Increasingly, biotechnology becomes an integral part of the arsenal of tools that can be used to improve animal production in order to meet the demands of the consumer within economic, environmental and ethical constraints imposed by society. Biotechnology contributes to animal production by improving the environmental component of the production systems as well as by improving the genetic make...

Records on 65,536 Landrace pigs collected between 1985 and 1999 in herds on the National Swine Registry STAGES program were used to estimate additive genetic (animal), common environmental (litter), and residual variances and covariances for days to 250 lb, backfat, loin eye area, and lean growth rate. Analysis was by the REMLf90 program of I. Misztal using a multiple-trait animal model with fi...

During the last decade, an increasingly important technology in optimizing the production system has been the widespread adoption of artificial insemination (AI). The benefits of AI include decreased production costs, increased rate of genetic improvement, reduced disease transfer, and a more uniform and improved product at the packing plant. With appropriate timing and management, fertility ca...

Agroforestry and livestock-keeping both have the potential to promote anthropogenic climate changeresilience, and understanding how they can support each other in this context is crucial. Here, we discuss relevant issues in East Africa, where recent agroforestry interventions to support livestockkeeping have included the planting of mostly-exotic tree-fodders, and where most parts of the region...

In most industrial zones, electric energy is one of the most important energy sources. Since electrical motors are the main energy consumers of industrial factories, consumption optimization in these motors can be considered as a main option related to energy saving. One very effective way to reduce the consumption of these equipment is to use a motor speed controllers or drives. Since the loss...

Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) provides an opportunity to measure cowspecific organic matter digestibility (OMD) from fecal samples. In this study individual digestibility measurements from a trial with 47 cows were investigated. Digestibility increased when lactation progressed. The repeatability estimates between different lactation stages were low which suggests that several f...