It is common to identify stress responses by measuring various hormones and to conclude that stress affects the welfare of animals. The reality is that there is not always a straightforward relationship between stress, hormones and animal welfare. We need to know the consequences of the actions of hormones in order to assess how stress affects animal welfare.

Community concerns about animal welfare can shape livestock practices and may affect the sustainability of livestock industries by compromising their social licence to farm. The results reported here show that attitudes towards the livestock industries predict engagement in community behaviours that express dissatisfaction with the way livestock animals are treated (such as petition signing) and, to a lesser extent, pork consumption. Further research to characterise and engage opinion leaders involved in many community behaviours relevant to the livestock industries is needed as a possible way of establishing convergence in beliefs between producers and the community.

Public concern over farm animal welfare (FAW) in the livestock sector is believed to be increasing. The present study is the first nationally representative study of Australian meat consumers to identify consumer segments with distinct attitudes towards FAW and the environmental impact of meat production. The majority of consumers (70%) are unconcerned about FAW, and most admit to feeling insufficiently informed about FAW. Targeted information and marketing campaigns may enable more informed meat-purchase decisions.

The use of social media has become of increasing interest in how people engage with current affairs and topical issues. This paper explores how animal activist organisations, such a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) use social media networks, specifically Twitter, in their campaigning against animal agriculture. The results aim to help the agricultural industries to understand the way in which social media is being used in attempt to change peoples attitudes towards animal production.

Using a dual-purpose crop within a grazing system could greatly increase productivity but requires careful management. The paper reviews crop grazing and shows that it can greatly increase livestock feed supply with minimal effect on crop yield; livestock grazing wheat require supplementation with sodium and magnesium. In future, more work is required with grazing ewes, with cattle and with wool-producing systems.

Feeding represents more than half of the total production cost of sheep meat production, hence the search for a cheaper source of feed seems an urgent need. Integrating sheep in cropping systems might be part of the solution, and the results showed that using permanent sown lucerne, self-sowing Wimmera ryegrass and barley all year round would be an adequate feeding strategy. This practice would reduce production costs and have positive environmental implications.

Exposures in early life can change an animal’s development permanently, with consequences for future production as well as welfare. For example, piglets that are small at birth not only have poorer survival but have decreased postnatal lean tissue growth than larger littermates, whilst stressing mothers during pregnancy can impair immune function in their piglets. It is likely that production and welfare can be improved by preventing exposure to nutritional restriction and elevated stress hormones before birth.

We have developed a gene technology that allows specific marking of the sex-determining chromosome in chickens so that the males can be identified before hatching and removed before incubation. This provides a simple solution to meet a pressing need for the industry and a leading opportunity for the adoption of biotechnology in animal agriculture.

Mature dairy cows with good conformation are profitable to the dairy enterprise through their increased stay in production. An evaluation of the extent to which conformation components influence longevity in South African dairy cows showed a significant influence of traits related to udder suspension. Cows with pendulous udders were highly predisposed to culling leading to reduced longevity and productivity both of which will ultimately reduce the profitability of the enterprise.

Cows are often overfed calcium, magnesium and selenium, leading to these minerals’ excretion into the environment and, subsequently, negative health effects for the cows and environment. This study was successful in its aim of developing equations to predict excretion levels of these minerals. Agricultural industry members could use the equations to reduce mineral excretion levels while ensuring cows still receive a sufficient amount.

This study aimed to evaluate the response of ruminal metabolism of dietary fatty acids to replacing prilled palm fat, a saturated fat, with cold-pressed rapeseed cake or cold-pressed sunflower cakes, by-products of on-farm biodiesel manufacturing very rich in unsaturated fatty acids. Replacing palm fat with cold-pressed rapeseed cake or cold-pressed sunflower cakes decreased total saturated fatty acids and enhanced cis-monounsaturated fatty acids and vaccenic acid accumulation in rumen fat without shifting biohydrogenation pathways towards the formation of C18:1 trans-10.

Bacterial population could influence bone development through the bone–gut axis. The properties of long bones in female turkeys are affected through probiotic-supplemented diets in a dose-dependent manner. It seems that the administration of the probiotic at a higher concentration of cells is more beneficial for bone development in turkeys.

Finishing animals in feedlots with diets rich in concentrates can be a strategy to reduce enteric CH₄ emissions; however can lead to ruminal upsets decreasing animal performance. This study evaluated the effect of different sources of forage in concentrate-rich diets on feed intake, performance, and enteric methane emissions. Forages of low quality may be used at 15% neutral detergent fibre from forage without compromising intake, performance, or enteric methane emissions.

Rapid pre- and post-weaning growth rates of calves are important for efficient beef production. This experiment demonstrated that although calves with high growth potential partially compensated for the low milk intake by increasing their pasture intake, liveweight advantages from increased milk intake persisted to one year of age. High-yielding beef-cross-dairy cows can increase liveweight of calves.

Productivity in lambs can be enhanced by strategic supplementation with energy- and protein-rich feedstuffs. Feeding of lambs on higher levels of concentrate leads to lower rumen pH and sometimes rumen acidosis, which disturbs the balance of rumen and intestinal microflora. Inclusion of rumen bypass fat at lower levels yielded better gains; however, at higher levels it affected fibre digestibility due to adverse effects on microbial growth. Microbial cultures (probiotics) are being tried as natural feed additives for maintaining microbial balance in the gastro-intestinal tract and, thereby, overall animal production. Present study envisaged the use of live culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to Malpura lambs fed ad libitum concentrate with and without rumen bypass fat.

The use of tropical legume crops has been increasing to recover degraded pastures and to improve the animal performance. Feeding beef cattle with tropical legumes is a common practice around the world, but the use of these crops preserved as silage has not been extensively evaluated. Stylosanthes cv. Campo Grande silage showed the potential to be used in diets for beef cattle in tropical conditions, because it resulted in similar productive performance of the animals in comparison with corn silage.

Waste streams from potato processing represent a high-value feedstuff for ruminants but are underutilised in many parts of the world. This study showed that potato processing waste can be fed to beef cattle at 80% of the diet dry matter without affecting animal productivity or meat quality. Where locally available, potato processing waste represents a low-cost, high-quality feed source for beef-finishing operations.

The use of plant secondary compounds (i.e. flavonoids) to enhance ruminal fermentation condition has become the mainstream of rumen studies. Our study shows the effectiveness of Bioflavex supplementation in steers for preventing a collapse in pH and modifying the activity of lactate-consuming bacteria. Its optimum effect would be expected in short administration (feedlot) period due to adaptation of rumen environment to the presence of Bioflavex.

Dairy calves may benefit from feeding citrus pulp (CSP) as a replacement for corn, considering the possibility of ruminal acidosis and the high grain costs. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of replacing corn grain with CSP in the starter concentrate on performance and metabolism of dairy calves. The partial or total replacement of corn by CSP in the starter feed of dairy calves did not affect performance and contributed to the better rumen development.

The natural toxin indospicine accumulates in meat of animals grazing Indigofera pasture plants, and has been responsible for secondary poisoning of dogs fed indospicine-contaminated horsemeat and camel meat. The present research highlights the similar accumulation of indospicine residues in calves fed a diet containing Indigofera spicata (creeping indigo). Indospicine has been established as causing both reproductive losses and liver disease, and likely contributes to cattle productivity losses in areas where Indigofera species (such as Birdsville indigo) are prevalent.

Without the addition of inoculants, alfalfa silages often result in deleterious changes to the nutritive value. This study investigated the effects of previously fermented juice (PFJ) and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculants and suggested effect of PFJ may be comparable to, or even better than, that of LAB inoculants. Adding PFJ to improve alfalfa silage quality is a cost-effective way.

The present study investigates an alternative source of collagen from a deer skin for industrial applications. Acid-soluble collagen (ASC) and pepsin-soluble collagen (PSC) from the skin of Cervus korean TEMMINCK var. mantchuricus Swinhoe were isolated and characterised and found to possess similar characteristics to bovine-derived collagens. Therefore, dear skin collagen may exert the same properties as other well-known mammalian collagens in industrial applications.

Improved biosecurity in smallholder broiler farms in Indonesia has the potential to reduce disease and improve livelihoods. There are a range of contracts available to smallholders which provide different incentive structures to invest in biosecurity. An analysis of six smallholder-company contracts and how they are able to reward farmers who are approved to market their product as ‘Healthy Farm’ chickens indicates that smallholders need to be selective in their choice of partner company as only three of the six contract types adequately reward smallholders who are investing in farm biosecurity.