Previous research has demonstrated that dietary supplementation with high levels of die antioxidant vitamin E is effective in improving beef quality and shelf-life (Arnold et al., 1993). However, these animals did not have access to fresh forage which contains high levels of endogenous vitamin E and also higher concentrations of readily-oxidisable n-3 unsaturated fatty acids (Marmer et al, 1984). This study investigated the effectiveness of vitamin E in improving meat quality of grass finished cattle compared with those fed concentrates.

The value of a pig carcass is largely based on its lean meat percentage (LM%). The ultimate method of accurately measuring the lean meat percentage is a full dissection of the carcass. However, this is both time consuming and expensive. Lean meat percentage prediction equations have been established for various ‘probes’ and indicator cuts. Although these prediction equations have low (less than 2.5) Root Mean Square Errors of Prediction (RMSEP) and high R_a2 values, research continues to investigate other methods to produce equations with greater accuracy and to identify alternative techniques to full dissection. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the accuracy of lean meat percentage prediction equations using data gathered from 1) grading probes, 2) primal cuts and 3) photographs from cross sections of the loin.

The overall objective of our work is to assess the relative contributions of plant enzymes and rumen microbes to rumen degradation of freshly-ingested herbage. In situ techniques have been used extensively to compare rumen degradation characteristics of feeds, though there remain technical problems associated with microbial contamination of residues after incubation. We hypothesised that techniques to study microbial contamination might also provide insights into microbial colonisation. Our earlier studies (Lee et al., 1999) identified distinctive odd-chain fatty acids that could be used as microbial markers. A dacron bag study was conducted to examine the influence of dacron bag rinsing techniques on DM disappearance and microbial contamination in residues from fresh grass, assessed using odd-chain fatty acids as markers.

The success of any farm business relies on allocating resources optimally across all farming activities. This is particularly important for disease prevention activities because of their potential impact on farm business viability, the temptation to reduce such activity when funds are scarce and the possible implications for animal welfare and food safety. The objective of the current study was therefore to explore the relative impact of alternative disease prevention strategies under a range of different circumstances. This was done by example, using the case of BVD in a typical Scottish beef herd.

It is well established that the intake and digestibility of roughages by ruminants is positively correlated with rate of passage (ARC, 1980), presumably to enable as complete a microbial degradation of the poorer roughages as possible. On the other hand hind gut fermenters such as horses have been thought to have adopted the alternative strategy of using a high rate of passage to ‘cream’ off the rapidly degradable material of poor quality roughages so as to maintain adequate nutrient intakes. Surprisingly, there are remarkably few actual comparisons between ruminants and hindgut fermenters in the literature. Traditionally dried roughages (hay) and cereal and ‘by-product concentrates’ have been used as horse feeds (grains, brans sugar beet pulp). Recently there has been more interest in the use of silages with horses (eg Smoulders and Hobiers, 1988). However the information as to the utilisation of silages by horses is limited.

Any method to increase the utilisation of nutrients from feeds given to horses exercised on a regular basis is important. Commercially-available dried yeast cultures, used as supplements to equine diets have been shown to increase the digestibility of gross energy and enhance the retention of N in yearling horses (Glade and Biesik, 1986). There is however, limited information on whether the increase in digestibility of GE or enhancement in retention of N occurs in mature horses (Glade and Campbell-Taylor, 1990). The aim of the research reported here was to determine the effect of a dried live yeast culture on the digestibility of nutrients from a mixed diet given to riding school horses.

Six 2 and 3 year old riding school horses (mean live-weight 433 (s.e. 11.1) kg) were allocated to three balanced 2 x 2 Latin squares with two treatments and two periods of 3 weeks. The first 14 days of each period was a preliminary and the last 7 days was for measurement. The horses were housed individually (bedded on saw dust) and given 13.5 kg DM hay and 3.0 kg DM concentrate mix as a base diet. The base diet was either supplemented with 10 g dried yeast culture (S) or not supplemented (N).

A widely adopted procedure to characterize degradation in the rumen is the in situ incubation technique (IS), that assumes the washout fraction of feeds (W) to be equal to the soluble (S) fraction and that both are rapidly and completely degraded which may not be the case. Because IS technique is unable to measure the rate at which the W fraction is actually degraded; therefore, alternative washing procedures need to be developed to recover and fractionate the W fraction. Recently, simple washing procedure have been developed at Lelystad (method M) (Melin et al, unpublished results) and at Wageningen (method AA, SM and Y) (Azarfar et al., 2004; Yang et al., unpublished results), by which the feeds can be fractionated in a non-washout (NWF), an insoluble washout (ISWF) and a soluble washout fraction (SWF). The aims of this study were: 1-To study the effect of different washing procedures on the size of NWF, ISWF and SWF in some concentrate ingredients. 2- To study the effect of different dilution ratios (5, 10, 20, 30 and 40) on the size of SWF, and soluble true protein (STP) in some concentrates ingredients.

The in vivo digestibility of compound foodstuffs and ingredients can be predicted from laboratory techniques such as the in vitro rumen fluid (RF), the pepsin cellulase gammanase (PCG) and the neutral cellulase gammanase (NCG). There have been few comparative studies of these techniques using concentrate feed ingredients, especially since the addition of gammanase to the cellulase based techniques. Young et al. (1996) reported little difference between the cellulase based techniques in the accuracy of predicting in vivo organic matter digestibility (OMD) of concentrate ingredients, but both were superior to the rumen fluid technique. The objective of this study was to evaluate these techniques with a different set of foodstuffs which included less cereal and pulp samples but more maize by-products and oilseed meals.

Post weaning performance is determined by weaning weight and week one growth rate (Miller, et al., 1999). Strategies which increase feed intake in the immediate post-weaning period would be expected to increase overall post-weaning performance through better week one growth rate. Top dressing normal pelleted feed following weaning with a palatable nutrient dense supplement should increase nutrient intake and hence week 1 growth rate. This strategy might be particularly beneficial for low weaning weight pigs. Inclusion of ingredients containing immunoglobulins (Ig) in immediate post-weaning diets have been shown to increase post weaning performance (Coffey and Cromwell, 1995). We hypothesise that the use of a palatable nutrient dense supplement containing bovine Igs will improve feed intake and growth rate post weaning. The aim of this experiment was to investigate this hypothesis using low weaning weight piglets.

Where indirect calorimetry and slaughter techniques have been compared previously (eg: Geay, 1984; Beever et al, 1988) estimates of energy retention have tended to be greater from calorimetry than from slaughter studies. However, in most instances each technique was applied to a different group of animal and over only a limited range in energy retention. The aim of this work was to examine the difference between estimates of energy retention obtained using a direct technique (comparative slaughter) (ERs) and an indirect technique (open circuit respiration calorimetry) (ERc) applied to the same group of animals and over a relatively wide range of energy retentions.

Current commercial dairy practice involves the removal of the calf from the dam within the first two days of life. This early separation may result in stress for both cow and calf. However, it may also be that separation occurs before the cow-calf bond is established. The aim of this study was to determine if cows and calves respond to each other's calls after separation and whether they could distinguish their own calf's or dam's calls from another calf's or cow's calls.

Progressive inefficacy of chemoprophylactic therapy to control gastro-intestinal (GI) nematode infection in sheep has been a major contributory factor in stimulating research into the development of alternative means of internal parasite control. This research aims to investigate the possibilities for selecting UK sheep for increased genetic resistance to naturally acquired GI nematode parasite infections.

Grass silage forms the basal forage for the majority of dairy and beef cattle during the winter indoor feeding period. However its feeding value, as determined by intake potential and digestibility can differ dramatically at farm level as indicated by the Hillsborough Feeding Information System (HFIS). For example, for 7000 silages which were offered to dairy and beef cattle during the 1999/2000 indoor feeding period in Ireland and analysed through the HFIS, dry matter digestibility (DMD) varied from 540 to 830 g/kg DM (Keady, 2000). Many models used to predict feed intake by dairy cattle include a digestibility component (Keady and Mayne, 2000). However some models use DMD whereas others use digestible organic matter digestibility (DOMD). Furthermore commercial laboratories in Ireland measure silage digestibility as DMD while in the UK it is measured as DOMD. To facilitate the use of different models to predict food intake by dairy cattle, often it is necessary to be able to predict DMD from DOMD or vice versa. The present study was undertaken to develop a relationship between DMD and DOMD to facilitate the use of different models for the prediction of food intake when digestibility is available only either as DMD or as DOMD.

The farming of red deer (Cervus elaphus) for venison is a small but established part of the UK livestock industry. While slaughtering of deer is undertaken in commercial abattoirs, as yet there are no specific regulations governing the welfare of deer at this time. The behavioural characteristics of deer lead to the supposition that inappropriate pre-slaughter handling may adversely affect their welfare. In particular, exposure to unfamiliar species, as could occur in a multi-species abattoir, may be an area of particular concern: placing groups of unfamiliar animals next to each other has been reported to cause stress in cattle (Duchesne & Perry, 1975). Results of an experiment which investigated the location, orientation and behaviour of deer when penned between pens of unfamiliar species (i.e. modified preference testing) are presented.

Feed restriction prior to slaughter may reduce live and carcass weight gain (Murray and Jones, 1994) and meat quality (Warriss, 1982) but can reduce carcass contamination and the amount of waste to be disposed of at the slaughter house (Eikelenbloom et al., 1991). Most literature studies are however based on a single feed restriction while group housed pigs may be slaughtered over a period of time and can therefore be subjected to several periods of feed restriction. This study was conducted to examine the effects of feed restriction prior to slaughter on the production performance and meat quality of group housed finishing pigs.

There were three experimental treatments (1) control - ad libitum access up to point of transport, feeders closed off for 12 hours (Treatment 2) and feeders closed off for 20 hours (Treatment 3) prior to transport to the slaughter house. All pigs had unrestricted access to water. Four hundred and eighty six, 35 kg crossbred pigs, housed in groups of 18, were randomly allocated to 9 replicates of the three treatments. Pigs were slaughtered when a target live weight of 102 kg was reached. Production performance was recorded on a weekly basis when the first pig in any treatment approached 95 kg live weight until all pigs were slaughtered.

Safflower meal proteins are extensively degraded in the rumen. Attempts to decrease the degradability of feedstuffs proteins have involved treatment with heat, formaldehyde, tannic acid, acetic acid, xylose, and microwave (Sadeghi et al., 2006). To our knowledge, no information is available concerning effects of gamma irradiation on ruminal protein degradation and type of safflower meal proteins that leave the rumen undegraded. The objectives of this study were to investigate effects of gamma irradiation on ruminal degradability and intestinal digestibility of safflower meal crude protein, and to monitor fate of true proteins of safflower meal in the rumen by using SDS-PAGE methodology.

The prolonged interval from calving to first ovulation in beef cows is primarily due to the suckling-mediated inhibition of pulsatile LH release. Undernutrition both before and after calving also suppresses LH release, reduces ovarian follicular growth and delays ovulation. The interactive effects of these factors on the interval from calving to first ovulation in beef cows were quantified by studying the incidence of ovulation, following acute calf isolation and once-a-day suckling (restricted access), after emergence of the fourth follicular wave post partum in cows in differing body condition at calving and offered low or high planes of nutrition after calving.

The experiment was a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design, in which the factors were body condition score at calving (Low v. Moderate), feeding level after calving (0.6 v. 1.0 MJ ME/d/kg M0.75), and restricted (once-a-day) v. ad libitum access and suckling. The experiment, duplicated at each of the four participating sites, involved 16 Simmental, 16 Sarda, 16 Brown Swiss and 16 Hereford x Friesian multi-parous cows. Follicle growth was monitored daily from day 21 post partum until the earlier of second ovulation or Day 90 post partum using transrectal ovarian ultrasonography.

In humans subliminal perception is more evident in vision than other senses (Dixon, 1987) but it has not been reported in animals. The presence of subliminal visual perception might be suspected in cattle because of their low level of perceptual discrimination ability of visual cues relative to humans (e.g. Phillips and Weiguo, 1991), despite their sensory apparatus being similar in many respects. Experiments were therefore conducted to determine the extent of cattle colour perception and examine whether the effects of colour on cattle behaviour transcend that their perceptual abilities. We sought to a) confirm that cattle are dichromats, taking account of stimulus brightness, which has not always been the case in previous experiments investigating cattle colour vision, and b) investigate whether cattle exhibit differences in behaviour in isoluminant primary colours for trichromatic vision. Confirmation that cattle are dichromats, together with demonstrations of differences in behaviour in the three primary colours would suggest the existence of subliminal perception, and would question the validity of determining animal welfare requirements solely on psychophysical testing of supraliminal perception.

Compared to grass silage, pea/wheat bi-crops produce higher dry matter (DM) yields, higher feed intakes and nitrogen (N) retention (Adesogan et al., 2000). The improved performance of animals fed bi-crops may be due to a postulated synchronous supply of readily fermentable energy and protein for ruminal microbial protein synthesis. This study attempted to validate this theory by measuring the rumen degradability of grass silages and pea/wheat bi-crop silages containing different pea varieties. To determine if grass silage-fed animals could be used to determine the degradability of bi-crops, the effect of host animal diet on rumen degradation was also examined.

Fattening and slaughter value of fattening pigs and the dietetic properties of pork depend, among others, on sex, breed, crossbreeding scheme, and age and body weight at slaughter (Weatherup et al. 1997). The degree of carcass meatiness and meat quality depend largely on the breed of the crossed boars (Davey and Bereskin, 1978). The aim of the present experiment was to analyse the effect of crossbreeding, slaughter weight and feeding on the slaughter value and meat quality of fattening pigs.