Agriculture more than any other branch of production is influenced by various natural, anthropogenic and economic risk factors on which the profitability of production and preservation of the environment in rural areas depend. The prerequisite of prevention or alleviation of risks is their all-round knowledge and consideration. In order to understand the nature of risks, they will be dealt with in the present study on the example of the cultivation of the most common cereal in Estonia - barley. The difference in barley yields, resulting from the pedoclimatic coditions of Estonia, may be 2-4-fold in different regions and in different years. At the same time, differences in the profitability of barley cultivation, depending on economic factors and on the specificity of production, may be up to 6-fold.

The goal of this study was to investigate the use of body reserves, energy balance and fertility parameters at the beginning of lactation in first-parity cows bred in Estonia.

The work contains the description of the current technical conditions of the water resources of the Baltezers region and drinking water consumption in Riga during 2003-2010.

Land reclamation is very important in Lithuania: under the climatic conditions of our country it is necessary to drain land. Today approximately 90% of the whole agricultural production are grown in drained land. In this article financial problems of land reclamation works are analysed. Not taking into account our country's financial abilities, the maintenance of land reclamation systems must be done properly, and in time - only then, we will be able to guarantee the best long-lasting functioning of drainage systems, and in the future there will be no greater and it will be unnecessary to do expensive preliminary reconstructions works. The maintenance works of drainage systems may be full-filled properly and in time when increasing the financing for land reclamation works up to the necessary level (any subsidies resources and payments are possible, as well as different labour variants and other alternatives) or reducing the maintained drained areas, so that we could throughly keep on eye on land reclamation systems.

The effect of different fertilisers and storage temperature on the content of reducing sugar in potatoes of different varieties, destined for processing into chips, was investigated at the Elmininkai Research Station of the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture during the period 2000-2001. Five potato varieties belonging to different maturity groups were investigated: early 'Goda' and 'Voke', medium early 'Lady Rosetta', medium late 'Saturna' and 'Hermes'. Potatoes of all the investigated varieties were grown in the plots with different fertilisation: 1 - manure - 40 t ha*[-1), 2 - chopped straw+one-component mineral fertilisers at the rate of N45P45K90, 3 - one-component mineral fertilisers at the rate of N90P90K180, 4 - complex mineral fertilisers with microelements at the rate of N90P90K180. It was established that reducing sugar content in potato tubers depended on the genetic properties of the variety, storage temperature and fertilisation.

Activation of lypolysis during milking normally results from faulty design and instalation, and inadequate maintenance of milking equipment, and is associated with excessive air intake into the system, causing turbulence. Majority of pipeline milking systems used in Estonian dairy farms have been instaled in 70s and 80s. Their mounting does not meet the requirements of ISO 6690 and 5707. In recent years, besides installing of new milking equipment, the reconstruction of old ones has been started. There is little information on the effect of that kind of reconstruction on raw milk quality. In this study, the effect of three factors on induced lipolysis were investigated on original laboratory experimental equipment. The parameters of studied factors - the time of agitation the intensiveness of agitation and the rate of aeration - were changed independently. A preliminary study showed these three factors. Aeration rate was mainly responsible for the increased FFA content of raw milk.

Today more than 17.5% of agricultural land is abandoned in Latvia. Effective use of this land is essential for rural development planning, as well as growth of national economics. Afforestation is one of alternative uses of abondoned and marginal agricultural land. Requisite investments and management costs are calculated for forest plantations of pine, spruce, birch and aspen. The analysis of investment appraisal is based on several criteria - net present value, internal rate of return, benefit/cost ratio and equivalent annual annuity.

The paper presents some data collected for various purposes on phenomena, which took place in drainage channels. The data shows a certain one-direction trend of development of these phenomena when slopes of channels are covered with woody vegetation: the intensity of sedimentation of channel's bottom slowed down (Fig. 1); cross section area blocked up by snow decreased (Table 1); concentrations of biogenic and organic (BOD) matter did not show the worsening of water quality (Table 2 and 3). In the most channnels the losses of hydraulic conductivity occuring because of woody vegetation are usually compensated by conductivity reserve of a bigger cross section area caused by a rather large depth of subsurface drainage systems.

The aim of the present study was to determine the level of cholesterol in the milk of the Latvia's cow herds, analyse differences between two different methods of cholesterol determination in milk. Milk samples were obtained from the cows of Latvian Brown and Black and White breeds. The milk fat and protein were analysed by Milkoscan 133, cholesterol content was determined colorimetricaly by Blur procedure with prior lipid extraction by Roese-Gottlieb method and by gas-chromatography method. The obtained results showed that the milk fat content was 4.48+-0.28%, protein was 3.03+-0.09%, cholesterol content in milk was 21.05+-2.01 mg 100 ml*[-1), when assayed by spectrophotometer SF 26 LOMO and 18.29+-1.73 mg 100 ml*[-1), when assayed by gas chromatography. There were no significant differences in cholesterol content between both determination methods.

The importance of organic farming has increased rapidly in Estonia in the last few years. Nevertheless the higher prices of organic products are not presented in Estonia yet, but the official subsidies are often the main reason to start organic farming. The Estonian Republic supports organic farming as a branch of environmentally sustainable agriculture. The main theme of this article was to explain - is the organic cereal production profitable for farmers.