The bit of cane sugar, Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius, 1794), (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is the main plague of sugar cane in Brazil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the intensity of infestation in five varieties of commercially sugar cane. The experiment was conducted at Parnaíba Valley Company (COMVAP), that belongs to the Olho D'água Group, located in the city of União - Pi (latitude 04° 51' 08" S; longitude 42° 52' 59" W). Gallo methodology was used to evaluate the the intensity of infestation. It is calculated by: II% = 100 x blocked internodes / total number of internodes. The intensity of infestation of all sorts was considered very low. The varieties SP73-2577, SP83-2847, SP81-3250, SP79-1011 and RB92-579 did not present infestation, using the no-parametric test of Kruskal - Wallis, meaningful statistic differences among them. All varieties showed similar intensity of infestation and may be recommended respecting other desired characteristics.

There was evaluated the effect of protein supplementation on the diurnal behavior activities of non-castrated Nellore steers at rainy season, from January to April of 2007. The grazing method was continuous with variable stocking rate. The treatments consisted of mineral supplement with 0% of crude protein (CP) and multiple supplements with 20 and 40% of CP. The behavior activities evaluated were grazing time, idling time, rumination time, bite rate and permanence time of the animals in the trough. The experimental design used was the completely random design, with seven replications. To evaluate the effect of the time of day there was use a split-plot design. With the supplementation the animals reduced at 1.1 hours razing time, offsetting part of the time for the activities of idling and permanence in the trough. The animals did not alter the rumination time, according to supplementation, and maintained the same bite rate, because of the homogeneity of the structural and chemical characteristics of pasture.

Forage plants cultivated in consortium with crop corn, facilitating the weed control in farming and cattle raising ecosystem, interfering not only in your biological productivity, like in your potential of distribution and infestation in area. This experiment was realized with the aim to evaluate the weed suppress by Brachiaria decumbens in intercropping with corn (Zea mays L.). The even was composed by combination of four forage plant density (0, 10, 15 and 20 kg ha-1) and three weed species (Ipomoea grandifolia, Digitaria horizontalis and Cenchrus echinatus), planted intercropping with corn. It was constated that B. decumbens was efficient in weed infestation suppress, being the most effective control for D. horizontalis. The leaf area and dry phytomass of weeds were affected (P<0.05) by forage plant presence, with variation between the density curve of Brachiaria only for weed D. horizontalis and I. grandifolia.

This work aimed to evaluate the influence of daily supplementation with 10 g of polyethyleneglycol (PEG) associated with Sabiá shrub hay (Mimosa caesalpiniifolia Benth.) on the intake and digestibility of in goats and sheep. Twenty animals, ten sheep and ten goats were allocated in a randomized block design, with two treatments and two species: PEG group (supplemented with 10 g of PEG) and control group (without supplementation). Significant differences were not observed between treatments and species regarding the intake and digestibility of dry matter and neutral detergent fiber. Nevertheless, PEG supplementation enhanced the crude protein digestibility of Sabiá shrub hay from 33.96% to 38.74% in sheep and from 43.29% to 54.41% in goats, showing that the supplementation with PEG could become a good feeding strategy against the antinutritional effects of tannin of the forage plants.

This study was conducted in the Private Reserve Mata do Jambreiro (912 ha), localized in the Iron Quadrangle, Minas Gerais, southeastern portion of the Espinhaço Range, which is predominantly covered by semideciduous seasonal montane forest. Three topographically and physiognomic similar areas located within a continuum forest fragment, distant by 1.3 to 1.5 km were sampled by the point-quadrat method. In each area, 30 points were marked. Individuals with a minimum perimeter at the breast height (PBH) of 15 cm were sampled, totaling 111 species belonging to 40 families. The most representative family was Fabaceae, with 14.29% of the total number of species. Low floristic similarity (5.3% to 34.4%) was observed between the areas, pointing out the importance of distribution of sample units in continuous fragments. Shannon diversity index (H') found was 4.22 and Pielou equability (J) 0.894. Soil analysis showed some differences in chemical composition between the three studied areas and was an important component for the interpretation of the floristic variation found. The low floristic similarity observed here for close areas justify the requirement of more detailed inventories by Brazilian Environmental Agencies for the legal authorization procedures prior to the establishment of new enterprising projects. Also, the professionals that conduct rapid inventories, mainly the Environmental Consultants, should give more attention to this kind of floristic variation and to the methods used to inventory complex forests.

This research performed an evaluation of the water distribution on the soil surface and in its profile in a subunit irrigated by microsprinkle cultivated with Annona muricata L., with the purpose of verifying the spatial distribution and quantification of the water availability in the soil profile. The data were collected in 28 spaced emission points of 10 x 24 m, forming a mesh for application of the geostatistics. In the surface evaluation it was determined the coefficient of emission uniformity and the irrigation efficiency, while in the subsurface evaluation the water availability was esteemed in three layers of the soil profile, 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm, one and twenty-four hours after the irrigation, using a neutrons probe. The coefficient of irrigation uniformity found was of 84.69% with an irrigation efficiency of 76.22%. It was verified that, twenty-four hours after irrigation, the water content in the most superficial layers of the soil profile is below the correspondent to the wilting point, while in the deepest layers the water content overcomes the maximum capacity of soilwater retention, in other words, humidity superior to field capacity.

The objective of this research was to evaluate the behavior of thermal conductivity in the apparentsurface in caatinga predominantly cactus, especially eunapolis [Pilosocereus gounellei (A. Weber ex K. Schum.)]. The study area was the river basin Taperoá, located in the region of Cariris Velhos in the State of Paraíba. Data were used for temperature and heat flux on the surface of vegetated soil. It used the law of heat conduction, who modeling time series of apparent thermal conductivity of the vegetation was made by Fourier methods, linear regression and polynomial. The results are partial, but antagonistic to literature, and they point out that the heat transfer by conduction in the caatinga has significance and should provide support for parameterization and incorporation of vegetation dynamics in the models are, hydrological, environmental or atmospheric circulation.

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the performance of lines of cherry tomato, heat tolerant under the organic system. The experiment was conducted at the Instituto de Ciências Agrárias da UFMG, Montes Claros - MG. The treatments consisted of eleven lines of cherry tomato, heat tolerant, obtained from the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center, China: CLN1561A, CLN1555C, CLN1555B, CLN1555A, CLN1558B, CLN1558A, CH151, CH152, CH154, CH157, CH155 cultivated under organic system. We used a randomized block design with eleven treatments and four replications. There was an inverse relationship between the average fruit weight and number of fruits produced per plant. The lines CLN1561A and CH157 are indicated for the culture and commercialization of the cherry tomato organically produced, therefore to present greater productivity and greater total soluble solid content.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the precision of the Original Geometric Method and Modified Geometric Method, to estimate the individual volume of 100 trees of Eucalyptus urophylla S. T. Blake, coming from a plantation with high variability of shape, with five years of age, located in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil. For this, the trees were rigorously cubed and separated into five diameter classes with an amplitude of 3 cm, and their actual volumes were compared with volumes estimated by the respective methods, in an analysis of variance in factorial with two factors (diameter classes and methods). The results showed that, in general, the methods produced good estimates of volume, however, there was loss of precision in estimates related to a greater taper of the trees belonging to the largest diameter classes (DBH > 12 cm), with shape factors smaller than 0.46, as well as the presence of deformations on the stem.

The increase of the shrimp and fruit crop has devastated the carnauba, evidencing the importance of reforest projects and of researches aiming to the production of seedlings. It was aimed to evaluate the effect of imbibition of seeds and shading on the emergence and quality of carnauba seedlings. The treatments were disposed in a randomized design arranged in split-plot with the shading conditions (without shading and shading all day, during the morning and during the afternoon) as the main factor and the types of seeds (imbibed and non-imbibed seeds) as secondary factor. The imbibed seeds were immersed in water until theprotrusion of the cotyledonary petiole. To the shading conditions was used black screen (50%). After 120 days of the sowing, we evaluated the percentage (PE), speed index (IVE) and mean time of emergency (TME), the ratio between the aerial part length and stem¿s diameter (CPA/DC) and quality index of Dickson (IQD). By the PE and IVE, higher viability was verified and vigor in imbibed seeds. By the TME, higher vigor was observed to the seedlings produced under full sunshine and with shading during the afternoon, which had higher quality according to CPA/DC. By the IQD, better balance was observed in the seedling from imbibed seeds and in the seedlings produced under full sunshine. It is concluded that the carnauba seeds imbibition provides higher emergency percentage, accelerates this process and provides better quality of seedlings. Carnauba seedlings produced under full sunshine presents faster emergency and higher quality.