In sheep and cattle, maternal nutrition or various causes of placental insufficiency can have indelible effects on fetal development, leading to postnatal variation in productive functions including meat and wool production, and reproduction. These effects appear to be mediated through epigenetic changes in the prenatal genome and other mechanisms. Deeper understanding and more accurate quantification of these phenomena will be needed to enable their incorporation into systems for the management and, potentially, improvement of breeding flocks and herds.

It is now well recognised that the environment in which an animal develops can have lifelong effects on its health. The aim of this work was to investigate how the environment of a developing chicken (the egg) can influence the lifetime health and production of chickens. Our results suggest manipulating the diet of the hen can improve the lifetime health and production of a chicken.

Nutrition utilisation is compromised in young broilers, particularly for the first week of life, mainly due to limited digestion capacity. Thus, attention has been placed on developing more specialised diets to correct any nutritional deficiencies, improve flock uniformity and obtain optimum growth of young birds. This review discusses the composition of such diets and assesses various nutrients and ingredients for early growth and subsequent carryover effect.

Inherent variation within a population of pigs is a challenge to manage in modern pork production, representing a significant cost to business. This paper considers nutritional interventions within the breeding herd and pre- and post-weaning piglet nutrition to limit variation. The greatest potential to reduce variation is careful management of the sow, with some dietary interventions to reduce variation in birth and weaning weights.

The developing embryo and the post-hatched chick are completely reliant on nutrients stored in the egg for normal growth and development; consequently the physiological status of the chick at hatching is greatly influenced by the nutrition of the breeder hen. This review examines the specific nutritional factors in broiler breeders that can improve chick quality and subsequent progeny performance. From this review, poultry nutritionists could gain a better understanding of the nutrient requirements of parents in order to design better diets.

Selenium and iodine are crucial for the cognitive, neurological and immune functions that affect survival of newborn lambs. However, there is poor understanding of how lamb survival can be improved by supplementing with such micronutrients. Selenium and iodine have strongly linked biological roles, and further research into their joint action to improve lamb and twin survivability is required.

When calves grow fast in their first 2 months of life they go onto produce more milk as cows. Birth and the immediate separation from the mother, combined with intensive housing, often prediposes calves to oxidative stress. This article analyses the role of antioxidants in the diet of the newborn calf and the affect that this may have on rapid growth rates and life-time productivity.

Selenium and vitamin E are essential micronutrients for animal health and production. Multiple functions of Se and vitamin E have been reported that extend beyond the classical antioxidant properties to cell signalling and gene regulation. Supranutritional supplementation of theses micronutrients may play an important role in efficient ruminant production under stressful conditions and presents potential opportunities for production of antioxidant-rich milk and meat for human consumption.

Livestock phenomics describes the next generation of trait measurement, including methodologies and equipment used to acquire data, and computational approaches required to turn data into phenotypes. Development of a phenomics platform to measure performance- and efficiency-related phenotypes in grazing livestock, ideally in real-time without human interference, is described. Technological and analytical challenges associated with this objective are also briefly considered.

Feed technology can be used to improve the nutritional value of feed ingredients. Grinding to a smaller particle size increases energy digestibility and therefore the gain to feed ratio is improved if particle size is reduced. Pelleting and extrusion increases digestibility of amino acids and these technologies may be used to improve the nutritional value of diets fed to pigs.

Adding nitrate to the diet of ruminants is currently considered to be an effective method for reducing their emissions of the greenhouse gas, methane, and in Australia earning carbon credits. This review describes how rumen microbes process dietary nitrate and explains why nitrate supplements, while successfully reducing methane emissions, can sometimes poison livestock. The review describes potential management interventions to make nitrate-based methane mitigation less risky.

A growing global food requirement is stimulating development of animal management strategies to increase animal productivity and efficiency with reduced environmental consequences. Cysteamine is a natural feed additive that improves animal growth, and efficiency of use of feed and feed nitrogen. This review assesses the mechanisms of action of cysteamine and its emerging application in human health and livestock production.

Efforts to optimise utilisation of Ca and P by pigs have increased during the past years. Interactions between Ca, P, and other factors need to be elucidated. Results from recent research have indicated that factors such as dietary fibre, phytate, and microbial phytase affects the digestibility of Ca by pigs, and the ratio between digestible Ca and digestible P need to be considered in the formulation of diets fed to pigs.

To ensure optimal animal performance and efficacious use of phytase, the concentration of calcium (Ca) in feeds and feed ingredients should be analysed frequently; implementation of a reduction in dietary Ca should be considered with the supplementation of phytase; and future use of an available or digestible Ca concentration in dietary ingredients may contribute to more precise feed formulation.

Animal grazing crops obtain valuable winter feed but may require mineral supplementation. We review responses to magnesium and/or sodium during crop grazing and provide a range of indices to help assess the need to supplement animals grazing crops. We suggest future progress will be better if frequency distributions of crop mineral content or ratios are used, rather than single-value comparisons with animal requirements.