The aim was to study during a year, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the thinning Caatinga grazing sheep at continuous stocking, in Serra Talhada-PE. The research consisted of data collection of vegetation and sheep, in 38 hectares of Caatinga from a private farm. We evaluated the herbage mass, herbal chemical composition, botanical composition, bare soil, litter, plants height, stocking rate, animal performance and herbage allowance. Herbage mass ranged from 422 ± 42 to 1262 ± 95 kg DM.ha-1within the period January 2011 to January 2012, which led to decreased herbage allowance (13,1± 1,3 a 56,4± 4,2 kg MS.kg PV- 1 ). The weight gain of sheep observed was 2.0 ± 2.2 kg. head-1 .period-1 and 3.8 ± 4.0 kg.ha-1 .period-1 . The litter during the dry season was higher in October 2011 (38.8 ± 4.1%) and January 2012 (41.4 ± 4.3%). Increased values were observed on bare soil, mainly in dry season, averaging 24.4 ± 1.5%. With the advance of the dry season, the concentrations of DM, NDF, ADF and TC of pasture increased, while the CP, MM, and NFC decreased. In general, the Caatinga show varieties in the range of herbage mass, forage chemical composition, and animal performance, over the year.

Twenty-eight uncastrated male Saanen goat kids, on a feedlot, with an average slaughter weight of 28 kg were used to evaluate the effects of feeding goat kids with metabolizable energy levels by the addition of protected fat to the diet. The effects on the quantitative characteristics of the carcass and qualitative characteristics of the loin were assessed. The animals were randomly distributed into one of the four groups: one control group (without protected fat) was fed a diet containing 2.5 Mcal of metabolizable energy/kg dry matter (ME/kg DM). The other three groups were fed diets containing 2.6, 2.7 or 2.8 Mcal of ME/kgDM, using protected fat to increase the energy levels. The carcass quantitative characteristics were not influenced by the diets; however, a reduction was observed on the days of the feedlot and slaughter age for the animals fed protected fat diets. The short length and fat thickness in the loin has improved from diets with protected fat addition. The muscle, fat and bone proportions and the chemical composition of the Longissimus dorsi were similar between the diets. There was an increase in the fatty acid profiles of the polyunsaturated fatty acids linoleic and linolenic and improvements in the total omega-3 levels and the ratios of omega-6: omega-3. The protected fat can be used to feed Saanen kid goats as an alternative, increasing the energetic density of the diets up to 2.8 Mcal of ME/kg DM with improvements on the omega-3 quantity. And it can also be used to increase the ratio of omega-6:omega-3 in the Longissimus dorsi.

– The downy mildew, caused by the fungus Pseudoperonospora cubensis is a major foliar disease that attacks the melon crop in the rainy season in northeastern Brazil. The objective of this study was to identify and characterize morphologically resistant melon accessions to P. cubensis. Thirty-six accessions and four commercial cultivars were evaluated in a randomized block design with three replications. The plot was composed of seven plants. The evaluation was conducted in the under field conditions with a diagrammatic scale and calculating the disease percentage index (DPI). Resistance sources and references genotypes were characterized morphologically. The accessions C-RN-2, C-SE-2, C-CE-2, C-PE-2, C-PI-1, and C-BA-2 show resistance to P. cubensis and are promising for use in programs breeding for resistance to downy mildew although its fruits have reduced commercial quality.

Desertification is a land degradation process of the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid natural envi-ronment, almost always associated with the intensification of the erosive effects of rainfall. Nowadays, with the availability of technologies in remote sensing and geoinformatics inventories and diagnostics can to be per-formed with great ease and low cost in large territories. Using these new technologies, this study gathered in-formation on vegetation, topography and soil, in a estimation model of land degradation, that was applied to the watershed of the river Taperoá (5686.4 km2), located on the plateau of Borborema in the state of Paraíba. The results show that the proposed model was able to predict faithfully land degradation in the basin; and despite the high level of degradation of the vegetation (59.2%) and of the susceptibility to erosion of the soil (59.4%), the flat and soft slope in 87% of the lands contributes to minimize the prognosis of the degradation, that shows the predominance of medium-grade class, in 46.2% of the basin. The most critical areas of the basin, with 26.9% coverage, represented by high and very high classes of degradation are concentrated in the lower and the middle third along the drainage, showing there, one of the desertification nucleus of the region Cariri in Parai-ba, where the erodibility of the soil and vegetation degradation are higher.

Despite the knowledge that you have about the benefits of the humus of the worms or ver- micompost, there is a need to evaluate the technical feasibility of using other sources of carbon for worms. The objective was to evaluate the possibility of using straw of coffee to vermicompost production, the effects of their use on worms and on the quality of humus obtained. The evaluated treatments consisted of: (1 straw of coffee (SC) 100%; 2 SC 75% + manure (MA); 3 50% SC + 50% MA; 4 25% SC + 75% MA; 5 100% MA). The straw of coffee and the manure were incubated for 64 days to make them available to feed the worms and more 84 days to digest the substrate. The straw of coffee increased the number of worms without resulting in harmful effects. The percentage increment of the straw in the constitution of the vermicompost increased the availability of N, K, Ca and Cu, but it reduced the availability of Mg, S, Mn, P, Fe and Zn. Aiming o the medi- um supply of nutrients, the proportion of the 50% of straw of coffee and 50% of manure is designated.

Imazaquin is an herbicide widely used in Brazil to control weeds associated with the soybean crop. This work aimed to study the mobility and leaching of imazaquin in soils with different characteristics. In both experiments, a completely randomized block design was used; with tree replicates. We study the mobility of imazaquin in Red Eutrophic Latosol, clayey; Alfisol Haplic Eutrophic, medium texture; Alfissol Eutrophic, medium texture; and Orthic Psament, sandy texture. To obtain the mobility rate (Mr), a solution of 14Cimazaquin with the activity of 304,75 Bq/mL was applied to plates containing different soils. All Mr values range between 0.803 and 1, indicating that imazaquin has a relevant mobility in our soils. In the leaching study, the soils were classified as Rhodic and differed chemically. The herbicide imazaquin (14C + imazaquin technical product) was applied to the highest recommended dose ( 161 g a.i. ha-1 ), directly on the soil surface of each column. After that, was done a rainfall simulation of 200 mm. Nearly 100% of the herbicide was in the 0- 10 cm layer, however, the soil with higher pH, the herbicide was distributed to 15-20 cm depth. The herbicide imazaquin has greater mobility in soils with low organic matter and clay and soils with high Ph.

The goal of this paper was to determine the effects of seven diets with differents fatty acids sources in hematology of Nile tilapia before and after cold stimulus. Seven diets, with 3% of fatty acid source, were formulated: soybean oil (OS); fish oil (OP); beef tallow (SB) and mixtures of OS+OP; OS+SB; OP+SB e OS+OP+SB. Fish (112 male of Nile tilapia of 30,0 ± 2,65g) were totally randomly distributed, with four repli-cates, into 28 plastic aquaria (40 L; 4 fish per aquarium). Fish were fed four times per day for 35 days. At 35th day and also after seven days cold stimulus blood was collected and the profile hematological was evaluated. Leucocytes numbers were reduced in fish fed a SB and fish oil combination diet and were highest in fish fed SB diet before cold stimulus. Plasma protein was reduced in fish fed soybean oil diets and highest in fishes fed a combination of soybean oil, fish oil and SB diets. Anything fatty acids source promotes effective changes in fish health and cold tolerance promotion. Cold don’t drastically reduced fish general health status.

The effect of the covered and conventional cultivation of grapevine (cv. Superior Seedless) on the aerial dispersion of pathogen inoculum and dynamic of diseases was investigated in two-year (2009 and 2010) and period similar to the year. The experiment was conducted at the experimental station of Embrapa semiarid. The traps were maintained at 0.5 meters above the canopy of the grapevine, and the samples taken every 24 hours with the exchange of slides 9:00 a.m. Greater dispersion of pathogens (Plasmopara viticola, Phakopsora euvitis, Alternaria alternata) and intensity of diseases (downy mildew, rust, and bacterial canker) were detected in grapevines under conventional cultivation. The aerial dispersal of the fungus Lasiodiplodia theobromae was similar under grapevine covered and uncovered.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance and the adaptive profile of de 25 steers ¶ Angus x μ Nelore (RED) and 25 steers ´ Angus x ´ Nelore (NEL), during the milking and the fattening phas-es, in an intensive system, at Rio Grande do Norte state. The body weights, anterior and posterior high, as well as the thoracic perimeter, were monthly measured to evaluate the growth pattern. As adaptive responses were registered rectal temperature and hair coat traits. The statistical analyzes were based in the minimum square method, utilized mixed models. At the beginning of the trial both of genetic groups presented the same body weight (103,03kg) and from the second sampling on the animals RED were superior in comparison with the NEL and showed higher body weight at the weaning (181,60kg RED e 158,57kg NEL) and the 13th months. On the other hand, there was no difference between the genetic groups for the final weight (slaughter body weight). There were differences in all the performance characteristics analyzed. The RED group was superior in relation to the NEL group. The hair coat characteristics didn't differ between the genetic groups, except the hair coat length, which was higher in the RED animals. We concluded that both of genetic groups were adapted to tropical weather conditions, nevertheless, despite the better performance showed by the animals RED during the suckling and the fattening phases, the NEL animal may be indicated because of the similar slaughter body weight.

The development of vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides L.) has been evaluated under differ-ent levels of phosphorus on slopes of the right-side bank of the San Francisco River, in the municipality of Am-paro do São Francisco, SE. Techniques of soil bioengineering were used, characterized by the combination of vegetated riprap with stakes, seedlings of vetiver grass and sediment retainers. The experimental design was randomized blocks with five doses (0, 4, 8, 12, and 16 g pit-1 of simple superphosphate) and five replicates. The growth of vetiver seedlings were observed in periods of 30, 60, 90, e 180 days, carrying out the following pa-rameters: number of roots, external root surface, root density, root length, root length density, root and shoot dry weight, root and shoot fresh weight, and shoot length, at each evaluation period. The phosphorus doses and periods of morphological development interacted in all variables of plant biomass mentioned above. Higher superphosphate doses than 9.0 g pit-1 did not offer advantages in terms of cost-benefit for the production of vetiver seedings.