The purpose of an integrated management system is to optimise both pig performance and environmental protection. A major impediment to this process has been the inability to measure and control the production process in real time, for specific and contemporary pig batches. Optimisation thus requires in-line measurement of pig growth performance, together with the means to change performance with adjustments to feed quantity and quality. This report deals with the use of visual image analysis (VIA) to provide the first of these; measurement of growth. VIA determines, continuously and in-line, the size and shape of the plan view of the pig as it stands at the feeder. Three seminal questions are here addressed. (i) can VIA be used to provide a reliable measure of pig weight, and (ii) how many days are required to elapse before a change in size can be reliably determined and how does the VIA system compare with daily weighing by a conventional weigh-scale, and (iii) can VIA sort pigs according to their shape?

Social facilitation has been observed in the stabled horse with access to forage (Sweeting et al. 1985). Socially facilitated feeding behaviour has not been investigated through the provision of concentrates. It is likely that the motivation to ingest a concentrate feed is different to that of forage. In a variety of species social facilitation will only occur when presented with a novel food. Therefore it has been proposed that a function of social facilitation is to increase the acceptance of novel feeds. The first objective of this study therefore, was to investigate if social facilitation occurs with the horse’s standard concentrate feed and or a standard concentrate feed plus a novel flavour.

Visual contact has been found to be a necessary component in the facilitation of forage ingestion. Increasing visual contact between stables improves awareness of conspecifics, which has been linked to a decrease in abnormal behaviour. There has, however, been limited investigation into the relationship between neighbouring stabled horses especially during potentially stressful periods such as meal times. The second objective of this study was to investigate the effects on behaviour of the presence or absence of a familiar horse during meal times.

One way of testing cognitive abilities (or intelligence”) is by using so-called “means-end” tests, where the desired outcome can only be achieved by utilising some means to that end. Pulling a piece of food that is out of reach into reach with the help of an attached string is one of these means-end tasks. The ability of dogs to solve this problem has so far been only tested in 4 studies, all from the 1930s and 40s, with a total of 11 dogs and varying success. Additionally to exploring this basic cognitive ability in pet dogs the study explored whether training, and in particular so-called Clicker training (operant conditioning with secondary reinforcer), had an influence on the performance in this task.

Creep food intake of suckling piglets varies considerably between individuals (Pajor et al., 1991). The creep feeding status of individual piglets can be monitored by video recording or by combining the weight of the food removed from the electronic dispensers with monitoring by video recording. However, the analysis of videotapes is time-consuming, which limits its widespread use on farm. From a practical standpoint, monitoring the food intake by piglets either before or after weaning is important to provide useful information for a management strategy. Therefore a general, quick and valid method to detect the food intake experience of piglets would be valuable and is needed. The aim of this investigation was to determine if a device that automatically spray-marked piglets at the trough could reliably identify those pigs that had foraged the food in the trough.

Feed intake in the days immediately following weaning is both low and variable. This period is critical as low food intakes can lead to reduced digestive efficiency and suboptimal animal welfare. This is of commercial importance as performance around weaning has been shown to impact on the number of days an animal takes to reach a given slaughter weight (Mahan and Lepine 1991). If the variation in an individual’s performance could be characterised in terms of feeding behaviour and/or social status then production systems could be designed to optimise growth. In this trial liveweight gain during the late suckling period and liveweight gain, familiarity with penmates and social status (as determined by weight) after weaning were analysed to assess their impact on the performance of the post weaned pig.

Antibiotics have widely been used in animal feeding. However, because of the growing concern of consumers towards more natural modes of production, interest in the use of direct fed microbials is now considerable. In dairy production, the Yeast culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) has been studied and used. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae SC47) on productive performonce of Holstein dairy cows.

Cereal grains can provide the major source of energy in diets in order to meet the nutrient requirements of high producing dairy cows. However the amount of starch that can be included in the diets of dairy cows is limited particularly if starch is rapidly fermented such as barley starch. Reduction of feed intake, rumen pH, milk fat test, microbial growth and other metabolic disorders are expected if ruminally degradable starch is fed in amount that cant be efficiently metabolized by rumen microbs. Various techniques for processing barley grain have been developed to decrease the degradability of dry matter in rumen without reducing its extent of digestion. McNiven (1995) showed roasting of barley is more effective treatment. The objective of this experiment was to study of effects the roasting and ammoniation of barley grain on rumen pH, feces pH, milk yield and milk composition in dairy cows.

Nitrogen (N) degradability is a key variable in protein rationing systems but there is little information in the literature to predict it in a feed. The objective of the present study was to develop equations to calculate N degradability in grass silages using nutrient concentration and fermentation data.

During the last decade, development of the buffalo industry has been undertaken in Iran. The prospects for beef production from buffalo management have shown to be successful under local environments. Buffaloes reared under feedlot conditions with suitable diets have the potential to produce high quality carcass (Udeybir and Mandal, 2001). In terms of nutrition, studies are needed for the validation of nutrient requirements (especially protein and energy) for different physiological stages. A system to monitor the nutritional status of buffaloes would be beneficial to reduce losses and maximize efficiency of nutrient utilization. To optimise protein efficiency and reduce nitrogen wastage, diets need to be formulated to provide optimum nitrogen concentration for maximum rumen microbial yield and growth. However, limited work has been reported on nutrient requirements of growing and fattening buffalo calves. The objective of this work was to study the response of Iranian buffalo male calves to the different levels of energy and protein in the diet from 12 to 18 months of age.

Maize and whole crop silages are particularly susceptible to spoilage from aerobic micro-organisms. As a consequence, the maintenance of aerobic stability of silage during the feed-out phase is important in the preservation of silage quality and animal health (Scudamore and Livesey, 1998). The aim of this study was to monitor the effect of low levels of salts of sulphite on the stability of whole crop wheat silage, pH, temperature and laboratory culture of yeast.

Forage supplementation is a strategy sometimes used in dairy production systems to achieve increased dry-matter (DM) intakes in grazing dairy cows. During periods of low grass growth rates, often because of low rainfall, such intakes are not possible from grass alone (Phillips, 1988) and buffer feeds are used. More recently, whole crop cereal and maize silage have been utilised. These forage crops are susceptibility to aerobic deterioration which can result in significant losses in quality (Sanderson, 1993; Weinberg et al., 1993) however the addition of salts of sulphite, typically using in the food industry, can prevent aerobic deterioration. The aim of this study was to measure the effect of low levels of salts of sulphite on the stability of whole crop wheat silage used as a buffer feed on feed intake and milk yield.

Artificial rearing is a common practice for rearing calves from the dairy herd destined for beef production. In commercial practice calves are typically weaned from 5 to 9 weeks old. There are four criteria that can be used to determine weaning time: - age, compound feed intake, liveweight, and, milk price and quota policy. Late weaning systems are based on the theory of giving the calf the best possible start in life, but are costly with high milk intakes (Davis and Drackley, 1998). Hence emphasis is usually placed on early weaning of the calf and encouraging concentrate intake. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of weaning at either 6 or 8 weeks old on the performance dairy-bred beef calves.

A method to estimate total dry matter intake (DMI) of individual dairy cows on commercial farms was developed to aid nutritional research on commercial farms (Wicks, 2001). Recently a second validation of the model was carried out using cows from the Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland (ARINI) dairy herd. The results from the validation process at Wye and ARINI are shown and the mean square prediction error (MSPE) of the model for live weight prediction and DMI estimation were calculated.

The common reed (CR) is one of the plants which grows in some area of Iran and other world countries especially in coastal wetlands. Feed resource restriction is the most problem in animal production in some area and native plants have a key role. Ensiling may improve the quality of crop or decrease by high fermentation. These effects depend on stage of growth, chemical composition, dry matter and nutrients of plant, and final effect is not as same as for all crops. For understanding the effect of ensiling on quality of each plant must be investigate. For this reasons goals of this experiment was investigation on various methods of utilization of CR for finishing male calves and comparison with alfalfa.

India occupies 2nd position in the world with a total fruit production of 42 million tonnes. Papaya (Carica papaya) fruit production in India is 1.3 million tonnes. After extraction of juice from fruit, around 25-30% of the processed fruit is left as waste containing skins and seeds, called as papaya pomace. Generally this goes as a waste causing environmental pollution and if utilized properly will contribute to national economy and reduce pollution effect. Available information on chemical composition and utilization of papaya skins in feeding growing pullets (Fouzder et al., 1999) indicate the potential value of papaya pomace for animal feeding. In view of paucity of information on papaya pomace utilization in animal feeding, an attempt was made to study the effect of inclusion of varying levels of papaya pomace in concentrate mixtures on the nutrient utilization in native male buffaloes.

There is conflict regarding the relative abilities of Bos indicus and Bos taurus cattle to digest the feedstuffs. Part of this conflict may have arisen because a wide variety of diets have been fed at different range of intakes and only digestibility in whole tract measured. Generally no attempts have been made to partition rumen and post-rumen digestion or to assess the relative importance of rumen digestion and clearance between diets and between genotypes. Nitrogen (N) is frequently a major limiting nutrient for ruminants specially when they are given diets of mature herbage. On the other hand the extent to which cattle are able to recycle urea-N from blood to rumen for utilization in production of microbial protein could have an important influence on animal survival under condition of severe N limitation. The present experiment was designed to compare rumen microbial population and the end products of rumen fermentation between Sistani (Bos indicus) and Holstein (Bos taurus) breeds.

Previous work has shown that processing whole crop wheat (WCW) at harvest increases starch digestibility (Jackson et al., 2002). However, no effect was seen in terms of milk yield. It has been suggested that the provision of a sugar source might utilise the high rumen ammonia levels found in animals receiving urea-treated whole crop wheat (Abdalla et al., 1999). Sources such as lactose have also been shown to reduce rumen protozoa numbers, increase bacterial protein supply and result in a more stable rumen pH, particularly with high starch diets (Hussain and Miller, 1999). Additionally, to date, processed whole crop wheat has not been evaluated against other alternative forages. The objective of the current experiment was, therefore, to compare processed urea treated whole crop wheat with maize silage and determine the effects of carbohydrate supplementation of whole crop wheat on intake and milk production in dairy cows.

In Iran milk production, in dairy cows, is based mainly on intensive systems in which cereals and industrial by-product are the most important source of nutrients. So, high digestible protein feeds are often desired for supplementation of high producing dairy cows to meet their amino acid requirements. Incubation of feeds in nylon bags in the rumen of fistulated ruminants have been used to evaluate the extent of digestion. In addition, the mobile bag technique has been used to measure intestinal digestibility of undegraded dietary protein and intact feed protein (Mesgaran, 2002). The work described in this summary assessed the digestibility of dry matter and protein, using ruminal and intestinal mobile nylon bag technique, of some tropical (Iranian) feeds used in dairy cow diets.

Beef cattle production based in tropical pasture has a period of low daily weight gains during dry seasons, because the lowest quality and quantity pastures in this period. This study evaluated the effects of protein supplementation in animal performance and carcass characteristics of Nellore cattle on tropical pasture.

The microbial protein synthesis is variable and depend of several of factors, one the most important being the energy sources. Numerous investigations have evaluated individual sugars. However, few quantitative information is available describing the impact of sucrose or its monosacharides (glucose and fructose) and how they compare with other carbohydrate such as starch (Heldt et al., 1999). Chamberlain and Choung (1995) mention that sugar supplementation results in a higher microbial nitrogen supply (MNS) than starch. On the other hand, the amount of nutrients that ruminants can remove from feeds, may be modified by others feeds eaten the same day (Gill and Powell, 1993). Thus, feeding pattern might also affect microbial-N supply (Chamberlain and Choung, 1995). Therefore, the objective of the present work was to compare maize and sugarcane molasses as energy sources as well as the change of feeding pattern (CFP) on DM intake and MNS.