The instant no. 2 Sunday Times bestseller! Join the Nicholson family for this heartwarming journey through a typical springtime on their South Yorkshire farm. Throughout the book they reflect on the childhood stories, testing times, poignant memories and enriching experiences that have shaped the lives they lead today. With the coming of a new season, Roger and Cynthia Nicholson and their sons Richard, Robert and David show how the farming year is shaped around the arrival of baby goats, lambs, calves and piglets galore. As Yorkshire's premier open farm attraction, Cannon Hall Farm continues to play host to thousands of visitors and spring is the busiest time of the year. People flock to meet the new arrivals and catch up with old favourites such as the llama and alpaca posse, the stunning shire horses and the irrepressible Shetland ponies, including Ozzy Horsebourne and Jon Bon Pony. Along with all the animal antics, Springtime at Cannon Hall Farm features tales of bygone days when traditional skills, crafts and daily practices shaped life in the countryside. And for fans of Rob and Dave's Channel 5 shows, there are lots of behind-the-scenes secrets you won't want to miss...

Mark Purdey's life changed one day in 1984 when a Ministry of Agriculture inspector told him he must administer a toxic organophosphate pesticide to his dairy herd. Passionately committed to organic farming and convinced of the harmful effects of chemicals in the environment, he refused to comply. 'It was as if my whole life became focused', he explained later. Before they had a chance to prosecute, Purdey took the Ministry to court and won his case. These experiences led him to challenge the orthodox line on the origins of Mad Cow Disease and its human counterpart variant CJD. Could the insecticide used in the official programme have precipitated the spread of the disease?Purdey's quest to discover the truth was hampered at every turn by government bureaucracies and self-serving scientific cliques who sought to smear and marginalize him. Dogged by dirty tricks and forced to work alone as something of a scientific sleuth, he struggled to reveal hidden interests and dangerous secrets. His supporters included many members of the public, as well as Prince Charles and the poet Ted Hughes. The latter wrote to him expressing 'a million congratulations'.Increasingly sceptical of the official narrative, Purdey was certain that toxic environmental factors would provide answers, and so embarked on a self-funded worldwide odyssey to investigate. "Animal Pharm" follows him on these eco-detective trails to locations as diverse as Iceland, Sardinia, Colorado and Australia. Purdey uncovers contamination from industry, munitions, pesticides, nuclear experiments and natural geology, linking these with the emergence of a range of neurodegenerative diseases. His research is at once compelling and disturbing, helping to create a paradigm shift in our understanding of the relationship of pollutants to disease and health.

Challenges and opportunities facing the livestock sector in dryland regions of sub-Saharan Africa, this paper presents a novel way of thinking about pastoral development, grounded in a conceptual framework and modeling that focuses on the multiple shocks faced by drylands livestock keepers.

Can we improve the health and welfare of livestock while increasing production? Can we maintain animal biodiversity in the face of increasing demands for resources and expanding agriculture? Can we use animal behaviour to reduce the carbon footprint of livestock production? Applied ethology is a young, multidisciplinary science that is relevant to these and other pressing issues.This book celebrates the history and science of applied ethology, and commemorates the 50th anniversary of the International Society for Applied Ethology. Through themes such as human-animal interaction, play behaviour, cognition, evolutionary theory and the relationship between applied ethology and animal welfare science, the book examines why ethologists are so passionate about their work, and why this field remains more exciting now than ever. Chapter authors include world renowned ethologists such as Don Broom, Ian Duncan, Ruth Newberry, and many others. The history of the ISAE and development of the field is presented with engaging profiles of founding members and pioneers in the field. New methods and emerging issues in behaviour research are discussed, along with the development of ethology around the globe. The book concludes with thoughts on future directions for applied ethology in addressing global issues of animal production, welfare, biodiversity, and the role of the ISAE.The book provides an exciting overview of this emerging field of science, and is intended for academics, students and anyone who takes pleasure in observing animals.

The supply of new innovative precision dairy farming technologies is steadily increasing. It aims to help farmers to be more labour efficient and to support them in their daily management decisions. At the same time, since many technologies are developed from an engineering perspective, adoption of these technologies is sometimes limited since knowledge on economic benefits and farmers' needs is often incomplete.This book covers the current status of precision dairy farming technologies and what farmers expect from them. It also includes insights and future perspectives on managing, analysing, and combining sensor information. Moreover, new innovative ideas that may better fit farmers' needs and expectation are introduced, ranging from technologies or innovations that aim at improved animal health and welfare, to those technologies that result in a more efficient use of feed and improved grazing management.This book is unique because science and engineering are combined to develop precision dairy farming technologies that are to be applied in practice. The book will serve as a stepping stone for new and innovative ideas within this rapidly growing area within dairy farming.