In indoor systems it is routine practice to carry out a number of husbandry tasks with young piglets. These include clipping ‘eye’ teeth to prevent damage to the udder of the sow and the faces of litter mates, and injecting iron to prevent anaemia. Considerable debate exists about the necessity for carrying out such tasks in outdoor systems where the animals are less used to being in close proximity to humans and where any disruption of maternal behaviour can have much more serious consequences.

550 piglets (PIC line 12 x PIC synthetic Meatline boars) in 49 litters were used in a factorial experiment to determine the effects of (a) leaving piglet teeth intact or clipping them at birth and (b) injecting 2ml of iron dextran at 2-4 days after farrowing or leaving piglets untreated.

Each alternate litter farrowing had their teeth clipped, and half of the piglets within each litter received an iron injection. Sows and piglets were scored for damage on days 7 and 14 post-farrowing and at weaning using a linear scale from zero (no wounding) to three (severe laceration with prominent wounds). Once a week, the location and suckling behaviour of all the animals involved in the experiment was observed for three hours. Blood samples were taken from each piglet of the first fifteen litters to be weaned and analysed for haemoglobin content.

Hypothermia is common in newborn piglets because of the failure to provide sufficient thermal comfort in the preferred resting areas adjacent to the udder in early life. One major reason for this is the fact that most farrowing pens have slatted floors and a deficiency of such flooring is the difficulty of using bedding to reduce hypothermia of newborn piglets and to protect their delicate tissues from the relative abrasiveness of the floor. Shredded waste paper bedding may have useful applications in such situations because of its texture and cohesiveness, qualities which slow up the rate at which it is voided through the slats relative to other bedding materials. Such paper bedding was evaluated in a controlled experiment.

The study was carried out in a large commercial farm with Large White (LW) and Landrace (LR) first cross sows which were mated to LW, LR, LW x LR and Duroc boars. The farrowing pens measured 150 x 270 cm with a front creep area (150 x 55 cm) and the farrowing crate, which was fitted with farrowing ‘cradles', was positioned centrally in the pen. The floor was fully slatted (plastic slats) except for the concrete floored front creep area.

The strawflow® system is designed to provide pigs with free access to straw without the operational and agricultural constraints of a deep bedded system and could provide an alternative type of weaning accommodation. A trial was conducted to evaluate the potential of three different strawflow® systems. These differed only in means of heating and ventilation.

Two trials were conducted consisting of twenty four and twelve weekly groups of pigs. Eighty pigs were split sex weaned into four strawflow® pens in the same room, on a weekly basis, and remained in the system for forty days. All other pigs to be weaned that week were weaned into the flatdecks. (8827 pigs total)

An average weaning weight was recorded for each batch of piglets moved into the strawflow® and flatdecks and each pig was individually weighed on leaving a system. Feeding regime was the same in each system with a creep feed for approximately one week post weaning before moving onto a grower ration for the remainder of the trial. All food given to a flatdeck room and one side of a room in the strawflow® building was recorded.

Consideration of the welfare of the weaner pig requires knowledge of the needs of the animal and determining how these needs may be accommodated in commercial housing. Piglets raised in extensive conditions spend much of their day engaged in exploratory behaviours, including rooting, nosing, shaking and chewing objects. Research indicates that exploratory activity is important for the animal's well-being. Flatdeck accommodation with slatted flooring is coming under increasing critisism on welfare grounds in that it offers little outlet for such behaviours. As a consequence, piglets tend to redirect these behaviours towards penmates which is undesirable. Supplementing the pen with objects which enable normal exploratory behaviours may create an environment more suited to the needs of the piglet. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of environmental enrichment on the behaviour, welfare and performance of early-weaned piglets.

Seitz (1954) claimed the infant animal is more susceptible to the long-range effects of experience than the adult animal. The effects of infantile experience has been observed in the pig. Wood-Gush and Beilharz (1983) found that pigs reared in a bare environment did not use substrate, that was provided in later life, to the same extent as pigs which always had access to it. Schouten (1991) found that pigs which had spent the first few weeks of life in a barren environment were more restless in the growing and fattening periods than pigs which had spent their early life in enriched environments.

This study investigated the effects of the housing environment in the first six weeks of life on the behaviour of pigs in the growing and fattening stages.

In a cross-over study, which examined the effect of change of environment at weaning, 96 piglets in 16 groups each of six littermates were allocated to a 2 x 2 factorial experiment. There were two environments (barren and enriched) and two growth periods, birth to weaning at six weeks and weaning to slaughter at 20 weeks. Intensive husbandry conditions were defined as barren environments. The enriched environment changed at weaning.

With increasing concern over animal welfare, straw yards are being re-evaluated as a less-intensive system of rearing pigs. Typically they may comprise an open span building with minimal environmental control and deep straw bedding for the thermal and behavioural needs of the animals. This contrasts with many intensive buildings which would have some degree of climatic control and fully-slatted concrete floors with no bedding of any kind. The aim of this experiment was to compare the performance and behaviour of growing-finishing pigs in straw yards with a fully-slatted building. The two systems are outlined in Table 1.

As a result of welfare legislation introduced in recent years, systems in which dry sows are confined are no longer considered acceptable practice and will be phased out entirely in Europe by 2005. Consequently, there is a need to research and develop alternative housing systems before this deadline is reached.

To review the present day developments in this area and to observe different approaches to solving the question of how to improve the welfare of the group-housed sow without compromising productivity, a number of farms and research institutes were visited in Germany andHolland. The aims of the trip were as follows:

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 measure the growth and body composition of entire male lambs of 3 Greek dairy breeds from early weaning to 3 slaughter weights chosen to be of potential commercial interest.

In all 108 ram lambs were used with equal numbers from the 3 breeds: Karagouniko (K), Serres (S) and Boutsiko (B). The lambs were weaned at about 8 weeks of age onto one of 3 levels of concentrate allowance called H, M and L with ad libitum access to alfalfa hay. The concentrate contained 175 g crude protein and 11.0 MJ ME/kg as fed. The concentrate allowances were calculated on incremental time-based scales which were related to the ad libitum intake of each of the breeds as observed in a previous experiment. The highest allowance was intended to be at about 0.80 of the ad libitum intake previously seen. Allowance L was 1/3 and level M 2/3 of H. Lambs were housed in individual pens on sawdust. Liveweight and hay intake were recorded once per week; there were no overall refusals of concentrate between start and slaughter. Lambs were slaughtered at 23. 28 or 33 kg irrespective of breed and carcasses stored for compositional evaluation.

The intake of fibrous food by ruminants are mainly regulated by physical means. When different forages are offered, intake level is related to rumen fill capacity, being the rate of digestion and disappearance of food particles from the rumen also important factors.

On the other hand, there have been some reports on the differences in food intake between sheep breeds (Arnold, 1975). Breeds adapted to different nutritional environments could have developed differences in digestive physiology and intake potential.

The aim of this experiment was to study the infuence of the type of roughage offered on meal patterns, as well as the differences in these parameters between two Spanish sheep breeds.

Ad libitum food intake of non-pregnant and non-lactating ewes (six Churra and six Merino sheep per food) was daily monitored using an automatic recording device that allowed calculation of meal size and duration.

The majority of the studies on the feeding behaviour during pregnancy and lactation have been made in cows, being information on sheep scarce and generally limited to daily food intake (Bermúdez, 1989). During pregnancy and lactation variations do occur in nutrient requirements that markedly influence food intake. There is sometimes a small increase in intake in mid-pregnancy, and then a slight decline in the last few weeks before parturition is often observed (Forbes, 1970). This has been explained by the reduced ruminal function due to physical competition for abdominal space. The volume of the gravid uterus and abdominal fat contribute to compress the rumen, this effect being enhanced when bulky food is eaten. After lambing food intake always increases, but not in a way so as to match the high energy requirements of this stage. All these changes are expected to affect size and duration of meals, as well as the rate of eating.

The aim of this experiment was to study the variation in eating patterns along pregnancy and lactation of two Spanish sheep breeds: Churra, a dairy breed, and Merino. The influence of the presentation of feed was also studied.

It has been estimated that in some areas of Malawi the incidence of malnutrition in children under the age of 5 may be as high as 70%. The problem is particularly severe in those children who have been weaned off breast milk. In many areas of the world milk is seen as being of special benefit to such children,. In excess of 60 million goats are currently being milked world wide but in sub-Saharan Africa the practice of milking them is uncommon. Malawi is a good example of this situation.

Estimates of the number of goats in Malawi very between 1.0m and 1.6m and yet, with the exception of a few localised sites, these goats are not milked. There does not appear to be any custom or taboo prohibiting the drinking of goats milk and in a recent survey Banda (1992) showed that goats milk was acceptable to many people and was, indeed, preferred to that of the cow or the sheep.

The aim of the project reported here was therefore to examine the potential of the indigenous Malawi goat as a milk producer, when managed under a system as similar to that practiced in the villages as possible.

Although milk is an important product of sheep systems using the Awassi breed in the Near East, typically giving 25% of the gross income, there is little information on the yields of Awassi ewes at defined levels of nutrition. The Awassi is the dominant breed of sheep in the Near East. It is the only breed in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, which have a total sheep population of 16.9 million. In Iraq about 50% of the 7.8 million sheep are Awassis. There are also approximately 1 million Awassi sheep in Turkey, mainly in the south along the border with Syria. Turkish Awassi ewes have been selected for milk yield for many years at the Ceylanpinar State Farm.

In 1991, ICARDA purchased 40 ewes, aged 2 years, from the Ceylanpinar flock. In 1992, these ewes and 40 ewes selected at random from 2 year old ewes in the flock at ICARDA's Tel Hadya station at Aleppo, in northern Syria, were compared, using two levels of nutrition in lactation. The ewes in the ICARDA flock are typical of well managed flocks in northern Syria.

Stubble grazing is the main source of nutrients for small ruminants in the Middle Bast for 3-5 months after cereal harvesting in late May or June. As the flocks are usually mated during this period, poor nutrition may affect the prolificacy of the flocks and limit the productivity of the system for the rest of the year. There have been few studies of the process of grazing stubble that have defined the nutrient intakes and the effects of supplementation. At last years's Winter Meeting, we described the patterns of removal of stubble fractions and the intakes of nutrients by unsupplemented sheep at three stocking rates Rihawi et al, (1993). The second experiment of the series was carried out from June to September 1992, using a 2 x 3 factorial design to examine the removal of different stubble fractions from areas of stubble grazed at stocking rates (SR) of 20 and 40 ewes/ha for 3 successive periods of 28 days, during which the ewes were fed either 200 g of cotton seed cake (C), which supplied 1.68 MJ of metabolisable energy (ME) and 73 g of crude protein (cp), or 200 g of barley (B) daily, which supplied 2.36 MJ of ME and 22 g of cp, or were given no supplement (U). The treatments were replicated three times by using three successive measurement periods.

There is increasing pressure on hill farmers to reduce stock numbers on the hills. With such a reduction in sheep numbers, farmers would have the option of either maintaining or reducing management and physical inputs. In general, current extensive hill sheep farming systems are characterised by low stocking densities, low inputs and high lamb mortality.

The trial was conducted as part of a work programme studying extensive systems. Compared to a system with very low inputs this trial examined the effects of increasing inputs, in terms of supplementary feeding in late pregnancy and shepherding at lambing.

Within an extensive hill fanning system (0.66 ewes/ha) two hundred ewes were allocated to one of two nutritional treatments in late pregnancy together with the provision or absence of shepherding at lambing in a 2x2 factorial design. All the ewes were of the Scottish Blackface breed and were mated on the open hill without access to improved grazing. Ewes remained on the hill until mid-pregnancy at which stage they were assigned to either Group H (supplementation with feedblocks, low forage availability) or Group L (minimal supplementation, high forage availability). Group L continued to graze on the open hill whilst Group H were confined to a hill park (approximately 45 ha).

Twin-bearing crossbred ewes may be supplemented for a total period of up to 12 weeks during late pregnancy and early lactation, with feeding costs in some systems accounting for approximately 0.45 of variable costs. A less expensive mean of supplementing ewes over this period would be one practical way of reducing a major variable cost. Self-help feed-blocks have been successfully fed to hill ewes for many years and there is increasing evidence that a self-help feed-block system has applications within the more productive crossbred flocks. An experiment was undertaken which determined the effects on ewe and lamb performance of supplementing twin bearing/rearing Mule ewes with self-help feed-blocks and liquid feed during late pregnancy and early lactation. These systems were compared with the more traditional system of feeding compound nuts.

Sixty six twin-bearing Scotch Mule ewes per treatment in three pens were fed a basal diet of ad libitum baled grass/clover silage (dry matter (DM) 366 g/kg, pH 5.4, NH3N 71 g/kg, crude protein (CP) 155 g/kg DM and metabolisable energy (ME) 10.1 MJ/kg DM) supplemented with either a proprietary compound sheep nut (N), a reduced rate (approximately 0.60 of N) of the compound nut plus feed-blocks (NB) or feed-blocks plus liquid feed (BL).

Supplementing hill ewes during late pregnancy with hay plus self-help feed-blocks is an established feeding system. However, there is considerable individual and seasonal variation in feed-block intake (Lippert and Milne, 1986) which can limit their effectiveness. This experiment evaluated an alternative system for supplementing hill ewes, during late pregnancy (6 weeks before lambing), based on molassed sugar beet feed (MSBF).

One hundred and eighteen single-bearing Swaledale ewes were allocated to one of two treatments; 1. Control - supplemented with hay plus feed-blocks (HB), 2. Supplemented initially with MSBF (nuts), being replaced by a blend (50:50 fresh weight basis) of MSBF and pelleted distillers barley grains (BDG) (MSBF/BDG).

The experiment commenced on 18 February 1993. Hay feeding was restricted to 300 g/head/day (HB). High energy (HE) and extra high energy (EHE) feed-blocks, were offered free access (at a rate of one block per 20 ewes). MSBF and MSBF/BDG were fed at a flat rate of 375 g/head/day. HE and MSBF were fed between 18 February and 26 March, being replaced by EHE and MSBF/BDG between 27 March and 10 May. Crude protein (g/kg dry matter (DM)) and metabolisable energy (MJ/kg DM) values were 144 and 9.2; 174 and 9.4; 178 and 10.2; 108 and 12.5; 174 and 12.8 for hay, HE, EHE, MSBF and MSBF/BDG respectively. The ewes were out-wintered on hill grazings.

Increasing the level of concentrate fed to lactating ruminants reduces forage intake, but increases the yield of milk and milk constituents (Aston et al. 1991). However, the proportion of the total response due to additional metabolisable energy (ME) or crude protein supply (CP) is unclear. Recent work with dairy cows (Aston et al. 1992) suggests that additional ME or CP fed as concentrate reduced and slightly increased silage intake respectively. Additional CP had twice the effect on milk and three times the effect on protein yield than additional ME. However, ME and CP were equally important in determining fat yield. The objective of the trial was to investigate whether dairy sheep respond to additional ME or CP supply as concentrate in a similar way to dairy cows.

Three concentrate diets were formulated to contain 13.0 MJ/kg DM ME and either 100 (A), 200 (B) or 400 (C) g/kg DM CP. After weaning (6 weeks), 24 mature Freisland ewes were housed individually, and allocated by liveweight and initial milk yield to receive concentrate DM at daily rates of 0.8 kg, providing 10.4 MJ/day ME and 160 (B) or 320 (C) g/day CP (LLP, LHP), or 1.6 kg, providing 20.8 MJ/day ME and 160 (A) or 320 (B) g/day CP (HLP, HHP). The trial lasted 8 weeks and was analysed as a 2 X 2 factorial design.

Silage finishing systems have been developed for store lambs, the type and level of supplement required depending on the quality of forage available (Butler, 1985). Under the requirements laid down by the United Kingdom Register of Organic Food Standards (UKROFS), restrictions are made on both the total quantity of concentrates and the protein source fed. While some work has been carried out on alternative sources of protein in the diets of finishing lambs (Yilala and Bryant, 1985), little informantion is available on the use of beans under UK conditions.

The objective of this experiment was to assess the potential of beans as an alternative protein source for lambs fed to UKROFS standards on a basal ration of baled silage.

One hundred and forty four approximately six month old Scottish Blackface wether lambs (mean liveweight 33.6 kg, se = 0.23) were housed off silage aftermaths. Following an acclimatisation period of twelve days, these were randomly allocated in pens of 12 to one of four treatment groups depending on the type of concentrate fed - beans (B), 50/50 barley/beans (BB), barley/soya (BS) and barley/fishmeal (BF). A mineralised supplement of 400 g of concentrate was fed daily in each case. Moderate quality baled silage (dry matter (DM) 307 g/kg, metabolisable energy 9.4 MJ/kg DM, crude protein 129 g/kg DM) was available to appetite, with fresh material offered twice daily. The barley component of the rations was rolled: beans were fed whole.

Most sheep production systems under arid or semiarid conditions are dependent on the ability of animal to retain and movilize body fat.

The sucess of body condition score (BCS) method (Russel et al., 1969) and live body weight (LBW) as mesures of body reserves is in function of body fat depots distribution, and the sheep genotype could determine this distribution (Taylor et al., 1989).

The aim of this work is to predict body fat depots of adult Churra ewes, from BCS and/or LBW.

A total of 36 adult Churra ewes, with a range of body condition score between 1.25 and 4.00 and live body weight between 30.3 and 52.6 kg were used.

At slaugther, internal fat depots (IF; omental:OF, mesenteric:MF and perirenal:PF) were removed and weighed. Chemical fat of carcass (CF) and non-carcass (NCF) were also estimated.

Few data are available on the growth and carcase characteristics of the indigenous Malawi goat, despite the fact that goats provide 20% of the meat consumed in Malawi. Better husbandry and breeding programmes can only be developed and implemented when adequate data on the performance and potential of populations have been collected. This trial was undertaken to provide base line data, in order to allow comparisons to be drawn when alternative management strategies are adopted.

Does were housed in a blue-gum-pole khola, roofed with galvanised iron, in pens measuring 4m2. Each pen held 10-14 does. Feeding was based upon the grazing of indigenous pastures but the goats also had access to maize stover during the dry season. Kids were weighed at birth and fortnightly thereafter. Castrate kids, in groups of S, were slaughtered at birth and at intervals of 5kg between Skg and 25kg. Following slaughter, carcases were split down the backbone, weighed, packed into individual polythene bass and stored at -20°C to await dissection. In March 1990 right hand sides were thawed, weighed and cut into six primal joints. To reduce any errors caused by abattoir procedures the axis vertebra was removed from all carcases and discarded. Each joint was then subjected to a full dissection, using butchers’ knives, into lean, bone and fat components and the weight of each component recorded. The data generated from these dissections were used to develop aliometric growth curves for each joint and for each tissue, using multiple regression analysis.