water content and matric potential). Scenarios and data formats for environment monitoring were devised, tested, and compared. Results of this study would provide useful information for adoption of wireless remote monitoring techniques by farmers.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.747-752
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• 2011

Wireless technology has enabled farmers monitor and control protected production environment more efficiently. Utilization of USN (Ubiquitous Sensor Network) devices also brought benefits due to reduced wiring and central data handling requirements. However, wireless communication loses signal under unfavorable conditions (e.g., blocked signal path, low signal intensity). In this paper, performance of commercial wireless communication devices were evaluated for application to protected crop production. Two different models of wireless communication devices were tested. Sensors used in the study were weather units installed outside and top of a greenhouse (wind velocity and direction, precipitation, temperature and humidity), inside ambient condition units (temperature, humidity, $CO_2$, and light intensity), and irrigation status units (irrigation flow and pressure, and soil water content). Performance of wireless communication was evaluated with and without crop. For a 2.4 GHz device, communication distance was decreased by about 10% when crops were present between the transmitting and receiving antennas installed on the ground, and the best performance was obtained when the antennas were installed 2 m above the crop canopy. When tested in a greenhouse, center of a greenhouse was chosen as the location of receiving antenna. The results would provide information useful for implementation of wireless environment monitoring system for protected crop production using USN devices.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.247-248
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• 1989

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.255-264
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• 2008

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of rumen protected choline on in vitro ruminal fermentation and milk production and its composition in Holstein cows. Experiments were done with three treatment groups, basal diet without any supplement (T1), basal diet+23g/d of mixture of choline and wheat shorts (T2) and basal diet + 25.56 g/d of rumen protected choline (T3). The in vitro ruminal pH and ammonia concentrations were similar for three treatments during all incubation periods except for the in vitro ruminal pH on 3 hr incubation and ammonia concentrations on 9 hr incubation. No significant difference was found in the concentrations of acetate and total-VFA. The propionate and butyrate concentrations were not affected by the rumen protected choline except on 6 hr incubation on which the propionate and butyrate concentrations were intermediate (8.98 mg/dl) and least (3.22 mg/dl), respectively. Higher milk yield and milk fat and lactose were resulted in the rumen protected choline. However, the rumen protected choline did not affect the milk protein, solids not fat, total solids, MUN, somatic cell count. It is concluded that the rumen protected choline can be effective materials to improve the milk production, milk fat and lactose without little change on in vitro ruminal fermentation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.821-827
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of protected fat and heat-extruded soybean meal on the lactation performance of Holstein cows. Twenty-four cows, consisting of 20 lactating cows and 4 rumen-fistulated dry cows, were randomly allocated into four groups with 5 lactating cows and 1 fistulated cow in each group. A replicated 4${\times}$4 Latin square design with four 21 day periods, including 14 days of adaptation and 7 collection days within each period was employed. The experiment was a 2${\times}$2 arrangement, with or without heat-extruded soybean meal and protected fat inclusion. The dietary treatments consisted of supplements of (a) soybean meal (the control), (b) heat-extruded soybean meal, (c) protected fat, and (d) heat-extruded soybean meal and protected fat. The results showed that there were no significant differences in feed intake, milk yield, milk protein content, milk lactose content and body weight change between the dietary treatments. However, cows supplemented with protected fat showed a significantly increased (p<0.05) milk fat yield, 3.5% FCM and total solid yield. The increase in undegradable intake protein (UIP) via heat extruded soybean meal supplement significantly decreased the urea nitrogen concentration in the blood (p<0.05). Dietary fat inclusion significantly increased the blood cholesterol concentration (p<0.01) and decreased the ruminal pH value (p<0.01). Increased dietary UIP significantly decreased the ammonia nitrogen concentration in the rumen (p<0.01), but did not significantly influence the pH and VFA molar percentage in the rumen. It appears that dietary protected fat inclusion could improve milk fat and solid content. Increased dietary undegradable intake protein through heat extruded soybean meal did not improve milk yield. But it could alleviate the adverse effect of decreased milk protein due to dietary fat supplementation. Increased UIP could also decrease the ammonia nitrogen concentration in the rumen and plasma urea nitrogen concentration in the blood.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.325-330
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• 1993

The objectives of the present study were to investigate whether or not dietary lysine addition could improve N balance of female Japanese Saanen goats at 15 to 32 months of age, weighing 31 to 40 kg, fed on a wheat bran-hay cube diet supplemented with methionine, and whether or not ruminally protected lysine supplementation could give as good an N balance performance as lysine in the presence of ruminally protected methionine when given orally to the goats. It was considered from changes in N balance and N utilization that the first-and second-limiting amino acids in the diet were methionine and lysine respectively, under the present experimental conditions. The ruminally protected lysine in addition to the ruminally protected methionine gave no improvement in N balance and N utilization compared with the ruminally protected methionine alone, suggesting that the ruminally protected lysine used in the present study was not effectively utilized by the goats.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bio-Environment Control Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.10-14
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• 2004

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.1271-1277
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• 2008

The effects of feeding soybean oil (SBO) or rumen protected conjugated linoleic acid (RP-CLA) on CLA accumulation in milk, and performance of lactating dairy cows were studied. Twenty four Holstein Friesian crossbred lactating dairy cows, averaging $126{\pm}45days$ in milk, $15.6{\pm}2.43kg$ of milk and $452{\pm}51kg$ body weight were stratified randomly and assigned in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) to three treatments of 8 cows each. The treatments were control, 150 g of SBO and 150 g of RP-CLA supplementation. Performance parameters showed that DM intake, NELP intake and body weight change were similar across treatments, while CP intake was decreased by SBO and RP-CLA supplementation. Milk yield and milk composition were not significantly different among treatments, except for milk fat percentage and fat yield which were significantly decreased by 27% (p<0.05) and by 28% (p<0.01), respectively, by RP-CLA supplements compared with control treatment. Feeding RP-CLA reduced 3.5% FCM compared with the other treatments (p<0.003). Both SBO and RP-CLA supplementation reduced ${\geq}C18:0$ and CLA concentration in milk fat.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.544-545
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• 1989

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.1235-1238
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• 2000

Thirty-six Holstein dairy cows were used to evaluate the effect of a rumen protected methionine supplement (RPMet). The cows were divided into two groups of 18 each (control/experimental). The experimental group was given 15 g/d of RPMet (Mepron $^{(R)}$M85, Degussa) from the 4th to the 26th week postpartum. All cows were fed a similar amount of forage including alfalfa silage, corn silage and timothy silage. Concentrate mixture was offered in proportion to the milk yield of each cow. Sufficiency of major metabolizable AAs was checked. Milk yield and milk composition was monitored for each individual cow. A metabolic profile test (MPT) was carried out at the 7th, 11th and 21st week postpartum. Without supplement, both methionine and leucine fell short of the daily requirement. Supplementation with 15 g/d RPMet was calculated to be within a sufficient margin of safety. Milk yield tended to remain higher in the supplemented group than in the controls during supplementation with RPMet. The differences in weekly milk production at the 17th, 18th, 19th and 22nd weeks postpartum were significantly high in the RPMet group (p<0.05). The average 305-d milk yield and the percentages of milk fat, milk protein and solids-not-fat were not affected by the treatment. No differences were observed in either the somatic cell count in the milk or the reproductive status. Judging from MPT, all the cows were in good health during lactation.