Korea depends almost entirely on imports for malt, the main ingredient in beer. However, the consumer market for domestic malt has not developed in Korea because of the prejudice that the quality of domestic malt is inferior to that of imported malt. This study aimed to analyze the quality of malt from Gwangmaeg (GM) and Hopum (HP), representative domestic beer barley varieties cultivated under varying nitrogen fertilizer application rates (standard fertilizer application, 50% increase in application, and 50% decrease in application), and use the findings as primary data to promote domestic malt consumption. GM’s crude protein and starch contents were significantly (Ρ<0.05) higher and lower, respectively, than those in HP. With decreased fertilizer application (GM: 14.0±0.8% and HP: 11.4±0.4%), the protein content was significantly lower than that with increased fertilizer application (GM: 15.5± 0.3% and HP: 13.1±1.3%). Although there was no difference in -glucan content, starch content tended to increase, indicating quality improvement. Acrospire length, yield, and enzyme titer, quality indicators of malt, increased with further fertilizer application, whereas friability and Kolbach index increased with decreased fertilizer application. For wort qualities, filtration time decreased from 36 to 34 minutes in GM and 55 to 42 minutes in HP, with the wort extraction rate increasing with decreased fertilizer application. These findings showed that decreased nitrogen fertilizer application improves the qualities of malt and wort.

Sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is a serious pest of many economically important crops. The insect has developed resistance to chemical insecticides. Therefore, the development of microbial agent such as entomopathogenic fungi, Lecanicillium lecanii is necessary. Spores of L. lecanii Btab01 was collected after cultivation on solid PDA and liquid RB (rice bran amended with 2% molasses) media. The bioassay was carried out with B. taabci nymphs for 7 days at 25℃ and 60% relative humidity. Further, mortality was corrected with appropriate controls. The results revealed that spores obtained from RB medium caused high mortality (98.31%) compared to PDA medium (93.94%). Spore concentrations 105, 106, 107, and 108 colony forming units (c. f. u) ml-1 caused 5.81, 33.80, 77.27, and 98.54% mortality, respectively. The mortality (100%) was observed for 4 days when L. lecanii spores was mixed with 0.1 - 0.3% soybean oil. Hence, it is concluded from this study, L. lecanii Btab01 cultivated on RB medium can be recommended to control the nymphs of B. tabaci. Spore suspension can be expected to high efficacy when soybean oil was blended.

Environment-friendly soybean planting system has been being required in the upland field with high slope and heavy rain in summer season. Changes of weed amount and soybean yield by rye cover crop and conservation tillage were investigated. Soil-disturbing at conservation tillage before soybean planting increased numbers and dry weights of weeds germinated in late spring such as Echinochloa crusgalli P. Beauv (barnyardgrass) and Portulaca oleracea L. (common purslane) regardless of herbicide spray even though the weed, Chenopodium ficifolium Smith germinated before soil-disturbing were higher at non-disturbing soil. Higher weed amounts at plots of strip-tillage (30cm rototilling) compared to minimum tillage (10cm rototilling) was mainly due to the weed increase by soil-disturbing. Soybean yields at plots with rye cover crop, particularly early maturity rye cover crop, were lower than those at plots without rye cover crop, which was due to lower soybean seedling stand by heavy rye residue. More researches are required for the higher soybean yield at the minimum tillage with rye cover crop in which weed amounts were low.