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Reduce antibiotic usage with these management tips
Lowering antibiotic usage is easier said than done, as it usually coincides with a drop in farm margins. Dr John Patience, a professor in animal science specialising in pig nutrition at Iowa State University in the US, says this is primarily due to higher mortalities, but also because, as product...Read more -
How to start a pig farming business
Kgadi Senyatsi, head of business development at the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO), says that farmers wanting to enter the pig industry should begin by conducting thorough research. “The pig industry is a complex, costly industry,” she warns. SAPPO recommends that a farmer sta...Read more -
Harnessing the dual-purpose potential of Merino ewes
“Merinos are our pride and joy,” says Matthew Morgan (35), who returned home to farm near Tarkastad in the Eastern Cape with his late father, Jonathan, in 2009 before establishing his first pastures a year later. “With the pastures, I tried to maximise the potential of existing land so that I cou...Read more -
Free-range duck farming in KZN Why less is more
Vanessa Collocott raises free-range Pekin ducks for meat on her 20ha smallholding, The Blue Orange Farm, in Curry’s Post, between Mooi River and Howick in KwaZulu-Natal. Her government-certified, free-range duck production enterprise started with only 60 day-old Pekin ducklings back in 2012. She ...Read more -
Dealing with external parasites on chickens
External parasites (ectoparasites) that target poultry include lice, mites, ticks, fleas and flies. They live on or around the birds, and can disturb them, affect their growth and egg production, and spread disease. Lice Chickens are infested mainly with biting lice. These irritate the birds, slo...Read more -
Chicken housing – get the basics right!
The purpose of poultry housing is to provide chickens with a healthy and comfortable environment that’s clean, dry and secure. The most affordable type is a naturally ventilated house scalable to any size. This doesn’t make use of costly air-conditioning to control the climate insid...Read more -
Caring for the sow and piglets at farrowing
‘Farrow’ originally meant ‘young pig’. In the early 1400s it came to refer to the birth process in pigs. The sow’s litter is also called a ‘farrow’. The most critical period in the life of a pig is from birth to weaning. On average, about two pigs per litter are lost during this time. Good manage...Read more -
Breeding top-performing Dohne Merino on 95ha
“Over five decades ago, my late father-in-law, Japie Patience, started farming 10 Ile de France sheep on a 95ha piece of rented commonage land in Saron, near Porterville. He also had a few calves that he bought from dairy farmers in the area,” recalls Therecia Patience. She took over the farm in ...Read more -
Biosecurity your first line of defence against disease
Dr Fambies van Biljon, veterinarian at Sovereign Foods, talks to Glenneis Kriel about the crucial need to establish a well-run biosecurity programme at a poultry production facility. Why is biosecurity so important? Why can’t birds simply be medicated when they fall ill? The problem with poultry ...Read more -
Still Serious Shortage of International Shipping Containers
Since the second half of 2020, there has been a serious shortage of international shipping containers. A series of factors have affected the cost and price of international shipping. The price has changed the relationship between supply and demand, breaking the previous relatively stable process....Read more -
Researchers reveal switch used in plant defense against animal attack
For decades, scientists have known that plants protect themselves from the devastation of hungry caterpillars and other plant-munching animals through sophisticated response systems, the product of millions of years of evolution. The biological mechanisms underlying this attack-counter defense pa...Read more -
Replacing animal testing with synthetic cell scaffolds
In the field of cancer research, the idea that scientists can disrupt cancer growth by changing the environment in which cancerous cells divide is growing in popularity. The primary way researchers have tested this theory is to conduct experiments using animals. Smitha Rao’s cell scaffoldin...Read more -
One-third of plant and animal species could be gone in 50 years
Accurately predicting biodiversity loss from climate change requires a detailed understanding of what aspects of climate change cause extinctions, and what mechanisms may allow species to survive. A new study by University of Arizona researchers presents detailed estimates of global extinction fr...Read more -
Honey bees fend off giant hornets with animal feces
What’s the best way to ward off giant hornets if you’re a honeybee? Animal dung, according to a first-ever University of Guelph study. U of G researchers have discovered honeybees in Vietnam collect and apply spots of animal dung around hive entrances to deter deadly nest raids by an ...Read more -
Global-scale animal ecology reveals behavioral changes in response to climate change
Using a new large-scale data archive of animal movement studies, an international team including University of Maryland biologists found that animals are responding in unexpected ways to climate change. The archive contains data from studies across the global Arctic and sub-Arctic, an enormous re...Read more -
Genomic analysis reveals many animal species may be vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection
Humans are not the only species facing a potential threat from SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to a new study from the University of California, Davis. An international team of scientists used genomic analysis to compare the main cellular receptor for the virus i...Read more -
For plant and animal immune systems the similarities go beyond sensing
Although profoundly different in terms of physiology, habitat and nutritional needs, plants and animals are confronted with one shared existential problem: how to keep themselves safe in the face of constant exposure to harmful microorganisms. Mounting evidence suggests that plants and animals ha...Read more -
Designing animal studies to improve research reproducibility and reduce animal use
Animal experiments are typically conducted under highly standardized laboratory conditions. While standardization is meant to improve reproducibility of scientific results, in reality reproducibility is surprisingly low. To produce more robust results, experts from different fields of research no...Read more -
Deforestation is changing animal communication
Deforestation is changing the way monkeys communicate in their natural habitat, according to a new study. This study, led by an anthropologist at the University of Waterloo, offers the first evidence in animal communication scholarship of differences in vocal behaviours in response to different t...Read more -
Animal groups consider multiple factors before fighting
Groups of animals consider multiple factors before deciding whether to fight rivals, researchers say. Before one-on-one fights, animals are known to make decisions based on factors including the size and strength of the opponent, the outcome of recent fights and the importance of the prize. But s...Read more -
Age-related impairments reversed in animal model
Frailty and immune decline are two main features of old age. Researchers from the University of Bern and the University Hospital Bern now demonstrate in an animal model that these two age-related impairments can be halted and even partially reversed using a novel cell-based therapeutic approach. ...Read more -
Study reveals valuable disease-fighting qualities in African indigenous cattle
Scientists have revealed a new set of detailed genetic markers and information for African cattle that provide heat and drought tolerance, control of inflammation and tick infestation, and resistance to devastating livestock diseases such as trypanosomiasis The findings, published in Nature Gen...Read more -
New milk plant to benefit Rwandan dairy farmers
Part of a World Vision project, work will begin this week on the US$45,000 facility. When completed, the plant will purchase surplus milk from the farmers. To be run by local cooperative Zirakamwa, the facility will be equipped with modern apparatus to test quality and prevent produce from going ...Read more -
Kenya to use GPS to combat cattle theft
The Kenyan Administration Police plan to use a global positioning system (GPS) to fight cattle theft and recover stolen animals “A GPS chip will be inserted under the skin in one animal of the herd. With it we will be able to monitor the movements of the whole flock,” said Administrat...Read more
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