The Cattle Industry Flashcards
1
Q
What is a Heifer?
A
A female bovine that has calved for first time
2
Q
What is a steer/bullock?
A
Male castrated bovine
3
Q
What is a springer?
A
Cow close to calving
4
Q
Average size of dairy herd
A
148 cows
5
Q
What is organic cattle production?
A
- Free-range; at pasture where possible
- Fewer pesticides
- Stricter policies on antibiotic usage
6
Q
CHeCHS
A
Cattle Health Certification Standards:
- can be accredited free of diseases (eg. BVD, lepto)
7
Q
Bovine Tuberculosis
A
A zoonotic chronic respiratory disease carried by badgers, deer, goats etc.
- Rare human cases
8
Q
Cattle identifictation
A
- All cattle births deaths and movements are recorded online by cattle tracing system (CTS)
- All cattle are registered with a passport
9
Q
Intensive Production
A
- Mainly housed
- Food brought to them
- Increased productivity
- Reduced production cost
- Smaller methane blueprint
10
Q
Extensive Production system
A
- Outdoor grazing
- Housed part of the year seasonally
- Less efficient
- Larger methane blueprint
11
Q
Measures of feeding behaviour
A
- feeding time
- meal duration
- meal frequency
- feeding rate
- rumination time
12
Q
Cow’s natural feeding behaviours
A
- Foraging is social behaviour during the daytime; small meals throughout the day- 4-9 hrs
- Feed together; higher feed intake, less variation in growth rate
13
Q
Importance of lying down
A
- ## 63-83% of rumination activity occurs whilst lying
14
Q
Access to feed in intensive systems
A
- Timing of feeds
-Feed space & hierarchy - Frequent small meals- rumen health
15
Q
What is TMR?
A
Total mixed ration
- all food in one wagon
- optimises food intakes
- minimises rumen pH changes
- more flexibility in types of feed
- can get incorrect weights and overmixing
16
Q
Storing feed
A
- Excess grass in spring/summer is cut and stored as hay or silage
- Can be fed in winter months
- Chop length; 2-3 cm
17
Q
Types of beef system
A
- Beef suckler herds
- Barley beef
18
Q
Beef suckler herd
A
- Cows calve in spring/autumn
- Born on farm; reared until weaned
- Separated from cows ~9 months; cows ready to calf again
- Slaughtered at 18 months old
19
Q
Barley beef
A
- Calves are bought and slaughtered at 10-12 months
20
Q
Rose veal
A
- Reared on solid food and milk supplement
- Slaughtered at <9 months old
21
Q
4 Sectors of beef production
A
- Pedigree breeding herds
- Commercial beef suckler herds
- Young stock rearing units
- Fattening units
22
Q
What is EBV?
A
Estimated breeding value
- indicates how much better or worse an animal is compared to an average animal in the breed
- index of 100 is average
23
Q
Available beef EBVs
A
- gestation length
- calving ease
- birthweight
- 200 day weight
- 400 day weight
- muscle score
- fat depth
- beef value
24
Q
Commercial beef suckler herd
A
- Herd producing young stock destined for slaughter
- Calved in spring/autumn
- spring calving; based on grass grazing- calves weaned in autumn
- autumn calving; need conserved forages- weaned at summer
- compact calving season
25
what is BCS?
Body condition score; 1-5 scale
1 is underweight
5 is overweight
26
What is a fattening unit?
- Take young stock from suckler herd or rearing unit and fatten them for slaughter
- 4 main phases (backgrounding, transition, growing, finishing)
- these phases allow gradual transition from forage based to concentrate based diets- minimise risk of acidosis
27
Carcase grading
S superior
E excellent
U very good
R good
O fair
P poor
28
Injection techniques in cattle
- Visible injection sites called injection knots in meat
- Infected injections sites can cause abscesses
29
Vaccinations required for beef cattle
- Clostridial diseases
- BVD
- Leptospirosis
- IBR
30
How does farmers pay vary, dairy farm
- Volume; effected by feed and breed
- Solids; "
- Quality; somatic cell count (udder health) and bacteria counts (hygeine)
31
Types of dairy farming systems
- Extensive grass based systems
- Intensive housed systems
- Combination systems
32
Carbon footprint of dairy farming, whats released?
- methane
- nitrogen oxide
- nitrogen (in fertiliser)
- phosphorus (")
33
What is a KPI?
Key performance indicators
- looks at procedures
- outcomes
- targets
34
Normal Parturition
- 1st stage; cows show discomfort (4-24 hours)
- 2nd stage; abdominal straining, calf delivered (0.5-3 hours)
- 3rd stage; placenta expelled (within 12 hours)
35
Protocols at birth of calf
- Navel iodine
- Weight at birth
- ID tags
36
Colostrum's importance for calfs
- Vital in avoiding neonatal disease
- Born agammaglobulinemic
- Contains high conc. of immuno-globulins
- Only absorbed in the intestine in first 0-24 hours
37
Milk replacer feeding
- Ideally feed transition milk for 3 days; increase antibody levels
- Move onto milk replacer, min. 3L per day
38
Calf digestive development
- Functioning rumen at 6-8 weeks
- Fully developed at 12 weeks
- Milk-fed veal calves have no papillae development in rumen
- Papillae development needs fibre and VFAs
39
Calf weaning
- Step-weaned off milk
- At age 8-10 weeks
- At least double birth weight
40
Culling of dairy cows
- Average rate is ~20-25%
- Main reasons; infertility, mastitis and lameness
- Replacements can be brought in or home bred
41
Flight Zones and Balance Point
- Herd animals move away when a potential threat enters the flight zone
- Balance point; shoulder, move in front makes cattle go back behind moves them forward
42
Feeding at dry cow stage
- Fill rumen without excess energy
- Hay and straw
- Low potassium
- Low calcium high magnesium
43
Feeding at the transition stage
Weight of rumen increases by 50%
Supports growth of calf and compensate for reduced DMI
44
Calcium homeostasis
- Inability to adapt metabolism to release enough calcium for milk production
45
Profitable Lifetime index
Additional profit of a high PLI bull from each of its milking daughters over her lifetime compared to average of 0
