Summary of newspapers of the previous day – 16. 5. 2011

Barley as energy plant

Winter barley could play a great role in bio-energy production in the future. Especially in rotation of crops with energy plants it could be and alternative to corn for ethanol production in many areas of the world. As a break plant within corn growing, barley can reduce a risk of erosion and a loss of nutrients thanks to growth in winter. Experts from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have used barley for bio-ethanol production, remains after fermentation and cut straw served as a substrate for bio-fuel of the second generation.

May frosts have burned vineyards and orchards in Czech Republic

Fruit-growers in Bohemia lament and vine-growers can just cry. After frost from May beginning they estimate damages to hundreds of millions crowns. While the calamity avoided in fact Moravia, more than third of Czech orchards is badly damaged and a great part of vineyards is completely burnt of frost. The frost damaged practically the whole crop to most vine-growers in the region Litoměřice. “All is away”, an evidently broken-hearted owner of wine industry Žernoseky Pavel Hrabkovský told. Instead of answer to a question on which damage he counts he spread hands helplessly and whispered: “Excuse me, it is difficult for me to speak about”.

Milk rice is withdrawn from shops. They found glass in it in Germany

Milk rice Müller, in which glass fragment have been found in Germany, started to be sold in the Czech shops. A spokesman of the State Veterinary Administration Josef Duben said to ČTK that the product had started to be withdrawn from the market. The Veterinary Administration got the information about milk desserts containing glass through the Rapid Warning System on Friday at 22:30. According to a producer representative, the product is being withdrawn rather from preventive reasons.

Numbers of poultry, cattle and pigs have decreased to long-term minimum

Numbers of most main kinds of farm animals in the Czech Republic over one year till this year´s beginning of April have decreased. The most, the numbers of poultry have gone down, the decrease was by 14.4 percents and the same as in cattle and pigs they fell down to a long-term minimum. The number of pigs raised in the Czech Republic is the least since the War World II. Vice versa, numbers of sheep, goats and horses increased in the last period. It results from an inventory published by the Czech Statistic Office.