Two experiments were conducted with British Friesian/Holstein cattle to evaluate the response in milk production to the long-term use of recombinantly derived bovine somatotropin in a slow release form (somidobove, Lilly Research Centre Ltd). The first compared three doses of BST and the second measured the effect of BST given to animals receiving two levels of concentrates.

Thirty-eight and forty autumn calving cattle were used in experiments 1 and 2 respectively. A randomised block design was used in the first experiment and a 2 x 2 factorial in the second. Animals were blocked on the basis of similarity in calving date and milk yield during the preliminary period. Treatments were allocated at random within blocks, animals remained on the same treatment throughout each experiment. In experiment 1 animals received seven successive subcutaneous injections of BST at intervals of four weeks, the initial injection was given about 11 weeks after calving. A control and three doses of BST were compared: 320, 640 and 960 mg. In experiment 2 animals were given given six injections of 640 mg BST at the same intervals.

With the introduction of milk quotas, a greater emphasis was placed on reducing input costs in milk production systems. This has led to a reduction in compound feed usage and a greater dependance on home produced forage. The objective of this trial was to examine the effects upon silage intake, milk yield, milk quality and cow performance of feeding a flat rate of 3 or 6 kg of a 160 g/kg crude protein, cereal based compound feed to October calving Friesian dairy cows receiving ad libitum grass silage harvested either during mid May or early June.

In each of two years, forty multiparous, October calving Friesian dairy cows were used in a 2 x 2 factorial design experiment to examine the effects of feeding two levels of compound feed as a supplement to grass silage harvested at two cutting dates.

In each year silage was made from primary growths of late flowering perennial ryegrass swards harvested from the same fields either during mid May (H) or about fourteen days later in early June (L). The herbage was cut using a disc mower/conditioner, and left in the swath for about 24 hours prior to harvesting with a precision chop forage harvester.

Previous studies have indicated that supplements to high quality grass silage based on molasses and sodium bicarbonate can enhance microbial efficiency and milk output. However these experiments showed that there was still a need to include preformed protein in the supplement to maximise the response. Also, work at this Institute (M. Gill, unpublished data) had indicated marked responses to branched chain volatile fatty acids (vfa) in high forage diets, but only in the presence of protein supplements. The aims of the experiment were to firstly examine whether preformed proteins in high forage diets could be replaced by either protected or unprotected amino acids (methionine and lysine) in dairy cow diets and secondly, to investigate the interaction between branched chain acids and the supply of protein.

Eighty British Friesian cows in their second and subsequent lactation were offered grass silage ad libitum together with 4 kg of molasses and sodium bicarbonate (Alkacarb, ICI plc) at 30 g/kg silage dry matter (DM). They were given a protein supplement consisting of soyabean meal and fishmeal in a 3:1 ratio at either 2 (L) or 3.2 kg/day (H).

There is now a considerable volume of evidence to indicate that, with high quality, grass silage-based diets, good animal performance can be achieved by offering supplements of high crude protein content at much lower levels than would be required with conventional supplements. Given the current constraint on milk output at farm level, there is considerable interest in lower cost milk production systems and high protein supplements would appear to have a role to play in this context. However, there is little information available which enables prediction of milk yield responses to increasing levels of supplements of differing protein content. The objective of this study was to determine response curves to supplements of differing protein content, given in addition to grass silage, thereby facilitating a least-cost diet type approach to achieving a given level of milk output.

Concentrates containing either 100, 220, 340 or 460 g crude protein (CP)/kg fresh weight were offered to 72 autumn-calving dairy cows from day 14 of lactation, with each concentrate offered at four levels of feeding.

The use of high-forage systems for beef production is a particularly diverse subject area encompassing the role of both grazed and conserved forage and a wide range of production systems. These include systems such as 12-16 month silage-cereal beef, 16-18 month grass-cereal beef and 22-24 month grass beef for dairy-bred cattle, hill and lowland systems of suckled calf production and systems for finishing store cattle. Consequently, within the constraints of this paper it will be possible to examine only some of the most recent developments in the use of forage for beef production.

Digestibility is the most important factor influencing the value of conserved forage for beef production. From a review of eight comparisons in which silage has been offered as the sole feed, silage dry matter (DM) intake, live-weight gain and carcass gain were increased by 17 g/kg, 45 g/day and 33 g/day respectively per 10 g/kg increase in digestibility. In a further nine comparisons involving silages supplemented with concentrates, concentrates constituting 200 to 370 g/kg total DM intake, silage DM intake, live-weight gain and carcass gain were increased by 14 g/kg, 37 g/day and 28 g/day respectively per 10 g/kg increase in digestibility.

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the feeding of high fibre diets to pigs. The potential use of these diets will depend upon the extent to which the fibrous components are fermented and the subsequent capacity of the products of fermentation, that is volatile fatty acids, to meet the energy needs of the animals. One fibrous feed that has considerable potential for inclusion in diets of pigs is sugar beet pulp and the present experiments were designed to study the extent to which diets containing varying proportions of plain sugar beet pulp influenced nutrient partition and the efficiency of energy utilisation of growing pigs.

The experiment was designed as a 4 x 2 factorial arrangement and involved 4 diets containing 0, 150, 300 and 450 g plain sugar beet pulp/kg, each fed to pigs between 20 and 90 kg bodyweight at 2 levels so that the animals received either 1.5 or 3.0 times their maintenance energy requirement (M), where M = 440 kJ ME/kg bodywelght 0.75 per day. The diets were formulated to be iso-energetic (13.8 MJ DE/kg) and iso-lysinic (9.5 g/kg) and were based on barley, wheat, soyabean and fishmeal with plain sugar beet pulp largely replacing cereals at the appropriate rates.

The energy value of feedstuffs with a high content of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) has rarely been measured accurately. The aim of this study was to measure the intake, performance and carcass characteristics of growing pigs given 0, 150, 300 or 450 g plain (P) or molassed (M) sugar beet pulp per kg diet (using substitution for barley). This NSP source was chosen because it is known to be highly digestible by pigs (Longland et al., 1988) and because it is widely available. This work forms part of our programme to evaluate fibrous feeds which may be useful, without or with modification, as alternatives to cereal grains.

Each diet was given to twelve Large White x Landrace pigs. Equal numbers of entire male and female pigs were given each diet. Their initial weight was 18 kg and the pigs were killed two days after their weight exceeded 77.5 kg. The pigs were kept Individually, without straw, at a temperature of 20 ± 3°C.

Provision of nutrient allowances for sows necessitates a view of requirements for growth and reproductive efficacy, and a method to predict response to the nutrients provided. An experiment involving 102 Large White x Landrace sows given a diet of 13.2MJ DE and 162g CP per kg over 4 parities has been used to derive some of the necessary model components. If live weight and fatness at first conception are 125kg and 14mm P2 respectively, and maternal body weight at term parity 4 is 250kg, and when weaning to oestrus interval (days) = 27(±5) - 1.3(±0.4)P2(mm) at weaning: then the equations, change in P2(mm) in 28-day lactation = -0.28(±0.82) - 0.27(±0.03)P2 at parturition +0.037(±0.003) lactation feed intake - 0.50(±0.06) number of piglets at weaning, and change in maternal live weight (kg) in 28-day lactation = -3.8(±4.6) - 0.15(±0.02) maternal weight at parturition + 0.36 (±0.02) lactation feed intake - 3.3(±0.3) number of piglets at weaning, can be used to predict fat and live weight changes in lactation.

If dietary intake is insufficient to meet the metabolic needs of the sow during lactation then maternal body reserves (body fat and body lean) are mobilised to support milk production. However the extent to which body reserves are mobilised may influence the metabolic and physiological state of the sow and hence reproductive function after weaning (Mullan and Close, 1989). There is little available information on the metabolic response of the lactating sow and the present experiment was designed to study the partition and utilisation of energy and nitrogen (N) intake in sows during their first lactation. This should aid in the understanding of how the dynamics of nutrient utilisation during lactation may influence the metabolic and reproductive state of the sow.

The experiment was designed in a 2 X 2 factorial arrangement (5 animals per treatment) with 2 levels of feed (H, 5.5 kg/d and L, 3.0 kg/d) during lactation and with 2 litter sizes at each feeding level (6 or 12). Sows were accommodated throughout the 21-day lactation in farrowing crates adapted to permit the total collection of sow and piglet excreta.

In certain parts of the world the use of grain crops for animal feeding is limited and where there is competition for direct human use, alternative feeds must be considered. Root crops are a potential feedstuff for growing pigs in some situations and the objective of the present programme of work is to establish the nutritional value of these materials and to investigate factors which effect their utilisation in pig diets.

The high moisture content of root crops results in low nutrient density and the current experiment was designed to examine whether this resulted in any limitation on food intake and subsequent growth performance of growing pigs. This was achieved by formulating diets to contain different proportions of root crop and concentrate; these diets were isoenergetic/isonitrogenous when based on dry matter but varied in nutrient density when expressed on a fresh weight basis.

A conventional forecasting paper would begin with an account of the demographic trends, the likely developments in the economy and therefore disposable income, the social changes with particular reference to household and family size and structure, the trends in food preparation in the factory and the home, eating out habits, the influence of the multiples in the retail sector and the likely impact of political decisions. I shall take much of that as read.

Only one aspect needs to be brought out. This is the effect of changing life-styles, family structure, shopping, cooking and eating habits on consumer requirements. Our industries need to grasp these issues more positively and carry out more product development work and associated marketing activity if not to be totally outsmarted by poultry, fish and non-animal-based convenience foods. The potentials are very great, because the great majority of consumers are still looking for cheap, lean, nutritions tasty meat and convenient products - whatever the technology.

But I suggest that for our industry the biggest imponderables in forecasting and planning are whether there is or will be a significant resistance from consumers to technological advance (both on the farm and in the processing plant) and whether there is or will be a significant rejection of exploitation of animals for food.

The starting point for looking at new products from milk must be to look towards the market place for the ideas and for technology to solve them. Too often in the past industries have gone the reverse route and developed the technologies and then tried to find a use for them. It is therefore necessary to understand the key elements for change in our society that affect lifestyles and purchasing decisions.

The European Community's plan to create a single European market by the end of 1992 emphasises that this will be achieved when the Community has done away with physical, technical and fiscal barriers to trade. Physical barriers refer to frontier controls on goods and persons (eg customs, animal and plant health checks, transport restrictions). Fiscal barriers comprise all obstacles and significant distortions among member states that derive from differences in the rates of both VAT and excise duty. Any other obstacles are categorised as technical barriers (eg food compositional laws, additive regulations).

Farm livestock in the U.K. (i.e. Scotland, Wales, and England) enjoys a higher and less vulnerable health status than any country in the European Community (E.C.) other than Denmark and Ireland (Eire and Ulster). There are three main reasons for this. First, the physical barriers of the sea. Only Foot and Mouth disease (F.M.D.) is known to be able to blow across the Channel and then only under very limited climatic conditions. Second, the expertise of the veterinary arm of A.D.A.S., supported by laboratories such as the A.V.R.I, at Pirbright and the C.V.L. at Weybridge. Their ability to eradicate and/or control infectious disease has been well proven over many years. Third, the national control exercised over imports of live animals and animal products. Until now, of course, M.A.F.F. has been able to exercise an efficient safeguard.

To maintain this privileged position, all three factors would have to be maintained intact. The first, the barrier of the sea, would be difficult to erode. The channel tunnel will barely dent it.

The paper examines the implications of the completion of the EEC Single Internal Market by 1992 for the UK Dairy Industry. Four areas of change are considered, namely; physical, monetary, technical and cultural.

The paper deals with the development of trade in milk and dairy products since the UK's accession to the European Community and contemplates the changes to trade patterns that might develop post 1992.

The objective of the paper is to assess the overall structural and competitive implications for the UK pig industry of the EC Single Market; colloquially known as “1992”.

Particular attention is paid both to the effect of those changes in the commercial environment which 1992 will introduce and, secondly, to those aspects which differentiate the UK pig industry from its continental competitors. Analysis of these aspects will assist in drawing conclusions as to the likely effect of the Single Market and in determining an appropriate strategy for addressing the new situation.

A body of admittedly largely circumstantial evidence suggests that the UK pig producer believes the advent of the Single Market will have little relevance to the way in which he conducts his business. This view is buttressed by his perception of the agricultural world as governed by the workings of the Common Agricultural Policy which is regarded as the principle influence upon agriculture and its commercial fortunes.

Heat and aldehyde treatments have been widely used to protect proteins from degradation in the rumen, and conditions that lead to an undegradable, but still digestible, product (bypass protein; BP) have been determined. The problem with these treatments is that the conditions that are used are quite severe, and damage to amino acids, particularly lysine, occurs. Excessive treatment can also yield an indigestible product. Recently, an alternative method involving the heating of soybean meal under milder conditions (150°C, 1 h) in the presence of glucose, fructose, xylose or lactose (non-enzymatic browning) was shown to yield a product high in UDP, but in which the lysine was predicted to remain available to the host animal [1-3].

In the present experiments, casein was used as a homogeneous model substrate to investigate how wide a range of conditions can be used for effective treatment of proteins with sugars. Although casein is atypical in that it is one of the most rapidly degraded proteins available, the results point to a versatility in the sugar treatment process that will enable different sugars to be used according to the type of process available. Preliminary experiments with soybean meal suggested that an effective way of optimising this effect may be to encapsulate the protein supplement with a sugar-protein mix.

The majority of calves in Britain (2-3 m a year) are artificially reared and receive less milk than they would if suckled. It is therefore important that calves should develop early in life the ability to consume and digest solid food. Traditionally, calf starter diets are formulated to contain rapidly fermentable cereals as the major energy source, which is adult cattle cause a depression in rumen pH to below 5.5 and inhibits food intake (Fulton, Klopfenstein and Britton, 1979). In experiments which have demonstrated a beneficial effect on food intake from the inclusion of roughages in all pelleted diets based on cereals appear to be associated with the concurrent increase in rumen buffering capacity (Thomas and Hinks, 1982). The appetite of the calf may have been constrained by low fibre digestion (Williams, Innes, Brewer and Magadi, 1985) and the bulky characteristics of the roughage. Two experiments are reported in examining the potential of replacing the energy source, of calf diets, supplied by cereals with materials of high buffering ability, but without the bulky and indigestible characteristics of roughages. Expt 1 examined the effects of replacing rolled barley (RB) with molassed sugar beet feed (MSBF) or lucerne meal (LM). Expt 2 examined the factorial replacement of RB with MSBF.

Previous studies have shown a good correlation between the degradation characteristics of roughages as measured by the in sacco nylon bag technique, and their voluntary intake by sheep (Hovell et al. 1986), and cattle (Wheeler et al. 1979; Ørskov et al. 1988). The greater intakes of better roughages are associated with a greater outflow of undegraded residues from the rumen. We have also found that even when the roughages were ground to a particle size small enough to leave the rumen without further comminution, the differences in intake between good and poor remained. Thus the differences in intake were not entirely due to material degraded in the rumen, but were associated with differences in the outflow of undegraded residues from the rumen, and therefore some animal factor appeared to be involved. The greater outflow of undegraded residues of the more degradable roughages appeared not to be mediated by the contractile behaviour of the reticulo-rumen (Hovell et al. 1987; 1988).

Animal production is commonly reported to increase when different animal species are grazed together on the same pasture (Nolan and Connolly 1977). In such experiments there is often a difficulty with interpretation of results due to a failure to establish equal grazing pressures between species mixtures, and confounded production differences may result. The theory behind the design of mixed experiments continues to pose problems (Connolly and Nolan 1976, Connolly 1984).

The experiment reported here was designed to investigate whether, when different animal species are grazed at the same pressure, there are differences in animal intake and/or diet composition when they are grazed singly or in mixtures.

Nineteen, 18-month-old steers, 40 yearling wether goats and 40 10-month-old wether sheep were grazed in New Zealand on a mature summer ryegrass/white clover pasture (4550 kgDM/ha) in 5 treatments: cattle alone (CA), sheep alone (SA), goats alone (GA), and cattle with sheep (CS, SC) and cattle with goats (CG, GC).