Grassland Science最新文献

{"title":"NIR spectroscopy: Developing predictive models for chemical attributes and in vitro dry matter digestibility of Megathyrsus maximus cv. Tanzania","authors":"Camila Cano Serafim,&nbsp;João Pedro Monteiro do Carmo,&nbsp;Erica Regina Rodrigues Franconere,&nbsp;Fábio Luiz Melquiades,&nbsp;Odimári Pricila Prado Calixto,&nbsp;Pedro Siqueira Vendrame,&nbsp;Sandra Galbeiro,&nbsp;Elias Rodrigues Cavalheiro Junior,&nbsp;Renan Miorin,&nbsp;Ivone Yurika Mizubuti","doi":"10.1111/grs.12439","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12439","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Pastures in animal production are widely used, but production is conditioned to several factors. The nutritional composition of forage can be altered by soil conditions, season, plant maturity and morphology, so it is important to monitor its quality through chemical analysis. To optimize this type of analysis and speed up decision-making by farmers and technicians, the use of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a tool that has been successfully applied. This research aimed to develop predictive models for chemical components of <i>Megathyrsus maximus</i> cv. Tanzania using NIR spectroscopy. Laboratory determinations of ash, crude protein (CP), <i>in vitro</i> dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) of 345 forage samples were used as reference data and correlated with their NIRS spectra. To calibrate the models, principal component analysis and partial least squares regression were applied. The results indicated that the prediction models of the studied parameters presented a coefficient of determination (R²) equal to or greater than 0.90; residual predictive deviation rate (RPD) greater than 3.0; error interval ratio (RER) greater than 12; close mean square error values between calibration and validation; and optimal number of latent variables (LV) between seven and eight for model calibration. For CP and IVDMD prediction, the regions with the highest simultaneous contribution were 1,414, 1996 and 2,384 nm; while for NDF and ADF, 1714, 1784, 1786, 2,160, 2,320 and 2,450 nm. The success in the development of predictive models by NIR spectroscopy to evaluate dry matter digestibility and other main chemical attributes of <i>M. maximus</i> cv. Tanzania shows that the quality of the models developed in this study enables them to be used alternatively in routine laboratory analysis in a quick, reliable and accurate way.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 2","pages":"75-85"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143749942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nutritional value and fermentability of sorghum silages grown in the Amazon biome","authors":"Juliana Maria Silva de Souza,&nbsp;Arthur Behling Neto,&nbsp;Maria Antônia Bortolucci da Rosa,&nbsp;Flávio Dessaune Tardin,&nbsp;Rosemary Lais Galati,&nbsp;Carla Silva Chaves,&nbsp;Dalton Henrique Pereira","doi":"10.1111/grs.12440","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12440","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In recent years, agricultural production systems have intensified, making it necessary to improve the food supplied to animals, where sorghum silage is one of the most commonly used roughages. The sorghum genotypes present significant differences in dry matter losses, fermentative profiles and nutritional values, allowing the identification of materials with high potential for producing high-quality silages that meet the dietary demands of ruminants and are recommended for use. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate silages from 15 sorghum genotypes for different purposes to identify materials that could be recommended for silage production in the Amazon biome. The experiment was carried out in Sinop/MT to evaluate the fermentative characteristics and chemical composition of the sorghum silages. Fifteen sorghum genotypes, 15F30005, 15F30006, CMSXS 5027, 5030, 5043, 5045, 201934B008, CMSXS 7501, BRS 658, BRS 659, Volumax, BRS 511, BRS Ponta Negra, BRS 716 and AGRI-002E, were ensiled in experimental silos with six replications per treatment. For the content of NH₃-N, BRS 658 and BRS 659 had the lowest average, 29.9 g NH₃-N/kg total <i>N</i>. The highest average dry matter content was from BRS 658, BRS 659, AGRI-002E and BRS 716, at 295.0 g/kg. The highest average crude protein content of 78.1 g/kg dry matter (DM) was obtained from BRS658 and BRS 659. For lignin, BRS 659, Volumax, Ponta Negra, 15F30006, CMSXS 5027 and CMSXS 5030 had the lowest average value, 49.5 g/kg DM. All the genotypes evaluated presented characteristics suitable for ensiling. The materials with the highest nutritional value were the commercial varieties BRS 658, BRS 659 and Ponta Negra. The experimental varieties 15F30005, CMSXS 5027 and CMSXS 5030 demonstrated similar nutritional values to the commercial varieties, making them promising candidates for future release, commercialization and use in animal feed silage.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 2","pages":"86-94"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/grs.12440","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143749491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The relative importance of plant-pollinator network parameters in maintaining seed productivity varies between years","authors":"Taiki Tachibana,&nbsp;Kei Uchida,&nbsp;Issei Nishimura,&nbsp;Xiaoming Lu,&nbsp;Xuezhen Zhao,&nbsp;Yongfei Bai,&nbsp;Takehiro Sasaki","doi":"10.1111/grs.12435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12435","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Human activities have caused biodiversity loss and climate change, altering critical ecosystem functions. Numerous empirical studies have focused on the relationship between plant diversity and primary productivity or its stability. However, ecosystem functions such as pollination and nutrient cycling would be regulated by biological interactions among multiple trophic levels. Here, we examined the relationship between plant diversity, pollination attributes, and seed productivity in a biodiversity experiment conducted in Inner Mongolia in 2018 and 2019, differing in intra-annual precipitation patterns. We found that pollinator visitation frequency did not affect seed productivity in both years. In 2018, we observed that flowering plant richness and <b>flower vulnerability</b> had positive effects on seed productivity. In 2019, however, only network evenness had a negative effect on seed productivity. The consistent effect of pollination network structure but not visitation frequency on seed productivity across two growing seasons suggests that complementary plant-pollinator interactions rather than mass effects of pollinator visitation regulate plant reproduction in the studied system. Since the relative contributions of flowering plant richness and plant-pollinator interactions on seed productivity would vary due to intra-annual precipitation patterns, as presented here, observations across multiple years should be required to fully reveal the ecosystem consequences of plant-pollinator interactions.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 2","pages":"53-62"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143749341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Drought intensity–responsive changes in photosynthesis-related proteins, carbohydrate pools and forage quality in Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.)","authors":"Bok-Rye Lee,&nbsp;Sang-Hyun Park,&nbsp;Tae-Hwan Kim","doi":"10.1111/grs.12438","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12438","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Drought is a major factor affecting annual forage production and quality. The present study aimed to characterize drought stress–responsive changes in carbohydrate composition and forage quality–related parameters as being linked to the responses of physiological parameters during the regrowth of Kentucky bluegrass (<i>Poa pratensis</i> L.). Drought treatment gradually decreased leaf water potential (Ψ_w) to a minimum value of −2.94 MPa at day 46. Drought-responsive increases in H₂O₂ concentration and lipid peroxidation were significant from day 22 (Ψ_w = −1.38 MPa), accompanied by the decreased chlorophyll content. Drought stress repressed Rubisco large subunit and several thylakoid membrane protein complexes (PSI, PSII dimer, PSII monomer and cytochrome <i>b6/f</i>). Drought also increased glucose, fructose and sucrose concentrations from day 22. A distinct increase in monosaccharides and disaccharides coincided with a reduction of fructan, especially from day 36 onward, when the enzymatic activity of fructan exohydrolases (1-FEH and 6-FEH) became greatly enhanced. Significant changes in forage nutritional parameters also occurred from day 36 (Ψ_w = −2.74 MPa), as shown by increases in neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber (ADF) and ADF-lignin with enhanced activity of polyphenol oxidase, as well as a decrease in crude protein content. These drought-responsive changes in nutritional parameters were strongly correlated with a decrease in in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). A correlation analysis revealed that drought-induced accumulation of H₂O₂ along with decreasing Ψ_w was closely associated with increases in fiber compounds and ADF-lignin leading to a decrease in IVDMD. Our results indicate that drought-responsive reductions in forage quality mainly occurred under severe drought stress (day 36 to day 46, Ψ_w ≤ −2.74), when H₂O₂ accumulation and lipid peroxidation were high, were characterized by an accompanied increase in ADF.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 2","pages":"63-74"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143749343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Intensive grazing confounds the patterns of plant compositional change along a soil pH gradient, not an aridity gradient, in the Mongolian steppe","authors":"Naohiro I. Ishii,&nbsp;Issei Nishimura,&nbsp;Yulan Qi,&nbsp;Batdelger Gantsetseg,&nbsp;Maiko Kagami,&nbsp;Gaku Takimoto,&nbsp;Takehiro Sasaki","doi":"10.1111/grs.12436","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12436","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Aridity, edaphic variables and livestock grazing are major drivers of plant community composition across arid rangelands. Accumulated knowledge exists on the impact of each driver on community composition. Although previous studies have demonstrated changes in direct grazing impacts on ecosystem functions and community composition at different aridity levels, ranging from mesic to arid grasslands, whether a regional-scale and continuous spatial pattern of plant compositional change along a gradient of aridity or edaphic variables is altered by grazing remains controversial. We compared the determinants and patterns of compositional changes with/without highly intensive grazing in the semi-arid/arid regions of Mongolia. The compositional changes based on Bray–Curtis dissimilarity were investigated using generalized dissimilarity modeling, including geographic distance, aridity, soil pH and soil texture as independent variables. Aridity consistently had a significant impact on community composition, regardless of the region and presence/absence of grazing. However, a difference in response patterns was observed between the regions. The compositional change was steeper at the upper (drier) limit of aridity than at the lower limit in the arid region. This pattern indicates the vulnerability of plant communities to aridity shifts owing to future climate change, especially in the desert steppe of Mongolia, although the predictions of shifts in aridity are not accurate. In addition, regardless of the region, the effects of soil pH on the community composition were eliminated by the presence of grazing. Grazing may homogenize community composition by not reflecting the spatial heterogeneity of soil pH or nutrient availability via selective herbivory. Despite the potential indirect impacts of climate change on community composition via soil pH, the observations for only plant communities under intensive grazing might overlook regional biodiversity changes caused by global change drivers.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 1","pages":"42-50"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/grs.12436","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143119401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nutrient intakes, growth performance and digestive organ weight of raising Japanese Black steers fed oat hay or whole crop corn silage as roughage","authors":"Kenji Hosoda,&nbsp;Yoshi-nori Nakamura","doi":"10.1111/grs.12437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12437","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The effects of feeding corn silage (CS) instead of oat hay on nutrient intakes, growth performance and digestive organ weight in the raising of Japanese Black steers were studied. In a feeding trial, 5.5-month-old Japanese Black steers (<i>n</i> = 15) received one of three dietary treatments with the same formula feed and different roughage (oat hay only, CS only and an equal mixture of oat hay and CS) until they reached 10.1 months old. At the feeding trial's conclusion, we observed that the three forms of roughage had no effect on the intakes of nutrients such as crude protein, non-fibrous carbohydrate, fibers and total digestible nutrients except for ether extract, and no significant difference was observed in body weight, body measurements, average daily gain, or feed efficiency among the roughage groups. Steers fed the different roughage had identical weights of carcass, digestive organs and visceral fat immediately after the feeding trial. These findings suggest that corn silage can be used as a substitute for oat hay fed to Japanese Black steers during the raising period.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 1","pages":"35-41"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143118838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Restoring ecosystems in the southeastern United States by interseeding alfalfa in existing cool-season grass pastures","authors":"Renata La Guardia Nave,&nbsp;Otávio Goulart de Almeida,&nbsp;Jennifer Tucker,&nbsp;Victoria Xiong","doi":"10.1111/grs.12434","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12434","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The introduction of legumes such as alfalfa (<i>Medicago sativa</i> L.) into forage systems is a sustainable alternative to pasture restoration by adding biologically fixed N and contributing to the biodiversity of the system. Also, crabgrass (<i>Digitaria sanguinalis</i> L.; [CG]) is known as a grass weed but has the potential to maintain forage mass (FM) during the summer contributing to restoration. Different experiments were carried out in Spring Hill, TN for 2 years each in tall fescue (<i>Schedonorus arundinaceus</i> [Schreb.] Dumort; [TF]) or orchardgrass (<i>Dactylis glomerata</i> L. [OG]), with the addition of alfalfa and CG. For each grass sward, two separate pastures were selected, and treatments were established in different years, totaling four different experiments [two Establishments (EST 1 and EST 2) for TF and OG]. The treatments imposed were (1) control (C), (2) synthetic N fertilization (SNF), (3) fall seeding of alfalfa (FA), (4) spring seeding of alfalfa (SA), (5) fall seeding of alfalfa + CG (FA + CG) and (6) spring seeding of alfalfa + CG (SA + CG). Each experiment had four replications totaling 24 plots each, and measurements included botanical composition and FM. In the TF pastures, there was no presence of alfalfa documented (0%), and little CG was detected, due to its high competitiveness; meanwhile, FM was only increased when N fertilization was used in EST 2, 3391 kg DM/ha. The average FM for all treatments in EST 1 was 2476 kg DM/ha. The OG pastures showed the presence of both alfalfa and CG in their botanical composition, with N fertilization also showing higher FM (EST 1, 2705 kg DM/ha; EST 2, 2390 kg DM/ha). Thus, alfalfa and CG have the potential to improve OG swards, but more research is needed to assess different establishment methods of alfalfa into TF swards.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 1","pages":"25-34"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143117619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The effect of increasing canola oil and soybean oil addition to beef cattle rations based on corn silage and barley grain on the in vitro ruminal gas production and rumen fermentation","authors":"Kanber Kara,&nbsp;Kurşat Yılmaz,&nbsp;Sena Yılmaz,&nbsp;Gönül Pirci","doi":"10.1111/grs.12432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12432","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The purpose of the current experiment was to determine the effects of ruminal fermentation parameters of the additions of canola or soybean oils at different rates (4, 8 and 12%) to beef cattle total mix rations (TMR), based on corn silage and barley grain. The addition of 4% soybean oil to TMR positively affected <i>in vitro</i> gas production, net energy lactation (NE_L), metabolic energy (ME), and organic matter digestion (OMd). The additions of 8% and 12% of soybean oil to TMR linearly decreased ME, NE_L and OMd (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). The additions of 4, 8 and 12% canola oil to the TMR linearly decreased the <i>in vitro</i> gas production and estimated fermentation values (ME, NE_L and OMd) (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). All doses of soybean or canola oils in TMR reduced the molarities of total short-chain fatty acids (tSFCA), acetic (AA), butyric (BA), propionic (PA), valeric (VA), iso-valeric (IVA) and iso-butyric acids (IBA) for <i>in vitro</i> fermentation fluid (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). There was a negative correlation between the increasing dietary stearic, oleic and linoleic acid and the end-products of <i>in vitro</i> rumen fermentation. However, increasing dietary α-linolenic acids had no adverse effect on <i>in vitro</i> ruminal fermentation end-products. As a result, 4% addition of the soybean oil, which included a higher rate of α-linolenic acid and saturated fatty acids and a lower rate of oleic, linoleic acids according to those of canola oil, to the TMR positively affected <i>in vitro</i> ruminal fermentation. In addition, the ≥8% addition of canola or soybean oil adversely affected the <i>in vitro</i> fermentation values.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 1","pages":"14-24"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143112828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Physical and biochemical characteristics of tropical grass and legume pastures grazed by lambs","authors":"Viviane da Silva Hampel,&nbsp;Cesar Henrique Espírito Candal Poli,&nbsp;Jalise Fabíola Tontini,&nbsp;Margalida Joy,&nbsp;Carlos Nabinger,&nbsp;Thais Devincenzi,&nbsp;Eliseu Rodrigues,&nbsp;Vitor Manfroi,&nbsp;Neuza Maria Fajardo","doi":"10.1111/grs.12433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12433","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Large areas of tropical grass pastures are not grazed by lambs because of the difficulties in managing high growth rate swards with high selective animals. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical and biochemical characteristics of tropical pastures offered to lambs in continuous grazing. An upright grass and a shrub legume were set out in three pasture types and grazed by lambs: (1) aruana grass monoculture (AG—<i>Panicum maximum</i> Jacq. cv. IZ-5), (2) pigeon pea monoculture (PP—<i>Cajanus cajan</i> [L.] Millsp. cv. Anão) and (3) contiguous swards (CS), half of the paddock with AG (CSAG) and half with PP (CSPP). The pastures were evaluated for structural characteristics, production, nutritional composition and antioxidant concentrations in four periods over 92 days of continuous grazing by lambs. Hand plucking samples, similar to animal diet, were collected for chemical analysis. Regarding height, the PP legume monoculture after 42 days of grazing had uncontrollable growth by the lambs, reaching 1.2 m in height. This same legume but as a CS beside AG (CSPP) was maintained at a lower and similar height throughout the experimental periods. In general, the leaf:stem ratio of the different pastures decreased over the experimental periods from 0.7 to 0.2. In most periods, the CS showed intermediary nutritional quality compared to AG and PP. The alpha-tocopherol content was similar among swards, with an average of 137.2 ± 13.67 mg/kg of green matter (<i>p</i> &gt; .05). Pigeon pea showed the highest levels of total tannin and condensed tannin at 63 and 92 days (<i>p</i> &lt; .05). The use of tropical grass together with a legume provides a better physical structure of the pigeon pea for grazing lambs than when monoculture of this species.</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"71 1","pages":"3-13"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143110227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cattle dung detection in pastures from drone images using YOLOv5","authors":"Kensuke Kawamura,&nbsp;Yura Kato,&nbsp;Taisuke Yasuda,&nbsp;Eriko Aozasa,&nbsp;Masato Yayota,&nbsp;Miya Kitagawa,&nbsp;Kyoko Kunishige","doi":"10.1111/grs.12429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/grs.12429","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Livestock excretions are crucial for nutrient cycling in pasture ecosystems. However, conventional methods based on field observations require significant human power and are time-consuming. This study developed a model, ‘Dung Detector (DD)’, for detecting cattle dung in pastures from drone images using the You Only Look Once (YOLO) v5 algorithm. The DD model was trained using our custom dataset including 1,504 split images from drone orthomosaic images in five paddocks: Obihiro (OBH), Shintoku (STK), Minokamo (MNO), Miyota (MYT), and Yatsugatake (YGK). The detection accuracy was evaluated using ground-truth data acquired in two quadrats within paddocks. The DD model performed well for OBH and STK (<i>F</i>-score = 0.861 and 0.835) paddocks with simple grass species and low surface sward height (SSH). Although the MNO and MYT, with complex vegetation and high SSH, showed few false positives (precision &gt;0.9), some cattle dung pats were undetectable, presumably due to grass height (Recall = 0.500 and 0.276).</p>","PeriodicalId":56078,"journal":{"name":"Grassland Science","volume":"70 4","pages":"168-174"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142404620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}