The South African Journal of Animal Science is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. The journal publishes reports of research dealing with the production of farmed animal species (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, poultry and ostriches), as well as pertinent aspects of research on companion animals and aquatic and wildlife species. All submitted articles are subjected to a single-blind peer review process that is managed by a section editor under the supervision of the editor-in-chief. Copyright of a published article resides with the authors. Such articles will be published as open access content and be covered by the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 South African Licence. Users may copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work, but must recognise the authors and the South African Journal of Animal Science.
Originally supported by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), the South African Journal of Animal Science moved online in the early 2000s using a custom-built manuscript submission and editorial management system. In August 2025, the journal transitioned to the Public Knowledge Project’s Open Journal Systems (PKP OJS), hosted by Khulisa Journals at the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).
In line with international best practices, the journal integrates key components of digital research infrastructure, including DOIs (digital object identifiers), ORCID iDs (researcher identifiers), ROR IDs (research organisation identifiers), and CCLs (Creative Commons Licences), ensuring transparency, traceability, and global interoperability.
As of August 2025, the South African Journal of Animal Science makes use of the Crossref 10.17159 DOI prefix. View the journal metadata health and the Crossref DOI Conflict Report here.
If you experience any problems with the journal’s online platform, please contact the editor-in-chief at [email protected].
Clarivate Journal Impact Factor (2024): 0.6 (Q4 of subject category)
Clarivate Journal Citation Indicator (2024): 0.26
Scopus CiteScore (2024): 1.4
Growth, haematological and biochemical responses of growing lambs injected with growth hormone and supplemented with calcium soa
Physiological and productive responses to recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) injection and calcium soap of fatty acids (CSFA) supplementation were studied in post-weaning male Rahmani lambs. Male lambs (n = 20) of similar initial body weight (27.9 kg) and age (162…
Determining the optimum temperature for dry extrusion of full-fat soyabeans
Full-fat soyabeans (FFSB) intended for use in monogastric nutrition need to undergo heat treatment so that present anti-nutritional factors can be inactivated. Under- or over-treatment will decrease the level of amino acids available to the animal. In this study, the…
Sample preparation of Medicago sativa L. hay for chemical analysis
The objective of this study was to quantify the effect of the grinding procedure on the moisture and crude protein concentration of a ground Medicago sativa L. hay sample for quality grading. An additional aim was to investigate the accuracy…
A Bayesian approach to the Japanese Black cattle carcass genetic evaluation
Volumes of the routine carcass field data used in the official genetic evaluation for carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle are increasing rapidly. The purposes of this paper are to describe a Bayesian approach via Gibbs sampling (GS) to be…
Growth and slaughter characteristics of Ankole cattle and its Boran and Friesian crossbreds
One hundred and forty four bulls comprising 48 animals of each breed, i.e. purebred Ankole (ANK) and its crossbreds with Boran (AXB) and Friesian (AXF) were assigned to three feeding systems (FS) to evaluate their performance for improved beef production…
Prospects of performing multiple-country comparison of dairy sires for countries not participating in Interbull international ge
International trade with genetic material has lead to the foundation of Interbull, an international organization that performs international evaluations of dairy bulls, enabling countries to obtain breeding values of foreign bulls on their on scale. Not all countries have the…
Genetic relationships between calving interval and linear type traits in South African Holstein and Jersey cattle
Genetic correlations between first calving interval (CI) and linear type traits in South African Holstein and Jersey cattle were estimated to assess the possibility of using type information as selection criteria for CI. All linear type traits routinely evaluated under…
Characterization of sheep populations of Kenya using microsatellite markers: Implications for conservation and management of ind
Indigenous sheep of Kenya are very important to resource-poor farmers and pastoralists. They have over time adapted to the harsh environmental conditions of the arid and semi-arid lands where they are faced with challenges of persistent droughts, diseases, conflicts and…
Association of the polymorphism in the 5’ flanking region of the ovine IGF-I gene with growth traits in the Baluchi sheep
The insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-I) gene has been described in several studies as a candidate gene for growth traits in farm animals. The present preliminary study attempts to establish associations between growth traits and genetic polymorphisms at the 5’…
Non-genetic and genetic factors influencing growth performance in Murrah Buffalos
Live weight data from 590 Murrah buffalo calves (140 male and 450 female calves) maintained at the Central Cattle Breeding Farm, Alamadhi, Tamil Nadu, India, born in the period between 1990 and 2004 were used for this study. Data were…
Genetic and non-genetic factors affecting body weight in Tellicherry goats
Data on 566 Tellicherry goats, recorded between 1988 and 2007 were used to study the effect of non-genetic factors on body weight and daily gain from birth to 12 months of age. The least-squares means for body weight at birth…
Economic values for dairy production traits under different milk payment systems in South Africa
Economic values of milk volume (VOL), fat yield (FYLD), protein yield (PYLD), live weight (LWT), longevity (LON), calving interval (CIV) and somatic cell score (SCS) were derived for Holstein and Jersey cattle, based on milk payment systems of four major…
A systems approach to the South African dairy industry
Milk production in South Africa comes under pressure periodically as a result of market forces, but can dairy producers effectively respond to these market forces? During these periods a large number of dairy cows are slaughtered and their numbers decrease…
A comparative study on growth performance of crossbred and purebred Mecheri sheep raised under dry land farming conditions
In order to improve mutton production, Dorset x Mandya and Dorset x Nellore halfbred rams were mated with Mecheri ewes to produce Dorset x Mecheri x Mandya and Dorset x Mecheri x Nellore quarterbreds. Least-squares analyses of the body weight…
A comparison between hominy chop and defatted maize germ meal as the main energy source in diets of feedlot steers
Defatted maize germ meal (DMG) is arbitrarily rated at a lower economic value than maize meal or hominy chop (HC). Five treatments with 15 steers each were fed different inclusion levels of DMG (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%), replacing…
Herbage yield in Signalgrass pastures as affected by grazing management
Signalgrass is largely planted as cultivated pasture in Brazil, but no management targets have been identified. The objective of this study was to evaluate daily herbage accumulation rate (HAR) in Signalgrass pastures grazed at two intensity x two frequency treatments…
Fractional rate of degradation (kd) of starch in the rumen and its relation to in vivo rumen and total digestibility
Fractional rate of degradation (kd) of fermentable nutrients in the rumen is an important parameter in modern feed evaluation systems based on mechanistic models. Estimates of kd for starch was obtained on 19 starch sources originating from barley, wheat, oat,…
Factors influencing energy demand in dairy farming
The efficiency of energy utilization is one of the key indicators for developing more sustainable agricultural practices. Factors influencing the energy demand in dairy farming are the cumulative energy demand for feed-supply, milk yield as well as the replacement rate…
The effect of dietary ionophores on feedlot performance of lambs
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different rumen fermentation modifiers (ionophores) in feedlot finisher diets on the production performance of S.A. Mutton Merino lambs. Monensin (16.4 mg/kg), lasalocid (33.0 mg/kg) or salinomycin (17.5 mg/kg) was incorporated into…
Multi-trait and random regression mature weight heritability and breeding value estimates in Nelore cattle
Mature weight breeding values were estimated using a multi-trait animal model (MM) and a random regression animal model (RRM). Data consisted of 82 064 weight records from 8 145 animals, recorded from birth to eight years of age. Weights at…
