Comparative evaluation is given from the long-term application of different tillage systems for dark gray forest soil in the grain/fallow rotation. It has been found that the moldboard system provides the best conditions for the grain yield formation and wheat grain quality, in particular in the last crops, and contributes to obtaining the maximum net income. The basic tillage systems with the elements of reduced tillage provide the same productivity of winter rye and wheat (first and second crops after fallow) as the moldboard system, but result in reducing productivity of wheat and barley (third and forth crops after fallow), being the last crops, by 0.09-0.40 t/ha with and without fertilizer application. The effectiveness of resource-saving tillage systems will increase, when short revolutions with bare fallow are applied, as well as when the repeated wheat is replaced with a grain-legume crop. It has been found that the effectiveness of mineral fertilizers increases in the all tillage systems studied with moving a crop away from fallow. Against the background of non-fertilizer application, the systems being most closely to the moldboard one as to net income are subsoil tillage, disking, differential system, which yield only 1-2.7% to the moldboard system, providing the equal level of grain production profitability and increasing it by 9% as to subsoil tillage. Against the background of fertilizer application, subsoil tillage, combined and differential systems yield 5.2-8.1% to the moldboard system in net income, and 7% in profitability.

Problems and causes of land degradation and reduction in soil fertility in Transbaikal Territory are shown. The existing cropping patterns and ways of tillage in crop rotations have been evaluated. The ways to improve certain techniques for enhancing cropping systems, and proposals for the rational use of arable lands are presented. There were developed the comprehensive measures of bio- and resource-saving cropping systems using multi-function tillage and sowing machines to reduce the negative impact of negative processes on the ecological state of land resources of Transbaikal Territory. For the forest-steppe zone is recommended to use the three- and four-course field rotations with saturation of grain crops up to 50% and a field of bare fallow of 20-25%. It has been found that subsoil tillage and the use of oil radish in full and green fallows increase the content of organic matter in soil by 0.45-0.69%. It has been revealed that the elimination of primary tillage and sod sowing from cost-effective resource-saving technologies contribute to preserving soil fertility, increasing productivity of grain/fallow rotation by 8.0-22.0% and profitability by 22.2-51.8%.

Results are given from investigations into the effectiveness of mineral fertilizer application to spring wheat cultivated in a grain/grass rotation after red clover. Biological clover residues contributed to obtaining 3.0 t/ha of wheat bread grain on the average for the six-year period. It has been found that the NPK application rate of 3.0 centner/ha increases productivity of the crop studied from 3.0 to 3.6 t/ha on the average. The gain level is 0.6 t/ha of grain, net income 1500 rub/ha, and profitability 33.3%. It has been proved that the mineral fertilizer application rates of 1.5 and 2.0 centner/ha to spring wheat after plowing red clover aftermath down is unprofitable.

Results are given from investigations on developing a winterhardy cultivar of winter rye, resistant to biotic, abiotic and edaphic stresses, with productivity of 2.46 to 5.14 t/ha of grain called Narymchanka for conditions of the northern taiga zone of Western Siberia. The characteristic of the economic and biological traits and properties of the cultivar is discussed as compared with the standard Petrovna. The new cultivar has a large kernel, high grain content and grain weight per ear, resistant to lodging. The grain protein content is 11.1%, the falling number is 161 seconds. For the years of competitive variety trial, the cultivar was weakly affected by fungoid diseases. It is distinguished by high regenerative capacity after affection by snow mold. As a result of the research carried out, the cultivar Narymchanka was transferred to the State test in 2010. According to the results of the State variety trials in 2015, the cultivar has been included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements Permitted for Utilization in West Siberian Region.

There is substantiated a method for subsoil tillage of soil to the depth of up 45 cm to cultivate modern high-yielding agricultural crops. There is proposed a technique for intense decompaction of the soil structure by the directed impact of vibrational energy transmitted by working tools. A comparative evaluation of the field surface after passages of the vibratory subsoiler in various modes of its operation, including non-vibration mode, has shown that the use of tool’s vibrations allows reducing lumpiness and ridgeness of tilled soil, while preserving stubble. It has been found that the use of tool’s vibrations allows improving the soil structure due to intense crushing of large soil fractions and increasing the content of aggregates of agronomic value. It has been determined that the increase in the amplitude of tool’s vibrations within the range investigated results in increased efficiency of the use of vibrations, while the increase in forward speed shows the opposite effect. It has been found that the use of tool’s vibrations allows reducing tractive resistance of the subsoiler and improving its performance, thus reducing cost per unit of work done. Soil tillage with the vibratory subsoiler is superior to other well-known techniques of deep subsoil tillage.

There is presented a device that allows adjusting a required speed of seeds falling onto the divider to provide spreading of seeds along the width of sowing band. A mathematical model has been developed to enable the determination of parameters of the opener receiver depending on parameters of the seeding machine, on a required width of sowing band, geometrical parameters of the opener, and velocity restoring factor in seeds after the impact. There was developed the opener receiver for the seeding machine Ob-4-ZT. The average width of sowing band during tests of the opener receiver at the Altai Machine Test Station made up 19.5 ± 1.4 - 19.8 ± 1.6 cm, the variation coefficient 18.3-18.7%. The basic parameters of the opener receiver are height of setting divider from the bottom of the furrow (0.05 m); angle of setting divider relative to the back of the receiver (110°); angle of inclination of the back of the receiver (53°); height of impact point of seeds at the back of the receiver (0.08 m). There were carried out investigations into the use of divider of 90 mm wide instead of that of 45 mm with the screen mounted under the divider. The wide divider increases the unevenness of seed sowing. The screen mounted under the divider allows improving quality of seed distribution and decreasing the variation coefficient from 41.3 to 30.3%.

Results are given from investigations into the effect of various types of fallows on the yielding capacity of spring wheat grown on dark chestnut soils under conditions of forest steppe of the Ulug-Khem depression in Tuva. There is shown a possibility of the rational and effective use of bare, full and green fallows. It has been found that the forecrops of spring wheat (melilot and peas) influence for three revolutions of crop rotation on agrochemical properties of soil: before sowing spring wheat, the nitrate nitrogen content on forecrops corresponds to its average and higher indices. The mobilization of phosphates was higher on melilot green-manured fallows. The improvement of plant nutrition on green fallows contributes to reduced variation in spring wheat yields across years. Full fallows yields to bare and green fallows in the effect on spring wheat yields.

We have determined that the vermicompost obtained from processing poplar leaf waste by the culture Eisenia fetida Savigny has peculiar agrochemical properties. The vermicompost obtained from processing horse manure had the average contents of K+ and NO3 - of 112.2 and 82.8 milliequivalent/ kg of dry weight, respectively. It was significantly higher than the analogous parameters of vermicompost obtained from poplar leaf waste (73.0 and 5.6 milliequivalent/kg of dry weight, respectively). The PH values and concentration of calcium ions in the vermicompost from poplar leaf waste were significantly higher than those in the vermicompost from horse manure (7.61 vs 6.98, and 112.3 vs 83.0 milliequivalent/kg of dry weight, respectively). The sprouting of wheat seeds on poplar-leaf-based vermicompost extracts resulted in a significant increase in the relative weight of the roots as compared with the seeds grown on tap water. We did not observe such an effect in the case of vermicompost from horse manure.

Data are given about the feasibility of replacing whole grain with its activated forms in the diets for different species of farm animals. It has been found that the replacement of broken wheat grain with the same amount of activated feed from waste grain in the diet for suckling calves does not reduce the production performance of animals. As compared with the control, the increase in the average live weight of calves in the experimental group after 35-day rearing period was higher by 6.7 kg, the average daily liveweight gain by 21.3%, the overall gain by 57 kg under the same feed consumption and 100% safety of the stock. The level of profitability in rearing calves on a diet with activated feed from waste grain increased by 37%. The replacement of whole barley with its activated form resulted in the increase in the average live weight of piglets at weaning by 6.5 kg, average daily liveweight gain by 206.6 g, overall gain by 62 kg, and profitability level by 24.4%. In the diets for weaned rabbits, whole grain of chaffy crops (barley + oats) is advisable to replace with their activated forms. This provides the increase in the average live weight by 20.5%, average daily liveweight gain by 30.5%, reduction in the feed inputs per 1 kg liveweight gain by 2.2 kg, and increase in profitability by 34.1%.

Results are given from a study on the use of the natural zeolite Sakhaptin for preventing mycotoxicoses in chickens. It has been found that when fed chickens with low-toxic feeds, the introduction of Sakhaptin prevents subclinical mycotoxicoses, thus increasing production performance by 7.3% as compared with the control group, where mycosorb was added to combined feeds. It has been concluded that zeolite Sakhaptin created by the nature has a treatment-and-prophylaxis and detoxication effect at clinical and subclinical mycotoxicoses, thus sanifies the organism, contributes to improving nutrient digestibility and increasing production performance in chickens.

Results are given from investigations into the microelement structure of meat in foals reared under different natural-climatic conditions of Yakutia. It is shown that the microelement structure of meat is dependent on a breed and a zone of horse rearing. Under conditions of excess moistening, the fodder plants of alaas meadows in Central Yakutia accumulate the maximum amount of mineral substances that is a cause of their high contents in meat of foals of Yakut breed of the native type. The meat of foals of the native type was revealed to have the significant advantage over that of the young stock of Prilenskaya and Megezhekskaya breeds because of high contents of iron, manganese, copper, zinc, iodine, fluorine, and selenium. The natural-climatic conditions, where horses of Prilenskaya and Megezhekskaya breeds are reared, somewhat differ from those of Central Yakutia. Abundant all-year-round precipitation and early frosts result in reducing nutritive and biological value of green plants on small-valley meadows. The contents of toxic elements (lead, cadmium, mercury) in the meat of foals of the breeds studied were within the limits of permissible concentrations.

There were studied morphofunctional changes in the iliac lymph node of mice at the experimental Rauscher virus-induced leukemia when used the drug subalin. There were revealed significant changes in the structure and cytoarchitectonics of the lymph node of mice in the early hyperplastic and late terminal periods. It was found that the Rauscher leukemia virus (RLV) causes a decrease in the transport function of the mice lymph nodes during the early hyperplastic period of the disease as well as an increase in the proliferative activity of the lymphoid cells. The area of primary and secondary lymphoid nodules in the lymph nodes of the infected animals was found to decrease, and mitotically dividing cells and blast forms in both germinal centers and the sinuses of the lymph nodes were revealed to increase. The oppression of immune response was defined to occur in the terminal stage. Subalin was confirmed to show its stimulating effect on T-cell and B-cell links of the immune system. It was established that the use of subalin among mice susceptible to the RLV did not reduce mortality of the infected animals, and did not prolong their lives. After administering the drug to the infected mice, the stabilization of the mice’ organism during the early hyperplastic period occurs with most morphofunctional parameters of the peripheral immune system approaching the reference values. There was revealed an increase in the number of mature antibodies of the producing cells during the terminal period as influenced by subalin that was significative of the activation of humoral immunity.

Results are given from a multi-year study of Trifolium hybridum in agrophytocoenoses formed on the leveled opencut spoil banks in Kuzbas and in the sowings on leached chernozem soils in the established experimental plot of the Siberian Research Institute of Fodder Crops, Krasnoobsk, Novosibirsk Region. T. hybridum is kept in the sowings on the spoil banks for more than 10 years, and usually shows oneself a patient or stress tolerant. Optimal conditions for growth and development of this species on disturbed soils are formed in the grass mixture on the sludge pond banks. It has been revealed that T. hybridum is a species promising for reestablishment of plant cover damaged during opencast coal mining. The studies on leached chernozem were performed in 2001-2007 at the central experimental base of the Siberian Research Institute of Fodder Crops located in forest steppe of Western Siberia. Weather conditions in the area during the studies differed significantly. Wet and cool were 2000 and 2002; arid 2001, 2003, 2006 and the first half of the 2004 growing period, the second half of which was wet, and vice versa in 2005 and 2007. This had an effect on the growth and development of clover plants. The yield of green mass varied dependent on years of use and cultivars studied from 0.17 to 6.66 kg/m2, seeds 1.1-101 g/m2. The cultivar Pervenets was found to be promising for conditions of Western Siberia.

A description of common vetch as a valuable fodder crop is given. Results of a complex evaluation of the ten vetch varieties and lines are presented. A number of economic and biological traits were analyzed: plant height, days to ripeness, resistance to lodging and fungoid diseases, foliage, grain protein content, density of stand, grain weight per plant, 1000-kernel weight, seed and fodder yield. The advanced lines G-10, Baikalskaya ґ TK4604/1-2 and Belosemyannaya SK were the best ones as to a complex of features. They did not yield to the standard in the height and plant stand vigor, earliness, resistance to lodging and fungoid diseases, and were superior to it in foliage, grain protein content, grain weight per plant, seed size, seed and fodder yield. We together with the Siberian Research Institute of Plant Production and Breeding will transfer one of them to the State variety trial after comprehensive specification and necessary seed multiplication. Among the vetch varieties, Novosibirskaya was superior as to a complex of agronomic traits.

Results are given from investigations into the effect of mineral and organic-mineral fertilizers on the fertility of meadow-chernozem soils and productivity of fodder crops in a crop rotation of the forest-steppe zone of Transbaikal Territory. It has been found that the increase in productivity of fodder crop rotation, and at the same time the improvement of soil fertility, cannot be achieved without the use of organic-mineral fertilizer application systems. The application of organic-mineral fertilizers at the rate of 40 t of manure + N120P90K90 per revolution has the most favorable effect on the organic status of soil. The proposed fertilization system provides the increase in crop rotation productivity by 35.2-44.8% for the first revolution and 37.5-62.9% for second, and increases the organic matter content in the arable horizon by 0.11%. The most intense mineralization of organic matter has occurred when applied N120P90K90 per revolution against the unfertilized background, where the decline was 0.30% for the ten years of research.

There was analyzed the current state of irrigated agriculture in the arid zones of Azerbaijan, results of reforms in the irrigation sector, direction of investments to improve the water management system in the country. After the transition to market economy and land reforms, there are difficulties in the management of agriculture, including dispersion and fragmentation of agricultural fields, poor application of crop rotation, changing sown structure, and application of traditional old irrigation methods. To achieve the efficiency of agriculture and land reclamation activities, we need to develop feasibility studies for the modernization of irrigation and drainage networks and construction of new generation irrigation systems. The main requirements are to prevent loss of irrigation water in all levels of water conveyance by application of anti-filtration cover, closed type drainage systems, taking into account local soil and hydro-geological conditions for more precise control of water-salt regime as well as improving efficiency of land use. These engineering activities should be strengthened by additional measures for improvement of agriculture, including compliance with the necessary farming practices, use of modern water-saving irrigation methods, land leveling, strengthening of farmers’ participation in management and operation of on-farm networks, consolidation of small farms in near future.

A study was carried out about the basic biological features of multiflowered oleaster plants: growth and development of the above-ground part, growth and placement of the root system, seasonal development rhythms. There is given the breeding assessment of oleaster collection samples as to winter hardiness, self-bearing, yielding capacity, fruit quality, resistance to diseases and pests, thorniness of shoots, and bush habit. The oleaster sampling was performed as to specified characters and their highest possible complex. The promising forms and potential donors of the most important economic and biological characters were selected. The following cultivars have been developed: Sakhalinskiy Pervy, Moneron, Krillyon, Yuzhny, Shikotan, Kunashir, Cunai. Peculiarities of the sample formation process in the progeny from open pollination were established.