This study was conducted to determine the appropriate seeding dates by verifying the difference in winter survival and productivity of alfalfa according to fall sowing dates in the central area of South Korea. The experiment was conducted for 2 years (2020 and 2021) at the field in the Department of Animal Resources Development, NIAS located in Cheonan. Sowing dates started from September 18 to November 8 with 10 days of intervals during 2020 and 2021; SO1 (September 18), SO2 (September 28), SO3 (October 8), SO4 (October 18), SO5 (October 28), and SO6 (November 8). After sowing, the winter survival rate was measured in the spring of the following year, and the dry matter yield was measured by harvesting at 10% flowering and harvesting five times a year. SO6 failed to winter survival, and SO5 also had a lower winter survival rate than SO1~4 (p<0.05). The average annual dry matter yield of alfalfa linearly decreased with delaying sowing dates (p<0.05). The feed value did not differ in the same year by delaying the sowing date in the same year. These results suggest that sowing date should be started before October 18 to increase winter survival and productivity of alfalfa in the central area of South Korea.

We aimed to investigate the effect of environmental enrichment via toys on the behaviour and performance of weanling pigs. A total of 300 pigs (LYD) were housed in different pens with ten pigs per replicate and ten pigs per head divided into 3 groups. Group 1 was called “CON” and received no toys, group 2 was TOY-2, and pigs in this group had access to toys in the first 2 weeks, and lastly, pigs in TOY-4 were given toys in the fourth week. The pigs had access to feed and water ad-libitum. The individual pig behaviours in each group was recorded on days 14 and 28 (d 14 and 28) with a video camera for accuracy. The results showed higher (p<0.05) overall ADG in TOY-4 compared with CON, while the overall ADFI was higher (p<0.05) in TOY-supplemented groups compared to CON. Diarrhea incidence and fecal score were lower on D 14 in TOY-supplemented groups compared with CON. Behavioural features such as ear biting and fighting were lower (p<0.05) in TOY-supplemented groups compared with CON on D 14. Tail biting was lower (p<0.05) in TOY-2 compared with CON at D 14. Conversely, at D 28, tail biting was lower (p<0.05) in TOY-4 compared with CON. The ADG improved due to the toy supplied to reduce undesirable social behaviours. We concluded that the environmental enrichment of pens with toys can help to improve the welfare in weaning pigs, leading to a greater survivability and more production thereby improving farmer incomes.

This study identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that affect the body weight of chickens. Analysis of body weight showed that the Cornish breed had the highest body weight, and the Korean native chicken (Gray Brown) had the lowest body weight. TSH is composed of an α-subunit and a β-subunit, and the TSH-β gene encoding the β-subunit has been reported to be associated with obesity. In chickens, it is located on chromosome 26 and is reported to be associated with growth. The calcium-sensing receptor gene (CaSR) plays a role in the regulation of extracellular calcium homeostasis and is responsible for calcium absorption in the urinary tract, which affects the eggshell quality in poultry. It was shown that TSH-β was strongly correlated with weight in Cornish and Korean native (Gray Brown) chickens, particularly in those with the CC trait. However, CaSR showed no association with body weight in poultry; it was associated with calcium and the eggshell. Thus, selection for TSH-β can be used to produce individuals with more favorable traits in terms of body weight.

The present study examined changes in surface shape and pore size observed in carbon black particles isothermally oxidized in an air atmosphere according to their burn-off ratio. Carbon black materials were fed into a horizontal tubular furnace in an air atmosphere when the inside temperature reached 600 °C. Subsequently, while changing the isothermal oxidation time, carbon black samples with different burn-off ratios were obtained, i.e., 10.5, 20.0, 30.4, 41.0, 49.9, 59.8, 71.1, and 81.0%. The scanning electron microscope analysis revealed that the observed carbon black particles were in the form of aggregated primary particles, and that there was no change in the particle size of these primary particles as the burn-off process proceeded. The latter observation supported the observation that pores were formed in the carbon black samples during the burn-off process. Notably, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis exhibited hysteresis curves, indicating that the corresponding adsorption isotherms were of IV-type. It was also found that the area of the hysteresis curves increased as the burn-off process proceeded. The specific surface area of the raw carbon black sample was 58.00 m2/g, while that of the 81.0% sample was about 4.1 times the figure at 240.27 m2/g. The total pore volume VT was 0.17 cm3/g for the raw sample, and it was much higher for the 81.0% sample at 0.58 cm3/g. The transmission electron microscope analysis showed that the raw carbon black particles had a spherical shape with a smooth surface, but inner pores were not observed. In the 49.9% sample, pores with a size of about 5 nm were observed inside carbon black particles. Notably, the size of the pores observed in the 81.0% sample was about 20 nm and the large pores were created by the collapsing and merging of the smaller pores by oxidation.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of mixed or split-sex feeding on growth performance and behavior of Korean native chickens. Three variants of the sex ratio, FO (female only), MO (male only) and MI (mixed) were tested in Korean native chickens (Hanhyop 3) that were between the ages of 7 and 91 days. Body weight gain was the highest (p<0.05) in the MO treatment and the lowest (p<0.05) in the MI treatment. The feed intake (FI) of birds in the MO treatment was higher (p<0.05) than that of birds in the MI treatment during days 14-21, also MO treatment was higher (p<0.05) than that of birds in the MI treatment during days 21-28. However, the FI of birds in the MI group was higher (p<0.05) than that of birds in FO treatment during days 35-42. The behavioral frequency of walking, drinking, and aggressive pecking were not affected by sex ratio treatment. The behavioral frequency of feeding was higher in the FO treatment than that of birds in the other treatments. The comfort time of birds in the MI treatment was longer (p<0.05) than that of birds in the other treatments. The behavioral frequency of pecking was higher in the MO treatment than that of birds in the other treatments. The study suggests that when male and female Korean native chickens are reared together, sex ratio can influence growth performance and behavior frequency.

본 연구는 평창지역의 산지에서 목초 파종시기가 초지의 연차별 식생 및 생산성에 미치는 영향을 구명하고 평창지역의 산지초지 조성에 적합한 피종시기를 설정하고자 2015년 8월부터 2017년 10월까지 평창군에 위치한 서울대학교 국제농업기술대학원의 산지에서 수행되었다. 처리는 총 4처리로 T1: 8월 13일 파종 T2: 8월 27일 파종, T3: 9월 10일 파종, T4: 9월 24일 파종이었다. 월동 후 초지 식생구성을 보면 T1과 T2까지는 목초 식생비율이 98%이상으로 높은 식생밀도를 보였지만 T3이후부터는 급격하게 감소하였다. 분얼의 경우 T1과 T2에서 4.4개 이상으로 양호하였지만 T3이후에는 급격하게 감소하였다. 이러한 초기 월동률의 차이는 이후 목초의 식생 및 생산성에 큰 영향을 주었다. 연차별 식생변화를 보면 T1과 T2의 경우 목초 비율이 81%이상으로 우수하였지만 T4의 경우 상대적으로 불량하였다. 전체 건물 수량의 경우 T2와 T1이 각각 9,042 kg ha-1 와 8,845 kg-1 로 우수하게 나타났지만 T4의 경우 5,086 kg ha-1 로 건물 생산성이 상대적으로 낮게 나타났다. 결과를 종합해보면 평창지역에서 8월 말까지 파종을 완료 한 경우 목초 월동이 향상되었으며 이는 식생이나 생산성 측면에서 유리하게 나타났다.

The objective of this study was to investigate the suitable method for rapid establishment of grassland according to forage species, mixed pastures and installation of mesh at 35 degree angle of cutting area in the middle region of Korea. In agronomic characteristics after wintering, vegetation coverage of Tall fescue(TF) was 74% in monoculture, which was the highest among 3 forage crops. Meanwhile average vegetation coverages of monoculture and mixed pasture were 67 and 92% in treated of mesh, which were 4 and 18% higher than untreated of mesh, respectively. In botanical composition, TF of monoculture and Orchardgrass(OG) and TF oriented mixed were indicated over 94% forage coverage. Meanwhile forage coverages Kentucky bluegrass(KBG) and Red top(RT) of monoculture and Perennial ryegrass(PRG) oriented mixture were 89, 81 and 92% in treated of mesh, which were 7, 6 and 5% higher than untreated of mesh, respectively. In forage productivity, dry matter yield(DMY) of TF(12,537kg/ha) and KBG(11,897kg/ha) of monoculture were significant(p<0.05) higher than RT(9,604kg/ha). Meanwhile DMY of OG(12,227kg/ha), TF(12,823kg/ha) and PRG(11,871kg/ha) oriented mixed were not significant difference(p>0.05). In forage quality of monoculture, in the first year, crude protein of KBG was 13.6%, which was the highest among 3 forage species. Also neutral detergent fiber(NDF) of TF was 56.5%, which was the lowest among 3 forage species. In mixed pasture, in the second year, NDF and acid detergent fiber of PRG oriented mixed were 56.5 and 34.3%, respectively, which was the lowest among 3 mixed pasture. In conclusion, forage species TF was more suitable on initial rootage and continuous forage coverage, OG and TF oriented mixed were more suitable on continuous forage coverage. Also the installation of mesh showed positive effects on initial rootage and maintain forage ratio.

Yield prediction model for mixed pasture was developed with a shortage that the relationship between dry matter yield (DMY) and days of summer depression (DSD) was not properly reflected in the model in the previous research. Therefore, this study was designed to eliminate the data of the regions with distinctly different climatic conditions and then investigate their relationships DMY and DSD using the data in each region separately of regions with distinct climatic characteristics and classify the data based on regions for further analysis based on the previous mixed pasture prediction model. The data set used in the research kept 582 data points from 11 regions and 41 mixed pasture types. The relationship between DMY and DSD in each region were analyzed through scatter plot, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis in each region separately. In the statistical analysis, DMY was taken as the response variable and 5 climatic variables including DSD were taken as explanatory variables. The results of scatter plot showed that negative correlations between DMY and DSD were observed in 7 out of 9 regions. Therefore, it was confirmed that analyzing the relationship between DMY and DSD based on each region is necessary and 5 regions were selected (Hwaseong, Suwon, Daejeon, Siheung and Gwangju) since the data size in these regions is large enough to perform the further statistical analysis based on large sample approximation theory. Correlation analysis showed that negative correlations were found between DMY and DSD in 3 (Hwaseong, Suwon and Siheung) out of the 5 regions, meanwhile the negative relationship in Hwaseong was confirmed through multiple regression analysis. Therefore, it was concluded that the interpretability of the yield prediction model for mixed pasture could be improved based on constructing the models using the data from each region separately instead of using the pooled data from different regions.

This study was conducted to explore the effects of seeding rate of a seed mixture on grassland productivity and botanical composition. Seeding rates were composed of four different treatments varying by the amount of seed: T1, 50% decrease in seeding rate from standard; T2, standard seeding rate; T3, 50% increase in seeding rate from standard; and T4, 100% increase in seeding rate from standard. In 2016, seasonal changes in grass botanical composition revealed T2, T3, and T4 in portion of grass ratio were the highest with a range of 87–100%, whereas T1 was the lowest of all treatments. In 2017, the botanical composition in T1 showed that the grass ratio in of the first cutting was 91%, but in the fourth cutting its ratio decreased by 75%. The results from both years were combined for each treatment, T4 (11,435 kg ha-1) and T3 (11,162 kg ha-1) demonstrated the highest dry matter yield of the treatments (T1: 8,196 kg ha-1; T2: 9,521 kg ha-1) (p＜0.05). As a result, a 50–100% increase in the seeding rate from the standard demonstrated the best grassland yield and botanical composition.

This study was aimed to find yield prediction model of Italian ryegrass using climate big data and geographic information. After that, mapping the predicted yield results using Geographic Information System (GIS) as follows; First, forage data were collected; second, the climate information, which was matched with forage data according to year and location, was gathered from the Korean Metrology Administration (KMA) as big data; third, the climate layers used for GIS were constructed; fourth, the yield prediction equation was estimated for the climate layers. Finally, the prediction model was evaluated in aspect of fitness and accuracy. As a result, the fitness of the model (R2) was between 27% to 95% in relation to cultivated locations. In Suwon (n=321), the model was; DMY = 158.63AGD –8.82AAT +169.09SGD - 8.03SAT +184.59SRD -13,352.24 (DMY: Dry Matter Yield, AGD: Autumnal Growing Days, SGD: Spring Growing Days, SAT: Spring Accumulated Temperature, SRD: Spring Rainfall Days). Furthermore, DMY was predicted as 9,790±120 (kg/ha) for the mean DMY(9,790 kg/ha). During mapping, the yield of inland areas were relatively greater than that of coastal areas except of Jeju Island, furthermore, northeastern areas, which was mountainous, had lain no cultivations due to weak cold tolerance. In this study, even though the yield prediction modeling and mapping were only performed in several particular locations limited to the data situation as a startup research in the Republic of Korea.

The objective of this study was to select a model showing high-levels of interpretability which is high in R-squared value in terms of predicting the yield in the mixed pasture using the factors of fertilization, seeding rate and years after pasture establishment in steps, as well as the climate as a basic factor. The processes of constructing the yield prediction model for the mixed pasture were performed in the sequence of data collection (forage and climatic data), preparation, analysis, and model construction. Through this process, six models were constructed after considering climatic variables, fertilization management, seeding rates, and periods after pasture establishment years in steps, thereafter the optimum model was selected through considering the coincidence of the models to the forage production theories. As a result, Model VI (R squared = 53.8%) including climatic variables, fertilization amount, seeding rates, and periods after pasture establishment was considered as the optimum yield prediction model for mixed pastures in South Korea. The interpretability of independent variables in the model were decreased in the sequence of climatic variables(24.5%), fertilization amount(17.8%), seeding rates(10.7%), and periods after pasture establishment(0.8%). However, it is necessary to investigate the reasons of positive correlation between dry matter yield and days of summer depression (DSD) by considering cultivated locations and using other cumulative temperature related variables instead of DSD. Meanwhile the another research about the optimum levels of fertilization amounts and seeding rates is required using the quadratic term due to the certain value-centered distribution of these two variables

The objective of this research was to determine the effects of harvesting frequency and fertilization levels on botanical composition, dry matter yield, and forage feed compositions of Alpine grassland at 800 m altitude. This research lasted for three years at National Alpine Agricultural Research Institute in Pyeongchang with two harvesting frequency schedules (two and three times annually) and two levels of fertilizer application (conventional level of fertilizer at 280-200-240 kg/ha and a lower level of fertilizer at 200-200-200 kg/ha for N, P2O5, and K2O). Mixture combinations with seeding rate (kg/ha) were as follows: Orchardgrass 18, Tall fescue 9, Timothy 8, Kentucky bluegrass 3, and Ladino Clover 2. The gramineae ratio ranged from 93.2 to 95.3%. Therefore, gramineae forage was considered as the dominant plant in this experiment. No significant (p>0.05) difference was observed in forage dry matter yield between the two harvesting frequency treatments (two times at 9.8 ton/ha and three times at 8.6 ton/ha). However, forage dry matter yield in the two times of harvesting frequency tended to be greater than that in the three times of harvesting frequency. Significantly (p<0.05) higher forage dry matter yield in the standard fertilization level group than the lower fertilization level group (9.8 ton/ha vs. 8.7 ton/ha) was observed. However, there was no significant (p>0.05) difference in forage crude protein concentration between the two harvesting frequency treatment groups, although the concentration in the group with three times of harvesting frequency tended to be higher. In contrast, crude fiber concentration in the group with two times of harvesting frequency tended to be higher, although the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Crude protein, ether extract, crude fiber, and organic matter concentrations were not significantly (p>0.05) different between the two groups with different fertilization levels. Based on these results, it was concluded that the group with two times of harvesting frequency with conventional fertilization level might be proper for obtaining better forage productivity for Alpine grassland at 800 m altitude.

Porcine parvovirus (PPV), a member of the genus Parvovirus, family Parvoviridae, is a significant causative agent in porcine reproductive failure, causing serious economic losses in the swine industry. PPV is a non-enveloped virus and its capsid is assembled from three viral proteins (VP1, VP2, and VP3). The major capsid protein, VP2 is the main target for neutralizing antibodies in PPV. When VP2 was expressed in large amounts, it assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs) similar in size and morphology to the original virions. In this study, we generated the recombinant Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) to express the VP2 protein. Expression of the VP2 protein was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot. The recombinant VP2 protein of approximately 64 kDa was detected by both analyses. The formation of VLP by recombinant VP2 was confirmed through transmission electron microscopy examination. The purified VP2 protein assembled into spherical particles with diameters ranging from 20 to 22 nm.