European breeding schemes have for many years routinely conducted evaluation of young (mainly at four to six years of age) sport horse as a part of their integrated breed improvement schemes (Whitaker and Hill, 2005 a). Such an approach has allowed assessment of horses as to their future worth as competition animals and helped to establish the potential genetic worth of animals to the populations. Furthermore such events act as part of the validation mechanism for the establishment of estimated breeding values. The UK has historically suffered from an unstructured and disparate approach to sport horse breeding (Whitaker and Hill 2005 a). However recently (over the last five years) various organisations have introduced competitions aimed at assessment of young sport horses. An example is the British Eventing Breeding Championships established in 2004. Four, five and six year old event horse compete in qualifying competitions and then participate in a one day championship event run in October. This study investigated the effect of both breed type and registry on final rank within competition for six year old horses completing competition in 2004 and 2005 championships.

Feeding lambs diets formulated to be synchronous in terms of hourly energy and protein supply to the rumen has been reported to improve the efficiency of energy utilisation (Richardson et al. 1999). In a previous study Sinclair et al. (1995) reported that the efficiency of microbial protein production was improved when animals were fed a synchronous diet. The objectives of the present study were to investigate whether the changes in metabolism reported by Richardson et al. (1999) may be related to rumen microbial protein production and diet digestibility.

Replacement rate on farms in Southern Ireland has increased from 16 per cent in 1990 to 27 per cent in 2003 or an increase of 0.8 per cent per year (Evans et al., 2004). Cull cow compromise about 38 per cent of all cattle slaughtered at Irish meat factories. Only 23% of total cows slaughtered in 2005 were killed in the first third of the year, 36% in the middle third and 41% killed in the final third, this indicates that there is an influx of unconditioned dairy cows from the milking herd at the end of the cow’s lactation. In Ireland, the average for all cull cow carcass weights is 282kg. This is considerably less than the average for other EU countries. It is especially low when compared to values in major cull cow markets such as France (343kg). The objective of this study was to evaluate four different finishing treatments for cull dairy cows based on grass silage and concentrate.

The in situ measurement of rumen degradability explains properly the disappearance of rumen feeds by solubilization. However, this methodology does not assure wheather the material in the rumen indeed suffered microbial degradation, or if the loss of material occurred by other reasons. The in vitro gas production technique, on other hand, measures a product of the fermentation process. If the remains of the gas production is recovered at pre-determined intervals, we could also determine the rate and extent of the degradation occurred in the process. Thus, the aim of this work was to compare the rate and extent of the degradation obtained from these two methodologies.

Genetic evaluations in the United Kingdom (UK) for Somatic Cell Count (SCC) are currently based on a single trait repeatability model using the first five lactations. Only cows with completed lactations are included. However, to utilise information from cows with part lactation records and to achieve a better correction for environmental effects, a test day model (TDM) evaluation would be preferred. The objective of this study is to estimate genetic parameters needed for such a TDM evaluation by utilising a random regression (RR) approach.

The effective level of dietary supplementation of vitamin E and vitamin C is difficult to define because it depends of several factors such as composition of the diet, feed consumption, rate of growth, animal production and living conditions, stress, crowding and environment. Research has demonstrated that supplemental vitamin E improved litter size, increased sow serum a-tocopherol content and enhanced health status (Mahan, 1994; Wuryastuti et al., 1993). Some reports have suggested that the low plasma and tissue levels of a-tocopherol in new-born pigs, suggests a low rate of vitamin E transfer across the placenta which is not influenced by dietary supplementation of the sow during pregnancy. The aim of this experiment was to determine the effect of vitamin E and vitamin C supplementation of sow diets on transfer of vitamin E to piglet tissues via placenta, colostrum and milk.

Feeding management in grazing systems usually involves supplementary feeding during critical periods to increase the intake and prevent high losses of body reserves (Gunn et al., 1992; Castro et al., 1994). However, in grazing systems the response to additional fed can be erratic or inconsistent at medium or long terms. Therefore it is necessary a better understanding of the effects of supplementation to define feeding strategies. The present experiment was designed to examine the effect of supplementation of grazing ewes during two consecutive production cycles on animal performance.

Genetic variation in physiological regulation has been studied in humans to explain disposition to hereditary metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, dwarfism and acromegaly. In farm animals the aim of such studies has more often focused on understanding individual variation with a view to develop physiologically based indicator traits that could help speed up genetic improvement programmes. To be efficient, any indicator trait needs to be measurable both early in life and in animals of both sexes. The advent of molecular or DNA based genetic markers has presented us with an alternative set of indicator traits. These may be seen both as competitive traits and as traits, which can be used in combination with physiological indicators.

A number of major food safety incidents in the 1990’s led to a crisis of confidence in EU consumers. These included the Mad Cow Disease outbreak, starting in the UK in the 1980’s, and the scandals across Europe involving the feeding of dioxins, sludge and pharmaceutical waste to food-producing animals. These incidents had one thing in common – all were connect with animal feed, suggesting this was the weak link in the food chain. In addition, the food industry continued to struggle with the negative publicity of salmonella, E. coli and campylobacter incidents.

The aims of this study were to determine behavioural and heart rate responses to isolation and a novel stimulus and to investigate the relationships with scores from a questionnaire developed to assess anxiety in horses.

Evidence suggests that low social status contributes to reduced welfare in pigs (O’Connell et al., in press). It may be possible to reduce this effect by rearing pigs in enriched environments, which has previously been shown to have welfare benefits (Beattie et al., 2000). The aim of this study was to assess the effect of social status on the welfare of pigs reared in barren or enriched environments.

The experiment formed part of a development programme to improve tethering practice and increase liquid milk production from grazed goats on smallholder farms. A local survey in upland (Mgeta) and lowland (Mlali) districts near Morogoro (Sendalo, Mtenga, Ngapongora, Minde, Owen, Romney and Gill, 1994) indicated that goats were tethered at sites of grazing for 4 to 8 hours (h) daily (d), with the animals being housed, generally without additional feeding, at other times. The survey also indicated that tethering was a particularly common method of controlling grazing during the wet, crop-planting/crop growing period.

The experiment therefore compared the milk production of lactating goats tethered to graze during the wet season for 4 or 8 h per day. An attempt was made to measure intake during grazing. The experiment tested the hypothesis that goats tethered to graze for 4 h/d would be unable to consume as much grass as those grazed for 8 h/d and consequently, would produce less milk.

The UK dairy industry has entered a period of rapid increase in cow genetic merit. Feeding and management during the rearing period will influence the extent to which the genetic merit of these animals is realised. Current systems for rearing dairy herd replacements are based on research undertaken in the 1960's and 1970's with animals of lower genetic merit. High genetic merit Holstein Friesian animals have an increased live weight and frame size at maturity compared with their medium merit contemporaries, which may have implications for the optimum weight at first calving. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of rearing regime, in terms of diet offered and target calving weight, on first lactation performance of high genetic merit heifers over a range of milk production systems.

There is increased interest in out-wintering systems which have the potential to reduce costs and hence increase farm profitability. Out-wintering also offers the potential to increase herd size, within the constraints of Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) restrictions without the substantial capital costs associated with waste storage. The majority of out-wintering research has focused on kale and its utilisation by dry dairy and suckler cows where relatively modest performance levels are required. In a comprehensive review on forage brassica for out-wintering stock (MDC 2007) it was stated that “despite the developments in New Zealand in the use of brassica based out-wintering systems for dry dairy cows, there seems to be no detailed studies on the use of these systems for growing (0.7-0.85kg daily live weight gain [DLWG]) dairy heifers”. The objective of this experiment was therefore to evaluate the performance of replacement dairy heifers either housed or out-wintered on forage brassicas (stubble turnips).

Lamb production is an important part of UK agriculture, contributing more than 10% of total livestock output. It is crucial for maintaining employment and infrastructure in rural communities, and in managing and enhancing the countryside and biodiversity. For the UK sheep industry to continue as a major producer and exporter of lamb, the improvement of its economic sustainability is essential and requires high product quality.

As one of the major terminal sire breeds in the UK, Texel sheep (TEX) have been selected over generations for rapid growth, muscularity and lean meat content. In contrast, Scottish Blackface sheep (SBF) have been selected for their hardiness and maternal ability, with less attention being paid to carcass traits. It is clear therefore that divergent selection goals are driving the breeding of TEX and SBF. Based on work in pigs in particular, where selection for lean tissue growth rate has been used extensively, it might be predicted that these two breeds would have diver-gent muscle fibre characteristics. The proportion of muscle fibre types and their size affect muscularity as well as functional properties of the musculature and meat eating quality (MEQ). Breed differences indicate a genetic basis for these traits. This study evaluates the effects of breed and sex, together with those of birthweight and litter size on fibre type characteristics.

Endoparasite control in organic and non organic livestock shares many features. The difference is that organic farmers are constrained by the requirements of the standards which regulate organic production (UKROFS, 2001). This paper reviews the alternative strategies currently available.

The long distance transport of sheep before slaughter is at present a very important topic in animal welfare. However, Modulation of opioid receptors can be influenced by chronic treatment with opioid agonists and antagonists (Blanchard, and Chang, 1988). Similarly, opioid receptors can be up or down-regulated by stressful stimuli such as restraint, electric footshock or social isolation and housing (Zeman et al., 1988 and Zanella et al., 1991). The present study was carried out to assess the effects of transport stress on the properties of one class of opioid peptide receptor in the brain of sheep after transport stress. Opioid peptides such as β-endorphin are released by the central nervous system during application of stresses such as transport. They are believed to exert analgesic properties and their effectiveness depends partly on the concentration (Bmax) and affinity (Kd) of their receptors. µ-Opioid receptors are found in various brain regions and are selective for endorphins and similar peptides.

During the recent years, the use of yeast products as feed additives has been increased in animal nutrition (Newbold et al 1996). Results from various experiments indicate that these microorganisms are able to alter ruminal fermentation patterns and have positive effects on the performance of ruminants (Wolht, et al. 1998). Therefore, the aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of Biosaf, a live yeast strain of saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc 47), on feed intake, milk yield and composition in lactating Holstein cows.

Concentrate finishing systems for store lambs often involves a dramatic change in the basal diet as lambs are moved from being managed on, e.g. grass and / or roots to concentrates. If this is done too quickly there is a risk of digestive disturbances leading to acidosis and secondary infections. Hence, the selection of the carbohydrate balance between starch and digestible fibre is crucial as ruminants fed high levels of starch-based concentrates can develop sub-clinical acidosis and liver abscess, leading to decreased voluntary food intake and daily live weight gain (DLWG). The aim of this study was to evaluate two concentrate formulations for effective growth for finishing of Swaledale lambs, one concentrate being starch biased the other digestible fibre biased.

Pomegranate by-products (peel and seed) contain about 40-45 percent of the fruit’s weight, but little information is available on their nutritive value. Chemical analysis of the pomegranate seed (PS) show that it contains average of 10-12 percent of crude protein. PS also contain a little amount of tannin (about 2.7 percent). Since feed accounts for 75-85% of the total costs of meet production and the use of them in feeding ruminant may decrease the cost of feeding. The objective of this experiment was also to determine nutrients digestibility of PS.