Rams grazing native pastures are exposed to seasonal fluctuations in quality and quantity of nutrients that limit their energy balance and reproductive performance. Feeding young Merino rams with legumes and supplements improved their metabolic status, with important implications for their mating potential. As a consequence of feeding the rams a higher plane of nutrition, a greater proportion of ewes may became pregnant in a shorter period of time.

For many cattle herds the full genetic relationships between all individuals may be unknown. Using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) we characterise the deep genetic relationships and breed origins of the cattle in an Australian herd. We find that around 3000–6000 SNPs evenly spread across the bovine genome are needed to provide minimally accurate genetic and breed relationships.

This study considered the effect of fineness of grinding, feed form (meal or steam-pelleted) and feed presentation (liquid or dry) on the performance of newly weaned pigs. Pigs fed liquid diets had increased feed intake and the digestibility of their feed was increased by finer grinding and steam processing. The findings suggest practical measures that pig producers can adopt to improve the health and performance of newly weaned pigs.

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a crucial enzyme in lipid metabolism and it regulates the deposition of adipose tissue. A mutation in the chicken LPL gene was identified in the present study and it was found that the mutation was associated with adipose traits. The mutation has potential for being used as a genetic marker of adipose traits in chicken breeding activities.

Consumers must be reassured about the quality of pork that has been vaccinated with the gonadotropin-releasing factor vaccine. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of vaccination on male pigs, and the results suggest that the vaccine increases the inosine monophosphate and polyunsaturated fatty acid content in longissimus muscles and the polyunsaturated fatty acid content in back fat. Consequently, vaccination for boar taint control will provide a good alternative to physical castration of male pigs.

In recent years, software allowing computer-aided estimation of body measurements has been developed for livestock production. The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of this software for determining body measurements of female Holstein calves. Results showed that the digital image analysis provides very close agreement and reality for prediction of body measurements of Holstein female calves.

Shelter can reduce newborn lamb mortality although experimental results have been variable. The likelihood of adverse weather over the autumn to spring months and the influence that reductions in wind speed had on chill index was modelled for six locations in south-eastern Australia. Reducing wind speed was more effective in reducing chill index to below critical levels at certain locations and weeks of the year, which should be taken into account when deciding on whether to invest in shelter.

Sexing of chicks is important in commercial poultry enterprises to allow selection of female chicks for egg production. It is possible to perform sex determination by observing feathering patterns in BAR1 pure line chicks. Crossbred combinations produced from the lines by this method have production parameters similar to others, which could allow them to be used in commercial settings.

The use of cereal crops in association with forage peas offers the opportunity to produce high yields of forage with high nutritive characteristics for ensiling in spring. This experiment investigated different combinations of cereals and peas and found that despite sowing high proportions of mixes as peas, the cereals constituted the majority of dry matter produced, with only minimal improvements in nutritive characteristics. There are opportunities, however, to manipulate nutritive characteristics through earlier harvesting and this may provide greater flexibility for the use of silage produced.

Feeding alpacas with protein not degradable in the rumen (UDP) should increase fibre growth. Alpacas were fed diets containing an increasing percentage of UDP. Alpacas fed 0% UDP produced finer fibre and urinated more than alpacas fed 100% UDP suggesting that they have a limited ability to recycle nitrogen to the stomach and a nitrogen metabolism different from true ruminants.

Semen quality of chicken is affected by different factors like genetic makeup, age and environment among others. We evaluated the semen quality of naked neck and dwarf chicken during different weeks of age under tropical conditions. The results revealed that the genetic make up and age had an influence over the semen quality. Additionally, temperature humidity index influenced semen quality and this should be considered while evaluating semen of chicken reared in open sided houses.

Milking is a time-consuming task on dairy farms, requiring significant labour input. The platform speed of rotary dairies is an important determinant of herd milking time and results indicate current targets may be limiting cow throughput. Setting rotary platform speed according to the abilities of the operator, rather than the number of cows occupying bails on multiple rotations, will likely improve throughput, thus reducing herd milking times.