The ability to maintain weight during adverse seasons is an important characteristic in mature ewes. Ewes that lose less weight will be in better condition at mating and throughout pregnancy resulting in higher fertility, fecundity and lamb survival, and lower ewe mortality. Liveweight data (corrected for greasy fleece and conceptus weights) from mature Merino ewes was analysed to determine fac...

Aim The objective of this study was to determine a formula for estimating the liveweight in West African donkeys. Materials and Methods Liveweight and a total of 6 body measurements were carried out on 1352 donkeys from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. The correlations between liveweight and body measurements were determined, and the most correlated body measurements with liveweight we...

The comparative performance of shaded and unshaded Zebu cross steers was studied in a Queensland feedlot from January to May 1992. The provision of shade gave no significant (P > 0.05) advantage in liveweight gain (182 V. 177 kg), feed conversion ratio (9.4 v. 9.8 kg of fresh feed/kg liveweight gain), carcase weight, dressing percentage, P8 rump fat, eye muscle area, saleable meat yield, meat c...

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is a very large land unit and an important terrestrial ecosystem within the Eurasian continent. Because of the harsh climate associated with the high altitude, alpine meadows on the plateau are susceptible to degradation from overgrazing. For this region, and for other alpine meadow pastures internationally, there is a need to define the sustainable stocking rate, to...

Gastrointestinal parasitism is one of the most important challenges facing low chemical or organic livestock production systems but also conventional farmers as resistance to anthelmintics becomes more widespread. Young twin-born and reared lambs were challenged for 5 days (Experiment 1) or trickle infected with parasites (Experiment 2) and not weaned (Expt. 1. only) or early (8 and 7 weeks) or...

Department of Animal Science,Faculty of Agriculture,University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria A total of 40 New Zealand white rabbits were used in a study where prediction models were developed for predicting live weight and evaluating the carcass. In the study, six body measurements namely, body length, thigh circumference, shank length, chest width, body circumference and girth were de...

New Zealand dairy farmers use a number of performance indicators to describe their systems. Most of the performance indicators are scaled to a unit of feed or a proxy that relates a cow to a unit of feed, such as stocking rate or kilograms of live weight per tonne of feed. Genetic improvement of dairy cows can contribute to increasing the net income per unit of feed consumed. The current econom...