Efficient Forage/Livestock Production, New Zealand Style

Author(s):  
Howard H. Meyer
2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 869 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. F. Chapman ◽  
G. R. Edwards ◽  
A. V. Stewart ◽  
M. McEvoy ◽  
M. O'Donovan ◽  
...  

Failure over the past two to three decades to implement industry-led, systematic forage evaluation systems that translate forage performance data to animal production and economics means that the livestock industries are poorly positioned to judge how much economic benefit they are gaining from forage plant improvement and to propose future priorities and targets. The present paper identifies several knowledge gaps that must be filled to enable the value being delivered to pasture-based livestock industries by forage improvement to be determined, demonstrated to farmers and increased in the future. Seasonal yield, total annual yield, nutritive value and feeding value of pasture are all important traits for driving the productivity of pasture-based livestock production systems. From a farm systems perspective, persistence of the yield or quality advantage of new cultivars is also economically important. However, this is the least well defined of the productivity traits considered in the paper. Contrary to anecdotal reports, evidence indicates that the genetic potential of modern ryegrass cultivars to survive in grazed pastures is at least equivalent to that of older cultivars. Plant breeding in Europe and New Zealand has changed the seasonal yield, quality and intake potential of perennial ryegrass. On the basis of dry matter (DM) yield data from small-plot evaluation trials, the New Zealand forage value index indicates that the top-ranked perennial ryegrass cultivars offer between NZ$280 and NZ $650/ha per year potential additional operating profit to dairy businesses (depending on region), compared with a historical genetic base of cultivars that were first entered into yield testing programs between 1991 and 1996. The equivalent figure in Ireland (including nutritive value effects) is about €325/ha per year. These estimates are yet to be confirmed in animal production studies. In intensive dairy systems, current rates of genetic gain in DM yield lag well behind realised rates of gain in animal genetics and associated increases in feed demand per animal. Genetic gains in yield need to double from current rates (estimated at 0.5% per year); but, it is not known whether this is possible in an outcrossing species such as perennial ryegrass, which is normally grown in a mixture with other species, especially white clover. Improvements in DM yield in seasons where extra DM has greatest economic value in grazing systems should dominate breeding objectives, but this must now be augmented by consideration of the environmental impacts of intensive pasture-based livestock production systems and opportunities to mitigate this through germplasm selection. There is less evidence that nutritive or feeding value of ryegrass cultivars significantly limits animal production and profitability and useful improvements have already been made using tetraploids and later heading material.


Author(s):  
Ilgizar Gaynutdinov ◽  
Farit Mukhametgaliev ◽  
Fayaz Avhadiev

The state and level of development of livestock industries depend on internal (availability of basic production funds, material and labor resources, the level of technological and technical support, etc.) and external factors (the state of the country's economy, fluctuations in market conditions, the solvency of the population, natural resources, economic and political stability, etc.). The effectiveness of livestock industries and the level of their development are determined by a favorable combination of internal and external factors, with their rational use. The research aims to study and analyze the state and level of development of animal husbandry industries in the Russian Federation and abroad, with further identification of areas for improving efficiency and developing recommendations for their further development. As of 2019, compared to the pre-reform period (1990), the number of livestock of agricultural animals in the Russian Federation has sharply decreased: cattle (cattle) - by 3 times, including cows-by 2.6 times, pigs-by 1.5 times, sheep and goats-by 2.6 times. This led to a decrease in the density of livestock per 100 hectares of agricultural land, which reduces the efficiency of land use, including hayfields and pastures. On the territories of the Russian Federation, there are quite a lot of natural forage lands, which, with reasonable specialization and territorial placement of livestock industries, can increase the efficiency of their use. The lack of a unified policy to improve the sustainability of agroecological systems and their effective use in the country does not allow us to reach the pre-reform level of livestock production. For the period from 2010 to 2019, beef production decreased by 6.7%, and milk production by 0.5 %. For meat and meat products, the actual production volumes are above the established threshold of food security, and for milk and dairy products, this level has not yet been reached. So, by 2019, taking into account reserves, the share of domestic production was 83.1 % (with a threshold value of 90 %), and the share of imports was 16.9 %. All this dictates the need to study internal and external factors affecting the development of livestock industries, identify internal reserves and, on this basis, increase production volumes, and ensure competitiveness in the foreign market. In the world market of livestock production, the leading positions are occupied by such industrialized countries as the United States, Canada, Northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand. The analysis of the state of development of animal husbandry in these countries allows us to conclude that the growth of livestock production and livestock productivity was promoted by taking into account and combining internal and external factors - the use of industrial industrial technologies (dairy cattle breeding), taking into account natural factors (meat cattle breeding). The use of cheap sources of natural forage land and climatic conditions that allow for the production of livestock products in some of these countries (Australia, New Zealand, some US states) without the construction of capital livestock buildings makes it possible to obtain cheap, high-quality and competitive products. Taking into account the experience of foreign countries, taking into account the possibilities of agroecological systems, it is necessary to choose the right specialization of livestock industries and on this basis to increase the production volumes and efficiency of livestock products


Author(s):  
H.S. Easton ◽  
J.M. Amyes ◽  
N.E. Cameron ◽  
R.B. Green ◽  
G.A. Kerr ◽  
...  

Ecologically sustainable pastures remain the base of New Zealand's competitive advantage in livestock production, but while modest but steady productivity gains from pasture plant breeding have been documented, these appear to be difficult to convert to livestock production, and pasture production is perceived as up against a ceiling. This paper discusses the contribution of pasture plant breeding, focusing on the ryegrasses, and to a lesser extent on white clover. Heritable variation is evident in the basic components of herbage growth and herbage quality. However, changes to individual traits are not reflected in improved integrated field performance. More precise information is required on how factors interact. New breeding technologies will allow integrated improvement of interacting factors. Evaluation trials and modelling should be managed to provide feed-back identifying the specific requirements of future high-performing systems. Keywords: New Zealand, plant breeding, ryegrass, white clover


Author(s):  
Jorge Álvarez Scanniello

In the nineteenth century, New Zealand and Uruguay were new European settler societies and rich in natural resources. Both countries engaged with the world economy as producers and exporters of livestock products. However, these countries exhibited divergent long-term development. The aim of this article is to identify the main historical tendencies associated with the relative physical productivity of livestock in both countries and to understand convergent-divergent processes in light of their technological trajectories. The main synthetic indicators used in agrarian sciences, such as Livestock Units and Meat Equivalents, are reviewed and a series of corrections that account for the specific features of each agrarian system is proposed for the usual aggregation methods. The technological trajectories that affected livestock productivity growth are also compared. The main results indicate that Uruguayan livestock production fell behind that of New Zealand due to the technological trajectory followed by each country. In the nineteenth century, Uruguay had very favourable natural conditions for livestock production. It did not develop technologies to improve soil and land productivity until the second half of the twentieth century. In contrast, New Zealand began to improve grassland productivity during the nineteenth century in order to increase and diversify livestock production.


1999 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 563-566
Author(s):  
J. D. Pritchard ◽  
W. Tobin ◽  
J. V. Clausen ◽  
E. F. Guinan ◽  
E. L. Fitzpatrick ◽  
...  

Our collaboration involves groups in Denmark, the U.S.A. Spain and of course New Zealand. Combining ground-based and satellite (IUEandHST) observations we aim to determine accurate and precise stellar fundamental parameters for the components of Magellanic Cloud Eclipsing Binaries as well as the distances to these systems and hence the parent galaxies themselves. This poster presents our latest progress.


Author(s):  
Ronald S. Weinstein ◽  
N. Scott McNutt

The Type I simple cold block device was described by Bullivant and Ames in 1966 and represented the product of the first successful effort to simplify the equipment required to do sophisticated freeze-cleave techniques. Bullivant, Weinstein and Someda described the Type II device which is a modification of the Type I device and was developed as a collaborative effort at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The modifications reduced specimen contamination and provided controlled specimen warming for heat-etching of fracture faces. We have now tested the Mass. General Hospital version of the Type II device (called the “Type II-MGH device”) on a wide variety of biological specimens and have established temperature and pressure curves for routine heat-etching with the device.


Author(s):  
Sidney D. Kobernick ◽  
Edna A. Elfont ◽  
Neddra L. Brooks

This cytochemical study was designed to investigate early metabolic changes in the aortic wall that might lead to or accompany development of atherosclerotic plaques in rabbits. The hypothesis that the primary cellular alteration leading to plaque formation might be due to changes in either carbohydrate or lipid metabolism led to histochemical studies that showed elevation of G-6-Pase in atherosclerotic plaques of rabbit aorta. This observation initiated the present investigation to determine how early in plaque formation and in which cells this change could be observed.Male New Zealand white rabbits of approximately 2000 kg consumed normal diets or diets containing 0.25 or 1.0 gm of cholesterol per day for 10, 50 and 90 days. Aortas were injected jin situ with glutaraldehyde fixative and dissected out. The plaques were identified, isolated, minced and fixed for not more than 10 minutes. Incubation and postfixation proceeded as described by Leskes and co-workers.


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