The developing UK cashmere goat industry utilises a variety of goat breeds and crosses as base stock in breed improvement programmes. Native feral goats contribute small but significant quantities of very high quality fibre and the attribute of hardiness. Stock from overseas are imported to increase the weight of cashmere produced. Some dairy goats are used for their higher prolificacy and because their superior ability to rear kids is important in the production of goat meat which is a secondary but nonetheless important source of income in cashmere production enterprises.

Early growth rates of feral kids have been shown to be low in relation to those of dairy breed and crossbred kids when reared by their natural mothers (Russel, Lippert, Ryder and Grant, 1986) but it is not known whether this is a result of a low potential growth rate or a limitation in the production or composition of their dams’ milk.

Little is known of the milk production characteristics of feral goats or even of dairy goats kept under suckling as opposed to milking regimes. This paper describes the milk production characteristics of suckled feral, dairy and feral x dairy goats and the effects of these characteristics on early kid growth rate.

Lamb producers in the Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) of the European Community appear, for different reasons, to be constrained by the economic value of the indigenous small-sized sheep breeds. The trial reported here forms part of a collaborative project whose overall aim is to improve the quality and marketability of sheep meat produced in the LFAs. The objective of this trial was to assess the growth potential of nine small sized sheep breeds, across three centres, providing a basis for subsequent production work. The three collaborating centres in Greece (paper no. 112), Spain (paper no. 26) and Scotland used indigenous breeds appropriate to their LFAs. The three British breeds studied were Scottish Blackface (SB), Welsh Mountain (WM), and Shetland (SH).

Silage effluent is a major contributor to farm pollution incidents in the United Kingdom. In 1987, silage effluent was responsible for 26% of all farm pollution cases reported, and 437. Of farm associated water pollution incidents that resulted in prosecution.

A practical solution to this problem could be to incorporate absorbent materials into the grass at ensiling. Several absorbent materials have been tested, some being based on fibrous bi-products. Of those tested, chopped barley straws proved the most effective (Offer an Al-Rwidah 1989) however this material lowered silage quality and also reduced the weight of grass that could be stored in a given silo by 78%. Molassed sugarbeet feed (MSBF), a feed high in digestible fibre which has been widely incorporated into ruminant diets as an energy source, was less absorbent but improved silage quality and reduced grass storage weight for a given silo by only 27%.

Current strategies for sow feeding are based on maintenance of a constant body condition throughout the reproductive cycle by feeding at levels only slightly above maintenance in pregnancy and feeding generously for milk production in lactation. Recent evidence suggests that feeding at a low level during pregnancy, whilst meeting nutritional requirements, may be detrimental to sow welfare. The large intake capacity of the sow also offers opportunities for utilising cheaper, alternative feeds at this stage. If bulky feeds are available at low cost, it might be economically attractive to feed for fat deposition by the sow in pregnancy and utilise this during the subsequent lactation. This experiment was designed to investigate whether sows with increased body fat reserves at farrowing could be encouraged to utilise these efficiently during lactation by the provision of a high protein diet.

Previous studies conducted at Newcastle with a lactobacilli silage inoculant(Pioneer Brand 1177) had shown that when compared to an untreated control silage, the silage produced with the Inoculant had improved chemical composition. The benefits of applying the inoculant were further seen in improvements in nutritive value and voluntary food intake by sheep.

Thirty Hereford × Friesian steers initially weighing 320 kg were used in two experiments, to compare the effects of mechanical processing of barley straw and the amount of rolled barley offered on intake and live-weight gain. The straw was offered ad libitum either in the long form or shredded through a 40 mm screen and supplemented with 20, 35 and 50 g barley DM per kgW"75 per day (L, M and H respectively). A solution providing 12 g urea per kg straw dry matter (DM) was sprayed onto the straw and all the animals were offered daily 480 g of soya bean meal with minerals and vitamins. In the first experiment, which had a change-over design, the animals were weighed at the beginning and the end of each period. The daily consumption of shredded straw (kg DM) was L 3·38, M 3·29 and H 3·00 and of long straw L 3·94, M 4·02 and H 3·56 (s.e. of difference, 0·29). There were significant differences in straw intake between steers offered the long and the shredded straw (P < 0·001) but no differences in intake when different amounts of barley were offered within the same physical form of straw. The mean daily live-weight gains for treatments L, M and H respectively were 0·25, 0·66 and 0·80 kg for steers given shredded straw and 0·32, 0·62 and 0·87 kg (s.e. of difference, 0·1) for those offered long straw. At the end of the first experiment the same animals were kept for a further 10 weeks on the same straw treatment but only treatments L and H were continued, the steers from treatment M being distributed between L and H. The straw intakes and live-weight gains were in agreement with those observed in the first experiment

Two experiments were carried out in the springs of 1986 and 1987 to investigate the effect of energy concentration in complete diets on the performance of heifers and mature cows. In 1986, all animals were on trial for an 8-week indoor period. In 1987, 14 heifers were on trial for 8 weeks, four heifers were on trial for 7 weeks and six heifers were on trial for 4 weeks. Carry-over effects were compared while animals were on pasture. Two diets offered ad libitum were compared. Diet H contained 0·7 concentrates and 0·3 grass silage. Diet L contained 0·5 concentrates and 0·5 grass silage. In 1986, the concentrate portion of diet H had a higher metabolizable energy (ME) content than diet L whereas in 1987 the same concentrate mixture was used in both diets.

Increasing the energy concentration of the diet from 10·66 MJ ME per kg dry matter (DM) to 11·21 MJ ME per kg DM resulted in a significant proportional increase of 0·36 in DM intake for heifers and mature cows in 1986. The proportional increase in DM intake in 1987 for heifers was 0·17. DM intake (kg DM per day) for heifers and mature cows in 1986 and for heifers in 1987 for diets H and L was 11·8, 8·7, 15·0, 11·0, 14·9, 12·7 respectively. The energy concentration of the complete diet did have a significant effect on average milk yield during the treatment period in the 1986 trial for mature cows but not for heifers in either year. Milk yields were 19·1, 17·5, 26·3, 240, 19·8, 18·9 kg/day respectively for heifers and mature cows in 1986 and for heifers only in 1987. In vivo digestibility coefficients in 1986 for energy, DM, organic matter, modified acid-detergent fibre and protein for diet H (0·708, 0·702, 0·724, 0·678, 0·671) were significantly higher than those for diet L (0·677, 0·666, 0·694, 0·653, 0·625).

The total lactation yield for the heifers and mature cows was not significantly influenced by the energy concentration of the diet given in early lactation.

Major gene-marker phase is generally assumed to be family specific. This has the consequence in relation to marker-assisted selection (MAS) that phase information about each family may need to be collected through progeny testing, which could represent a substantial cost. This paper examines the effect of different policies in relation to major gene-marker phase-typing on response to MAS. The different policies considered varied in the criteria by which individuals were selected for phase-typing, the number of individuals phase-typed, and the frequency of establishing phase. Stochastic simulation of a closed breeding nucleus, with either high or low levels of inbreeding and undergoing selection for two traits, was utilized. Total response under MAS was lower than that under genotypic assisted selection (GAS) for all phase-typing policies. For example, additional gains of 70% under GAS, achieved in year 1 and in comparison with non-MAS, corresponded to additional gains of 43% and 15% under MAS for linkage distances of 1 cM and 20 cM, respectively. The different phase-typing policies examined in relation to MAS did not have any effect on total response, although there were small effects on major gene response. For breeding nuclei with either level of inbreeding, higher major gene response was achieved when phase-typed sires were selected on the basis of high ranking for genetic merit rather than connectivity to the other selection candidates. Further, increasing the number of males phase-typed within any year did not increase the rate of major gene response, although phase-typing in more years was favourable for the large linkage distance. An overall conclusion of this study is that additional gain could be achieved under MAS within a closed nucleus when progeny testing to determine major gene-marker phase was limited to from one to a few individuals.

The accuracy of progeny testing for a continuous trait when the auxiliary information was based on ‘all-or-none’ type of traits with a multi-factorial threshold model was examined. The accuracy of the progeny test was found always to increase with the inclusion of the auxiliary trait. It followed the same pattern as in the case of continuous auxiliary trait. However, there was an additional feature in that the accuracy was also dependent on the probability of incidence of the discrete trait unless either the progeny group size was very large, and/or there was no genetic correlation or else the probability of incidence was itself extremely low. Compared with the case when the auxiliary trait was continuous, there was a loss in accuracy which can be looked upon in two ways. First, the continuous auxiliary trait is itself made ‘all-or-none’ type by a threshold and the accuracies compared in the two cases. The loss increases symmetrically in either direction with increase in positive or negative directions of the difference in genotypic and phenotypic correlations. Secondly, a comparison can be made of the accuracy when the auxiliary trait is normally distributed with that when it is binomially distributed but with the same amount of genetic information on the observed scale as given by the heritabilities and genetic correlations. No loss now occurs if the two classes of the binomial trait are equally likely and the loss in accuracy increases with the decrease in the standard deviation of the binomial distribution for given values of other parameters. It was found also that the use of binomial auxiliary trait reduced the number of progeny required to attain a pre-assigned level of accuracy, resulting in a decreased cost of the programme compared with that when no binomial auxiliary trait was used.

Two trials were undertaken to test the effect of different levels of diethylstilboestrol (DES) on the performance of Egyptian castrated male (wether), male (uncastrated) and female lambs. Ninety crossbred lambs in groups of 10, comprising 30 wethers, 30 male and 30 female lambs were used.

Twelve Ayrshire cows which had reached or just passed peak lactation were selected and divided into two balanced groups. One group was fed strictly according to yield. The other was fed overall according to yield, but was subjected to a 4-day cycle of energy intake. For 2 days energy intake was 12·2% above calculated requirements and for the next 2 days intake was 12·2% below calculated requirements. The treatment was imposed for 10 weeks and milk yield and composition, body weight and blood composition were measured in both groups of cows. A significant variation in daily milk yield and daily solids-not-fat yield was found to follow the feed cycle. Blood composition showed no significant variation.

Growing lambs are frequently subject to varying planes of nutrition. Knowledge of the response of lambs to the restoration of non-limiting feeding conditions following a period of feed restriction is necessary in order to determine economic systems for finishing lambs.

Thirty Blackface wether lambs (birth weight 3.8 kg s.d. 0.38 kg) were treated in two ways from birth to 25 kg live weight (LW). One half were reared by well-fed ewes at grass (treatment UR). The other lambs sucked poorly-fed ewes up to weaning at 18.2 kg LW (s.d. 1.9); thereafter R lambs were given 700 g/day of a high quality pelleted feed (F) to 25 kg LW. Feed F contained 158 g crude protein/kg dry matter (DM) and had an estimated metabolisable energy yield of 12.5 MJ/kg DM.

From 25kg LW both UR and R lambs had ad libitum access to feed F to a final LW of 45 kg unless slaughtered earlier. The feed intakes and LW of individual sheep were measured weekly. Six lambs from each treatment were slaughtered at 25 kg LW in order to assess the effect of treatment on body composition. Three lambs from each treatment were subsequently slaughtered at 35 kg, 40 kg and 45 kg LW. Weights of gut-fill and organs were recorded and the cold carcass (CC) dissected into lean, bone and fat.

The performance of crossbred progeny of Oxford, Texel, Texel-Oxford, Charollais, Charmoise and Meatlinc terminal sires, mated with crossbred ewes, were compared.

The comparisons took place at ABRO's lowland farm in Staffordshire from 1979–1981. The crossbred ewes were by various crossing sire breeds out of a Scottish Blackface stock. Three or four six month old rams of each breed were used in each year, but 9 Texel-Oxford rams were used in 1979 and 1980. Oxford rams were used only in 1981.

Distillery products which are high in fibre have traditionally been fed only to ruminants, but might provide a cost effective feed for dry sows. If such bulky materials could be fed ad libitum, animal welfare might be enhanced by prolonging feeding time and providing the sows with a greater feeling of satiety in comparison with concentrate diets. To investigate such possibilities, voluntary intake and digestibility were determined with dry sows for three distillery products:

The three distillery products investigated were:

• 1) malt draff (MD), the barley residue remaining after starch extraction

• 2) maize curne gold (CG), evaporated spent wash plus maize cereal residue

• 3) wheat supergrains (SG), centrifuged spent wash plus wheat residue

Each material was offered ad libitum to three pens of 6 dry sows, initially in conjunction with 0.5 kg/sow/day of a balancer meal. The balancer meal contained barley (890 kg/t), limestone (100 kg/t) and a vitamin/trace element supplement at 4 times the normal inclusion rate (10 kg/t). Sows were grouped according to service date and allocated to the experimental treatments in early pregnancy. They were housed in straw bedded pens with individual stalls for feeding of the supplement. Voluntary intake, liveweight and backfat change were monitored over a minimum period of 9 weeks. Sows which failed to maintain acceptable body condition on this regime were given additional ground barley as the experiment progressed.

The cultivation and uses of trees is important and varied in many areas of the world. The benefits include soil improvement and stabilisation, shade for other plants, provision of wood and fodder for ruminant animals.

Tree leaves are important sources of micro- and macro-nutrients for ruminants in many parts of the world including Nepal and Portugal especially when other plant fodders are scarce (Topps, 1992). Thus improvements in livestock production may benefit from an increased and/or selective use of tree fodders. The proximate composition and tannin (flavanol) content of plants including tree leaves, considerably influences the nutritive value (Goodchild & McMeniman, 1991; Kumar & Vaithiyanathan, 1990; Longstaff, et al.,1991; Makkar et al 1991).

A primary growth crop of perennial ryegrass (cv. S24), containing 17% crude protein and 9·9 MJ metabolizable energy/kg dry matter, was artificially dried, ground through a 3·0 mm screen and pelleted either without further treatment (C), or after the application of formaldehyde (T) at a rate of 1 g/100 g crude protein. The C and T diets were each fed to 20 lambs for 77 days. Diets C and T were given ad libitum and at three lower planes of nutrition. Similar amounts of dry matter, nitrogen and digestible energy were consumed at each of the four planes of nutrition by lambs fed diets C and T. Carcass energy, fat and protein retention, and total body energy retention were measured by the comparative slaughter technique and did not differ between the diets (P> 0·05). Metabolizable energy intake was calculated from digestible energy intake using the factor 0·81. The efficiency of utilization of the metabolizable energy for growth and fattening (kf) and the net energy value were calculated by linear regression analysis from the total body energy retention, the calculated metabolizable energy intake and dry-matter intake data scaled to M0·75. They did not differ between the diets (P > 0·05), and were 0·370 (C) and 0·431 (T) for kf, and 2·09 (C) and 1·97 MJ/kg dry matter (T) for net energy.

The plasma concentrations of cortisol and progesterone during reproductive maturation in the heifer calf were examined. Six beef heifer calves were handled and bled every 2 weeks (control), 30 were left unhandled (naive). At 13, 21, 30, 39 and 47 weeks of age, a different group of naive heifers and the control heifers were bled every day for 5 days (puberty seen at 57·4 (s.e. 1·3) weeks). Thirty-nine dairy heifer calves were allocated to seven groups to receive adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) at either 4, 7, 9, 16, 26, 36 or 46 weeks of age (puberty expected around 43 weeks of age). Plasma concentrations of cortisol increased at 21, 30 and 39 weeks of age in frequently handled and naive beef heifers; the increase was greater at these ages in the naive beef heifers (age and treatment P < 0·01). No age trend was apparent for plasma concentrations of cortisol and progesterone prior to ACTH injections (t = 0) in frequently handled dairy heifers. Adrenal progesterone secretion did not change with age in beef heifers, but naive beef heifers had greater plasma concentrations than frequently handled beef heifers. ACTH induced cortisol release in dairy heifers as early as 4 weeks of age (P < 0·05), but the response was greater in dairy heifers 16 weeks old and older (P < 0·05). A progesterone response to ACTH in dairy heifers was not seen until animals were 9 weeks old. It is concluded that as heifers mature reproductively, there is a parallel increase in the sensitivity of the adrenal gland to ACTH and handling stress.

Using primiparous autumn-lambing ewes, this study investigated nutritional effects on (i) pulsatile LH secretion, (ii) responsiveness of the pituitary-ovarian axis to exogenous GnRH, and (iii) oestrus and ovarian cyclicity during the early post-partum period. At lambing (25 October ± 0·3 days), 32 primiparous ewes rearing 2·1 ± 0·04 lambs were equally allocated to four dietary treatments in a 2 ✕ 2 factorial designed experiment. Diets comprised ad libitum hay and 1·5 kg per ewe per day of one of four concentrates (12·5 MJ metabolizable energy per kg dry matter) containing either fibrous (F) or starchy (S) ingredients with (P) or without (O) the inclusion of 120 g/kg fish meal. Throughout the study (lambing to 17 December) ewe body condition score was assessed and ewes and their lambs were weighed at weekly intervals. Blood samples were obtained from all ewes to measure circulating concentrations of progesterone and oestrous behaviour was monitored using vasectomized rams. On day 12 post partum, blood samples were obtained from all ewes at 2-h intervals (09:00 to 17:00 h) to measure concentrations of insulin and urea nitrogen, and at 15-min intervals (09:00 to 21:00 h) to measure pulsatile LH secretion. All ewes received 25 i. v. injections of GnRH (250 ng GnRH in 2 ml 0·9% saline) at 2-h intervals commencing 4 h before the end of the 15-min blood sampling period and their ovaries were examined via laparoscopy on day 17 post partum. There was no effect of dietary treatment on ewe live weight or body condition score throughout the study but inclusion of fish meal in the ewe diet increased lamb growth (FP/SP 255 (s.e. 8·9) v. FO/SO 234 (s.e. 8·2) g/day, P < 0·05). Circulating concentrations of insulin on day 12 post partum were lower in ewes given the fibrous compared with the starchy diets (P < 0·05) while dietary inclusion of fish meal increased (P < 0·001) urea nitrogen. Pulsatile LH secretion on day 12 post partum was not affected by dietary treatment. For ewes on diets F P, FO, SP and SO, the numbers that experienced an LH surge during the period of GnRH administration were 1, 2, 1 and 0, and that ovulated by day 17 post partum were 3, 5, 0 and 5 (FP/SP v. FO/SO, P < 0·05) respectively. Dietary treatment did not affect the intervals from parturition to the onset of ovarian cyclicity or oestrus (overall means were 23 (s.e.1·0) days and 38 (s.e.1·6) days respectively) but ewes on the fibrous compared with the starchy diet had a higher (P < 0·05) incidence of short (≤ 10 days) first ovarian cycles. Results of this study, which involved young growing animals, demonstrate that (i) inclusion of fish meal in the ewe diet influenced the sensitivity of the pituitary-ovarian axis to exogenous GnRH, and (ii) a fibrous compared with a starchy diet was associated with an increased incidence of premature luteal regression.

There were 563 lambs in the study. They were single Barki lambs born during the period 1961–62 to 1965–66 in Ras El-Hekma Desert Research Station (U.A.R.). All lambs were weighed at birth and at weaning. From 1963–64 onward lambs were weighed nearly every 15 days.

Two methods of estimating growth rate were compared:

R1 = weaning weight — birth weight/age at weaning

and R2 = the regression coefficient of weight on age. The effect of method of estimation on heritabilities and genetic and phenotypic correlations was examined.

Heritability estimates of birth weight, R1 and genetic and phenotypic correlations between them were 0·18 ± 0·10, 0·24 ± 0·11, 0·50 and 0·12 respectively. From the data collected during the period 1963–64 to 1965–66 alone the heritability estimates of birth weight, R1 and R2 and the genetic and phenotypic correlations between birth weight and each of R1 and R2 were 0·15 ± 0·14, 0·39 ± 0·20 and 0·39 ± 0·20; 0·84 and 0·96; 0·28 and 0·27 respectively.

For preweaning growth rate the method of dividing the gain in weight until weaning by age at weaning was virtually as good a method as using the regression of body weight on age. The correlation between the two methods was estimated as 0·91.

Testis diameter and body weight were recorded for 37 Finn-Dorset ram lambs born in winter and 38 born in summer 1977 from 8 to 24 weeks of age. Testis growth in summer-born ram lambs reared during a period of decreasing daylength was more rapid than that of winter-born lambs reared during a period of increasing daylength. Hemicastration at 12 weeks of age (19 of the winter-born and 18 of the summer-born lambs) increased the rate of growth of the remaining testis. Season of birth did not affect the response to hemicastration. It was deduced that the feed-back of gonadal hormones on gonadotrophin release was similar in both seasons.