The efficient functioning of drainage objects depends on a number of accidental factors: natural and climatic conditions, the quality of drainage technologies and their exploitation, as well as the peculiarities of drained land use. Drainage reliability may be evaluated in view of the following indices: mean quantitative values, fluctuation peculiarities, interrelations and dependence of the indices. One of the indices, determining the reliability of drainage objects, is the drainage operation time to failure - the longer this time, the more reliable the drainage is from the point of view of exploitation. The paper deals with one of the most important reliability indices of drainage systems - it's operating time to failure. The indices of drainage functioning until its failure have been defined on the basis of probability theory and mathematical statistics. The distribution regularities have been established for the drainage object under different land-reclamation conditions. This might help to determine the failure probability, a certain age as well as to foresee the time and extent of repair works.

As the majority of well-known researchers (All right 1982, Jordan 1989, Morrow 1977 etc.) evaluate needs analysis as the starting point for any kind of teaching and learning ESP, and the new developments in educational psychology contributed to ESP (Chambers F., 1980 etc.) emphasize a learner-centreted approach, the first attempt for such kind of data collecting was made in the Faculty of Veterinary Science, Estonian Agricultural University (EAU).

This paper investigates the natural resources, business and social infrastructure and also the demographic structure of the local inhabitants of the municipalities, near the projected pulp mill. Possibilities and problems connected to the implementation of the pulp mill project are pointed out, also extra regional development is discussed.

Training of a vocational teacher at a professional education oriented university is in parallels to concentric integration of profession and pedagogic (psychology) resulting in formation of student's professional consciousness that ensures a new quality of professional orientation.

Weed surveys showed that annual broad-leaved weeds were dominant in spring barley sowings in central Latvia. Field trials on broad-leaved weed control in spring barley showed that herbicides Granstar and Duplosan Super at 0,5 and 0,25 doses gave good weed control. There were statistically significant relationships between the abundance of broad-leaved weed and the yield of spring barley when barley yield and broad-leaved weed population were both high.

The spread of thrips was observed in winter rye, wheat and triticale crops during the growing season of 2001 at the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture in Dotnuva. Thrips started to spread in winter cereals of the end of tilling - beginning of stem elongation stage (DC 29-30). In winter rye and triticale the spread of thrips was similar. There were two well-defined peaks of thrips occurrence. The highest incidence of thrips was on winter rye. There were 100% infested stems and 15.4 thrips per infested stem in rye, 90% infested stems and 6.9 thrips per infested stem in triticale and 84% infested stems and 2.9 thrips per infested stem in wheat.

Balance of nitrogen, phosphor and potassium content in four rotations of sugar beets (in respective periods of 1965-1973; 1974-1982; 1083-1991 and 1992-2000) was established at the Rumokai Research Station of the Agricultural Institute of Lithuania. Extended crop rotation of nine fields included two fields of winter wheat or rye (22.2%), two fields of sugar beets (22.2%), two fields of barley (22.2%), one field of perennial grass, i.e. red clover and meadow timothy of the first year use (11.1%), one field of perennial grass - red clover and meadow timothy - of the second year use (11.1%) and one field contained vegetated fallow with the drilled mixture of vetch and oat for green fodder (11.1%). Organic-mineral fertilisation system was employed in the process of crop rotation.

During the period of 2000 and 2001, field trials were established with the aim to evaluate the productivity and forage quality of lucerne. The most productive lucerne varieties were 'Birute', 'Radius' and 'Belorusskaya' yielding 13.5-14.6 t ha*[-1) DM, during the years of sward use. The most content of crude protein 170-175 g kg*[-1) have been obtains from 'Karly', 'Radius' and 'ABT-205'. The highest digestibility was observed in the developing line No 60. Acclimatization of rhizobia within lucerne roots has been determined applying streptomycin resistant forms. In field conditions acclimatization within lucerne was more successful by strains 05 (40-100%).

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.