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Most field corn in the United States receives a neonicotinoid seed treatment for the management of early-season, soil-dwelling insect pests. Grubs of Maladera formosae (Brenske) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) have been reported feeding on young field corn with both low and high rates of clothianidin seed treatments in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Anecdotally, these infestations are restricted to sandy soils in the region. The purpose of this study was to (1) evaluate whether grub populations in corn are restricted to sandy soils, (2) assess whether soil type influences M. formosae survival, and (3) determine whether soil type affects clothianidin uptake by the plant, possibly explaining the observed differences in M. formosae abundance by soil type. We observed nearly 10-times more grubs in sand (>80% sand content) than loam (<80% sand content) soil within a single corn field. Grub survival to adult was not influenced by soil type. We then compared the concentrations of clothianidin seed treatment in the roots and shoots of corn seedlings grown in either sand or loam soil over time. Similar amounts of the active ingredient were found in the roots and shoots of corn grown in both soil types. Within 2 week, the clothianidin concentrations in both soil types had significantly declined in roots and shoots and were no different from the no-insecticide control.These findings suggest that factors other than insecticide exposure contribute to the higher abundance of M. formosae larvae in sand relative to loam soils, even within the same field.

The increasing demand for animal-products has led to an increasing demand for livestock feed. Using cover crop as green manure in orchards is an effective measure to improve fruit yield and quality. However, the effect of mowing cover forage crops as livestock feed on soil quality and crop production is unclear. Therefore, a 4-year field experiment, which included two treatments, was conducted in pear orchards in Luniao County, China: natural grass (NG) and planting and mowing forage crop ryegrass as livestock feed (MF). Under MF treatment, most soil nutrient content, especially alkalihydrolysable N (AN), total phosphate (TP), available phosphate (AP), and microbial biomass phosphate (MBP), had decreased significantly (P<0.05), while β-D-glucosidase (BG, C-cycle enzyme) and soil C limitation at 10-20 cm depth and P limitation at subsoil (20-40 cm) was increased. In addition, the soil bacterial community component in topsoil (0-10 cm and 10-20 cm) and fungal community component in topsoil and subsoil were changed in the MF treatment. Network analysis showed that MF treatment had a lower edge number in topsoil but the community edge numbers increased from 12794 in NG to 13676 in MF in subsoil. The average weight degree of the three soil layers in MF treatment were reduced, but the modularity had increased than that in NG. For crop production, MF treatment was 1.39 times higher in pear yield and titratable acids (AC) reduced from 0.19% to 0.13% compared with NG. These changes were more associated with the indicators at the subsoil, especially for TP, AN, pH, and F-NMDS1 (non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) axis 1 of fungi). These results provide data support for the feasibility of planting and mowing forage crops as livestock feed on orchards as well as a new idea for the integration of crop and livestock.

Background and aims Forage cropping systems may differentially affect the vertical distribution of roots and soil organic C stock (C-OM). In annual crops sequences (ACS) and perennial pastures (PP), we assessed the association between root biomass, C-OM, C in mineral-associated organic matter (C-MAOM), and C in particulate organic matter (C-POM) and its vertical distribution. Methods Root biomass, C-OM, C-MAOM and C-POM were measured in a Petrocalcic Argiudol at five soil depths up to 100 cm during two years in the south-eastern Pampas of Argentina. The field experiment comprised 28 plots including five perennial pastures and two annual crop sequences. Associations between variables were assessed by regression analysis and non-linear models. Results Overall, ACS and PP had similar cumulative root biomass. Both, root biomass and soil C stocks exponentially decreased with soil depth. Soil C stocks associated to root biomass tended to stabilize over a threshold value of root biomass for C-MAOM and C-OM. C-POM tended to stabilize over a threshold value only in treatments that included tall fescue. Conclusions Our results highlights the key role of roots to improve soil C stocks through the design of forage crop rotations that include crops able to increase root inputs to the soil, such as tall fescue.

Forage crops play a vital role in ensuring livestock productivity and food security in Northern Kazakhstan, a region characterized by highly variable weather conditions. However, traditional methods for assessing crop maturity remain time-consuming and labor-intensive, underscoring the need for automated monitoring solutions. Recent advances in remote sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) offer new opportunities to address this challenge. In this study, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based multispectral imaging was used to monitor the development of forage crops—pea, sudangrass, common vetch, oat—and their mixtures under field conditions in Northern Kazakhstan. A multispectral dataset consisting of five spectral bands was collected and processed to generate vegetation indices. Using a ResNet-based neural network model, the study achieved a high predictive accuracy (R2 = 0.985) for estimating the continuous maturity index. The trained model was further integrated into a web-based platform to enable real-time visualization and analysis, providing a practical tool for automated crop maturity assessment and long-term agricultural monitoring.

This study tested the effect of oat catch crops on mineral nitrogen (N) leaching losses from cool season fodder beet grazing. Undisturbed soil monolith lysimeters were collected from two grassland sites with soils featuring contrasting texture and water holding capacity (WHC) characteristics. After simulated fodder beet grazing in late autumn or winter, synthetic dairy cow urine was applied. Nitrogen leaching losses were measured from lysimeters sown with oats after urine application and compared with those under fallow conditions until spring. Oat dry matter (DM) production and N uptake measurements were obtained. Sowing oats reduced total mineral N leaching losses by up to 59%. Reductions in mineral N leaching were inconsistently affected by soil type but were strongly influenced by urine application timing. Nitrogen uptake by oats (52–143 kg N ha¯¹) drove reductions in N leaching losses compared with fallow soil. Oats yielded 4–17 t DM ha¯¹, and both yield and N uptake were strongly affected by urine application timing (winter > autumn) and soil type (high WHC >low WHC). Sowing oats after fodder beet grazing instead of leaving the ground fallow can reduce the environmental impacts of these systems, while simultaneously increasing annual feed supply. Catch crop gains can be maximised by avoiding or delaying autumn grazing of fodder beet, particularly on low WHC soils.

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the impacts of animal excrement-derived organic soil amendments on N 2 O, CH 4 , and heterotrophic CO 2 emissions and net soil-associated greenhouse gas balances under an Italian ryegrass and forage corn double-cropping system on an Andosol in southwestern Japan. The experiment consisted of five treatments with three replicates: no nitrogen, chemical fertilizer (CF), composted dairy cattle manure (CCM), dairy slurry (DS), and digestate from biogas production (DBP). There were no significant differences in cumulative soil N 2 O emissions over three years among the CF, CCM, DS, and DBP treatments. Although N 2 O emission factors (a percent ratio of N 2 O-N emitted to N applied) were all quite low, the factor for composted dairy cattle manure (0.00 ± 0.02%) was significantly lower than that for chemical fertilizer (0.06 ± 0.01%). The soil was a net CH 4 sink, and there were no significant differences in cumulative CH 4 emissions among the five treatments. Soil CO 2 emissions (i.e., heterotrophic soil respiration) increased in proportion to the organic carbon inputs from organic soil amendments. For dairy slurry, which contains abundant labile organic carbon, the decomposition of organic carbon was more pronounced during the summer corn season than during the winter ryegrass season. The contributions of soil N 2 O and CH 4 emissions to soil-associated net greenhouse gas balance were negligible on a CO 2 -equivalent basis. All five treatments acted as a net source of greenhouse gases, but the CCM and DS treatments mitigated greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere in comparison with the CF treatment.

PurposeLow carbon footprint agriculture has received increasing attention in the effect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. However, little is known about how crop diversification may affect the system productivity and the carbon footprint.MethodsIn this study, we analyzed the carbon footprints of four cropping systems: winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–summer maize (Zea mays L.) (WM, grain crop pattern, 1-year cycle); ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.)–sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) (RS, forage crop pattern, 1-year cycle); ryegrass–sweet sorghum → winter wheat–summer maize (RSWM, grain plus forage crop pattern, 2-year cycle); and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) perennial cropping (SG, energy crop pattern) that have been evaluated in a long-term (2009–2015) field experiment in the North China Plain (NCP). Carbon footprints were expressed using three metrics: CFa (per unit area), CFb (per kg of biomass), and CFe (per unit of economic output).Results and discussionThe results showed that switchgrass as a perennial herbaceous crop with one cut per year had the lowest annual carbon footprint at three metrics. The WM cropping system had the highest annual CFa, CFb, and CFe values which were 1.73, 2.23, and 1.78 times higher, respectively, than those of the RSWM cropping system. The RS cropping system had the lower annual CFa, CFb, and CFe values, which accounted for 20.9, 3.4, and 2.9%, respectively, of the WM cropping system. The four cropping systems had annual carbon footprints at per unit area, per kilogram of biomass and per unit of economic output ranked from lowest to highest of SG < RS < RSWM < WM.ConclusionsWe conclude that appropriately designed, diversified cropping systems that include grain, forage, and bioenergy crops can effectively reduce the carbon footprint while maintaining or even increasing the systems productivity in the North China Plain.

Larvae of the southern corn rootworm (SCR) Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi Barber (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) are primary pests of peanut in the Virginia-Carolina region of the United States, and are relatively sporadic pests in southern states such as Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Peanuts have strict quality standards which, when they are not met, can diminish crop value by more than 65%. Management of direct pests like SCR is therefore crucial to maintaining the economic viability of the crop. The soil-dwelling nature of SCR larvae complicates management due to difficulties associated with monitoring and predicting infestations. Nonchemical management options are limited in this system; preventative insecticide applications are the most reliable management strategy for at-risk fields. Chlorpyrifos was the standard product for larval SCR management in peanut until its registration was revoked in 2022, leaving no effective chemical management option for larvae. We tested a novel insecticide, isocycloseram, for its ability to reduce pod scarring, pod penetration, and non-SCR pod damage in field studies conducted in Suffolk, Virginia in 2020–2022. Overall injury was low in 2020 and 2022, and in 2022 there was not a significant effect of treatment. In 2021, 2 simulated chemigation applications of isocycloseram in July significantly reduced pod scarring and overall pod injury relative to chlorpyrifos and the untreated control. Our results suggest that isocycloseram may become an effective option for managing SCR in peanut, although more work is needed to understand the mechanisms by which it is effective as a soil-applied insecticide.

Forage crops have the potential to serve multiple functions, providing an ecological framework to sustainably intensify food production, i.e., ecological intensification. We review three categories of forages (annual forages, perennial forages, and dual-use perennial crops/forages) we believe hold the greatest promise for ecologically intensifying food production. Annual cover crops can provide additional forage resources while mitigating nutrient losses from agricultural fields when they are intercropped with, interseeded into, or following an annual crop, for instance. The integration of perennial forages either temporally, such as annual crop rotations that include a perennial forage phase, or spatially, such as the intercropping of perennial forages with an annual cash crop, provide weed suppression, soil quality, and yield and crop quality benefits. Dual-use crops/forages can provide forage and a grain crop in a single year while providing multiple ecological and economic benefits. However, tradeoffs in balancing multiple functions and limitations in reducing the risks associated with these practices exist. Advancing our understanding of these systems so we can overcome some of the limitations will play a critical role in increasing food production while promoting positive environmental outcomes.

Forage alfalfa (Medicago sativa L. [Fabales: Fabacae]) is a major agronomic crop grown nationally and Montana ranks highly in acres harvested. The alfalfa weevil (Hypera postica Gyllenhal [Coleoptera: Curculionidae]) is the primary defoliating pest that requires insecticide applications to prevent yield loss, particularly pyrethroid active ingredients (a.i.) that are both efficacious and cost-effective. Reports from commercial alfalfa producers in Big Horn County, MT, suggested local populations of alfalfa weevil had developed resistance to the pyrethroid a.i. lambda-cyhalothrin (type II pyrethroid). Chemical control is an important component of integrated pest management (IPM) of alfalfa weevil and the loss of pyrethroid a.i. as an effective tool would result in additional production costs. Two locations in southern Big Horn County and nine locations in four other Montana counties where resistance has not been reported were sampled and assayed for resistance to lambda-cyhalothrin. Populations from three counties were susceptible, the concentration causing 50% mortality (LC50) ranged from 0.02 to 0.10 µg/cm2. In contrast, populations from Big Horn County did not reach 50% mortality at the highest concentration of lambda-cyhalothrin tested (3.30 µg/cm2), indicating high levels of resistance have developed in these populations. A field trial in Big Horn County supported laboratory results of resistance; lambda-cyhalothrin at the highest label rate did not reduce alfalfa weevil populations. Additional bioassays suggest cross-resistance to zeta-cypermethrin (type II pyrethroid), but only partial cross-resistance to permethrin (type I pyrethroid).