Why do we humans have this tendency to expect the worst? We can always imagine what a bad day would look like, and we know what it feels like to fail to meet our targets at the end of the month. Perhaps it is simply a lack of imagination. We know what disappointment feels like…
30
Aug
Aug
Calf health has a considerable effect on the economic sustainability of beef production systems, with greater calf losses and disease prevalence resulting in unnecessary costs to the production system. Calf health is not solely influenced by factors when the calf makes its arrival; however, it is rather a journey that begins at conception, is carried…
14
Aug
Aug
Main photograph by Wikus van der Merwe. The 2019 Applied Reproductive Strategies in Beef Cattle (ARSBC) Conference held from 20–21 August in Knoxville, Tennessee in the USA, provided not only applied strategies, but also an inside look at recent research findings. Here are my top 10 takeaways. 1. Know where you’re going and decide how…
07
Apr
Apr
Undernutrition, or lack of feed consumption, results in weight loss and decreased body condition, impacting reproductive performance. Declines in performance will be registered as delayed puberty, and an increase in the postpartum-to-conception interval in cattle and the wean-to-oestrus interval in swine. It may also reduce ovarian cyclicity, which impacts fertility (Figure 1). Low insulin signals…
01
Dec
Dec
One of the most important resources for a beef farmer is the animal’s immune system. An animal cannot be efficient or productive if its immune system is ineffective, but with a strong immune system, a herd can weather most proverbial storms. That’s why optimising immunity for lifetime performance is so important. Interactions between the immune…
14
Nov
Nov
This article by Dr Christof Rapp, a lead researcher in swine nutrition at Zinpro Corporation, first appeared in the November 2019 issue of Essential Feed and explains how selenium reduces oxidative stress and improves production. Livestock and poultry, just like humans, naturally produce toxic substances and reactive oxygen species – small and highly reactive molecules…
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