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The use of sensors for monitoring livestock has opened up new possibilities for the management of livestock in extensive grazing systems. The work presented in this paper aimed to develop a model for predicting the metabolisable energy intake (MEI) of sheep by using temperature, pitch angle, roll angle, distance, speed, and grazing time data obtained directly from wearable sensors on the sheep. A Deep Belief Network (DBN) algorithm was used to predict MEI, which to our knowledge, has not been attempted previously. The results demonstrated that the DBN method could predict the MEI for sheep using sensor data alone. The mean square error (MSE) values of 4.46 and 20.65 have been achieved using the DBN model for training and testing datasets, respectively. We also evaluated the influential sensor data variables, i.e., distance and pitch angle, for predicting the MEI. Our study demonstrates that the application of machine learning techniques directly to on-animal sensor data presents a substantial opportunity to interpret biological interactions in grazing systems directly from sensor data. We expect that further development and refinement of this technology will catalyse a step-change in extensive livestock management, as wearable sensors become widely used by livestock producers.

Purpose Intensive livestock grazing has been associated with an increased risk of soil erosion and concomitant negative impacts on the ecological status of watercourses. Whilst various mitigation options are promoted for reducing livestock impacts, there is a paucity of data on the relationship between stocking rates and quantified sediment losses. This evidence gap means there is uncertainty regarding the cost–benefit of policy preferred best management. Methods Sediment yields from 15 hydrologically isolated field scale catchments on a heavily instrumented ruminant livestock farm in the south west UK were investigated over ~ 26 months spread across 6 years. Sediment yields were compared to cattle and sheep stocking rates on long-term, winter (November–April), and monthly timescales. The impacts of livestock on soil vegetation cover and bulk density were also examined. Cattle were tracked using GPS collars to determine how grazing related to soil damage. Results No observable impact of livestock stocking rates of 0.15–1.00 UK livestock units (LU) ha−1 for sheep, and 0–0.77 LU ha−1 for cattle on sediment yields was observed at any of the three timescales. Cattle preferentially spent time close to specific fences where soils were visually damaged. However, there was no indication that livestock have a significant effect on soil bulk density on a field scale. Livestock were housed indoors during winters when most rainfall occurs, and best management practices were used which when combined with low erodibility clayey soils likely limited sediment losses. Conclusion A combination of clayey soils and soil trampling in only a small proportion of the field areas lead to little impact from grazing livestock. Within similar landscapes with best practice livestock grazing management, additional targeted measures to reduce erosion are unlikely to yield a significant cost-benefit.

The adoption potential of alley farming as an agro-intervention system capable of providing fodder to small ruminant livestock in southern parts of Nigeria is evaluated in this paper. Data were collected from a total of 240 respondents through the use of structured questionnaire in some selected communities of the south-western (SW) and south-eastern (SE) parts of Nigeria where the agro-intervention had been introduced in the past. Data analysis showed that ownership of small ruminants is more popular among households in savannah zone than forest zone, and among current and former alley farmers than non-alley farmers with browse being the most preferred feed given to the livestock. The management indicators showed that the care of the animals is generally the responsibility of all family members. The data suggest that the introduction of alley farming to produce supplemental feed for livestock may not gain quick adoption in areas with local sources of browse notably in the forest zone. The paper then concluded that the introduction of alley farming to produce supplemental fodder may be an innovation more suited to livestock owners' needs in the mid-term future, rather than immediately.

We compared animal and vegetation responses of a 13 600-ha area under holistic grazing management (HGM) with a similar area under continuous grazing (CGM) in a Patagonian station. Limitations were a dry 2012 −2016 experimental period, poorer soils, and grazing of native guanacos (Lama guanicoe) in the HGM area. Forage standing crop in this area before the experience was lower and remained so during the study: (194 ±31 HGM vs. 244 ±33 kg dry matter . ha −1 CGM). Six monitoring sites showed similar and remarkable (though mostly nonsignificant) vegetation improvements in total cover (10.6% HGM vs. 10.9% CGM) and cover of short palatable grasses (21.4% vs. 23.9%, respectively). Species richness showed small changes ( −1 vs. −6%), bare soil interpatches decreased ( −11.9 vs. −5.4%), and land function indicators of Stability (5.4% vs. 9.9%), Infiltration (12.4% vs. 12.0%), and Nutrient recycling (4.2% vs. 20.6%) increased. Tussock cover changed significantly with grazing management, as it decreased −6% (ns) in HGM and grew 42% ( P = 0.03) under CGM, probably due to coarse tussock forage consumption in HGM. Sheep under HGM were 15% lighter (43.9 ±0.5 HGM vs. 51.7 ±0.5 kg . ewe −1 CGM P < 0.001), ewes scored 28% lower body condition (1.60 vs. 2.25, P < 0.001), and lambing rates were 36% lower (48.3 ±2.1% vs . 74.2 ±1.9%). Rotation ended in 2015 as a consequence of low lambing rates, and sheep body condition and reproductive rates recovered to similar values in both areas. Positive vegetation changes in both areas may be driven by residual effects of destocking 3 decades ago and show that improvement is possible using moderate stocking rates. Although it could be argued that rest periods of HGM may be positive in the long term, its negative effects on animal production should be addressed, and fast regeneration using intense management in these severely restricted habitats should not be expected. Slow, persistent progress under careful management seems achievable under both grazing systems. EEA Santa Cruz Fil: Oliva, Gabriel Esteban. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina. Fil: Oliva, Gabriel Esteban. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral. Unidad Académica Río Gallegos; Argentina. Fil: Ferrante, Daniela. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina. Fil: Ferrante, Daniela. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral. Unidad Académica Río Gallegos; Argentina. Fil: Cepeda, Carla Tamara. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina. Fil: Humano, Gervasio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina. Fil: Puig, Silvina. Actividad Privada. Estancia Los Pozos. Santa Cruz; Argentina

Livestock is the most important sector for the economy of Punjab which is performing a vital role in rural livelihoods as a key source of employment for women at the household level. Rural women play a significant role in livestock management activities and this sector is also considered the black gold of Pakistan.

In northwest Cambodia, the majority of smallholder households own livestock. Poor consistency in feed supply throughout the year is a major constraint to livestock performance. Another critical cha...

The agricultural and livestock research, education, and extension are important components for increasing production and meeting the demands of the growing population with sustainability. In this context, knowledge or information is very critical for improving the production under the present extension delivery system in India. Several studies have highlighted emerging ICTs which have the potential to reach the mass population at a limited time despite traditional media. One such emerging ICT is Social Media, which is utilized by most of the stakeholders, including farmers around the globe. Hence, for documenting its application for livestock information needs among the livestock farmers, an ex-post-facto exploratory study was conducted in Southern Karnataka using 108 purposively selected farmers, which comprised of 36 farmers each belonging to dairy, poultry and sheep and goat husbandry with pre-tested structured interview schedule. Majority of the farmers in each category were aware about social media and possessed social media accounts with highest number of WhatsApp accounts being possessed by the farmers. Social media was utilized for obtaining information about latest livestock production and management practices in all the categories. From these findings, it could be elucidated that the respondents predominantly perceived that social media had higher benefits in attaining livestock related information and adoption of digital knowledge into practice.

Livestock identification is of great significance for achieving precision livestock farming as it is a prerequisite of modern livestock management and automatic behaviour analysis. With respect to cow identification, methods based on computer vision have been widely considered due to their advantage of non-contact and practicality. In this paper, a novel non-contact cow identification method based on fusion of deep parts features is proposed. First, a set of side-view images of cows were captured, and then the YOLO object detection model was applied to locate the cow object in each original image, which was then divided into three parts, head, trunk and legs, by a part segmentation algorithm using frame differencing and segmentation span analysis. Then, three independent convolutional neural networks (CNNs) were trained to extract deep features from these three parts, and a feature fusion strategy was designed to fuse the features, i.e., deep parts feature fusion. Finally, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier trained by the fused features was used to identify each individual cow. The proposed method achieved 98.36% cow identification accuracy on a dataset containing side-view images of 93 cows, which outperformed existing works. Experimental results showed the effectiveness of the proposed cow identification method and the good potential for this method in individual identification of other livestock.

Pastoralism in Central Asia directed the utilization of natural resources, yet information on livestock management strategies remain scarce. Carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope analyses of domesticated sheep teeth are used to identify animal management strategies. Sheep from Kent exhibit an inverserelationship where low δ18O values coincide with high δ13C values, consistent with the foddering of caprines in the winter for this location which occursalongside evidence for an extended lambing season. At the high altitude encampment of Turgen, Bronze Age sheep exhibit low δ18O values that coincide withhigh δ13C values, suggesting that livestock were moved to low altitude pastures in the winter months. Iron Age sheep sequences also have an inverserelationship, where low δ18O values coincide with high δ13C values, yet high δ13C values in the winter suggest that livestock were foddered. Our findingsindicate variation in livestock management strategies with distinct adaptations to local ecologies.

Rudimentary non-market-oriented pig rearing systems have been implicated in the persistence of Taenia solium cysticercosis, an endemic disease of high public health concern in Uganda. We investigated the seroprevalence and key predisposing factors of the disease in Moyo and Lira, two pig-producing districts in Northern Uganda. Cross-sectional serosurveys were conducted in 428 pig farms (Moyo, 262; Lira, 166). Farmers kept on average two adult pigs per herd. Tethering was a common practice in rural areas; free-ranging less so. Confinement of pigs in pens was characteristic of periurban farming systems. Pigs were mainly fed crop residues and forages in the rainy season, and swill and crop residues in the dry season. The majority of farmers of the survey were women (55%) above 45 years old, and 51% of farmers had attained primary school education. A total of 723 pig serum samples were collected, 403 in Moyo, and 320 in Lira. They were analyzed for Taenia spp. antigens using B158C11A10/B60H8A4 Antigen-ELISA. The overall animal seroprevalence of Taenia spp. serum antigen was 10.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.9–17.6), with 13.2% (95% CI: 7.1– 21.2) the highest in Moyo vs 6.9% (95% CI: 2.9–13.9) in Lira. The herd-level seroprevalence was estimated at 13.7% (95% CI: 9.8–18.5) in Moyo and 11.4% (95% CI: 7.0–17.2) in Lira. Out of 12 explanatory variables assessed for association with the observed seroprevalence, only the district of origin was significant (p = 0.01). Pigs originating from Lira were a protective factor against Taenia spp. cysticercosis (odds ratio: 0.54). These findings highlight the urgent need for an awareness campaign with prevention and control measures to minimize the risk of transmission to pork consumers in these districts.

La evaluación de pastizales en regiones áridas y semiáridas es una herramienta clave tanto para planificar el manejo ganadero como para realizar diagnósticos ambientales. Si bien hay un consenso sobre la utilidad de dicha herramienta en la Patagonia, es muy costoso evaluar pastizales que tengan mucho detalle (grano) y, a la vez, cubrir amplias zonas o paisajes (extensión). Por esta razón, compatibilizar la resolución y la calidad de la información con la extensión espacial que se requiere para tomar decisiones en sistemas ganaderos todavía es un desafío operativo sin solución efectiva. En este sentido, en las últimas dos décadas, el uso de imágenes satelitales para evaluar pastizales fue en aumento. Los desarrollos asociados a la captura de imágenes mediante el uso de vehículos aéreos no tripulados (VANT) ofrecerían ventajas como complemento de información, dado que incrementan sensiblemente la resolución espacial. El objetivo de este trabajo fue clasificar ambientes de pastizal mediante el uso de imágenes satelitales y de VANT, y comparar sus respectivas contribuciones para evaluar pastizales en la Patagonia. En particular, se comparó la resolución espacial de una clasificación no supervisada de ambientes utilizando imágenes satelitales SPOT 7 e imágenes capturadas por un sensor óptico montado en un VANT. El estudio de los pastizales se podría potenciar con el uso de distintas fuentes de información de manera complementaria y accesible para el seguimiento de ambientes y para la planificación del manejo del pastoreo en ambientes muy heterogéneos en regiones áridas y semiáridas de la Patagonia, Argentina. Rangelands assessment in arid and semiarid regions is a key tool both for livestock management planning and environmental diagnoses. Even though there is a consensus on the utility of such tools, rangeland assessment with high detail (grain) while covering large areas or landscapes (extension) is too costly. Then, the compatibility between the resolution and quality of information and the spatial extent required to make decisions in livestock systems is still an operational challenge that has not found an effective solution. Thus, the use of satellite images for rangeland assessments in different environments has been growing steadily in the last two decades. The developments associated with the capture of images using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) would offer many advantages as a complement to information, since they increase the spatial resolution. The aim of this work was to classify rangeland environments using satellite and UAV images and compare their respective contributions for rangeland assessments in Patagonia. In particular, spatial resolution of an unsupervised classification of rangeland environments using SPOT 7 satellite images and images captured by an optical sensor mounted on an UAV were compared. Rangeland assessment can be potentiated by the use of different sources of information in a more complementary and accessible way for environmental monitoring, and for a pastoral management planning in highly heterogeneous environments from arid and semiarid regions of Patagonia, Argentina. Fil: Easdale, Marcos Horacio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Patagonia Norte. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Carlos de Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Umaña, Fernando Javier. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Patagonia Norte. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Carlos de Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Raffo, Fernando. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Patagonia Norte. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Carlos de Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Fariña, Clara María. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Patagonia Norte. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Carlos de Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Bruzzone, Octavio Augusto. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Patagonia Norte. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Carlos de Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche; Argentina

Negative interactions between people and large carnivores are common and will probably increase as the human population and livestock production continue to expand. Livestock predation by wild carnivores can significantly affect the livelihoods of farmers, resulting in retaliatory killings and subsequent conflicts between local communities and conservationists. A better understanding of livestock predation patterns could help guide measures to improve both human relationships and coexistence with carnivores. Environmental variables can influence the intensity of livestock predation, are relatively easy to monitor, and could potentially provide a useful predictive framework for targeting mitigation. We chose lion predation of livestock as a model to test whether variations in environmental conditions trigger changes in predation. Analysing 6 years of incident reports for Pandamatenga village in Botswana, an area of high human–lion conflict, we used generalized linear models to show that significantly more attacks coincided with lower moonlight levels and temperatures, and attack severity increased significantly with extreme minimum temperatures. Furthermore, we found a delayed effect of rainfall: lower rainfall was followed by a significantly increased severity of attacks in the following month. Our results suggest that preventative measures, such as introducing deterrents or changing livestock management, could be implemented adaptively based on environmental conditions. This could be a starting point for investigating similar effects in other large carnivores, to reduce livestock attacks and work towards wider human–wildlife coexistence.

Access to good-quality forages is one of the major limitations to livestock production in semi-arid pastoral systems. This study aimed to determine whether there are differences in the nutritional quality of diets selected by herded and free-ranging goat and sheep flocks utilising Namaqualand Granite Renosterveld vegetation during the wet and dry seasons. Plant samples collected along the grazing routes of livestock were dried and analysed for their fibre, condensed tannin, total phenolic and mineral nutrient contents. The study showed that a large variety of forages were on offer and livestock groups selected different diets of which some were different to the total diet on offer. In general, significant deficiencies in phosphate, protein and energy in the diets selected by herded and free-ranging goats and sheep were observed in both wet and dry season. The quality of the diets selected by herded and free-ranging livestock was also found to be different from each other, with herded livestock generally selecting more nutrient-dense diets. Herding, therefore, allows livestock to access better-quality forage in the Namaqualand Granite Renosterveld rangeland, where it is generally poor.Keywords: herding, Namaqualand Granite Renosterveld, pastoral livestock, protein deficiencies, small stock nutrition

The aim of this study was to investigate using existing image recognition techniques to predict the behavior of dairy cows. A total of 46 individual dairy cows were monitored continuously under 24 h video surveillance prior to calving. The video was annotated for the behaviors of standing, lying, walking, shuffling, eating, drinking and contractions for each cow from 10 h prior to calving. A total of 19,191 behavior records were obtained and a non-local neural network was trained and validated on video clips of each behavior. This study showed that the non-local network used correctly classified the seven behaviors 80% or more of the time in the validated dataset. In particular, the detection of birth contractions was correctly predicted 83% of the time, which in itself can be an early warning calving alert, as all cows start contractions several hours prior to giving birth. This approach to behavior recognition using video cameras can assist livestock management.

This paper examines the problem of food security in the Republic of Kazakhstan over the past 10 years. Based on statistical data, an assessment was made of the prevalence of malnutrition among the population of the country, including children under 5 years of age. There has been a trend towards for an improvement in the nutrition of the population for a few indicators, however, further optimization of food security indicators is required to achieve the goals of sustainable development (SDGs) of the FAO WHO Agenda for the period up to 2050 in Kazakhstan and in its individual regions. The paper reflects data on demographic changes over the past 10 years and its self-sufficiency in basic foods for 2019. A high degree of self-sufficiency in meat products (117.6%) is revealed in the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan. However, self-sufficiency in dairy products is at an extremely low level (0.1%). Camel breeding has been successfully developing in the country over the past 10 years. However, the number of camels in the country is still at a low level. Camel milk can be considered as a great source of macronutrients, its daily consumption partially facilitates the problem of Food Security in Kazakhstan.

China is the largest producer of livestock globally, and associated nutrient losses and greenhouse gases emission have substantially affected the environment and human health. Here we present a first detailed assessment of livestock systems using over 480,000 feedlot surveys over the period from 2007 to 2017 across China. Results indicate that China produced more livestock protein with fewer animal numbers and total pollution impacts through better breeding and feeding in large-scale feedlots over this period. Hotspots of production can be observed across the North China Plain, Northeastern China and Sichuan Basin. The Clean Water Act reduced manure nutrient losses to water by one third, while slightly increasing methane emissions over the study period. Integrated abatement measures could reduce more than half of livestock pollution in 2050, with benefits of 30 billion US dollar (USD) due to avoided human health, ecosystem and climate costs with only 6 billion USD abatement cost.

The digital transformation of agriculture has evolved various aspects of management into artificial intelligent systems for the sake of making value from the ever-increasing data originated from numerous sources. A subset of artificial intelligence, namely machine learning, has a considerable potential to handle numerous challenges in the establishment of knowledge-based farming systems. The present study aims at shedding light on machine learning in agriculture by thoroughly reviewing the recent scholarly literature based on keywords’ combinations of “machine learning” along with “crop management”, “water management”, “soil management”, and “livestock management”, and in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Only journal papers were considered eligible that were published within 2018–2020. The results indicated that this topic pertains to different disciplines that favour convergence research at the international level. Furthermore, crop management was observed to be at the centre of attention. A plethora of machine learning algorithms were used, with those belonging to Artificial Neural Networks being more efficient. In addition, maize and wheat as well as cattle and sheep were the most investigated crops and animals, respectively. Finally, a variety of sensors, attached on satellites and unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, have been utilized as a means of getting reliable input data for the data analyses. It is anticipated that this study will constitute a beneficial guide to all stakeholders towards enhancing awareness of the potential advantages of using machine learning in agriculture and contributing to a more systematic research on this topic.

Este artículo se encuentra disponible en la siguiente URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014489421001065?via%3Dihub This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Ahuir-Baraja, A. E., Cibot, F., Llobat, L. & Garijo, M. M. (2021). Anthelmintic resistance: is a solution possible?. Experimental parasitology, vol. 230 (nov.), art. 108169, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exppara.2021.108169 Este es el post-print del siguiente artículo: Ahuir-Baraja, A. E., Cibot, F., Llobat, L. & Garijo, M. M. (2021). Anthelmintic resistance: is a solution possible?. Experimental parasitology, vol. 230 (nov.), art. 108169, que se ha publicado de forma definitiva en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exppara.2021.108169 More than 50 years after anthelmintic resistance was first identified, its prevalence and impact on the animal production industry continues to increase across the world. The term “anthelmintic resistance” (AR) can be briefly defined as the reduction in efficacy of a certain dose of anthelmintic drugs (AH) in eliminating the presence of a parasite population that was previously susceptible. The main aim of this study is to examine anthelmintic resistance in domestic herbivores. There are numerous factors playing a role in the development of AR, but the most important is livestock management. The price of AH and the need to treat a high number of animals mean that farmers face significant costs in this regard, yet, since 1981, little progress has been made in the discovery of new molecules and the time and cost required to bring a new AH to market has increased dramatically in recent decades. Furthermore, resistance has also emerged for new AH, such as monepantel or derquantel. Consequently, ruminant parasitism cannot be controlled solely by using synthetic chemicals. A change in approach is needed, using a range of preventive measures in order to achieve a sustainable control programme. The use of nematophagous fungi or of plant extracts rich in compounds with anthelmintic properties, such as terpenes, condensed tannins, or flavonoids, represent potential alternatives. Nevertheless, although new approaches are showing promising results, there is still much to do. More research focused on the control of AR is needed.

The Planet is home to many famed grasslands, which includes the Pampas, the Llanos, the Prairie, the Steppe, the Savannas, and the rangelands. The biome of grasslands, which is of various types, covers 40% of the Planet’s land surface. After depicting each of the world’s major grasslands, the present author explains two contributions of the grasslands to climate mitigation: carbon dioxide sinks by grasses, preservation of soil carbons. From an economic angle, the grasslands offer valuable resources for livestock management: pastures and forages. The global livestock production is expected to increase further in the coming decades as developing economies would grow with higher demands for meat, which has made climate activists worried about methane emissions from farm animals. This chapter clarifies three methane reduction technologies from livestock management: alternative livestock feeds, methane-eating microbes, a switch to non-ruminant animals. From a cultural perspective, the present author asks whether the humanity should become a vegetarian/vegan in order to reduce Planet-heating methane emissions.

Livestock management is a critical issue for the farming industry as proper management including their health and well-being directly impacts the production. It is difficult for a farmer or shed owner to monitor big herds of cattle manually. This chapter proposes a layered framework that utilizes the power of internet of things (IoT) and deep learning (DL) to real-time livestock monitoring supporting the effective management of cattle. The framework consists of sensor layer where sensor-rich devices or gadgets are used to collect various contextual data related to livestock, data processing layer which deals with various outlier rejections and processing of the data followed by DL approaches to analyze the collected contextual data in detecting sick and on heat animals, and finally, insightful information is sent to shed owner for necessary action. An experimental study conducted is helpful to make wise decisions to increase production cost-effectively. The chapter concludes with the different future aspects that may be further explored by the researchers.

Production systems can be optimized through intelligent systems that use the Internet of Things (IoT) and a network of sensors applied for this purpose. In this study, several alternatives focused on development in agribusiness are reviewed. A model is proposed that uses cutting-edge technology such as IoT and long-range, low-power networks to reduce the costs involved. The results reflect that sustainable development is based mainly on efficiency during the management of natural resources.

A North American livestock industries are diverse and of high value, consisting of very different animals and industries: beef cattle are raised for calves, meat, and leather; dairy animals for milk and veal; swine for pork; poultry for eggs and meat; and sheep for meat and wool. R. C. Axtell classifies livestock production systems as pasture or range, outdoor confined, and indoor confined. Detailed descriptions of the biology, taxonomy, host range, and management of livestock pests are available and should be consulted before starting a sampling program. Thresholds for many parasites in livestock production systems remain to be studied. Techniques for sampling arthropods in livestock systems have been previously summarized. Various livestock pests have free-living stages or periods in their life cycle. A diversity of domestic animals and management systems constitute livestock industries in Canada and the US As in other agricultural sectors, a variety of sampling approaches have been used to achieve management and research objectives.

Introduction to Sampling Arthropod Populations (L.P. Pedigo). Sampling Principles: Arthropod Sampling in Agricultural Landscapes: Ecological Considerations (D.A. Landis). Statistics for Describing Populations (P.M. Davis). Bias and Variability in Statistical Estimates (D.E. Legg and R.D. Moon). Sampling Techniques and Initial Program Development: Techniques for Sampling Arthropods in IPM (S.H. Hutchins). Developing a Primary Sampling Program (G.D. Buntin). Improving Sampling Program Efficiency: Initiating Sampling Programs (L.G. Higley and R.K.D. Peterson). Sequential Sampling for Classifying Pest Status (M.R. Binns). Sequential Estimation and Classification Procedures for Binomial Counts (V.P. Jones). Sequential Sampling to Determine Population Density (W.D. Hutchison). Sampling to Predict or Monitor Biological Control (J.P. Nyrop and W. van der Werf). Time-Sequential Sampling for Taking Tactical Action (L.P. Pedigo). Sampling Programs: Sampling Methods for Insect Management in Alfalfa (R. Berberet and W.D. Hutchison). Sampling Pest and Beneficial Arthropods of Apple (E.H. Beers, L.A. Hull, and V.P. Jones). Sampling Arthropod Pests in Citrus (J.D. Hare). Sampling Arthropod Pests in Corn (J.J. Tollefson and D.D. Calvin). Estimating Abundance Impact, and Interactions among Arthropods in Cotton Agroecosystems (L.T. Wilson). Sampling Arthropods in Livestock Management Systems (T.J. Lysyk and R.D. Moon). Sampling Programs for Soybean Arthropods (M.R. Zeiss and T.H. Klubertanz). Sampling Arthropod Pests in Vegetables (J.T. Trumble). Sampling Arthropod Pests of Wheat and Rice (N.E. Elliott, G.L. Hein, and B.M. Shepard). Implementation of Sampling Programs: Training Specialists in Sampling Procedures (G.W. Cuperus and R. Berberet). Designing and Delivering In-The-Field Scouting Programs (E.J. Bechinski).

Individual cattle identification plays an important role for automation in precision livestock management. Existing methods for cattle identification require radio frequency and visual ear tags, all of which are prone to loss or damage. In this work, we propose a deep learning-based framework to identify beef cattle using image sequences, unifying merits of both Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) network methods. A CNN (Inception-V3) was used to extract features from a video dataset taken of the rear-view of cattle, after which extracted features were fed to a BiLSTM layer to capture spatial-temporal information enabling the identification of each individual animal. A total of 363 rear-view videos of 50 cattle were collected for our dataset. The proposed method achieved 91% identification accuracy using a 30-frame video length, improving that of Inception-V3 use or LSTM. Additionally, increasing video sequence length to 30-frames enhanced identification performance. Our approach can use spatial-temporal features to identify cattle, and enables automated identification for precision livestock farming.

The relationship between the rate of incidence for ketosis seen in the livestock enterprises providing caring and nutrition in the center and districts of Ardahan province and the care-nutrition conditions of the breeders was tried to be revealed with this study through survey evaluations. The material of the study consists of data obtained from face-to-face survey conducted with 97 breeders owning livestock enterprise/herd and observations. As a result of the study, the rate of incidence for subclinical and clinical ketosis at the level of enterprise was determined as 22.7% (22/97). In the analyzes, it was revealed that milk yield in animals with ketosis decreases significantly (P, Bu çalışma ile Ardahan ili Merkez ve ilçelerinde geleneksel yöntemlerle bakım besleme yapan hayvancılık işletmelerinde ketozis görülme oranı ile yetiştiricilerin bakım-besleme koşulları arasındaki ilişki yapılan anket değerlendirmeleri ile ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. Çalışmanın materyalini, hayvancılık işletme/sürü sahibi 97 üreticiyle yüz yüze yapılan anket çalışmasından elde edilen veriler ve gözlemler oluşturmaktadır. Çalışma sonucunda işletme düzeyinde subklinik ve klinik ketozis görülme oranı %22,7 (22/97) olarak belirlenmiştir. Yapılan analizlerde ketozisli hayvanlarda süt veriminin önemli ölçüde (P

Under the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, demonstrating site-specific technology packages on farmers’ fields with their active participation for adapting to current climate risks and building up the capacity of the farmers in climate resilient agriculture, activities were planned and executed under natural resource management, crop production, livestock management and institutional intervention modules during the years from 2011 to 2018 at Telangi village of Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kinnaur. Different need-based interventions were implemented through the village climate risk management committee and were evaluated in terms of measurable indicators alongwith critical evaluation for economic implications. Adoption of successful interventions has been replicated in the villages adjoining the NICRA village resulting into formation of NICRA cluster.

Satellite images, repeated photography, temperature and precipitation data, and other proxy scientific evidences support the claim that climate is changing rapidly in Nepal, including in the Trans-Himalayan regions of the country. Climate change in the Trans-Himalayan region of Nepal is altering the existing relations of functional socio-ecological system for generations. This ethnographic assessment of Nhāson village looks at the disturbance posed by climate change to the social and ecological relationship in reference to livestock management practices. It focuses on two thematic areas of communities’ verbalisation of issues and challenges faced by the mountain herders in the climate change context. This paper is the product of ethnographic study between the years 2012 and 2014 in Nhāson. The locals’ attachment to environment and witnesses of change is capable of telling the story on the disturbance of climate change in the social and ecological systems, contextually. The stories gathered during walking, herding, travelling, watching and observing of the places are “real stories” with insights into the past climate variability and fluctuation which is critically valuable to understand the environmental phenomena at times when scientific evidences are not sufficient. Ethnographic study can contribute in documenting the place and cultural specific stories as a powerful evidence to climate change and its impact on grounded social and ecological systems.

Resumen: El objetivo del artículo consiste en describir las brechas de género en el acceso y uso de recursos productivos en Patagonia, dando cuenta de la propiedad y control de razas ovinas entre miembros de una misma unidad doméstica. El acceso diferencial al ganado entre varones y mujeres se estructura a partir de la producción de lanas finas para exportación y la fibra de ovinos criollos, como es la oveja Linca, utilizada por mujeres artesanas para la confección de textiles. De este modo, se visibiliza la diversidad de prácticas de manejo ganadero en el territorio, que responden a distintos intereses y se ven atravesadas por condicionamientos, producto de la relación con el Estado, el mercado y al interior de la familia.Abstract:The main objective of this article is to describe the gender gaps in the access and use of productive resources in Patagonia, analyzing the control and property of sheep breeds between members of the same domestic unit. The differential access to livestock between men and women is structured from the production of thin wool for export and creole sheep fiber, such as the Linca sheep, used by craftswomen to make textiles. In this way, the diversity of livestock management practices in the territory, which responds to different interests and they are traversed by constraints, product of the relationship with the State, the market and within the family, is made visible.

La calidad de la carne comienza a definirse desde la etapa de producción primaria. Los sistemas intensivos que se orientan a maximizar la producción deben garantizar el bienestar animal y la calidad de la carne. El confort de los animales, la alimentación y la genética contribuyen a la obtención de una res bien conformada. Por el contrario, los eventos de estrés prolongado repercuten negativamente sobre las características y la conservación de los productos cárnicos. Actualmente, los sistemas productivos y el manejo que se brinda a los animales durante la crianza, transporte y manejo pre faena son deficientes para alcanzar el potencial productivo y la calidad requerida por los consumidores. Por lo expuesto, es importante abordar los factores limitantes en la producción y vertirlos en la cadena productiva. El objetivo de la presente revisión es abordar los efectos de las buenas prácticas ganaderas y el manejo previo a la faena sobre el rendimiento de res y la calidad de la carne. Meat quality begins to be defined since the farm period. Intensive production systems that aim to maximize production must preserve animal welfare and harmlessness meat for consumer safety. Comfort, feeding and genetics contribute to obtaining a well finishing animal. While long-term stress affects the characteristics and preservation of meat products. Currently, the production systems and the management that are provided to the animáis during the breeding, transport and pre-slaughter management are deficient to reach the productive potential and the quality required by the consumers. For these reasons, it is important to address the limiting factors in production and pour them into the production chain. The objective of this review is to report the effects of good livestock practices and pre-slaughter management on beef performance and meat quality. EEA Concepción del Uruguay Fil: Munilla, María Eugenia. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Concepción del Uruguay; Argentina Fil: Vittone, Juan Sebastian. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Concepción del Uruguay; Argentina Fil: Lado, Martin. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Concepción del Uruguay; Argentina Fil: Romera, Sonia Alejandra. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología; Argentina Fil: Teira, Gustavo. Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos. Facultad de Ciencias de Alimentación; Argentina

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) require a large investment in construction, equipment and energy. To ensure sufficient return on these investments, RAS operations must be managed meticulously. RAS managers must consider numerous factors related to the biological traits of the fish, logistics, seasonal market demand, and livestock management. RAS that specialize in ornamental fish are faced with particular challenges in that a given species of fish may actually yield several different "products," distinguished, for example, by color, which can be sold at different sizes for different prices. RAS managers need to consider the market prices of different-sized fish in the light of their production costs (cost of food and space, dependent on time in the system). The current study aims to develop an optimization model for the operations management of RAS specializing in ornamental fish. The objective of the model is to maximize annual profit. The methods used include: a general simulation model, built in Arena 11.0®, that seeks to mimic the studied system; an optimization procedure based on response surface methodology (RSM), including design of simulation experiments, stepwise regression (in SPSS® 11.0), and a nonlinear objective function and constraints solved with MATLAB®. The method is demonstrated in a case study—a RAS on Kibbutz Hazorea, Israel, raising ornamental koi fish (Cyprinus carpio).

Livestock in generally considered one of the actors of theagricultural production. Rural women play an important roles inlivestock production and marketing in the rural economies of developingcountries as unpaid workers. They embark on various activities oflivestock management like feeding, cleaning, collecting manure fororganic fertilizer and milking. However, their involvement as decisionmakers regarding various livestock activities is still dubious. Hence thepresent study was carried out, with main objectives to investigate theinvolvement of rural women in the management of livestock activities,and to examine the role of rural women in taking decisions related tolivestock activities. A systematic random sample of 150 female wivesrespondents were selected from ELAbadia village, Damanhour district,El- Behira Governorate. Data were collected using interview guided bypre-tested interview questionnaire, and focus group discussions (FGDs)during November and December 2016. Data was analyzed usingStatistical Package of Social Science (SPSS). The results revealed thatrural women's involvement in livestock decision making activities wasrelatively high in activities like selling/ purchasing of egg, milkproducts, and selling/ purchasing of poultry. However, their involvementwas relatively low in activities like cultivation of fodder for livestock,and number of livestock to be kept. Age, education status, years ofwomen's livestock breeding experience, and household annual income,were the main socioeconomic factors which had affected theinvolvement of rural women in decision making process.

Animal wastes present in the form of manure, urine, feed, hatchery by product, blood, feather, bone, horn, and rumen material. Unmanaged animal waste contributes to environment problems. Animal wastes consist of nitrogen, phosphate, pathogen and organic material. Over absorption of nitrogen affect to melkomoglobinemia, meanwhile eutrophication happened due to over phosphate on the water bodies. Pathogen cause infection and diseases, and furthermore less oxygen due to over organic material in water decreasing fish population. Applying feed enzyme may increase availability of nutrition, performance, and decrease pollution impact due to manure. Well-management of livestock take consideration of environmental aspects, such as awareness of environment risk, balancing nutrition content of the waste animal, waste management, neighbor awarness, understand and obeying the regulation, and consider to the physical factors and applying land evaluation for livestock-site selection. This article responds to the impact of livestock on the environment and discusses factors related to environmental friendly of livestock management.

The objective of this study was to disseminate the technology of Artificial Insemiation (AI) and Milk Processing. This activity expected to help the Ettawa goat farmer to overcoming their problems which subsequently it can be improve theirincome.The methods use dinthisstudywastogiveinsightknowledgeandsimpletechnologytotheselectedEttawa goat partner group. Based on the discussion with Etawa goat partner group, several activities were carried out, i.e.: (1) to improve good genetic quality of Etawa goat livestocks, (2) providing milk technology product such as yogurt and kefir (3)provide assistance of cup sealer,(4)trainingofproductionandfinancialmanagement,(5)provide training artificial insemination. The result of this study showed that the Ettawa goat farmer as partner group receive the strengthening of their business. Such as adopted the techniqueofselectingsuperiorsires,livestock management,recycling of manure as a fertilizerproduction, milk technology production plant. .

Smallholder dairying is promoted as a fast track to development for East African farmers through schemes which provide dairy cows to poor households. This article explores issues arising in the care of dairy cows distributed through development projects in southeastern Tanzania. Animal mortality is high and milk yields far lower than expected. Problems of livestock management in the smallholder dairy sector are frequently explained in terms of high production costs and hence as a result of market failure. Research among small farmers suggests that attitudes towards livestock and the values placed on them impact how animals are cared for. Such attitudes are strongly influenced by the place of livestock in productive relations. Technological modeling of livestock development obscures the social contexts in which production is situated and the ways in which livestock affect human behavior and social relations. Conditions imposed by development programs to enable livestock care can undermine the capacities of...

The balance of papers in this Special Issue show that how Holistic Planned Grazing™ is managed and where it is used impacts the efficacy of the approach. While we will do well to develop more mechanistic models that can identify these thresholds and test them in real-life situations, it is certain that broad generalisations will not do. We can neither dismiss Holistic Planned Grazing out of hand nor claim that it will work anywhere. Both land-users and scientists should consider the evidence at hand along with their management goals (production, conservation or restoration) before deciding what livestock management approach is appropriate.Keywords: management (natural resources), modelling, Savory, thresholds

The current livestock management landscape is transitioning to a high-throughput digital era where large amounts of information captured by systems of electro-optical, acoustical, mechanical, and biosensors is stored and analyzed on a daily and hourly basis, and actionable decisions are made based on quantitative and qualitative analytic results. While traditional animal breeding prediction methods have been used with great success until recently, the deluge of information starts to create a computational and storage bottleneck that could lead to negative long-term impacts on herd management strategies if not handled properly. A plethora of machine learning approaches, successfully used in various industrial and scientific applications, made their way in the mainstream approaches for livestock breeding techniques, and current results show that such methods have the potential to match or surpass the traditional approaches, while most of the time they are more scalable from a computational and storage perspective. This article provides a succinct view on what traditional and novel prediction methods are currently used in the livestock breeding field, how successful they are, and how the future of the field looks in the new digital agriculture era.

The Agricultural sector is dominant in Uganda’s economy. There are pertinent issues in the sector that need to be regulated for the sector to be effectively managed. The regulation in the agriculture sector starts with land management and then deals with the unique legal issues associated with the sector. These include regulation of land for agriculture purposes, soil governance, livestock management, crop production and management, regulation of water for agriculture, pesticides control, fertiliser management, regulation of investment in the agriculture sector and taxation. Without the legal and institutional arrangements that regulate the agriculture sector, it is difficult to promote incentives in the sector. The main purpose of this chapter is to review the legal and regulatory framework for the agricultural sector in Uganda. It reviews policies, the laws and regulations that relate to legal issues in the sector.

Farming is facing many economic challenges in terms of productivity and cost-effectiveness. Labor shortage partly due to depopulation of rural areas, especially in Europe, is another challenge. Domain specific problems such as accurate monitoring of soil and crop properties and animal health are key factors for minimizing economical risks, and not risking human health. The ECSEL AFarCloud (Aggregate Farming in the Cloud) project will provide a distributed platform for autonomous farming that will allow the integration and cooperation of agriculture Cyber Physical Systems in real-time in order to increase efficiency, productivity, animal health, food quality and reduce farm labor costs. Moreover, such a platform can be integrated with farm management software to support monitoring and decision-making solutions based on big data and real-time data mining techniques. A special thanks to all the AFarCloud consortium people that have worked on the AFarCloud proposal on which this paper is based on. The AFarCloud project is funded from the ECSEL Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n◦783221, and from several National funding agencies. It is worth noting some ECSEL projects that have provided background and/or reusable results taken into account in AFarCloud: MegaM@rt2 [34], SafeCOP [35], and AQUAS [36].

46 Pags.- 4 Figs. The definitive version is available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03418162, A key problem in explaining the mountain landscapes of the Mediterranean region is the relationship between the development of transhumance (seasonal movement of livestock over long distances) and deforestation of the subalpine and upper montane belts at 1350–2200 m above sea level (m a.s.l.). We examined this relationship in the Central Southern Pyrenees using information from multiple proxies—archaeology, pollen analysis, lacustrine sedimentation patterns, historical documents, and geomorphology. Although there is evidence of forest clearing since the Neolithic, and we can infer the presence of shepherds and livestock in mountain areas based on archaeological sites and pollen analysis in some lacustrine records, there is no strong evidence for transhumance between the Ebro Depression and the Pyrenees during the Prehistory. Instead, we found evidence of transterminance (seasonal movement of livestock over short distances) during this time. Growth of human populations and the establishment of large-scale markets favored longer livestock movements during the Roman period, although we only have indirect information on this for other areas of the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean region. A few documents indicate the occurrence of transhumance during the Early Middle Ages, whereas all other proxies indicate a general expansion of livestock and transhumance during the 12th and 13th centuries. This coincides with the Christian conquest of the Central Ebro Depression by the Aragon Kingdom, the organization of large wool markets in Western Europe, and the exemptions conferred by the kings of Aragon to herders in the city of Saragossa. This led to rapid deforestation, in that forests were rapidly logged or burned to expand the summer grasslands. During this period, written documents indicate many conflicts between people in the villages and valleys for control of summer grasslands, pollen analyses show a rapid decline of arboreal pollen, and geomorphology studies indicate greatly increased sedimentation rates following deforestation, suggesting intense erosion. Transhumance has declined since the end of the 18th century, and particularly throughout the 20th century, and this has led to tree re-colonization of less accessible and marginal areas. The hydrological and geomorphological consequences of these recent events are important topics for future studies., This research was supported by the ESPAS Project (CGL2015-65569-R) and the Gaps and Sites Project (HAR2017-85023-P), both funded by the MINECO-FEDER, and by the Research Group from the Aragon Government (H14_17R). R. Domingo is a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow (RyC2013-12613, MINECO). P. Diarte-Blasco is an Atracción de Talento-CAM Research Fellow (2018-T1/HUM-10636).

Despite the recognition that many livestock management practices cause pain in cattle, the routine use of pain management at the time of these procedures in dairy and beef cattle remains limited. The decision to use pain management requires identification and evaluation of the significance of the pain experienced by cattle during procedures, such as castration and dehorning. The objective of this study was to evaluate how cattle veterinarians and producers qualify the pain experienced by beef and dairy cattle and how this qualification relates to their use of pain mitigation., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2019

Globally, livestock is an important contributor to methane (CH4) emissions. This paper reviewed the various CH4 measurement and estimation techniques and mitigation approaches for the livestock sector. Two approaches for enteric livestock CH4 emission estimation are the top-down and bottom-up. The combination of both could further improve our understanding of enteric CH4 emission and possible mitigation measures. We discuss three mitigation approaches: reducing emissions, avoiding emissions, and enhancing the removal of emissions from livestock. Dietary management, livestock management, and breeding management are viable reducing emissions pathways. Dietary manipulation is easily applicable and can bring an immediate response. Economic incentive policies can help the livestock farmers to opt for diet, breeding, and livestock management mitigation approaches. Carbon pricing creates a better option to achieve reduction targets in a given period. A combination of carbon pricing, feeding management, breeding management, and livestock management is more feasible and sustainable CH4 emissions mitigation strategy rather than a single approach.

International audience; In Western Europe, the transition from the middle Iron Age to theearly Roman period implied changesin livestock practices, withthe emergence of a specialized and selective animal husbandry. These changes have been related in Italy and south of France withchanges in livestock management involving their mobility between ecologically complementary areas. The study of this question inthe Iberian Peninsula has only been partiallyinvestigated through palaeoenvironmental analyses, and the information about theorigin and significance of this phenomenon is very scarce. To shed new light on this topic we used an archaeozoological approach,with the application of geometric morphometrics. They were used to study size and shape variability in sheep astragali from 9 sitesdating from the middle Iron Age to the early Roman period (5th c. BC–3rd c. AD) and located on the Pyrenees and on the north-eastern Iberian coast as a case study. The results we obtained, combined with Number of Identified Specimens (NISP) and kill-offpatterns, showed local specificities in terms of breeding methodsand sheep morphologies between the two areas during the middleIron Age. On the contrary, sheep with similar size and the implementation and development of similar sheep husbandry practices inthe Pyrenees and the north-eastern Iberian coast were documented during the early Roman period. These results suggest theexistence of livestock links between these two areas during the Roman period, that could be involved a possible movement ofsheep between the lowlands and the Pyrenees for the first time

Bull-calves of the Kazakh white-headed breed play leading role in the development of beef cattle farming in Kazakhstan. Therefore, its improvement affects the production volume of high quality beef. The article describes some technological aspects of livestock management in the semidesert zone of the Naryn Sands of Kazakhstan. The authors determined the level of economic traits of the Kazakh white-headed bull-calves, their clinical and physiological parameters as well as the characteristics of hair-coat cover under the conditions of semidesert zone of the Naryn Sands. Three experimental groups of 10 calves in each group were selected for the tests. Bull-calves were selected based on the method of group analogues. According to the research conducted, when implementing management based on traditional technology of livestock, adopted for the Naryn Sands climatic conditions, it is recommended to feed bull-calves aged from 9 to 12 months with supplementary 3 kg of concentrated feedstuff during the growing period to achieve high live weight. Besides, based on data analysis, it was concluded that under the conditions of the Naryn Sands, there is no need to build facilities for beef cattle management that is economically advantageous. The analysis of the obtained data on hair-coat covering and clinical and physiological parameters suggests strong adaptive capacity of the Kazakh white-headed bull-calves at the conventional management technology typical for the Naryn Sands.

Monitoring cow behaviour has become increasingly important in understanding the nutrition, production, management of the well being, and overall health of dairy cows. Methods of assessing behavioural activity have changed in recent years, favouring automatic recording techniques. Traditional methods to measure behaviour, such as direct observation or time-lapse video, are labour-intensive and time-consuming. Automated recording devices have become increasingly common to measure behaviour accurately. Thus, the development of automated monitoring systems that can continuously and accurately quantify feeding behaviour are required for efficient monitoring and control of modern and automated dairy farms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible use of a 3D accelerometer to record feeding behaviour of dairy cows. Feeding behaviour (feeding time and number of visits to the manger) of 12 lactating dairy cows was recorded for approximately 3 h with 3D-accelerometer data loggers (HOBO Pendant G logger). The sensors were positioned in the high part of the neck to monitor head movements. Behaviour was simultaneously recorded using visual observation as a reference. Linear regression analysis between the measurement methods showed that the recorded feeding time (R2=0.90, n=12, P2=0.31, n=12, P

Simple Summary Castration of male piglets has traditionally been carried out to control boar taint, but animal welfare concerns about surgical castration has brought this practice under scrutiny. In addition, castration decreases growth performance and increases the environmental impact of pork production, so alternatives to castration are needed to control boar taint. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on boar taint metabolism and outline some key areas that require further study. We also describe some opportunities for controlling the boar taint problem and propose that by defining the differences in metabolic processes and the genetic variations that can lead to boar taint in individual pigs, we can design effective custom solutions for boar taint. Abstract Boar taint is caused by the accumulation of androstenone and skatole and other indoles in the fat; this is regulated by the balance between synthesis and degradation of these compounds and can be affected by a number of factors, including environment and management practices, sexual maturity, nutrition, and genetics. Boar taint can be controlled by immunocastration, but this practice has not been accepted in some countries. Genetics offers a long-term solution to the boar taint problem via selective breeding or genome editing. A number of short-term strategies to control boar taint have been proposed, but these can have inconsistent effects and there is too much variability between breeds and individuals to implement a blanket solution for boar taint. Therefore, we propose a precision livestock management approach to developing solutions for controlling taint. This involves determining the differences in metabolic processes and the genetic variations that cause boar taint in specific groups of pigs and using this information to design custom treatments based on the cause of boar taint. Genetic, proteomic or metabolomic profiling can then be used to identify and implement effective solutions for boar taint for specific populations of animals.

Broiler house systems are operated for the primary purpose of providing the appropriate conditions suitable to have a significant efficiency of animal production. The major environmental conditions in the poultry building are controlling the hygro-thermal parameters (temperature and relative humidity) and contaminant gases (NH3, CO2). In this paper, a poultry house prototype is monitored and controlled using the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) tool like LabVIEW. A full prototype is designed and an efficient hybrid control strategy is implemented to control in real-time the poultry house climate. In the suggested approach, a Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is combined with a proportional, integral, derivative (PID) controller tuned by fuzzy rules. The proposed method, fuzzy logic, and On/Off controllers were tested by experimental measures and studies in a prototype model over 30 days during hot climates. The comparison results showed that the root mean square error of temperature and relative humidity response with the MFLPID controller (0.8 °C, 1.34%) were lower than that of FLC (1.16 °C, 1.86%) and On/Off controller (2.09 °C, 3.08%). The mean value of CO2 concentration with MFLPID (2461 ppm) was lower than that of FLC (3294 ppm) and On/Off controller (3624 ppm). However, the mean value of NH3 concentration was limited in small value (, Agriculture; Electrical engineering; Energy; Energy conservation; Process monitoring; Animal breeding; Livestock management; Green engineering; SCADA; Poultry farming; MIMO fuzzy; Energy efficiency.

The sustainability of the livestock sector in sub-Saharan Africa is negatively affected by limited access to high-quality fodder in adequate quantities. The effects of climate change further exacerbate feed availability. Therefore, there is a need to develop feasible cost-effective strategies for improving the year-round feed supply. Improved planted forages such as Brachiaria grass have been recommended as one of the strategies of alleviating feed scarcity, especially in drier agro-ecological zones. This study analyses the socio-economic determinants of adoption and the impact of adopting Brachiaria grass for feed sufficiency and increased milk production. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method was used to assess the determinants and impact of the adoption of Brachiaria grass. Empirical results indicate that the adoption of Brachiaria grass led to a significant increase in milk production by 27.6% and feed sufficiency by 31.6%. The positive impact of Brachiaria grass is consistent with the role of agricultural technologies in improving the productivity, income, and welfare of smallholder farmers. The adoption of Brachiaria grass is influenced by age of farmer, tropical livestock unit (TLU), type of animal breed, perceived benefits of the technology, access to extension, and farmer group membership. The study recommends holistic policy approaches that promote the widespread adoption of Brachiaria grass. There is also a need for an effective information dissemination pathway for Brachiaria grass., Brachiaria grass; feed sufficiency, milk productivity; propensity score matching; planted fodder technology; climate-smart; agricultural policy; Animal Nutrition; Cattle; Livestock Management; Agricultural Economics; Agricultural Policy; Agricultural Technology; Economics