Forager, Operation

The immediate availability of biomass energy, in the form of forage and food, placed serious constraints on military operations before 1850. Feudal political aiTangcmcnts in Europe and Asia facilitated the growth of large armies capable of protracted war-... 

At a more subtle level, behavioral disturbances may make it more difficult for animals to find food. Pyrethroids, carbamates, OPs, and neonicotinoids can disturb the foraging activity of bees (Thompson 2003). Interestingly, effects have been shown upon the wagtail dance of bees, and this disrupts communication between individuals as to the location of nectar-bearing plants. Also, the neonicotinoid imidacloprid has been shown to adversely affect conditioned responses such as proboscis extension of honeybees (Guez et al. 2001). Nicotinoids can disturb the functioning of cholinergic synapses, which are involved in the operation of the proboscis reflex as... 

Operating parameters for pasture grass hay, forage, cucumbers, squash, and cantalope... 

Cyanides are used widely and extensively in the manufacture of synthetic fabrics and plastics, in electroplating baths and metal mining operations, as pesticidal agents and intermediates in agricultural chemical production, and in predator control devices. Elevated cyanide levels are normally encountered in more than 1000 species of food plants and forage crops, and this probably... 

Aminocarb. Next to fenitrothion, aminocarb has been the insecticide used most extensively in forestry in Canada over the past decade. Application rates of up to 0.175 kg/ha have been found to have little or no impact on forest songbird populations or small mammal breeding activity, but do cause considerable knockdown of terrestrial arthropods, particularly at higher application rates (35, 36). Short-lived but fairly extensive honeybee mortality has been documented when aminocarb has been applied while active foraging was underway, but the overall colony vigor was not seriously effected (37 ). Aminocarb does not appear to cause bumble bee mortality at operational application rates, but does affect solitary bees ( 18). 

It is well known that one of the most serious pesticide drift problems involves situations where chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides are applied legally to fields or orchards adjacent to dairy cattle operations or to fields containing future dairy forage. MacCollom (26) advised Vermont orchardists to allow at least a 200-foot buffer zone for adjacent hayfields and to apply tedion dusts only when wind velocities were 3 m.p.h. or less. 

In recent years, the addition of tallow has moved directly to dairy and beef feed lots. Small, heated, insulated tanks have been developed to receive and hold fat shipments (Figure 7). As described earlier, beef tallow is the most compatible fat for ruminants. It may be sprayed or flowed, at 2-3% of dry matter onto rations of chopped hay, other roughages, grains, or concentrates while in the mixer, or top-dressed on hay or other forages. Feed mixing operations like these require a positive displacement pump, like a Moyno or gear pump with variable-speed drive set to deliver a known amount of fat within a specific time period. As an alternative, mixers in feed mills can be mounted on load cells and equipped with controllers to stop the flow of fat when the desired weight has been added. 

Agricultural choppers that are operated as stationary cutters and as moving choppers in the field separately from the harvesters or that are part of forage... 

The schedule which probably most resembles those operative in the human environment is known as a concurrent schedule of reinforcement. In the real world, we are routinely faced with a multitude of simultaneously operative schedule options with various schedule conditions and consequences, and we must make choices among them. The foraging (food seeking) environment of many species likewise provides such concurrent options with differential probabilities of reinforcement among which species must make choices. Concurrent schedules provide an experimental analog of this facet of the environment and require the subject to make choices among... 

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