The global livestock industry has recently been inundated with criticisms about the impact of animal production systems on anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), animal welfare, environmental sustainability and human health and well-being. Although it is accepted that the estimate of…
The need to optimize rather than maximize rates of reproduction has been demonstrated for various production situations. In a highly intensive system, incorporating the use of artificial insemination, increasing the calving rate from 75 to 85% did not yield more…
Profit rate for a meat production enterprise can be decomposed into the unit price for meat and herd efficiency. Optimal slaughter mass maximizes herd efficiency which, at its maximum, can be expressed in terms of a product of…
Feeder- breeder dimorphism is advantageous when large offspring for slaughter is obtained from small breeding animals. The effect of feeder- breeder dimorphism on herd efficiency is evaluated for terminal crossbreeding and growth modification by biotechnological or dietary means. Selection criteria…
Higher reproduction and lower replacement rates lead to a higher proportion of terminally crossbred offspring to sell. Substantial improvement in herd efficiency can be achieved by improvement in the ratio of replacement rate to reproduction rate by selection or crossbreeding.…
A general method is developed for the evaluation of herd efficiency in terms of efficiencies for growth and reproduction. Almost the only requisite knowledge for the application of this method is the value of the allometric slope between the cost…
