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The paper is focused on logistics. The importance of the logistic chain management is emphasized as it becomes a crucial competitive success factor. The total corporate costs and customer service quality are dependent on the structure and communication within this chain. Using a concrete example, several results of the establishment of the logistic approach in the woodworking industry are mentioned in the paper. It has to be emphasized that the application of the logistic principles in the industry has its own specificities arising mainly from the biological character of processes providing and manufacturing the basis resource. A solution of the supply - purchase chain is provided on the basis of an example of the company Dřevovýroba.

XII. World Forestry Congress have been held in Quebec, Canada from September 21 to 28, 2003. Forestry issues were discussed on three basic areas: Forests for People, Forests for the Planet, People and Forests in Harmony. The Czech Republic was represented by 9 contributions.

This contribution describes eight variants of the distribution of the direct payments and their impact on the farm economies in the years 2004-2006. For this purpose, selective set of 152 farms was divided in accordance with production regions: maize-growing, beet-growing, potato-growing, potato and oats-growing and uplands1. Possible demands for standard direct payments depending on the farm situation in 2002 and demands for payments set by different variants of the simplified system of direct payment distribution were figured to each of observed farms. To be comparable, individual bonuses were converted per 1 hectare of the farmland and to be considered more objectively, the eventual subsidies in terms of HRDP were calculated to the farms. In conclusion, all mentioned variants were compared from the point of view of their impact on the farm economies in different production and climatic regions.

Despite the significant decrease of unemployment in Slovak Republic during the year 2003, the problem of high unemployment is still very relevant. In the previous period, various measures of active labour policy have been applied, and their efficiency was approved or disproved only by their realisation. In order to achieve the highest possible efficiency of the spent financial means, it is desirable that every prepared measure is assessed from different aspects by specialists, independent experts as well as by subjects that are to participate in the particular measure. This contribution represents ex ante evaluation analysis. Its objective is to assess the newly proposed measure in the field of active labour policy. The proposal of the measure was elaborated by Dr. Stanislav Buchta, CSc. and was published in the scientific contribution "Possible solutions of unemployment of workers in agriculture and construction industry" in Agricultural Economics 7/2003.The evaluation ex ante analysis was realised as a part of the bilateral project MATRA "System of regular monitoring, analysis and evaluation of employment policy", which was carried out in 2001-2003 in partnership with the National Labour Office and the Socio-economic Research Institute at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. The analysis has focused on several groups of assessment perspectives such as problems of analysis, the participation of employers and employees in the proposed system of "maintaining wage", implementation aspects, comparison of proposed measure with the measures already realised, submission of alternative solution and evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of the measure.

Goal of the paper is to identify opportunities and threats following from the European integration process and influencing the agribusiness entities in the accession country - Slovak Republic. These topics have begun one of the current themes connected with the approaching date of the Slovak Republic accession to the European Union. It is related to the fact, that agrarian but mostly food processing markets have their own specificities, appearing with their typical high sensitivity to the outside environment influence and strong enterprise motivation to competition. In the paper, there are also outlined tasks for business management to analyze external environment, to identify the decisive strengths and weaknesses, to overcome difficulties to adopt European standards and to use opportunities in a wider market place.

The presence and distribution of PPV-M strain of Plum pox virus were investigated in selected orchards of apricots and peaches in the Czech Republic. PPV-M was found to be distributed in apricot and peach orchards planted with nursery material imported from abroad. The presence of PPV-M was not proved in orchards planted with trees from local nurseries. The absence of PPV-M in a majority of spontaneous PPV hosts was proved previously. PPV-M strain appears to have been introduced recently.

The fulfilment of the subject of the Act No. 76/2002 Dig. on integrated prevention reduces energy consumption and increases hygienic safety of a thermal treatment of animal tissues at veterinary decontamination institutes. By making use of a back supply of heated rendering-plant fat to the continuous disc drier KDS 250 the so-called fritting effect is induced speeding up the evaporation of residual water and reducing the redrying time of the meat and bone paste. An analysis proved a reduced consumption of specific energy, whereby the demand for the best available technique (BAT) is met.

In changing growth conditions, methodical procedures should concentrate on the investigation of processes currently under way in forests. Many studies have shown that present models of forest growth parameters differ from previous surveys as far as for instance the height is concerned. Causes of these phenomena have not been satisfactorily explained although various hypotheses are investigated. In our study, we present partial results of the investigation of height growth within a sixty-five-year period, based on the analysis of data obtained from seven forest management plans in the management-plan area of Kostelec nad Černými lesy (Kostelec n. Č. l.) and continuous measurements on pilot research plots in the period of 1965-1994. The comparison of mean height growth curves obtained by the curve fitting of the values of empirical data signifies by their different course and increasing kurtosis a dependence on the calendar year when the measure was taken. It signifies an increasing height growth trend of both species in the given area.

A total of 15 strains of Psychrobacter immobilis isolated from animal sources, e.g. cheese, fish and poultry, were tested. A commercial diagnostic kit NEFERMtest 24, conventional tests and determination of fatty acids were used for identification. By using the results of NEFERMtest 24 and numerical identification system TNW version 6.0 the identification was successful on the species level (46.7%) while the correct species identification by using conventional tests increased up to 86.7%. All 9 saccharolytic strains including 7 Czech isolates were identified in most cases on an excellent or very good level by both methods based on biochemical reactions. On the other hand, the identification of 6 asaccharolytic strains was unsuccessful especially by NEFERMtest 24. While 4 asaccharolytic strains were identified correctly on the basis of conventional tests on species or genus level, incorrect identification on species level, for example Ralstonia paucula, Comamonas terrigena, Oligella ureolytica, Moraxella lincolnii andPsychrobacter phenylpyruvicus, was found by using NEFERMtest 24. Determination of fatty acid composition by MIDI System confirmed the species identification of 9 out of the 10 tested strains of P. immobilis and 1 tested strain of Psychrobacter sp.

In this study, recombinant histidine tagged p25 capsid protein of Maedi-Visna virus was developed. Part of the viral genome coding p25 protein was positioned downstream and in frame with a metal binding domain in pRSET-B vector. Recombinant protein was expressed in E. coli cells and soluble fraction of the protein was subsequently purified by Ni2+-chelate affinity chromatography. Purified protein was then used as antigen in an indirect ELISA test. One hundred fifty ovine serum samples were screened for antibodies to p25 protein of the virus. Immunoblot with whole virus antigen was used as a gold standard. The total number of positive results in the ELISA was 38 (25.33%). Immunoblot failed to confirm a positive result in 2 (1.33%) of them and these results were therefore considered to be false positive. The number of true positive results in the ELISA was thus 36 (24%). All immunoblot positive samples were also positive by ELISA test. In conclusion, recombinant His-tagged capsid protein showed very high sensitivity and specificity in detecting antibodies to Maedi-Visna virus.

A daily dose of 14 mg atrazine and 2.5 mg zearalenone, given p.o. during 5 days of estrous cycle to female rats, changed their estrous cycle in comparison with control animals. On day -1 of expected estrus, a significantly lower (p < 0.05) concentration of 17b-estradiol compared with the control group was recorded in all experimental groups of animals. In the group of animals administered zearalenone, the concentration of 17b-estradiol on the day of expected estrus was significantly higher (p < 0.05). In the group administered a combination of atrazine and zearalenone, the concentration of 17b-estradiol on the day after expected estrus was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than in the control group. In the group of animals receiving atrazine, complete absence of the onset of estrous cycle was recorded, whereas in the group given zearalenone the onset of estrous cycle was delayed by 24 hours. The combination of atrazine and zearalenone induced similar effects as atrazine, however, with the onset of estrous cycle being delayed by 48 hours. Neither of these two groups of animals reached the level of 17b-estradiol recorded in the control group.

The project of the AGRIS WWW portal proposes from its very beginning to establish a platform for providing information from the spheres of agriculture, food industry, forestry and from other areas related to the countryside. The main objective is to provide access to the already existing information sources, to run its own news service and to help with publishing of the information to the subjects that have limited conditions for electronic (Internet) presentation. This leads to creating of a complex block of information from the industry. This block is to serve for improving availability of the respective information for managers, public administration, students, teachers, consultants and other users.

Effects of increasing doses of the herbicidal preparation Sencor 70 WP (metribuzin a.i.) on selected potato varieties were studied in a field and pot experiments using very rapid fluorescence induction (vrFI). Tuber yield, and in pot experiments a tuber number and characteristics of the aboveground biomass were assessed. The curve of rapid induction goes through the O-J-I-P phases. The parameters Fo, Fv/Fp and rFj were measured. Based on changes in the vrFI parameters in comparison with controls, varieties were ranked according to sensitivity to metribuzin in field experiments. Keřkovské rohlíčky and Ukama were the most sensitive varieties and Impala the least sensitive variety. In pot experiments in the growth chamber, significant decrease in tuber weight vs controls was found in sensitive varieties Keřkovské rohlíčky (in 1998, 0.75 kg.ha^-1 Sencor 70 WP decreased tuber weight by 28% and 1.5 kg.ha^-1 by 89%) and Ukama (in 1997, at 1.5 kg.ha^-1 by 35%). Under stable conditions in the growth chamber, there were lower differences in the rFj parameter in these varieties in comparison with controls than in resistant ones. Based on this finding it can be assumed that the sensitivity of varieties can be determined according to rFj changes under stable ambient conditions.

Three-year trials were conducted to study germination and emergence of prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola L.) achenes, increments of shoot dry matter and susceptibility of the weed to selected herbicides. The germination rates of achenes at10°C (92%),20°C (97%) and30°C (95%) did not indicate any significant differences within 20 days from sowing. The highest percentage emergence of prickly lettuce achenes was determined after their sowing into a depth of1 mm. Differences from the variants of sowing onto the soil surface (0 mm), into a depth of 10 and20 mm were significant. There were no differences in the emergence rates from a depth of 10 and20 mm. The highest increments of shoot dry matter were observed when prickly lettuce plants were grown for 4-7 weeks after sowing at20°C. The effect of selected herbicides on prickly lettuce plants treated at the stage of 2-3 true leaves was evaluated on the basis of a change in the content of shoot dry matter. A significant decrease in dry matter against the control was recorded in all variants after herbicide application. The effect (expressed by a lower dry matter content) was significantly higher after the combination amidosulfuron + iodosulfuron-methyl + mefenpyr-diethyl (10 + 2.5 + 25 g/ha) was used than after the application of tribenuron (10.85 g/ha) and picolinafen + cyanazine (120 g + 480 h). The effect of amidosulfuron (22.5 g/ha) was significantly higher than in the variants treated with tribenuron, picloram + clopyralid (16.75 + 66.75 g/ha), clopyralid (90 g/ha) and picolinafen + cyanazine (150 + 600 g/ha). The best effects were produced by herbicides containing amidosulfuron and iodosulfuron as active ingredients.

Long-term field experiments conducted under different soil and climate conditions and their databases provide invaluable information and are indispensable means in the study of the productivity and sustainability of the soil management systems. We evaluated the results of the dry matter yields of the main products obtained with four variants of organic and mineral fertilisation in three long-term field experiments established in 1955. The experiments differed in the cultivated crops. The period of evaluation was 12 and 16 years (1985-2000), respectively. The productivity of nine-year crop rotation was lower with the fertilised variants than that with the alternative growing of spring wheat and sugar beets. The dry matter yields on the Nil variants, however, were higher in the crop rotation than in the alternate sugar beet and spring wheat growing, apparently due to the symbiotic nitrogen fixation. The dry matter yields of sugar beet and mainly of spring wheat declined in almost all variants of fertilisation in the alternate sugar beet and spring wheat growing, over the evaluated time period. In spite of the relatively high dry matter production, the declining yields indicated a lower sustainability of the alternate cropping system. Both organic and mineral fertilisation increased the production of the cultivated crops. The differences in the average dry matter yields were statistically significant. Both organic and mineral fertilisation enhanced significantly the N-uptake by the cultivated crops. The effectivity of nitrogen input was the highest with the alternate cropping of sugar beet and spring wheat indicating that it was more demanding for the external N-input and thus less sustainable than nine-year crop rotation.

A polyfactorial field trial with alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cv. Palava, Jarka and Vlasta was established in Červený Újezd (altitude405 m a.s.l., average year precipitation493 mm per year, average year temperature 7.6°C, clay loam orthic luvisol) in the spring with a companion crop (spring wheat) in rows of a space of125 mm, sowing rate 16 kg/ha of germinable seeds in the year 1998. The stands were cut 3 times per year, the control variant was left without a treatment, the rest were cultivated with a spike or a vibration harrow before the beginning of the vegetation season and after the first cut. The numbers of plants and stems per m2 and dry mass yields were measured. The results were evaluated by four-factor analysis of variance Anova and by regression analysis. The harrowing of the stands resulted in a significantly lower amount of plants per m2 in the end of the fourth year by 23-29%, on average a lower number of stems per m2 (by 13% using double cultivation per year with the vibration harrow). The dry mass yield was significantly influenced only with cv. Jarka (by 5-11% higher in the cultivated fields). The moderately or relatively strong relationship between the plants amount and the time was exponential.

In greenhouse conditions a 3-year small-plot experiment was conducted on loamy Chernozem originating from the humus horizon to investigate the effect of sodium humate application on yield, nitrate content and vitamin C content in green pepper fruits. The application of 5 kg of sodium humate per hectare in the form of watering 3 weeks after planting of pepper seedlings under full NPK nutrition (N nutrition was divided as follows: 2/3 of total N before planting and 1/3 of total N together with sodium humate 3 weeks after planting) resulted in a statistically significant increase in pepper yield by 13.6% at a concomitant significant reduction of nitrate content in pepper fruits by 12% and increase in vitamin C content by 28.6%.

Approach to the problems of sugar-beet tubers surface damage dependence on harvesting technology. Investigation of sugar-beet tubers damage when falling on wood and iron surfaces and in the next case tuber damage caused by their fall on the tuber heap. Research of damage rate dependence on the fall height. Evaluation of damage rate was carried by the I.I.R.B. method (method used by all sugar-beet growing countries of Western Europe). The results refer that no considerable differences in damage rate after the fall on the wood or iron bottoms have been ascertained. The height of 1.5 m can be considered in all cases as the limit value of the tubers fall, when share of heavily damaged tubers reached acceptable values of 10-15%, but that the share increases significantly at higher falling height. The lifting bodies construction requires also a knowledge of dependence between root depth and force for tuber release from soil in relation to the tuber weight. Medium force needed for tubers lifting ranges from 17 to 27 kp, maximum value 50 kp was found out for tubers of weight above 3 kg.

The paper presents the results of evaluating the growth and health of 20 different poplars from the Aigeiros group in 30-year populetum Leles on uninundated alluvia of the Latorica River in ecological conditions of the lowland Východoslovenská nížina. The populetum is situated on medium-heavy loamy soils in the group of forest site types Ulmeto-Fraxinetum carpineum. The results of evaluation document that out of the investigated poplar clones the poplars I-214, I-476, Blanc du Poitou, Flachslanden and P. nigra (Baka 5) had the best height and diameter growth and maximum volume production. Their health status was also very good. The lowest volume production was determined in P. nigra (009/66 ČR), I-455 and Grandis, and the worst health was found out in Grandis, P. nigra (Pavlovce 1) and P. nigra (Ivachnova 1). These results will facilitate to include the poplars I-476 and Flachslanden in the assortment of regionalized poplars for the lowland area of Východoslovenská nížina.

Agriculture is a sector in Latvia which plays an important role in the country's economy and the same time performs a significant social, environmental and ethno-cultural function. Latvia has favourable conditions for the development of organic agriculture. The aim of land reform is to reorganise legal, social and economic relationships of land property and land use to facilitate the development of infrastructure, land protection and rational land use according to the interests of society. In Latvia, the land reform is practically carried out in three directions - restitution of real estate rights, privatisation of real property and compensation for previous real estate. At the moment, the main and urgent goal concerns strengthening of the results of land reform. It means that all the information on real estates (land and buildings), uses and area of lease obtained during the previous course of land reform must be reflected into the real property cadastre.

A new method was proposed that complements the value of active carbon in the soil expressed as hot-water soluble carbon Chws. The method is based on vacuum measurements of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of soil suspensions using an Oxi Top Control system manufactured by the WTW Merck Company that is destined for hydrochemical analyses of organically contaminated waters. Measurements will provide BOD values for particular days of incubation; total limit BODt can be determined from these values, and it is possible to calculate the rate constant k1 of mineralization of a decomposable part of soil organic matter. It is typical of soil organic matter (SOM) of a given soil sample and comparable with the BOD5:COD (chemical oxygen demand) ratio that is used to evaluate degradability of water organic contamination in hydrochemical analytics.

Results of scoring the resistance of 35 selected spring barley varieties to powdery mildew, exhibiting high powdery mildew severity, in 307 variety trials of the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture were analysed. The varieties can be divided into two groups: the varieties that could not induce any changes in the pathogen population (the varieties with no effective resistance gene and varieties carrying gene mlo) and the varieties possessing major resistance genes [a total of 12 Ml-genes: a1, a3, a6, a7, a9, a12, a13, at, k1, La, g and (Kr)] to which the pathogen population adapted in 1971-2000. The time slope of decreasing resistance of varieties is described. The importance of individual evolutionary forces (mutations, migration, direct selection, indirect selection and recombinations) for the erosion of efficiency of respective major resistance genes and the effects of pathogen adaptation on population complexity and diversity are discussed.

Activities on plant genetic resources in the Czech Republic are concentrated in the National Programme on Conservation and Utilisation of Plant Genetic Resources. Eleven institutions maintain 51,000 accessions, of which 17.3% belong to vegetatively propagated species. Research Institute of Crop Production (RICP) Prague has the responsibility for the coordination of the Programme; it holds more than half of all accessions in collections of genetic resources, runs the national information system and provides long-term storage for all seed-propagated species. All Czech collections are fully documented in passport data. Evaluation data (based on National descriptor lists for 29 crops) are available for 33% of the accessions. Much work is currently spent to the description and evaluation of collections, to facilitate their utilisation in breeding and agricultural practice. Also collecting missions on the Czech territory, conservation and monitoring of valuable resources maintained in situ contributeto the maintenance and evaluation of local resources. Landraces are considered a valuable part of the collections. Suitable ways of "on farm" conservation are investigated for selected accessions, to support their utilisation in agricultural practice and to enrich the existing diversity of crops and cultivars. Cultivars and landraces of neglected crops (buckwheat, millet, hulled wheat species) were successfully used to enrich the agro-biodiversity and for specific purposes of human nutrition. Close collaboration with producers (often organic farms) and processing industry has been established. Selected alternative crops and catch crops were studied as potential new crops.

In small-plot field trials conducted in 2000-2002 we studied the effect of fungicides on the yield and selected technological parameters of grain of malt barley and on malt. For the treatment we used Cerelux (active ingredients: fenpropimorph, flusilazole), Amistar (azoxystrobin) and Caramba (metconazole) applied in two stages of stand development (DC 47 and 55). Compared to the untreated control plants the yield grains ranged between 6.9 and 16.5% after the application of fungicides. The application of fungicides increased the proportion of full grains and had a favourable effect on the chemical composition of grain. After the treatment with azoxystrobin the content of N-substances decreased from 11.43 to 11.07% as compared to the controls. The highest starch content of grain was observed after the application of the active ingredient metconazole; the average content ranged between 64.44 and 64.62%. Compared to the controls the highest relative yield of malt starch (124.2-125.2%) was achieved after the application of azoxystrobin or a combination of azoxystrobin and metconazole in the DC 47 stage. The highest average attainable degree of fermentation was 78.57% and was discovered in the untreated control.

Tree mortality was recorded in a selection orchard of maintenance breeding of cv. Bergeron LE-2 in 1993-2002. The beginning of blossoming was examined in individual trees in the same orchard in 1999-2002. Considering the effect of year, a maximum difference in the average beginning of blossoming was 10 days in the whole set of trees. The beginning of blossoming of individual trees was not identical in the same year. A difference in the onset of phenophase "beginning of blossoming" between early and late blossoming trees was 1-4 days in the particular years. The trees maintained their early or late blossoming for the whole period of evaluation. No tree died in the orchard by 1998. From 1999 to 2002 50% of early blossoming trees died and only 2.38% of late blossoming ones (average of three replications). Two thirds of early blossoming trees died during vegetation, a third died during vegetation rest. No commercially important viroses were proved to be present. It is the reason why viruses could not be a potential cause of the above-mentioned facts. The presence of phytoplasm (ESFY) was confirmed by the method NESTED PCR in one case in a randomly selected early blossoming tree. The test was negative in two randomly selected late blossoming trees from underplanting. The early beginning of blossoming did not influence productivity. Correlations between the beginning of tree blossoming and blossom abundance, or between the beginning of blossoming and productivity, were insignificant (r = 0.12 or r = -0.13). Even though the causative agent of higher mortality in early blossoming trees was not confirmed unambiguously, it is desirable to select the best individuals only from the group of late blossoming ones during maintenance breeding of cv. Bergeron. These individuals should be used as prebasic material in a certification process and as basic material after prescribed repeated testing.

The aim of the experiment in test station was to evaluate productive performance with respect to feeding-technologies through the test for LWs × (LW×L) genotype in pigs. The productive performance as growth capacity, feeding intake and quantitative traits of slaughter value was examined for 144 hybrid pigs divided in two identical groups, where the 1st group was fed ad-libitum and the 2nd one semi-ad-libitum. On the base of profit formula, the ad-libitum system of feeding in pigs is better in all economic features.

The economic importance of agricultural sector in Slovakia declined during transition period. There are several reasons for this: declining terms of agricultural trade, extreme weather, transformation of agricultural sector, unclear property rights in transition period, short-run privatization distortions, transformation of up and downstream sectors, world market fluctuation, decline of real wages, low stability of agricultural policy and other. The development in economic market was paralleled by activity in political market. After initial liberalization, agricultural protection subsequently increased. The EU accession influences both levels of protection as well as instruments of agricultural policy.

In the present paper genetic relationships of twenty varieties of cashew are described on the basis of morphological characters and RAPD (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA) markers. Results obtained for the phenotypic characters based on similarity coefficient were divided into four clusters with 70% similarity. By means of similarity coefficients (SG), cluster I was found to consist of twelve varieties. Cluster II consisted of a single variety, NRCC-1, cluster III consisted of six varieties and cluster IV had only one variety, Vridhachalam-2. The analysis started by using RAPD markers that allowed us to distinguish 20 varieties. A total of 80 distinct DNA fragments ranging from 0.2 to 3.0 kb were amplified by using 11 selected random 10-mer primers. Genetic similarity analysis was conducted for the presence or absence of bands in the RAPD profile. Cluster analysis clearly showed that 20 varieties of cashew grouped into two major clusters based on similarity indices. The first major cluster comprised one minor cluster. The other major cluster was divided into two sub-minor clusters, one sub-minor cluster having three varieties and the other sub-minor cluster was represented by 15 varieties. Among the 20 varieties, Ullal-3 and Dhana (H-1608) showed the highest similarity indices (87%). It was noted that Vengurla-2 and Vengurla-3 were not grouped into a single cluster but Vengurla-4 has 82% similarity to Vengurla-3. The variety Vengurla-2 has very close similarity (85%) with variety Vridhachalam-3 (M-26/2). The analysis of genetic relationships in cashew using morphological traits and RAPD banding data can be useful for plant improvement, descriptions of new varieties and also for assessment of variety purity in plant certification programmes.