Agricultural and Forestry Science

Szechuan pepper can be used to deter crop-destroying mammals such as the prairie vole, without affecting non-targeted species, says research published in the journal Pest Management Science.

Researchers discovered that compounds in the pepper probably repel prairie voles by stimulating pain receptors in the nose, mouth and eyes. The component Zanthoxylum, found in Szechuan pepper, stimulate neurons different to those stimulated by other natural deterrents such as capsaicin, from capsicum pep

A group of researchers at the Navarre Public University, together with technical experts from the Navarre Provincial Government, are evaluating the impact of agricultural activity on water resources, based on a Net of Experimental Catchment Areas that the Provincial Administration has installed in several areas of Navarre.

To put this project into effect, the Agricultural Non Point Source Pollution method is being used; AGNPS is a technology which has been developed by the Department of Agri

The scientific puzzle pieces are fitting together to form a definitive picture of the origin of corn, says a Duke University plant geneticist who has proposed that the world’s most important food crop originated in an ancient cross between two grasses.

Mary Eubanks described the latest evidence that corn, or maize, originated as a cross between teosinte and gamagrass, or Tripsacum, in a talk Friday, April 2, 2004, at a symposium on maize held at the annual meeting of the Society for Ame

New technology developed by CSIRO Livestock Industries (CLI) will lead to the development of new strategies designed to substantially reduce the $140 million lost each year due to Australian dairy cows contracting udder infections.

Developed with support from the Innovative Dairy Products Cooperative Research Centre (Dairy CRC), the bovine immune gene microarray provides researchers with the means to rapidly assess the gene activity profiles of infected and mastitis-resistant cattle.

Scientists at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research are developing new plant breeding techniques which can improve the efficiency of cow digestion and reduce pollution at the same time. Grass isn’t the easiest food to digest, and even cows appear to have difficulty doing it efficiently. Dr. Alison Kingston-Smith and Mrs. Rosalind Shaw will present results at the SEB annual meeting at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh outlining how selective plant breeding can improve the amount of p

During World War II, soldiers from the Fifth U.S. Army set up camp at an exclusive hunting estate in Italy, regrouping between military drives north against German troops and fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Sixty years later, forest pathologists are pointing to huge gaps of dead trees in the estate as the visible reminders of that brief stay.

In a new study published in the April issue of Mycological Research, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and in Italy, have unlock