The goal of this research was to document the influence of Line 1 Hereford cattle, developed by the United States Department of Agriculture at its research facility in Miles City, Montana, on Hereford cattle in South Africa. Analytical approaches made…
Using breed differences effectively facilitates high productivity and profitability. Thus, the objective of the study was to estimate direct and maternal additive and heterosis effects for growth traits (birth weight, weaning weight, 19-month weight of heifers and cow weight) from…
The influence of a synthetic or natural antioxidant and lipid saturation on the apparent digestibility of nutrients in a standard lamb finishing diet was investigated. The four dietary treatments consisted of the same basal diet, providing 187 g CP-, 355…
This study was conducted to determine the effects of genotype and season on daily milk yield (DMY) and mineral composition of pasture-based dairy cows. This was done by collecting data from 20 Friesian, 20 Jersey and 20 Friesian × Jersey…
Milk production accounts for about 60% of the variation in weaning weight and is therefore considered an economically important trait in beef production. However, milk production data is not routinely available in beef improvement programmes and therefore weaning weight is…
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…
Nineteen rural Nguni cattle enterprises managed at communal and small-scale level were used in a study to determine population genetic parameters, level of Nguni genetic contribution, and risk status of community-based animal genetic resources. Chi-square tests were performed to ascertain…
The aim of this study was to examine carcass properties and variability in chemical content and fatty acid composition in the musculus longissimus lumborum et thoracis (MLLT) of different genotypes of pigs. Of 36 male castrated animals used in the…
The SA Dairy Swiss population could not previously be incorporated into the National Dairy Genetic Evaluation System, owing to inadequate population numbers and data structures. However, in recent years participation in Milk Recording has improved sufficiently to allow for genetic…
In this study the effect of transport method on bruising, ultimate pH (pHu) and colour of beef (L* = lightness, a* = redness and b* = yellowness) was determined. Cattle transported directly from farms had the highest bruise scores, pHu…
A total of 2160 images of candled, incubated ostrich eggs were digitized to determine the percentage of egg volume occupied by the air cell at different stages of incubation. The air cell on average occupied 2.5% of the volume of…
The purpose of this study was to compare the fatty acid and proximate composition of two commercially exploited trout species (wild brown trout (WBT) and farmed rainbow trout (FRT)). The mean crude lipid content in FRT (4.3%) was significantly higher…
The aim of this work was to evaluate the nutritive value of carob pulp for rabbits using the in vitro digestibility and gas production techniques with inocula from caecal content of rabbits. Experimental diets contained 0% (D1), 10% (D2), 20%…
A cattle welfare index was estimated through 14 visual indicators in the cow-calf system in northern Mexico. The study was carried out at 25 ranches in Chihuahua, Mexico. The indicators were rangeland forage availability; rangeland plant diversity; ease of walking…
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a progestagen treatment (fluorogestone acetate sponge) alone or in combination with equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG) on oestrus response in Red Sokoto (RS) goats. One hundred RS does were treated…
The BovineSNP50 genotyping array is a product with a wide range of applications in cattle such as genome-wide association studies, identification of copy number variation and investigation of genetic relationships among cattle breeds. It also holds potential for genomic selection,…
Two trials were conducted to investigate the effects of exposing layer-type breeder eggs before incubation to ultrasonic waves (ULT). Eggs were subjected to ULT of 117 volts at 40 kHz for up to 15 minutes. Eggshell breaking force (EBF), hatchability…
A total of 210 day-old male Cobb broiler chickens were randomly assigned to six treatments in a 3 × 2 factorial design. The treatments consisted of three levels of maize: 250 g/kg (LM), 500 g/kg (MM) and 750 g/kg diet…
In South Africa, the Dairy Swiss breed, which originated in Switzerland, consists of 27 breeders and 1135 breeding cows. Pedigree information on the breed was analysed to determine its effective population size (Ne) and rate of inbreeding. The rate of…
