ABSTRACT.- Small ruminant farming is of socio-economic and environmental importance to many rural communities around the world. The SMARTER H2020 project aims to redefine genetic selection criteria to increase the sustainability of the sector. The objective of this study was to analyse the selection and breeding management practices of small ruminant producers and breeders, linked with socio-technical elements that shape them.

ABSTRACT.- Astylus atromaculatus Blanchard is a native beetle of South America that feeds on pollen. During the summer of 2022-2023 in Argentina and Uruguay, an explosive infestation of these insects occurred in pastures in which ruminants were grazing. This was believed to be associated with a severe drought, which had significantly reduced the flowering of crops. Three farms in Uruguay and one in Argentina were visited to examine the flocks and perform autopsies. Affected sheep had watery diarrhea, anorexia, depression, and ruminal atony.

ABSTRACT.- In 2022 and 2023, samples of soybean stems showing symptoms of soybean stem canker were collected in the Departments of Rio Negro, San José and Colonia, Uruguay.

ABSTRACT.- Paspalum notatum Flüggé is a subtropical grass native from the Americas and one of the main components of the subtropical South American grasslands. Although P. notatum exhibits a high forage productivity and persistence, some limitations are observed in the species, such as forage quality due to high lignin content. The development of efficient tissue culture and plant transformation protocols in cultivars for forage production are necessary to embrace novel genetic improvement through transgenesis and genome editing.

The dairy industry of Uruguay has long been a fundamental driver of national economic and social development. However, after 30 years of dynamic growth (> 4.5% annual accumulative rate; 1985-2015), a predominantly stagnant period has ensued. Indeed, the Uruguayan dairy chain faces deep and multifaceted economic, productive, and environmental challenges. Beyond the last decade restrictive and volatile global conditions for dairy exporting countries, Uruguayan dairy farmers face local and particular challenges that entice them to reestablish the grounds for sustainable competitive growth.

ABSTRACT.- In this article we make comments on some methodological issues and on the general approach of the paper "Back to the future? Conservative grassland management can preserve soil health in the changing landscapes of Uruguay" by Ina Säumel, Leonardo R. Ramírez, Sarah Tietjen, Marcos Barra, and Erick Zagal, Soil 9, 425-442, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-425-2023. We identified various design and methodological problems that may induce potential misinterpretations. Our concerns are of three different types.

ABSTRACT- In fluvial dynamics studies, there are instances where it becomes necessary to estimate the daily discharge of a river in locations where only one instantaneous level record is available per day. In such cases, there may be no rating curve, or one that is unreliable, making it difficult to make accurate discharge estimates. A daily rating curve would be an estimate of the daily discharge of a river, from a single instantaneous stage level. This work proposes to estimate synthetic (non-gauged) daily rating curves from nearby gauged locations using a rainfall-runoff model.

ABSTRACT.- The Río de la Plata Grasslands (RPG) are one of the largest areas of open ecosystems (grasslands, shrublands and savannas) in the world. Historically, these systems have experienced, and continue to experience, an enormous loss of natural habitats. Moreover, their importance has been largely invisible in comparison to forested systems. The remaining area of open ecosystems in the RPG region varies according to the source from 38 to 58% of the original area.

ABSTRACT.- Brazilian livestock breeding programmes strive to enhance the genetics of beef cattle, with a strong emphasis on the Nellore breed, which has an extensive database and has achieved significant genetic progress in the last years. There are other indicine breeds that are economically important in Brazil; however, these breeds have more modest sets of phenotypes, pedigree and genotypes, slowing down their genetic progress as their predictions are less accurate.

ABSTRACT.- We reported thirteen cases of bilateral stringhalt associated with Hypochaeris radicata that occurred in horses in Uruguay during a severe drought in the summer of 2023. All horses were affected chronically and progressively by bilateral hyperflexion of hindlimbs. In two severely affected horses, the main histological lesions included neuronal chromatolysis and axonal spheroids in the ventral gray horn in the lumbar and sacral spinal cord and axonal degeneration and digestion chambers in ventral roots fibers and long peripheral nerves.