Pattern classification of ingestive behavior in grazing animals has extreme importance in studies related to animal nutrition, growth and health. In this paper, a system to classify chewing patterns of ruminants in in vivo experiments is developed. The proposal is based on data collected by optical fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBG) that are processed by machine learning techniques. The FBG sensors measure the biomechanical strain during jaw movements, and a decision tree is responsible for the classification of the associated chewing pattern. In this study, patterns associated with food intake of dietary supplement, hay and ryegrass were considered. Additionally, two other important events for ingestive behavior were monitored: rumination and idleness. Experimental results show that the proposed approach for pattern classification is capable of differentiating the five patterns involved in the chewing process with an overall accuracy of 94%.

O trabalho experimental foi realizado no campo, na Estação Experimental da Fundação Agrária de Pesquisa Agropecuária (FAPA), em Guarapuava (PR), Brasil, nos anos agrícolas de 1999 e 2000, com o objetivo de verificar a influência da adubação nitrogenada residual na cultura do milho, em Sistema Plantio Direto, cultivado em seqüência, em áreas que no inverno tinham presença e ausência de trevo branco e de animais em pastejo. O delineamento experimental foi o de blocos ao acaso com três repetições. Os tratamentos foram arranjados em parcelas subdivididas. No inverno, nas parcelas, foram aplicados quatro doses de nitrogênio (N-TI = 0, 100, 200 e 300 kg ha-1 de N) e, nas subparcelas, a combinação de presença e ausência de trevo branco e de pastejo (CT = com trevo; ST = sem trevo; CP = com pastejo e SP = sem pastejo). No verão, em cada subparcela proveniente do inverno, foram aplicadas cinco doses de N (N-TV = 0, 60, 120, 180 e 240 kg ha-1 de N), em cobertura, e cultivado o milho. A máxima eficiência técnica de rebrote da cultura de inverno, avaliada dezoito dias após a retirada dos animais, foi obtida com a aplicação de 231 kg ha-1 de N (N-TI). As áreas CP/N-TI apresentaram maiores produtividades do milho que as áreas SP; contudo, estes resultados não foram estatisticamente significativos. As áreas sem N-TI produziram mais milho em subparcelas SP. As parcelas que receberam 300 kg ha-1 de N N-TI não mostraram resposta do milho ao N-TV, comprovando o efeito residual do N-TI. Conclui-se que a interação entre pastejo e N-TI contribui para a nutrição nitrogenada da cultura do milho.

Domestic herbivores have been closely associated with the historical evolution and development of agriculture systems worldwide as a complementary system for providing milk, meat, wool, leather, and animal power. However, their major role was to enhance and maintain agricultural soil fertility through the recycling of nutrients. In turn, cereal production increased, enabling to feed a progressively increasing human population living in expanding urban areas. Further, digestion of organic matter through the rumen microbiome can also be viewed as enhancing the soil microbiome activity. In particular, when animal droppings are deposited directly in grazing areas or applied to fields as manure, the mineralization–immobilization turnover determines the availability of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients in the plant rhizosphere. Recently, this close coupling between livestock production and cereal cropping systems has been disrupted as a consequence of the tremendous use of industrial mineral fertilizers. The intensification of production within these separate and disconnected systems has resulted in huge emissions of nitrogen (N) to the environment and a dramatic deterioration in the quality of soil, air, and ground- and surface water. Consequently, to reduce drastically the dependency of modern and intensified agriculture on the massive use of N and phosphorus (P) fertilizers, we argue that a close reconnection at the local scale, of herbivore livestock production systems with cereal-based cropping systems, would help farmers to maintain and recover the fertility of their soils. This would result in more diverse agricultural landscapes including, besides cereals, grasslands as well as forage and grain crops with a higher proportion of legume species. We developed two examples showing such a beneficial reconnection through (i) an agro-ecological scenario with profound agricultural structural changes on a European scale, and (ii) typical Brazilian integrated crop–livestock systems (ICLS). On the whole, despite domestic herbivores emit methane (CH₄), an important greenhouse gas, they participate to nutrient recycling, which can be viewed as a solution to maintaining long-term soil fertility in agro-ecosystems; at a moderate stocking density, ecosystem services provided by ruminants would be greater than the adverse effect of greenhouse gas (GHG).

Poultry litter is an important nutrient source in agriculture, although little information is available regarding its decomposition rate and nutrient release. To evaluate these processes, poultry litter (PL) was applied to the soil to supply 100, 200 and 300 kg ha-1 N contained in 4,953, 9,907 and 14,860 kg ha-1 PL, respectively. The litter bag technique was used to monitor the process of decomposition and nutrient release from the litter. These bags were left on the soil surface and collected periodically (after 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, 330, and 365 days). The dry matter (DM) loss was highest (35 %) after the first 30 days of field incubation. The highest nutrient release occurred in the first 60 days on the field, when 40, 34, 91, and 39 %, respectively, of N, P, K, and Ca of the initial PL dry matter (4,860 kg ha-1) was already released to the soil. In absolute terms, these percentages represent 40, 23, 134, and 69 kg ha-1 of N, P, K, and Ca and these values doubled and tripled as the PL fertilization rates increased to 9,907 and 14,860 kg ha-1, respectively. After one year of field incubation, the residual contents in the litter were 27, 15, 18 and 30 % of the initial DM , and N, P and Ca, respectively. The release rate of K was the fastest and 91 % of the K had been released from the PL after 30 days of field incubation.

O trabalho foi conduzido com o objetivo de verificar a influência da adubação nitrogenada em uma pastagem de azevém (Lolium multiflorium L.) e aveia (Avena strigosa Scherb) em presença e ausência de trevo branco (Trifolium repens L.), conferida pelo acúmulo e produção de matéria seca, ganho médio diário, ganho de peso vivo e carga animal no sistema de integração lavoura-pecuária sob sistema de plantio direto. A cultura antecessora da pastagem foi a soja (Glycine Max L.). O delineamento experimental foi em blocos completos ao acaso, com parcelas subdivididas e três repetições. Nas parcelas, foram testadas quatro doses de nitrogênio (0, 100, 200 e 300 kg.ha-1) e nas subparcelas, a combinação de presença e ausência de trevo branco. A elevação das doses crescentes de N aumentaram de forma linear crescente o acúmulo e a produção de matéria seca da pastagem. A carga animal e o ganho de peso vivo por hectare de bovinos aumentaram com o incremento de nitrogênio. Os resultados demonstram o efeito da adubação nitrogenada no acúmulo diário, na produção de matéria seca, carga animal e no ganho de peso vivo.