Vol 44, No 1 (2018)

To breed ecologically resistant varieties, it is necessary to determine breeding methods and their sequence and combinations, i.e., to develop a methodology. In 2003, hybrid material of covered oats was obtained on 76 cross combinations. In 2008–2009, 345 of the best elite plants were selected, and further selection was made under different ecologic conditions: sufficient or excess humidification and drought on neutral and aluminum-acid sod-podzolic soils (Kirov region), short growing season on sod-podzolic soils (Udmurt Republic), on dark-grey heavy loam forest soils (Chuvash Republic), and drought on middle-loam chernozem (Samara region). Screening on disease resistance and improving selection under field and laboratory conditions was performed. As a result, the new, adaptive variety Berber was passed into State Varietal Test in 2016. The variety combines high productivity (7.8 t/ha) and valuable grain quality: test weight 608 g/L, huskiness 26.3%, raw protein content 13.87%, raw fat content 3.18%, and resistance to loose smut and crown rust.

In the present work, alleviation of cinnamic acid (CA) stress by salicylic acid (SA) was observed. CA influenced the physiological and biochemical parameters. CA significantly repressed growth variables like shoot and root height, fresh and dry biomass of the maize seedlings. The contents of chlorophylls, carotenoids, protein and activity of nitrate reductase were inhibited significantly. CA enhanced the accumulation of proline, ion leakage and lipid peroxidation due to induction of oxidative stress in maize. The activities of antioxidant enzymes, namely superoxide dismutase, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase, guaiacol peroxidase increased in CA stress. However, exogenous SA regulated the toxic effects of CA. The indices of oxidative stress appeared to be attenuated by SA. Pigment content and activities of enzymes increased approximately up to the level of control. CA caused phytotoxicity to Zea mays. The natural growth regulator has potential to overcome the adverse effects caused by CA.

Two-year results of studies on the effect of fertilizing nitrogen fertilizers and nutrient levels on the accumulation of sweet by plants of varieties of sweet sorghum on irrigated light chestnut soils of the southeast of Kazakhstan are presented. The accumulation of sweet in sorghum plants continued throughout the entire vegetation period, but its maximum content was observed in milk-waxy ripeness stage of the grain. The quantitative composition of the juice significantly changed along the internodes of the stem. Most of sweets were contained in the middle internodes (5–9) as the main shoot, and lateral shoot. This pattern was traced in all phases of development, beginning with the flowering of plants. It is shown that up to 7.1–8.3% of sweet was accumulated in the sorghum at flowering stage in both varieties and backgrounds of provision. With the growth and development of plants, the sweet content in the main shoot increased, depending on the fertilization with nitrogen fertilizer against the background of varieties and the availability of soils with mobile phosphorus. So, if the content of sweet on the control variant was 13.9–14.3% at the milk waxy ripeness stage, when fertilizing in the initial stages of plant growth with nitrogen fertilizer in a dose of N₅₀, it increased to 15.4–15.5% for Kazakhstanskoye 16 and 15.0–15.2% for Kazakhstanskoye 20. The dose of N₁₀₀ contributed to a further increase in its content, respectively, to 17.1–17.6% and 16.2–16.9%.

Crop produce maximum yield at optimum fertiliser level. Excess nutrient in soil limits germination, growth and yield. Efficient use of manure requires persistent development to enable recommendation for its safe application rate. To this end, this research evaluated the effect of salinity from different application rates of manure on yield of vegetables. Green house and laboratory assays were used for vegetable growth and the determination of electrical conductivity (EC), respectively. Salinity effect on plant growth occurred to be a function of manure type. Optimum salinity level of poultry manure ranged from 15.6 to 21.8 mS m^–1 EC. For goat manure, optimum EC ranged from 29.1 to 59.2 mS m^–1. For cattle manure, EC was about 42.3 mS m^–1 but for Chinese cabbage, the highest biomass was obtained at the highest EC of 47.4 mS m^–1. Salinity differed considerably among manures.

The influence of cadmium on the morphometric and biochemical indicators of the development of lettuce of the Moscow greenhouse variety, on productivity and also on metal accumulation in plant biomass during cultivation on sod-podzolic soil polluted with this toxicant in the doses range from 2 to 100 mg/kg was studied. It was shown that cadmium has a toxic effect on the development of lettuce: the plant height was reduced by 29.7–77.5%, the number of leaves was reduced by 16.4–61.3%, and the leaf surface area decreased by 34.5–99% depending on the level of contamination. The presence of metal in the soil in concentrations 5–100 mg/kg caused a decrease of the content of chlorophyll a by 15.6–38.1% in plants; chlorophyll b content decreased by 18–20% at cadmium concentration 10–100 mg/kg; carotenoids decreased by 40% at concentrations 20–50 mg/kg. Cadmium contributed to a decrease in free proline content by 20–26% with Cd concentrations at 5–100 mg/kg of soil; at a concentration of 2 mg/kg, on the contrary, Cd caused an increase of proline content of 66.2% and malondialdehyde content of 59.9% in comparison with the control. Productivity of plants decreased by 49.6–99.6% at all studied concentrations, and the level of metal accumulation in plants was significantly higher than the permissible level of cadmium (0.03 mg/kg) for lettuce.

The results of 26 field and microfield experiments using associative nitrogen-fixing bacteria biopreparations are generalized and analyzed. The efficiency of its use has been determined for spring wheat that is cultivated against different mineral nutrition backgrounds in the main soil types in the European part of Russia. It has been established that the inoculation of spring wheat seeds with the Rhizoagrin biopreparation combined with the PK fertilizer increases the grain yield by 23% on chernozem soils, by 14% on gray forest soils, and by 13–18% on sod-podzolic soils. The use of diazotroph biopreparation increases the coefficient of utilization of nitrogen from mineral fertilizers by 1.6 times on chernozem soils and by 1.2 times on sodpodzolic soils. In addition, the profitability of fertilizer nitrogen using seed inoculation increases by 2.2 and 1.1–1.4 times, respectively. Associative nitrogen fixation leads to the accumulation of 8–10 kg N/ha per year in sod-podzolic loamy soils and 12 kg N/ha per year in chernozem soils under spring wheat.

Characteristics of the phosphate regime of forest sod-podzolic soil is presented. It is shown that the organic phosphorus content sharply decreases down the profile starting from the podzolic horizon. The maximum content of mineral phosphates determined by the method of Sanders and Williams was found in forest litter and in the transitional eluvial horizon (A₂B) and amounted to 860 and 720 mg/kg. Iron phosphates prevail in the composition of mineral phosphates and, depending on the depth of the horizon, they are 48.8–63.2% of the sum of fractions. The shares of mobile and available to plants alkali metal phosphates and various basic phosphates are 2.9–10.1 and 10.0–14.9%, respectively.

An experiment with growing meat pigs has proven the productive efficiency of low-protein diets rich in essential amino acids. In order to achieve a live weight of 20 kg, the use of 10.08 g lysine (accessible 9.0 g), 6.09 g threonine (accessible 5.33 g), and 5.04 g methionine (accessible 4.19 g) are required. In the growth period, 8.08 g (6.39 g), 5.26 g (4.46 g), and 5.04 g (4.23 g), respectively, are required, while 7.49 g (3.97 g), 4.93 g (4.43 g), and 4.72 g (3.97 g), respectively, are required in the fattening period; the metabolizable energy is expressed as 13.30–12.69 MJ/kg fodder. In addition, the ratios of lysine to the metabolizable energy (g/MJ), the threonine, and the sum of methionine and cystine should be in the ranges of 0.79, 0.60, and 0.51, respectively, in order to reach the live weight of 20 kg. In the growth period, these items should be in the ranges of 0.64, 0.65, and 0.62, respectively, while they should comprise 0.61, 0.65, and 0.63, respectively, in the fattening period. The data on the blood plasma urea concentration and the urinary excretion of nitrogeneous waste can prove the more efficient use of the amino acids in the biosynthetic processes under the experimental conditions.

Research into the blood groups among the Holstein cattle reared in Sakhalin oblast was carried out. The antigenic structure of the erythrocytes in blood of 2248 animals on four farms—Sovkhoz Yuzhno- Sakhalinskii Corporation, Timiryazevskii Corporation, Sokolovskii Agricultural Production Cooperative, and Sovkhoz Zarechnoe Corporation—was determined. The analysis of the distribution of the factor antigens was performed. On average, it recorded both a high frequency of occurrence of antigens A₂, G₂, G₃, O₂, Y₂, E′₂, E′₃, O′, Q′, C₁, C₂, E, W, X₂, F, J, L, H′, and Z and a low frequency of occurrence of antigens Z′, P, Q, T₂, I′, P′, Y′, B″, C′, M, U, and U″ H″. A high level of genetic similarity between the animals was revealed, which can be associated with the conditions for formation and adaptation of the Holstein population on Sakhalin Island. The obtained results may be used to choose the breeds for future perspectives in animal crossbreeding and to design the breeding programs.

The article reports the efficacy assessment for the Allokin-alpha (Allokin) preparation by modeling the experimental viral infection in vivo in poultry (day-old chickens). The experimental infection included the following steps: vaccination using the vaccine HVT strain, the intramuscular injection of Allokin, and the preparation of feather follicle extracts. The specific antigen was detected in the feather follicle epithelium using the method of gel diffusion precipitation reaction (DPR). A decrease in the number of positive DPR test results for HVT antigen was observed in the case of Allokin-alpha treatment. It has been demonstrated that the optimal time for the Allokin-alpha administration was on the tenth day after the vaccination with HVT as soon as the number of positive DPR results was 33%, while the number of positive results was 50% when the tested preparation was administered 5 and 15 days after the vaccination (samples were collected on day 28 after the vaccination). Since Allokin-alpha has been successfully used to treat human papillomavirus for 15 years, it may also work well as an antiviral agent in the experimental viral infection simulation by the inoculation of vaccine HVT strain; the preparation is not species specific.

Restoration of the water-retaining capacity of light soils was carried out according to semiempirical dependences of moisture conductivity on capillary pressure with their physical parameters in the regime of an unsaturated moisture content. The relationship between the granulometric composition and the intensity of moisture conductivity at different moisture values is investigated. Moisture conductivity as a hydrophysical characteristic reflecting the thermodynamic state of soil water is used in the calculation of parameters for empirical modeling. The obtained data were used for the restoration of the main hydrophysical characteristic by mathematical modeling using the semiempirical model of M. van Genuchten. Water retention curves are qualitatively similar for all soil types. The quantitative difference is due to the increase of the matrix potential during the transition from sand to loamy sand due to changes in the granulometric composition. The shift of water-holding curves in the direction of decreasing moisture was observed for the same soil potential. This indicates an increase in the water-retaining capacity as the soil weight and dust fraction increase.

High-quality soil tilling using a tillage machine depends on the well-run, coordinated operation of all its operating elements and units [1–3]. The considered structure of an automated multifunctional tillage machine allows, per run, carrying out vertical soil paraplowing to a depth twice exceeding the cultivation depth, subsurface loosening of the soil with cutting of the weeds, and additional grinding and harrowing of the soil to the depth equal to the cultivator width. The aim of this work is to improve the quality of the soil tillage due to automatic regulation of the specified depth of its tillage and increase the yield of the cultivated crop achieved by the fact that the first and third sections of the automated multifunctional tillage machine [4, 5] are equipped with a control unit of the actuating mechanism of their drive located in the cabin and with protective housings of the hydraulic cylinder rods, on the internal part of which are located local magnetic field sources (permanent magnet of electromagnet) closing the control circuit of the actuating mechanism. Each housing of the hydraulic cylinders is equipped with protective reed switches (sensors) installed at a predetermined adjustable distance from each other. The automated system of regulation of the soil tillage depth has a simple design and is reliable in operation, and the quality parameters of the machine increase up to 10% due to this.