Fungi can infect paddy from the planting process through to storage. Contaminating fungi can produce aflatoxins that can persist in the paddy and in storage until it is used to make other products. In the interests of food safety, in this study, we aimed to control the growth of fungi in paddy during storage using mathematical modelling of a drying method that uses fluidisation at temperatures of 70–150 °C

The purpose of this study is to analyse the distribution pattern of centrifugal fertiliser distributor with two shutter holes and obtain the optimal position of the shutter holes for improved distribution uniformity. A simulation model of the centrifugal fertiliser distributor was generated by discrete element method (DEM). The behaviour of fertiliser particles on the spinner was analysed by the simulation

Ammonia (NH3) is the major source of N loss related to laying hen facilities. Previous studies are often based on continuous monitoring of NH3 concentration and ventilation rate in the facilities during long periods. The objectives of this study were (i) to relate climate and production management parameters to model NH3 emission, (ii) to check the accuracy of the proposed model and (iii) to evaluate

Manual weighing of heifers is time-consuming, labour-intensive, expensive, and can be dangerous and risky for both humans and animals because it requires the animal to be stationary. To overcome this problem, automated approaches have been developed using computer vision techniques. In this research, the aim was to design a novel mass prediction model using deep learning algorithms for youngstock on

An estimation of canopy photosynthetic activities is needed in order to better understand biomass production of field crops. Thermal imaging techniques and the heat balance model enable us to estimate canopy diffusive conductance (gc) and canopy transpiration rate (E) of crops under field conditions. However, because conventional methods are unstable when wind velocity is very low, it is difficult

Lameness is a common problem in breeding sows, which often goes undetected for long periods with severe consequences for animal welfare and farm productivity. Automatic lameness detection could help pig farmers to recognise and treat lameness sooner. The SowSIS (Sow Stance Information System) is a device consisting of four force plates and providing non-invasive force measurements per leg of the sow

For grain combine harversters the correlation between cutting frequency and forward speed is typically based on the theoretical matching value of the cutting pattern. However, in reality cutting frequency is affected by cutting resistance which strongly linked to the physical and mechanical characteristics of the crop stems. Consequently, the field cutting frequency is usually lower the standard setting

There appears to be a preference for pesticide sprayed onto plants to be deposited in larger quantities at leaf tips than in other parts of plants. However, there is no clear experimental evidence to explain this phenomenon. Based on previous studies, the possible mechanisms for this phenomenon include aerodynamics, microstructure of the leaf surface and the leaf elasticity. Three experiments were

Though numerous studies have investigated optimal locations for biorefineries given the availability of feedstock supplies, few have considered that these supplies could vary over time, thereby potentially failing to meet feedstock requirements. In this paper, we develop a process for identifying a shortlist of five potentially viable biorefinery sites in Alberta, and then consider the stochastic nature

A key challenge for autonomous precision weeding is to reliably and accurately detect weed plants and crop plants in real time to minimise damage to surrounding crop plants while performing weeding actions. Specifically for a wheat farm, classifying ryegrass weed plants is particularly difficult even with human eyes since ryegrass shows visually very similar shape and texture to the crop plants themselves

The accurate determination and estimation of grain moisture content is important for maize (Zea Mays L.) production, processing and drying studies. However, different drying procedures are often adopted by different operators to determine the grain moisture content, making it difficult to compare results with each other. In this study, different drying temperatures and times were used to create different

Ammonia emissions damage the environment and have negative consequences for human and animal health. In the German livestock sector, most ammonia emissions come from naturally ventilated dairy barns. To reduce emissions, Germany has signed the EU Directive 2016/2284 to achieve a stepwise decrease in the ammonia emissions ceiling. The aim of this study was to investigate the seasonal mitigation effect

In recent years, automatic weed control has emerged as a promising alternative for reducing the amount of herbicide applied to the field, instead of conventional spraying. The use of artificial intelligence through the implementation of deep learning for early weeds identification has been one of the engines to boost this progress. However, these techniques usually need very large datasets coping with

Crop yield is a primary trait to select superior genotypes and evaluate breeding efficiency in breeding programs. Crops with high yield potential are usually selected from numerous breeding lines in multiple years and locations. However, the efficiency of conventional breeding programs is limited by the capacity of field phenotyping, which can be improved by developing high-throughput field phenotyping

Ammonia emissions have a negative influence on both human and animal health as well as on the environment. Livestock farming, in particular the dairy sector, is a major source of ammonia emissions. Urease inhibitors may act as a suitable mitigation measure without requiring the high investments connected with, e.g., new floor surfaces in barn refurbishments. The main aim of this field study was to

During harvesting, the thresher of the combine harvester produces unbalanced vibrations due to problems such as stalk winding and these can greatly affect the stability and service life of the device. Finite element modal analysis and the vibration tests of the threshing cylinder and the frame were carried out. Based on the simulation of the thresher and the analysis of experimental data, four kinds

Ammonia emissions have wide-ranging negative consequences for human, animal and environmental health. Regulations including EU Directive 2016/2284 require European Union member states to reduce emissions. Dairy farming has one of the highest levels of ammonia emissions. Most dairy barns in Germany are naturally ventilated to meet higher animal welfare standards. However, these housing systems allow

Self-excited pitch and bounce oscillation occasionally occurs when a tractor pulls a high-draft load on dry soil. This dynamic instability is referred to as the power hop phenomenon. Power hop drastically degrades tractor performance and ride quality and can result in damage to the tractor, operator injury, and soil compaction. Power hop dynamics are characterised by three typical nonlinear elements;

In order to achieve accurate detection of litchi fruits in their natural environment, a ripe litchi recognition method with a Red-Green-Blue Depth (RGB-D) camera, which can be used to estimate fruit yields, is proposed in this paper. First, both colour and depth images of litchis are collected using an image capturing system with an RGB-D camera. Then, redundant image information outside the effective

Near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging is a useful method for powdery food quality and safety evaluation. Due to the particularity of the powder, light penetration depth and adulterant particle size have an effect on detection of adulterants in wheat flour. In this study, wheat flour of different thickness was placed on talcum powder or benzoyl peroxide (BPO) of different particle sizes to study

The storage of slurry substantially contributes to the ammonia (NH3) released from livestock production. This study quantified farm-scale NH3 emissions from a circular open tank storing dairy cow slurry by means of continuous measurements over two years. Emissions were determined by scaling the product of line-integrated concentration measurements across the tank and wind speed measurements at 10 m

Drip irrigation is an efficient and safe system for reusing wastewater in agriculture. Since emitter clogging is its main limitation, filtration is needed for preventing it. Media filters are commonly used when irrigation water has a high particle load. However, particle removal through a media bed in media filters used in drip irrigation systems has not been widely studied mainly due to experimental

To study the influence of foliage density and distribution on spray droplets distribution inside plant canopy, the optical porosity of vertically stratified layers of cotton canopy, was proposed to quantitatively depict the spatial distribution of cotton foliage. For calculating stratification porosity, a laser ranging bench was built to obtain ranging data for all the stratified layers. For acquiring

Lichens are unique organisms, valued for their pharmacological activity, but also well known as bioindicators of environmental pollution, key determinants for some natural ecological habitats, or just popular elements of decoration. High morphological similarity between lichen species makes their recognition complicated, especially under in-field conditions. Thus, there is a need for a quick and easy

Evaporation pads and tunnel ventilation are commonly adopted in hen houses. To ensure the cooling efficiency of pads and airflow in the building, inlets with pads are often placed in sidewalls. Flaps are often fitted behind inlets to alleviate the sudden temperature drops that can be caused by pads. However, the airflows change their direction after entering from sidewalls with flaps, which affects

The study aims to test the hypothesis that modelling of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic data based on a single scatter correction technique is sub-optimal. Better predictive performance of the multivariate analysis method can be obtained when the information from differently scatter corrected data is jointly used. To demonstrate it, an open-source NIR spectroscopy data set related to protein prediction

The objective of this work is to determine the influence of the roughness of the laminas on the shear stress and sliding modulus of a bamboo–bamboo glued bond. Six types of surface treatments were made on bamboo laminas. For each surface treatment the surface roughness, the rupture shear stress, and the sliding modulus were obtained. It was concluded that to obtain a GluBam beam with high performance

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly used in agriculture. Many agricultural operations, the involving UAVs are carried out at low flying altitudes, which generates a powerful downwash flow field that changes the shape of plants. To explore the influences of the downwash flow field on the shape of plants, this paper focused on rice plants at heading stage and tested the effect of

Somatic embryogenesis (SE) is an in vitro clonal propagation method increasingly in use for large scale clonal propagation of conifer plants. However, asynchronous development of immature somatic embryos into mature embryos lowers the yield of plants and limits the benefits for industrial applications. Through the development of an automated harvesting system (SE Fluidics system) for singulation, imaging

The low-cost, ultra-compact and handheld microNIR spectrometer over the spectral range of 1150–2150 nm was explored to detect the adulteration of wheat flour in this study. Eight varieties of cassava flour were used as adulterants and were adulterated in wheat flour at five adulteration levels of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40%. Both principal component analysis-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) and partial

To overcome the limitations of existing methods in acquiring the vertical kinematic states of implements subject to vulnerable signal or operating surroundings, the Kalman filter was used to fuse a laser receiver's rough height indicated by photocell set and its acceleration to obtain the vertical displacement and velocity of the implement. This is called the Kalman filter based method for fusing laser

Durability, a crucial parameter in determining the quality of a wood pellet, is affected by moisture adsorption from the air. The conditions in a confined space in which pellets are stored can be characterised as active or passive. In the active case, the interstitial air within the pile circulates around the pellets, whereas in the passive case, the interstitial air is stagnant. These two cases represent

Draft force is an important dynamic parameter for agricultural soil-engaging tools and implements. Soil-disc interaction dynamics has changed enormously in modern tillage practice because of the use of larger machines, faster speeds, and different tool arrangements. Most existing studies on draft force prediction are for conventional tillage. In this study, a discrete element model (DEM) was developed

Biomass has attracted considerable attention from both researchers and practitioners as an important renewable energy source that can help achieve sustainable development. However, inefficient biomass logistics systems hinder the development of biomass utilisation. This study investigates a two-echelon biomass resource location-routing problem (2E-BRLRP). Considering a predetermined supply of biomass

Coconuts are commonly harvested by judging their maturity based on colour, shape, timeframe, shaking sound, and other growth characteristics of changes as they grow. Currently, solutions involving image-processing techniques have substantial challenges involving the identification of the maturity stages of coconuts. Accordingly, an improved faster region-based convolutional neural network (Faster R–CNN)

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fuel efficiency standards and comparisons among models are required for agricultural machinery as well as automobiles. However, a method for quantitatively evaluating fuel consumption of the combine harvester does not currently exist. We examined the effects of harvesting velocity and crop conditions on fuel efficiency during reaping, conveying, threshing

Vegetation indices can be used to perform quantitative and qualitative assessment of vegetation cover. These indices exploit the reflectance features of leaves to predict their biophysical properties. In general, there are different vegetation indices capable of describing the same biophysical parameter. For instance, vegetation water content can be inferred from at least sixteen vegetation indices

Ammonia (NH3) emissions from land-applied liquid manure (slurry) contribute to nitrogen deposition, acidification, and formation of fine particles in the atmosphere. Optimal management and field application techniques can reduce emission. A reduction in contact area between the slurry and the atmosphere is expected to reduce NH3 emission. The objectives of this study were to develop a method for quantifying

Rapid and accurate monitoring of crop plant height (PH), canopy coverage (CC), and leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC) is essential for precision management of irrigation and fertilisation. The objectives of this study were to estimate summer maize PH by selecting optimal percentile height of point cloud; extract CC from images by using point cloud method; and determine if the combination of PH and CC

The aim of this paper is to develop a simulation framework to minimise the cost associated with commercial greenhouse yields (production cost). Greenhouse energy demand and yield production models are coupled with a cost model to investigate the interaction between energy consumption costs and yield production benefits. The coupled model is defined as an optimisation problem to determine the optimal

The key external characteristics of chicken eggs that should be accurately estimated for various applications in poultry research, food engineering and technology development areas are volume (V) and surface area (S), although many researchers often use approximate calculation formulae proposed back in the middle of the last century. These were based on speculative constants and prone to computational

The lab spectroscopy using Vis/SWNIR and NIR spectrometers was used to estimate the major fertility parameters in calcareous topsoil from arid region of central Iran. The fertility parameters included soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), available phosphorus (P-avl), and available potassium (K-avl). A total of 151 samples were collected from the depth of 0–20 cm, and the diffuse reflectance

The orientation of paddy grains during hulling is one of the main factors that determines the one-time hulling ratio and breakage ratio during processing with rubber rollers. Understanding the adjustment mechanism of paddy grain orientation angle in feeding process is the key to controlling the orientation angle, but the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. The feeding process using an inclined

Deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination of wheat grains is a serious problem in China, and it is necessary to remove contaminated wheat before it enters the consumer market. In this study, visible-near infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy and computer vision techniques were combined to simulate online discrimination between normal and DON-contaminated wheat grains. Naturally growing wheat samples were collected

Near infrared hyperspectral imaging over the spectral range of 900–2500 nm was investigated for its potential to identify maize kernels inoculated with aflatoxigenic fungus (AF13) from healthy kernels and kernels inoculated with non-aflatoxigenic fungus (AF36). A total of 900 kernels were used with 3 treatments, namely, each 300 kernels inoculated with AF13, AF36 and sterile distilled water as control

Thermal and hygroscopic environments inside a duck house are two of the most important factors directly related to their productivity and energy costs. However, few quantitative analyses of these environments have been performed. The objective of this study was to develop a dynamic energy model for the combined and real-time quantitative analysis of thermal and hygroscopic environments inside a mechanically

Plant tissues are often heterogeneous. To accurately investigate these tissues, methods to spatially map these tissue stiffness values onto finite element models are required. The aim was to study the feasibility of using specimen-specific computed tomography data to inform the spatial mapping of Young's modulus values on finite element models. Specimen-specific finite element models with mapped elastic