There are small number of tables that show digestibility and energy contents of compound feeds produced by feed factory in different regions of Turkey. Thus, in this paper, four different compound feed types (dairy cattle, beef cattle, calf and lamb growing feeds), totalling 78 compound feeds were analysed to determine their feeding value, dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) digestibility and energy content (digestible energy (DE), metabolisable energy (ME) and net energy for lactation (NEL). As a result of this study, the crude fiber (CF) levels were higher than standard values in calf and lamb compound feeds and beef cattle compound feeds; however, in the dairy cattle and calf and lamb compound feeds, the crude protein (CP) values were lower than standard values. These findings are considered highly important for the region’s animal feeding. According to our results, the compound feeds for dairy cattle and lamb being used for ruminant nutrition in Diyarbakir Province of Turkey were found to have low nutrient qualities; however, in the calf feed both the metabolisable energy level and nutrient quantities were low.

Sweeteners that sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweet taste like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy. Some sugar substitutes are produced by nature, and others produced synthetically. Sweeteners can be classified as sugar alcohols (polyols), artificial sweeteners and natural sweeteners. The need to avoid the adverse effects of sugar cannot stop feeling the taste on humans has resulted in intense use of sweeteners nowadays. There are positive and negative opinions about the effects of their use on human health. The general tendency of food producers is to reduce the amount of sugar in the groats due to negative effects in parallel. Food sweeteners are intended for a large group of consumers, and one of the main points of the sector operators is to provide healthier, natural, nutritional and low calorie sweeteners to these consumers. In this study, we evaluated the sweeteners which are most commonly used. Many studies have been done to demonstrate the safety of sweeteners. There are also studies showing that there may be side effects even if there are few. Some sweeteners have been associated with a number of symptoms. There is a need for comparative long-term work in this area.

A study was conducted to analyze factors influencing adoption of wheat technology packages by smallholder farmers in Gurawa, Meta and Habro districts in eastern Ethiopia. The analysis was based on a household survey data collected from 136 randomly selected households. A Two-limit Tobit model was used to elucidate factors affecting adoption of technology packages measured based on an index derived from five components of wheat technologies which included row planting, pesticide application, use of improved varieties, and application of inorganic fertilizers, namely, Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Urea. Among the variables included in the model, variation in district, gender, age of the household head, education status of the household head, farm size, distance to market, distance to FTC (Farmers’ Training Centers), cooperative membership, dependency ratio, and annual income of the households were found to significantly affect the adoption of wheat technology packages. Policy makers, planners and development practitioners should give due attention to these determinants to support smallholder farmers in wheat production and enhance gains derived from it.

Although the intensification of agricultural production is the reason for feeding of increasing human population the demand for organic or ecological products is increasing in parallel with the social consciousness in recent years. Hair goat breeding is made in a large part of Turkey that is suitable or may become suitable for organic production system with a few arrangements. In this study, Hair goat breeding was evaluated together with the Regulation on the Principles and Implementation of Organic Agriculture. The study is important in terms of ensuring sustainability of hair goats under the threat of crossbreeding by assessing it within organic production.

Verticillium Wilt Disease is one of the most important diseases affecting the rate of cotton yield. There is no economic chemical control for Verticillium wilt, but it is recommended to use resistant varieties to control this disease. This experiment was carried out in a randomized plot design with four replications in the growth chamber to determine the response of some cotton cultivars against a defoliating and non-defoliating pathotypes of Verticilllium dahliae Kleb. In the study, a total of twenty cotton cultivars i.e. the resistant control GIZA 75, the tolerant control CARMEN and the susceptible control ACALA SJ2, defoliating (PYDV6 isolate) and non-defoliating (Vd 11 isolate) pathotypes were used, and cotton varieties were tested using conidial suspension technique. Analysis of variance showed significantly (P

Discretization is a data pre-processing task transforming continuous variables into discrete ones in order to apply some data mining algorithms such as association rules extraction and classification trees. In this study we empirically compared the performances of equal width intervals (EWI), equal frequency intervals (EFI) and K-means clustering (KMC) methods to discretize 14 continuous variables in a chicken egg quality traits dataset. We revealed that these unsupervised discretization methods can decrease the training error rates and increase the test accuracies of the classification tree models. By comparing the training errors and test accuracies of the model applied with C5.0 classification tree algorithm we also found that EWI, EFI and KMC methods produced the more or less similar results. Among the rules used for estimating the number of intervals, the Rice rule gave the best result with EWI but not with EFI. It was also found that Freedman-Diaconis rule with EFI and Doane rule with EFI and EWI slightly performed better than the other rules.

The aim of this study is to determine the factors that affect the development of bureaucratic knowledge and skills of farmers in rural areas. To achieve this aim, a questionnaire was administered face-to-face to 110 farmers. The survey was conducted in the central villages of Tokat Province in 2013. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to determine the factors that affect the development of farmers’ knowledge and skills regarding bureaucratic procedures. The exploratory factor analysis generated a structure with 4 factors and 10 variables. These factors which explained 76.063% of the total variance, and their reliability coefficients were determined as cooperation tendency (0.803), bureaucratic procedure experience (0.701), level of benefit from government support (0.900) and immediate environment communication (0.601). According to the results of the confirmatory factor analysis, the fit index values were 0.938 for GFI; 0.934 for CFI and 0.913 for NFI. The fact that the RMSEA and CMIN/DF coefficients were also consistent and significant indicates that the results fit the theory. The fact that the intended goodness-of-fit index values of these coefficients were significant also indicates that the results fit the theory. Thus, the factors that affect the bureaucratic knowledge and skills of farmers in the rural areas of Tokat Province were found to be: getting involved in agricultural organizations, the experience of performing formal procedures in public offices, attempts to benefit from agricultural support and immediate environment communication.

Sage (Salvia spp.) is the most important and largest genus of the Lamiaceae family, and the popularity among medical plants is increasing. Sage plant is widely used in pharmaceutical, food and spice industries and as tea by many people. The fact that the plant may be marketed after being collected uncontrollably from the nature threatens its future. Therefore, it is necessary to put these species under protection and to start breeding projects as well to do genetic characterization of them. For this purpose, in the study, 11 different sage species from the Eastern Mediterranean region were collected and genetic differences among species were determined using SRAP (Sequence dependent replicated polymorphism) markers. As the result of our experiments, average polymorphism content, allele number and polymorphism information content (PIC) of the species were calculated as 90.91%, 4.2 and 0.91, respectively. The PIC values ranged from 0.04 to 0.99. While the average genetic difference among species was determined as 43.15%, the highest genetic difference, which was between Salvia aucheri spp. aucheri and Salvia aramiensis, was found to be 61.46%. The least genetic difference, on the other hand, was detected between Salvia tomentosa and Salvia hypergeia species with 22.62% similarity. Additionally, according to the observations made through the study, the SRAP markers we used were thought to be reliable for the genetic characterization of sage species. In breeding programs where interspecies dissimilarities are considered, selecting parental species with high genetic differences will increase the success.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the movement and accumulation of 2,6 – dinitro – NN – dipropyl – 4 - trifluoromethylanil (trifluralin) in soil under irrigated conditions. Despite its hazardous effects this herbicide is widely used in the country. The herbicide researched, is known to be one of the most resistant and least mobile pesticides used in the country. The investigations were carried out, using drainage type lysimeters with application of two different doses of trifluralin and three irrigation water levels. Irrigations were applied during three stages used as indicators for irrigation scheduling of the sunflower crop. Disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were taken from the original field in the beginning and from the tanks after completing of the study. Trifluralin analyses were completed using gas chromatography technique. The results of the study determined that the amounts of the herbicide and its degradation product (2-ethyl-4-nitro-6-trifluoromethyl-1H-benzimidazole) in the ranges of 3.04 – 0.1 and 4.128- 0.344 ppm, respectively were accumulated in the lysimeter soils during the 5-year research period. The highest amounts of trifluralin and its degradation product were measured in the 0-30 cm soil layer, of the treatment with higher applied herbicide amount and deficit irrigation.

In this study, material that we call mulch textile was investigated as compared with conventional polyethylene mulch nylon and mechanical and chemical control that are widely used in farmer’s conditions to weed control in newly established citrus orchards. Two different thickness of polyethylene mulch, three different thickness of mulch textiles, mowing and herbicide (glyphosate) applications were made in newly established mandarin orchard in a three-year-period (2004-2005-2006). Effects of the applications on density and coverage of weeds and height, stem thickness and leaf area of cultural plants were investigated. According to general evaluation of results of the study, mowing 23.4%, chemical control 88.4%, polyethylene mulch 99.6%, mulch textiles 100% controlled weeds than weedy control. At the most increase of height, stem thickness and leaf area of mandarin was obtained from herbicide and mulch treatments. It was determined that soil temperature and moisture are preserved by mulch applications.