The practice of early weaning of young piglets is associated with a sudden change in both their diet and their method of food acquisition. It can be argued that 4-week-old piglets are neither physiologically nor behaviourally prepared for these rapid changes and the provision of solid creep food is largely ineffective in facilitating adaption to weaning (Fraser et al., 1994). Previous studies which have attempted to promote solid food intake in pre-weaned piglets have tended to focus on dietary factors, such as palatability and digestibility (Bruneau and Chavez, 1995). However for ingestion to occur piglets must first perceive the food items and then establish an attraction to and acceptance of them.

Molecular markers can be used to explore the diversity present in livestock populations. In cattle the diversity among breeds, revealed using molecular markers, is greater than the within breed diversity. Therefore both at the phenotypic and genetic level breeds form discrete populations, which could be used to conserve maximum diversity in the species. The best way to conserve breeds is to ensure their commercial utility; therefore selection of breeds for commercially advantageous phenotypes should be encouraged. Gene mapping studies suggest that, even for complex traits, there may be very few genes involved in controlling variation in the phenotype. Therefore selection for a particular trait does not necessarily affect the genetic base of the population, other than at the genes under selection. This seems to be the situation in the Hereford breed, where the phenotype has changed considerably over the past 50 years, while blood group data suggests that the genetic base of the population has not been greatly affected. Genome mapping approaches allow first the chromosomal location and ultimately the genes controlling traits to be identified. This information provides DNA markers for favourable alleles at trait genes that can be used in selective breeding programmes to improve breeds for a range of traits. Work on double muscling in Belgian Blue cattle has shown that a single gene, myostatin, can be responsible for an extreme phenotype, so selection for double muscling potentially only affects diversity around this gene. However, the examination of the phenotypes associated with this gene in other breeds suggests that genes in addition to myostatin are involved in the development of the extreme phenotype. Thus information on single genes is too narrow to be of value in making conservation decisions. With the current state of knowledge genetic information can aid the choice of individuals to use for breeding and for conservation of diversity, but the information should be used with caution and in conjunction with additional information, such as pedigree, phenotype or function data.

Selective breeding has been an important component in the increased output and efficiency of animal production since the 1950's. At the same time there has been increasing moral concern over the welfare of modern farmed animals with much of the focus on the environment and management of farm animals and relatively little consideration of the impact of genetic change on welfare. This is now changing, partly because of some well-publicised examples where selection has led to ‘undesirable’ side effects, and because of the perceived welfare risk of emerging biotechnologies. This paper will address whether and how moral concerns over animal welfare should place limitations on genetic change in animal production.

There have been substantial advances in recent years in methods for genetic analysis of traits that are expressed repeatedly over time, for example milk yield on successive test days during lactation. The background to the methods, notably random regression, covariance functions and splines, are outlined. The utility of these methods for analysing functional data on which individual records on cows are few but sire family records that span the lactation, is reviewed. Methods of analyses for measures of herd life are discussed and that being adopted in the UK is outlined.

The influence of Natural Selection on the evolution of the horse (Equus callabus) is minimal due to its close association with humans. Instead Artificial Selection is commonly imposed through selection for features such as a ‘breed standard’ or competitive ability. It has long been considered to be useful if indicators of characteristics such as physical ability could be identified. Kidd (1902) suggested that the hair coverings of animals were closely related to their lifestyle, whether they were active or passive. In 1973 Smith and Gong concluded that hair whorl (trichloglyph) pattern and human behaviour is linked since hair patterning is determined at the same time as the brain develops in the foetus. More recently Grandin et al. (1995), Randle (1998) and Lanier et al. (2001) linked features of facial hair whorls to behaviour and production in cattle. Hair whorl features have also been related to temperament in equines (Randle et al., 2003).

Reduction of the number of days open is economically desirable for the dairy producer. A test is currently being marketed which claims to accurately detect the open cow at 3-7 days post breeding via the detection of a unique protein detected in the serum of the pregnant cow. Evaluation of this test revealed a sensitivity of .51 and a specificity of .55. These results indicate that the test, as performed in this study, did not accurately assess the open status of dairy cattle.

The recent history of animal welfare is discussed with particular reference to the ethical and scientific factors which have influenced and will continue to influence the development of pig husbandry systems.

The Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee report on the original codes of recommendations for the welfare of livestock, including the code for pigs, a review by the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) and the re-issue of the code for pigs in 1983, the 1980/81 report of the House of Commons Agriculture Committee and the recent FAWC proposals for legislation are examined in some detail.

Research work that has been undertaken in pig welfare is mentioned and finally, reference is made to the various protagonists in the debate, not forgetting the pig itself. There is no attempt to draw any definitive conclusions.

Whilst it is recognized that most foods contain a number of different carbohydrate pools most applications of the gas production technique do not allow them to be differentiated despite their likely different nutritional attributes. Schofield and Pell (1995) reported that improved fermentation kinetics of the carbohydrate pools could be obtained by making gas production measurements on the whole food and on its neutral-detergent fibre (NDF) fraction, the data on the neutral-detergent solubles (NDS) being calculated by difference. More recently Doane et al. (1996) proposed an expansion of this to include incubation of the ethanol insoluble residue, to enable the NDS fraction of the food to be separated into a soluble carbohydrate and organic acids fraction and a starch and pectin fraction. Another approach is that of Groot et al. (1996) who used a multiphasic model of whole food gas production to show that the gas is produced from more than one food fraction. The objective of the present work was to combine these two approaches to examine the value of the multiphasic model applied to gas production from the isolated NDF and NDS fractions.

Bioassay methods to estimate the digestibility of forages for ruminants, such as the in vitro digestibility technique (Tilley and Terry, 1963), the nylon bag technique (Ørskov et al., 1980) and the gas production methods of Menke and Steingass (1988) and Theodorou et al. (1994), require rumen fistulated animals, either to provide a suitable in situ environment or to provide rumen liquor as a source of inoculum. Not only is establishing and maintaining fistulated animals expensive, but fistulation is an invasive technique which is increasingly discouraged on animal welfare grounds. There is therefore a need to find an alternative to rumen liquor as a source of micro-organisms for bioassays.

Although the Tilley and Terry (1963) technique is widely used, it is limited by being an end-point digestibility method. Ørskov et al. (1988) showed that intake of forages and their rate of digestion in the rumen are more correlated than intake and digestibility. Thus, since 1988, there has been much interest in determining rate of rumen degradability using the nylon bag technique (Huntington and Givens, 1995). However, as indicated earlier, this in vitro technique requires fistulated animals. Recently Sileshi et al. (1996) showed that the in vitro gas production technique of Theodorou et al. (1994), offers a possibility of assessing rate of rumen degradation.

The purpose of the present experiment was to compare rumen liquor and faeces as sources of inoculum in the gas technique of Theodorou et al. (1994).

Data on the chemical composition and gas production from some indigenous fodder plants from Yucatán and Quintana Roo are shown in order to demonstrate the potential of these species as supplements for livestock However, contents of polyphenols but above all, their reactivity, present a serious constraint on their use in large proportions. Gas production techniques seem to be a good assay for estimating the reactivity of phenolic compounds since the closed environment used in the technique might exacerbate the negative effects of the reactive fraction of polyphenols on microbial population and enzymes.

The paper summarises briefly the current status of the major land using activities in the hills and uplands. The dominant land use roles of agriculture and forestry arc explained, as are other uses of recreation, water provision and wild life and landscape conservation. Land use competition in the hills and uplands is seen as the end result of conflicting policy objectives pursued by the major rural resource planning agencies over the past 50 years. The role of these agencies is analysed, as is their ability to meet their objectives in competition with each other. Finally, an attempt is made to establish a quantitative framework within which the interests of the various groups are recognised and priorities in land use can be determined.

Investigations of culling and particularly involuntary culling (“functional” longevity) have often used different criteria on herds of varying size in different regions and with divergent average milk outputs (Young, Waddington, Sales, Bradley and Spooner, 1983; Esslemont and Kossaibati, 1997; Forbes, Gayton and McGeogh, 1999; Whitaker Kelly and Smith, 2000; Figure 1). Thus the evidence of increasing or decreasing culling for any particular entity is uncertain.

Increasing numbers of mares are competing at elite levels, and are recognised as being crucial to the production of high calibre sport horses. The management strategies utilised to look after horses affect their welfare and performance. By its very nature the domestication of horses has resulted in their confinement and also in major alterations to their natural social group structure. Most domestic pasture groups comprise mares and castrated males (Van Dierendonck, Sigorjonsdottir and Thorhallsdottir, 2002) and in the absence of a mature stallion are non-reproductive (Boyd and Kieper, 2002). Many equine behaviour studies have been directed at improving welfare and performance, but few centre on Personal Space Requirements (PSR). This study examines whether equine PSR varies between gender. Human personal space (PS) is defined as ‘the geographical component of interpersonal relations’ (Gifford, 1983) and its invasion is shown to cause instantaneous physiological stress (increased blood pressure and heart rate) and longer-lasting psychological stress (anxiety and tension), particularly when individuals can only endure exposure to stress passively (Sawada, 2003).

Although the need for pigs to lie down on long journeys is not in question, there is evidence that they may not choose to do so on journeys of less than 3h (Hunter et al., 1994). These observations were undertaken to determine how pigs in the 95 to 100 kg weight range behaved on short journeys. A three-tier floating-deck vehicle with weld-mesh flooring was used because the popularity of three-deck vehicles is increasing (Riches et al., 1996).

The increasing awareness of the potential use of by-products and the recycling of waste materials, etc., presents the nutritionist with new and interesting challenges. There are several reasons for this. First, that many waste and by-products, hereafter referred to as waste suitable for animal feeding, are produced in small quantities in differing localities; often availability is very seasonal and composition varies enormously. As a result there may be some reluctance both on the part of producers and government organizations to invest a great deal in a research programme of evaluation. Secondly, the motive of industrial producers for using organic wastes for animal feeding is more often a desire to obtain a positive return by selling wastes rather than paying for their disposal, than a real interest in meeting the requirements of the animals. As a result wastes are often produced with dangerous contaminants which could have been avoided.

In many instances, therefore, nutritional advice on the use of waste in animal feeding has to be based on a knowledge of similar known feeding-stuffs and a minimum amount of analysis for basic nutritional qualities and for possible dangerous contaminants. These statements are, however, generalizations as some material, like excreta, are of variable quality and produced in vast quantities. I shall attempt to discuss briefly the nutritional attributes of different classes of waste since they are to be discussed more in detail by others at this meeting. First, a division will be made into mainly nitrogen (N) and mainly energy-yielding products and secondly the feeding systems in which they can most profitably be used will be discussed.

Achieving adequate fertility is essential in any dairy unit, but is compromised by genetic selection for increased yield. Selection has altered the somatotrophic axis and resulted in cows which mobilise more body tissue for milk production in early lactation, thus prolonging both the depth and duration of the post partum negative energy balance. Poor energy status is reflected in altered metabolic parameters including raised urea and decreased insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and insulin concentrations, which adversely affect ovarian cyclicity and early embryo survival. Attempts to optimise the diet in terms of energy and protein content have generally been aimed at increasing milk production further rather than improving fertility. Advances in biosensor technology now provide us with the opportunity to monitor production, fertility and health parameters of each cow. Integration of this information should improve the timing for inseminations and could assist in selecting diets more suited to the needs of the individual cow. Genetic selection may in future be used to produce cows optimised for a particular type of management system. In both cases we need a greater understanding of the rules governing nutrient partitioning at different stages of the cows' life cycle to ensure that diets selected are cost effective and achieve an appropriate balance in promoting production, reproduction and health.

In animal production systems, a particular species is utilized for two main reasons. First, because of its ability to adapt to a particular environment and use the existing resources efficiently. Second, and more particularly, its economic importance both actual and potential, which can be achieved by adjustment of the environment to suit this production. In this context, these factors are of significance to goats since they represent an important component of the livestock economies and are valued for a variety of reasons in developing countries (Devendra and Burns, 1970; Devendra, 1979a).