Some fast food restaurants have introduced a trade embargo on beef sold through livestock markets on the grounds that welfare standards associated with live auction markets are worse than standards associated with direct sale to abattoirs. The current study examined the handling difficulties and welfare standards at 24 UK cattle and calf markets, and comparisons were made according to class of animal (mainly store or finished) and according to throughput of the market, <100 livestock units (LSU) per week, 100–300 LSU per week and >300 LSU per week. Handling problems examined included refusal to move, balking, slips, falls, impacts, inappropriate handling such as excessive use of a stick, hazardous jumping and confusion while loading onto vehicles. The most common difficulties were impacts, slips and falls during grading and when putting cattle up to the sale ring. Slipping was also common in finished cattle while they were in the ring, and they were prone to impacts when returning to a holding pen. Refusing to load onto vehicles after the sale was common in both finished and store cattle. Calves were prone to going down on their knees when moving onto the tailboards of vehicles. Of the markets, 0·47 had potential bruising or impact points in the grading facilities and 0·67 of the markets did not have a way of ensuring that legs did not get trapped between gates and gateposts if cattle attempted to jump out of a holding pen. In most other respects the prevalence of weaknesses in the facilities and problems during handling was low.

The present study was conducted to determine the effects of a polysaccharide of Atractylodes macrophala Koidz (PAM) as a dietary additive on growth performance, immunoglobulin concentration and IL-1β expression in weaned piglets. One hundred and twenty Landrace×Yorkshire piglets weaned at 28 days old (body weight 7·5±0·07 kg) were assigned to five treatment groups (three pens/group, eight piglets/pen) fed maize/soybean-based diets supplemented with 0, 3, 6 or 9 g of PAM/kg diet or antibiotics (0·4 g flavomycin/kg+0·13 g olaquindox/kg). The experimental period was 28 days. With increasing PAM supplementation levels, average daily gain was greater (quadratic, P<0·05) and the ratio of amount fed to live weight (LW) gain (feed/gain) improved (quadratic, P<0·05) during days 14–28 and overall, and diarrhoea incidence decreased (linear, P<0·05) during days 14–28. Supplementation of PAM also increased (quadratic, P<0·05) serum concentrations of interleukin (IL)-2 and IL-6 on day 14, and increased (quadratic, P<0·05) IL-1β expression in jejunal mucosa and lymph nodes. Concentrations of PAM between 6 and 9 g/kg presented the strongest bioactivity compared to the control group or antibiotic-fed group. These findings indicate that PAM is effective in improving growth performance and cytokine response, which suggests that PAM can be used as a diet additive for weanling piglets.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the nitrogen (N) dynamics in soil and N utilization by grass in dung pats and urine patches, and to quantify the amount of soluble organic N (SON) in grassland soil. The experiment was conducted in 2003/04 at MTT Agrifood Research, Maaninka, Finland. The study consisted of three treatments: dung pats, urine patches and a control patch without excreta. The soil (to a depth of 0·6 m) and herbage were sampled on 10 occasions over the course of 1 year. TN and SON in soil averaged 14 400 and 60 kg/ha N, respectively. Changes in soil mineral N were short-lived and a large proportion of excreta N was immobilized. The grass took up 27 kg excretal N/ha from the dung pat and 71 kg N/ha from the urine patch, which equals 0·07 and 0·19 of the excretal N given to each treatment, respectively. As a large proportion of the excretal N is immobilized and accumulates in soil, re-evaluation of the recommendations for N fertilization of pastures older than 2 years is justified.

This working group, which is concerned with operational research methods and applications to agricultural science in its broad meaning (i.e. including Forest Management and Fisheries), was formed in 2003 within the European Association of Operational Research Societies (EURO). The first meeting of the group was held at the former Silsoe Research Institute in 2004. The group holds regular meetings in Europe at approximately yearly intervals, usually within the EURO Conferences. The next meeting will be held at the EURO XXIII conference in Bonn in 2009 followed by the EURO XXIV conference in Lisbon in 2010.

The fourth meeting of the working group was a joint meeting with the British Operational Research Society's special interest group on Agriculture and Natural Resources. It was chaired by D. L. Sandars of Cranfield University and Dr L. M. Plà of the University of Lleida and organized as a stream within the OR50 Conference, and was held at the University of York from 9 to 11 September 2008 where the following papers were read.

The present study aimed to determine how the average mohair staple length (SL) differences between nine sampling sites vary between sex and flock, to identify differences in SL variability between sampling sites as a result of between-animal and between-sire variability and to determine SL correlations between sampling sites in between-animal and between-sire variability. Australian Angora goats (n=301) from two farms in southern Australia were sampled at 12 and 18 months of age at nine sites (mid side, belly, brisket, hind flank, hip, hock, mid back, neck and shoulder). Staples were taken prior to shearing at skin level and stretched SL determined. For each shearing, differences in SL between sampling sites, how these differences were affected by farm, sex and sire, and the covariance between sites for sire and individual animal effects were investigated by restricted maximum likelihood (REML) analyses. The median mid-side SL at 12 and 18 months of age was 110 and 130 mm, respectively, but the actual range in mid-side SL was 65–165 mm. There was an anterior–posterior decline in SL with the hock being particularly short. There was no evidence that the between-site correlation of the sire effects differed from 1, indicating that genetic selection for SL at one site will be reflected in SL over the whole fleece. However, low heritabilities of SL at the hock, belly and brisket or at any site at 12 months of age were obtained. There was more variability between sites than between sires, but the between-animal variation was greater. The hip and mid-back sites can be recommended for within-flock (culling) and genetic selection for SL due to their low sampling variability, moderate heritability and ease of location.