Significant increases in genetic merit for milk production in the UK dairy herd have led to high and persistent milk yields becoming relatively common. Data relating this level of performance to the extent of the energy deficit in early lactation, possible impact on milk quality and the contribution of mobilised energy to milk production are relatively scarce. The aim of this study was to compare lactational performance in high- (HYC) and average- (AYC) yielding cows and to reconcile changes in body status (liveweight and condition score) of HYC with associated measurements of energy depletion and repletion.

While the milk yield response of spring calving dairy cows to concentrate supplementation during the main summer grazing period has been examined in a number of studies, there is little information available concerning the milk yield response to supplementation in late summer/early autumn. With milk yield at this stage of the lactation having declined considerably, supplementation might appear unnecessary. However, herbage quality and availability are also lower in late season, and as such, responses to concentrate supplementation might be expected. This study was conducted to examine the milk yield response to concentrate supplementation of dairy cows grazing late summer/autumn grass.

Factors regulating the growth of Cashmere fibre and the hair follicle cycle are poorly understood. Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) or insulin at higher concentrations, have been shown to stimulate in vitro growth of human hair follicles (Philpott et al, 1994). The role of such mitogens in the production of cashmere fibre by the Cashmere goat has not been previously investigated. The objective the study reported here was to investigate the growth of hair follicles in the absence and presence of insulin or IGF-I using our established in vitro technique.

We can produce the tenderest, tastiest, highest welfare beef, pork and lamb in the world but if the consumer wants to buy chicken and fish, so what!

The changes that have taken place in what consumers can purchase and what and where they eat are nothing short of phenomenal and on-going.

In the 1950s families ate at least one cooked meal together every day, as they had for most of the century. The focus of this meal, lunch, dinner, tea or evening meal, depending on where you lived, was meat and two veg. All of this was cooked from scratch by the housewife, who had probably bought all the ingredients freshly that day.

Previous studies (e.g. Cia et al. 1998) have shown that modification of body composition of the prepubertal gilt has effects on responsiveness of gilts to exogenous gonadotrophin. Growing pigs are able to select a diet from different foods differing in protein:energy ratio (Dalby 1998); however there is little evidence of what effect the conflicting nutritional demands of growth and reproduction have on diet selection. The objectives of the experiment were to quantify the effects of choice feeding on responsiveness of gilts to exogenous gonadotrophin (Cia et al. 1998) and to investigate the effect of protein source on diet selection as Jones et al.(2000) have observed selection by breeding gilts against a high protein diet containing fishmeal.

Hill and Matrone (1970) postulated that chemically similar minerals would manifest biological similarity. As a result there would be competitive antagonism for inclusion in metabolic processes, including intestinal transport. Such interactions have been reported for copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), where the chronic over supply of Zn reduced Cu absorption (Fischer, Giroux and L'Abbe 1981). Previous work ( Lowe, Wiseman and Cole 1994) has indicated that when Zn is supplied as a chelate that antagonism to its absorption from calcium may be overcome. As many diets, specifically for piglets, now appear to contain very high levels of supplementary Zn it is appropriate to evaluate the effects of its dietary supplemental source on other mineral uptake.

24 adult female CD rats (327g, SE 4.7) were randomly divided into four groups and fed a maintenance diet (27.mg. kg-1 Cu) on a free choice basis containing 28mgZn.kg-1 to which 65mg of supplemental Zn.kg-1 from four different sources was added for the duration of the study.

The nutritive value of forage crops is related mainly to climatic conditions and stage of plant maturity, and its determination for any given crop is essential for optimum planning and animal feeding (Berardo et al., 1993; Deaville and Flinn, 2000). Worldwide the nutritive value of forages is often estimated by chemical or physical methods and is expressed as the concentration of chemical constituents in the plant tissue. There is little information in the literature about the use of NIRS to determine degradability in pastures with different conditions, season, different places (Wilman et al., 2000). The aim of the work to explore the use of NIRS as rapid tool for estimate DM and N degradability in forages.

Recent studies have shown that when offered a choice of feeds with different concentrations of a particular nutrient (crude protein), sheep can select a diet that meets their current requirements (Kyriazakis and Oldham 1993). To further examine this diet selection behaviour a choice of foods differing in the concentration of S was offered to sheep that were either in a sulphur (S) adequate or a S depleted state. Study of S selection was considered to be the next logical step after protein because of its role in the synthesis of proteins by the rumen micro-organisms.

Winter shearing of ewes has been shown to reduce the incidence of hypoglycaemia in twin bearing ewes (Symonds et al, 1986), increase litter birthweight and reduce lamb mortality especially in housed conditions (Austin. 1982. Vipond et al, 1987). It is however not clear if winter shearing effects lamb birth weight independently of nutrient intake or reflects solely an increase in the intake of nutrients in late pregnancy. The aim of the experiment was to study the interaction between changing the source of energy in the concentrate given in late pregnancy and winter shearing in multiparous ewes.

Pulse chunies are byproducts obtained from processing of pulses while preparing dals and are available to an extent of 3 million tonnes annually in India. They contain broken seed coat, germ and small pieces of broken cotyledons constituting around 15-20% of total weight of pulses. Very little information is available in the literature on effective levels of inclusion of chunies in complete rations for ruminants. The objective of this experiment was to study the effect of inclusion of varying levels of green gram (Vigna radiata) Chuni in the concentrate mixtures for native buffaloes on the nutrient utilization.

Intensively fed ruminants receive highly fermentable diets to maximise production of meat or milk. However, highly fermentable diets increase the risk of acidosis, which can result in serious health and productive consequences. Accurate evaluation of feed fermentability in both rate and extent is therefore important in controlling acidosis. Differences in (rate of) fermentation between original raw materials are fairly well established and used in current feed evaluation systems (Van Laar et al., 2004). However, the effects of technological treatments, like grinding and especially pelleting of a feed on fermentability are less well explored. In this experiment the nylon bag method was used to analyse fermentability characteristics of a feed that was ground and pelleted in different ways. Additionally the effect on fermentability of pre-soaking the pellets prior to nylon bag incubation was investigated.

During the Soviet era, state or collective farms on the rangelands of Kazakstan moved livestock between winter, spring, summer and autumn pastures in different ecological zones. By the end of the Soviet era, livestock production was still based partly on the traditional migratory system, but had become heavily dependent on supplementary winter feed over the harsh winters. When the majority of former state and collective farms became cooperatives in the mid 1990s, they retained the same management structure, but individuals became members of the cooperatives or had the right to a share of the assets (e.g. livestock, machinery, access to land) and become private farmers. Many individuals, who remained cooperative members and are not private farmers, still keep private livestock. There are, in addition, an increasing number of private farmers. Most flock owners cannot now afford to follow a four-season migratory system of sheep management nor to obtain sufficient winter feed of good quality. Small-scale flock owners with less than about one hundred sheep lack the resources (e.g. family labour, transport) to move animals the long distance between the different pastures. There has been a large decrease in sheep numbers and there is now excess pasture in all ecological zones, as many sheep now spend the whole year within 10 km of the home village or private farm. However they need to be supplied with winter fodder since the vegetation ceases to grow in autumn and is often covered in snow from December to March. The aim of the present study was to determine current management practices and their effects on sheep productivity.

Reduced welfare and productivity during the post weaning period continues to pose a problem for producers. It may be possible to reduce these problems by altering management practices. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of weaning age, mixing strategy and group size on the welfare and productivity of weaned pigs.

Livestock farming is a traditional and important contributor to the rural economy in the hills and uplands of the UK. However, significant areas of the uplands have seen a decline in the condition of heath and mire habitats and the loss of dwarf shrubs as a result of over-grazing. Attempts to halt the decline and improve the condition of upland heath and mire habitats have been undertaken by the introduction of agri-environment schemes. In the main, such schemes rely on the reduction of sheep numbers. However, recent Defra funded research (LS1508) has indicated that this can result in dominance by competitive and/or unpalatable species such as purple moor-grass (Molinia caerulea ) or mat-grass (Nardus stricta ), leading in time to a reduction in the physical and financial performance of the flock. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of cattle grazing on Nardus stricta dominated pasture on sheep and cattle performance. It is being carried out as part of a wider project to determine environmentally sustainable and economically viable grazing systems for heather moorland.

The combined effects of improved varieties, increased fertiliser use and irrigation coupled with increased pesticide use was instrumental in allowing world food production to double in the last 35 years. However, as we enter the 21st century world population is set to increase by a further 1.5 billion by 2020, with the rate of increase being higher in less developed than developed countries. At the same time the rate crop improvement is slowing. In addition the area of land available/appropriate for the production of food and feed resources are at best static and at worst decreasing, often due to wind and water erosion. It has also been estimated that the demand for livestock products will increase dramatically in the next 20 years, with the increase being markedly higher in developing countries (3% per year), where much of the increased demand will be generated from an increasing urban population, than developed countries (1% per year). This projected increase in demand for livestock products will require very significant increased production of cereal grain and sources of oilseeds in a manner ensuring safety for the public and the environment. It will be a major challenge for global food and feed production to decrease the environmental impact of agriculture while maintaining or improving its productivity and sustainability. This paper will discuss how GM technology can contribute a way forward with the aim of combining higher yields, improved food and feed quality, increased competitiveness with environmentally and agriculturally sustainable practices.

Evidence suggests that pigs prefer to associate with their mother and littermates over other group members (e.g. Newberry & Wood-Gush, 1986) and with pigs introduced with them into an established group over resident pigs (Durrell et al., 2000). Few studies, however, have examined whether long-term preferential associations or ‘friendships’ are formed between pairs of pigs within a group. Those studies that have been carried out have either involved observations carried out over extremely limited time periods (e.g. Stookey & Gonyou, 1998) or have simply identified pairs that spend the most time together instead of examining statistically whether some pairs associate significantly more than others (Newberry & Wood-Gush, 1986). The aim of this investigation was to determine whether pairs of pigs form preferential associations, based on statistical analyses of long-term lying partner preferences.

Ovine embryos produced in synthetic oviduct fluid (SOF) medium or in coculture with granulosa cell monolayers supplemented with low (A; 120 μmol/l) and high (B; 190 μmol/l) ammonia-producing steer sera caused different degrees of fetal oversize (Carolan et al., 1998). The objective of the present study was to determine whether the effects on fetal growth induced by these sera were associated with alterations in early embryo development.

A total of 911 bovine oocytes, used in 8 replicates to test the effect of three culture treatments on embryo development, were matured and fertilized in vitro (IVF= Day 0). Presumptive zygotes were allocated on Day 1 to culture in SOF supplemented with 10% v/v steer serum (SOF+A, n=308; SOF+B, n=302) or with amino acids plus 0.4% w/v crystalline BSA (SOFaaBSA, n=301). All cultures were in 20 μl droplets under oil (38.5°C; 5% CO2, 5% O2; 4 zygotes per drop) and droplets were renewed every 48 h. Cleavage rate was recorded on Day 3. On Days 7 and 8, blastocyst yields, grade 1 and 2 blastocysts, their cell numbers (by staining with Hoechst 33342) and their stage and diameter were determined.

Behavioural responses to pain are highly species specific and reflect varying strategies for survival. As prey animals, horses may fail to show obvious pain responses, instead masking pain to reduce predation through selection as the weakest of a group (Anil et al., 2002). Price et al. (2002) identified disagreement amongst vets regarding pain assessment and management in horses. This was highlighted by recent debate concerning the existence of post-castration pain and the necessity for analgesia in equines (e.g., Capner 2001; Green 2001). While optimal assessment and management of pain is an important equine welfare issue, the behaviours of horses in response to pain are poorly defined (Raekallio et al. 1997) and the relevance of physiological indicators not confirmed. Palpation or human interaction tests, used in other species (e.g. Holton et al 1998), have yet to be validated in horses. This study aimed to identify and quantify potential behavioural indicators of post-castration pain in horses.

Diet has a large impact on the fatty acid composition of muscle lipids in cattle (Scollan et al., 2006). Grass relative to concentrate feeding increases the content of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) resulting in a low n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio and also increases the concentration of the antioxidant, vitamin E, in the meat. Ruminally protected plant lipids enhance PUFA content very significantly resulting in beneficial P:S and n-6:n-3 ratios, but without extra antioxidant input can lead to lipid oxidation and reduced colour shelf life. This study considered the effects of finishing steers (1) outdoors on grass ± concentrate versus (2) indoors on straw/concentrate ± a protected lipid supplemental with one of two levels of vitamin E on the sensory quality and lipid and colour stability of the loin muscle.

Legislation in the United Kingdom states that all pigs should have access to straw or other material or object suitable to satisfy their behavioural needs (Welfare of Livestock Regulations, 1994). However, the use of straw bedding has not been universally adopted as its use is incompatible with housing systems which contain perforated flooring, and 76% of pig producers in the UK currently employ fully- or part-slatted finishing housing systems. The aim of this study was to investigate whether different lengths of chopped straw would achieve enhancements in pig welfare, by exploring the possibility that small quantities of chopped straw, in preference to unchopped straw, could constitute adequate provision in part- and fully-slatted systems, thus avoiding the blockage of perforated flooring.