Diary farming, as a sub-discipline of agriculture has gained global significance. It has become one of the important economic activities in many countries around the world. This book on dairy farming and management discusses in detail various practices and modern techniques such as animal physiology, feed management, animal morphology, etc. This book provides significant information of this discipline to help develop a good understanding of dairy farming and animal welfare. Comprising state-of-the-art inputs by acclaimed experts of this field, this book targets students and professionals. This book aims to serve as a resouce guide and contribute to the growth of the discipline.
Contains a selection of White Papers, commissioned to better inform the exploration of cattle welfare. These are prepared by notable experts in their field, to help provide factual context around selected topics that impact cattle welfare and production systems. Covers all aspects of cattle use in an accessible style, making this a must have volume for anyone interested in cattle welfare or cattle medicine. Provides an in-depth picture of the distinctive beef and dairy cattle welfare practices and issues, covering topics such as behavior, breeding and genetic manipulation, nutrition and feeding, housing and management, health and disease, and transport and slaughter. Written by acknowledged leaders in animal science, veterinary science, philosophy and animal welfare, presenting a truly multidisciplinary perspective on cattle welfare. Includes a section on understanding and managing animal welfare in both beef and dairy cattle, discussing how cattle perceive the world, animal handling and pain mitigation, and how to assure that the cows have a reasonably good life. The Welfare of Cattle offers an accurate, detailed account of the ethical and welfare concerns related to the human use of cattle. There is currently no significant book dealing with the welfare of cows, animals often seen as archetypal paradigms of 'farm animals'. Covering both beef and dairy cattle, the expert authors provide in-depth information on the husbandry roots of traditional agriculture, the replacement of this system of stewardship by an industrial model, and the resulting welfare challenges associated with industrial agriculture: feedlots, highly industrialized dairies, and slaughterhouses killing huge numbers of animals who have been transported great distances. This important book explores in detail the ways in which people who are providing care for cattle can take their first step, or their next step, toward enhancing the welfare of these animals. An extra chapter (online only) is available in the 'Downloads' tab on the left: Dairy Nutrition, by Michael Gamroth
The aim of this manual is to improve the welfare of dairy cattle in tropical developing countries, and by doing so, optimise cow and herd performance. It gives the stockmen and farmers directly concerned with the cattle a better understanding of animal behaviour and the ways cattle communicate their comfort or distress. The book discusses normal cattle behaviour and shows how domestication and breeding can affect behaviour to achieve high levels of production of milk, live weight gain and fertility. Animal welfare is important for producers because it can affect the health, production and contentment of cows. Animal welfare practices which adversely affect cow and herd performance on tropical small holder dairy farms are identified. Advice is then given to change the animal's environment or modify a handler's technique to ensure cattle have the degree of comfort needed to achieve more profitable and sustainable systems of livestock farming. Cow Talk will be a beneficial resource for farmers who want to improve animal welfare, farm advisers who can assist farmers to improve their welfare practices, educators who develop training programs for farmers and dairy advisers, and other stakeholders in tropical dairy production such as local agribusiness, policy makers and research scientists.
This book covers all aspects of research into the welfare of dairy, veal and beef cattle, covering behavior, nutrition and feeding, housing and management, stockmanship, and stress physiology, as well as transport and slaughter. It also offers a detailed and critical analysis of the main indicators of animal welfare and covers the main threats to animal welfare in modern cattle production systems.
According to the European legislation (Regulation EC No 853/2004), the food business operators collecting raw milk intended for the production of milk and dairy products must ensure compliance with certain health requirements for the animals. The animals must not show any symptoms of infectious diseases transmittable to humans, or signs of diseases of the udder or the genital tract that could contaminate milk. Furthermore, they must belong to a holding free or officially free of tuberculosis and brucellosis, and no unauthorized substances or authorized drugs must have been administered without respect to the withdrawal period. Dairy Farming: Operations Management, Animal Welfare and Milk Production presents a study with the goal of evaluating the compliance with the mentioned criteria in milk samples collected from 100 different dairy farms located in Central Italy. Additionally, under European milk quotas, dairy farms in Europe were limited in the amount of milk they could produce. While quotas were gradually increased over the past four decades, European milking quotas were completely abolished in April 2015 to help meet an expected 20% increase in the global consumption of milk and dairy products by 2050. With this, European dairy farmers can freely expand milk production based upon expected milk prices controlled by open market supply and demand. The authors present a review focused on milk production forecasting models and data variation from a past and future perspective. A comprehensive review of model applications and comparisons from studies over the past two decades is carried out, and both classical and modern methods are reviewed analysed. The concluding review focuses on scientific LCA studies conducted on a variety of different milk production systems, including the treatment of milk co-products, different allocation methods, the assessment of environmental impacts caused by fertilizers and agrochemicals in feed grain production and in the different stages of milk production. However, the methodology requires a higher degree of standardization, especially for the analysis of complex agricultural and livestock systems and their various forms and characteristics.
This book provides a comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the welfare of cattle. It starts with a consideration of animal welfare science and its application to the management of cattle and moves through to discussions of the challenges and opportunities for providing good welfare for cattle in farming and husbandry systems across the globe. The first section comprises three chapters that discuss the social, behavioural and physiological methods that can be used to assess welfare in cattle. The second section considers the welfare challenges of beef and dairy cattle in extensive and intensive systems. The third section details welfare challenges such as at slaughter, during handling and in the growing period and details solutions such as the use of sensors and application of animal breeding techniques. The final section addresses welfare challenges and solutions in achieving sustainability, in smallholder farms in Africa and new entrant dairying in Asia and cow shelters in India. This work makes a valuable contribution to the field of animal welfare and modern livestock farming. It is a must-read for researchers and students, veterinarians as well as industry personnel and informed farmers and producers.
