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Books > Professional & Technical > Agriculture & farming > Animal husbandry > General
In a changing climate, livestock production is expected to exhibit
dual roles of mitigation and adaptation in order to meet the
challenge of food security. This book approaches the issues of
livestock production and climate change through three sections: I.
Livestock production, II. Climate change and, III. Enteric methane
amelioration. Section I addresses issues of feed quality and
availability, abiotic stress (heat and nutritional) and strategies
for alleviation, livestock generated nitrogen and phosphorus
pollution, and approaches for harnessing the complex gut microbial
diversity. Section II discusses the effects of climate change on
livestock diversity, farm animal reproduction, impact of meat
production on climate change, and emphasising the role of
indigenous livestock in climatic change to sustain production.
Section III deals with the most recent approaches to amelioration
of livestock methane such as breeding for low methane emissions,
reductive acetogenesis, immunization/vaccine-based concepts and
archaea phage therapy.
First published in 1984, this volume comprised a broad synthesis of
contemporary research on sheep reproduction conducted in Australia.
Australia is internationally recognized for the excellence of its
research in this field, and heads the world in areas of the
neuro-endocrine control of reproduction, reproductive behaviour,
artificial insemination and manipulation of reproductive
performance, to name just a few. The book comprises some 23 review
papers and short communications, all refereed by experts in the
field, covering such topics as neuro-endocrinology, sexual
behaviour, testicular and ovular function, pregnancy and foetal
growth, parturition, lamb survival, nutrition and genetics.
Advanced methods, developed in the seventies and early eighties to
control reproductive function, gene manipulation and intra-uterine
insemination are also considered, together with the managerial and
economic values of such developments.
Goats aren't just for farmers anymore. More and more people are
keeping goats as pets. They're also choosing to raise them for milk
and fibre and are keeping them as pack goats, and companion
animals. With minimal space and housing needs, goats are a
practical choice for people with small backyards who want to enjoy
some of the benefits and pleasures of keeping livestock. "The
Backyard Goat" is a perfect resource for anyone looking to raise a
goat or two for milk, fibre, or pleasure, this book covers all the
essentials of goat ownership. Readers will get to know goats in
chapters discussing goat anatomy, different breeds and their
histories, and how to choose the right goat for every situation.
They'll learn how to play and work with goats, using clicker
training to teach them how to do simple tricks, pull and drive
carts, and serve as pack goats. They'll learn how to care for their
goats by providing proper housing, good nutrition, and a healthy
environment. And they'll find specific chapters on milking,
shearing, breeding, raising newborn kids, and more.
Roaming Wild details the unconventional and pioneering lives of
Anna and Peter Roberts, a British couple who were instrumental in
making the animal welfare movement a respectable, highly-impactful
and worldwide organisation. This book explores the paths that led
Anna and Peter to found and steward what is now the world's largest
and most successful animal welfare charity from a backroom of their
own home, with few funds, and at a time when caring for animals and
our planet was seen as 'crankish' and 'sentimental'. This is the
story of their family, their era, influence, their rebellion and
prophetic ideas and the development of Compassion in World Farming.
It spans the period from the early 1920s when they were born,
throughout the decades of their childhoods and World War II, to
their highly romantic meeting and marriage in the 1950s, and then
the next years of their lives as dairy and chicken farmers in rural
Hampshire. This 'ordinary' part of their story preceded their move
to change everything by making the 'extraordinary' decision during
the tumultuous 1960s, of risking their livelihood, going vegetarian
(as animal farmers), and losing the approval of their peers, to
found their compassion-driven campaign. This personal
transformation was at a time when the British countryside was also
transforming, irrevocably and for the worse, when intensive,
polluting farms were just taking root, the cruel battery and
broiler system had recently been developed, and the countryside's
biodiversity was being destroyed with the implementation of
monoculture and the profligate spraying of lethal biocides, such as
DDT. The Roberts were at first rejected by the popular animal
charities of the day; believing that the public cared only about
companion animals or those in circuses, rather than those animals
who suffer the most at human hands - those in the food chain - and
so the Roberts family went out alone and set up CIWF in the face of
much public derision. Then followed the highs and lows of campaign
life, a court battle with an order of veal-farming Catholic monks,
famine campaigns in Ethiopia, work alongside comedian Spike
Milligan, model Celia Hammond and philosopher Peter Singer,
challenging EU legislation, and battles with agricultural and
chemical giant Monsanto. Corporate giants like McDonald's were
influenced to go free-range, even the British Royal family was
challenged to go free-range, and animals were put on the agenda of
every major political party in the 1970s and much more. The story
interweaves the personal with the political and documents the highs
and lows of family life, the judgement faced when they chose to
raise their three daughters as vegetarians in the 1960s, their
myriad spiritual quests, including the couple's time spent in the
Indian ashram of Sathya Sai Baba, their rewilding of the land near
their family home, and the story of their fifty-year love. This is
a tale of an 'ordinary couple with an extraordinary vision'.
Proper nutrition is the most important contributor to equine
health and well-being. Responsible horsekeepers feed their animals
a healthful, nutritionally balanced diet portioned out in
quantities that suit the age, size, and activity level of each
horse. Thriving horses that stay healthy and strong into old age
are those whose nutritional needs are being met.
Leading equine nutritionist Melyni Worth explains the many ways
in which diet affects a horses health, temperament, and
performance, and then goes on to provide a detailed study of equine
nutritional requirements. Horse owners will understand the roles
played by fats, proteins, minerals, electrolytes, and vitamins and
will learn how to evaluate weight and overall well-being and plan a
corresponding diet. Year-by-year concerns are addressed here, as
well as the specific needs of brood mares, performance horses, and
other working animals. Worth also stresses the importance of giving
horses plenty of access to pasture and explains the benefits of
additives and herbal supplements.
Common health problems such as colic, cribbing, and ulcers can
often be corrected through a change in diet. Worth discusses
possible solutions and also helps owners of horses with more
complicated health needs. Challenges such as insulin resistance,
Cushings disease, metabolic bone disorder, and tying-up syndrome
can all be managed or improved by carefully monitoring the horses
feed.
Comprehensive and authoritative, yet easy to understand, "The
Horse Nutrition Handbook" is the essential reference for everyone
who owns or cares for a horse.
'One woman's gloriously lyrical account of life and love as a
shepherdess' Mail on Sunday 'Janet White's unfailingly enjoyable
book . . . taps into a widespread feeling that we have become cut
off from the natural world' TLS 'A book to share or even fight over
if necessary' Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows 'An
immensely enjoyable and heartfelt book: it makes you want to run
for the hills' The Lady With an introduction by Colin Thubron As a
child in wartime England, Janet White decided that she wanted to
live somewhere wild and supremely beautiful, to inhabit and work
the landscape. She imagined searching the whole world for a place,
high and remote as a sheep stell, quiet as a monastery, challenging
and virginal, untouched and unknown. Turning her back on
convention, Janet's desire to carve out her own pastoral Eden has
taken her from the Cheviot Hills to Sussex and Somerset, via the
savage beauty of rural New Zealand. The Sheep Stell tells the tale
of a woman before her time; a woman with incredible courage and
determination, truly devoted to the land and its creatures.
Evocative, unaffected and profound, it is a lost classic. 'An
extraordinary memoir . . . The Sheep Stell is pure joy, one of the
most moving books I've read in a long time' Philip Marsden, author
of Rising Ground 'This is a strange and lovely book, and quiet as
it is, it makes you gasp at the profoundly lived quality of the
life it so modestly describes' Jenny Diski 'A hymn to country
solitude, lyrical, unpretentious and deeply felt' Colin Thubron
Beef Cattle Production and Trade covers all aspects of the beef
industry from paddock to plate. It is an international text with an
emphasis on Australian beef production, written by experts in the
field. The book begins with an overview of the historical evolution
of world beef consumption and introductory chapters on carcass and
meat quality, market preparation and world beef production. North
America, Brazil, China, South-East Asia and Japan are discussed in
separate chapters, followed by Australian beef production,
including feed lotting and live export. The remaining chapters
summarise R&D, emphasising the Australian experience, and look
at different production systems and aspects of animal husbandry
such as health, reproduction, grazing, feeding and finishing,
genetics and breeding, production efficiency, environmental
management and business management. The final chapter examines
various case studies in northern and southern Australia, covering
feed demand and supply, supplements, pasture management, heifer and
weaner management, and management of internal and external
parasites.
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