Current situation and future prospects for the Australian beef industry - A review.

Beef production extends over almost half of Australia, with about 47,000 cattle producers that contribute about 20% ($A12.7 billion gross value of production) of the total value of farm production in Australia. Australia is one of the world's most efficient producers of cattle and was the world's third largest beef exporter in 2016. The Australian beef industry had 25 million head of cattle in 2016-17, with a national beef breeding herd of 11.5 million head. Australian beef production includes pasture-based cow-calf systems, a backgrounding or grow-out period on pasture, and feedlot or pasture finishing. Feedlot finishing has assumed more importance in recent years to assure the eating quality of beef entering the relatively small Australian domestic market, and to enhance the supply of higher value beef for export markets. Maintenance of Australia's preferred status as a quality assured supplier of high value beef produced under environmentally sustainable systems from 'disease-free' cattle is of highest importance. Stringent livestock and meat quality regulations and quality assurance systems, and productivity growth and efficiency across the supply chain to ensure price competiveness, are crucial for continued export market growth in the face of increasing competition. Major industry issues, that also represent research, development and adoption priorities and opportunities for the Australian beef industry have been captured within exhaustive strategic planning processes by the red meat and beef industries. At the broadest level, these issues include consumer and industry support, market growth and diversification, supply chain efficiency, productivity and profitability, environmental sustainability, and animal health and welfare. This review provides an overview of the Australian beef industry including current market trends and future prospects, and major issues and opportunities for the continued growth, development and profitability of the industry.

Are hungry sheep more pessimistic? The effects of food restriction on cognitive bias and the involvement of ghrelin in its regulation.

Food restriction is considered to be a welfare issue in extensively reared animals. However, the effects of food restriction on the affective state, and its physiological regulation, are unknown. In Experiment 1, we aimed to assess the effects of increased plasma concentrations of acyl-ghrelin on judgement bias (an indicator of affective states) by fasting sheep for 24h or by ghrelin administration. In Experiment 2, we aimed to assess the effects of chronic food restriction on judgement bias and attention bias towards a food-related cue. For the judgement bias test, sheep were trained in an arena to approach a positive location cue associated with conspecifics and not approach a negative location cue associated with a dog. Three non-trained, non-reinforced ambiguous location cues were situated between the positive and negative locations. Attention bias towards a food-related cue was assessed by placing an empty food bucket against the wall of the arena halfway between the entry point and the positive location. In Experiment 1, sheep were divided into three treatments; 24h fast, ghrelin administration or control. Judgement bias, locomotor activity and plasma cortisol concentrations were assessed. The ghrelin treated group tended to express a more pessimistic bias compared to the control group (P<0.1), and plasma cortisol concentrations tended to be increased (P<0.1). In Experiment 2, sheep were subjected to a high feeding level (HF) or low feeding level (LF) for 7days. The LF group tended to show a more optimistic judgement bias (P<0.1). When the food-related cue was presented, LF ewes took longer to reach the positive location (P<0.001), spent longer with their head inside the bucket (P<0.001) and more time interacting with the bucket (P<0.01). This study provides preliminary evidence that food restriction alters judgement bias and attention bias towards a food-related cue which may indicate altered affective states of sheep.

A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field Index.

Schemes for the assessment of farm animal welfare and assurance of welfare standards have proliferated in recent years. An acknowledged short-coming has been the lack of impact of these schemes on the welfare standards achieved on farm due in part to sociological factors concerning their implementation. Here we propose the concept of welfare performance based on a broad set of performance attributes of an enterprise and describe a tool based on risk assessment and benchmarking methods for measuring and managing welfare performance. The tool termed the Unified Field Index is presented in a general form comprising three modules addressing animal, resource, and management factors. Domains within these modules accommodate the principle conceptual perspectives for welfare assessment: biological functioning; emotional states; and naturalness. Pan-enterprise analysis in any livestock sector could be used to benchmark welfare performance of individual enterprises and also provide statistics of welfare performance for the livestock sector. An advantage of this concept of welfare performance is its use of continuous scales of measurement rather than traditional pass/fail measures. Through the feedback provided via benchmarking, the tool should help farmers better engage in on-going improvement of farm practices that affect animal welfare.

Altered fatty acid metabolism in long duration road transport: An NMR-based metabonomics study in sheep.

The physical, endocrine, and metabolic responses of livestock to road transport have been evaluated by conventional hematological and biochemistry parameters for more than 20 years. However, these measures are relatively insensitive to subtle metabolic adaptations. We applied NMR-based metabonomics to assess system-wide metabolic responses as expressed in urine and serum of a large cohort of animals (n = 80) subjected to 12 and 48 h road transport. The profiling of (1)H NMR spectra revealed that the transported animals experienced altered gut and energy metabolism, muscle catabolism, and possibly a renal response. The animals transported for 48 h exhibited a deeper metabolic response to the transport event and a complex and expanded metabolic trajectory over the 72 h recovery period. Intriguingly, excretion of acyl glycines and a dicarboxylic acid was observed after transport and during recovery, implicating peroxisomal fatty acid oxidation as a metabolic response to transport-induced stress.

Short-term maternal psychological stress in the post-conception period in ewes affects fetal growth and gestation length.

Fetal development can be influenced by maternal environment in the peri-conceptional period. This study investigated the effect of maternal feed intake and psychological stress within the first 6 days after conception on embryo development and fetal growth. Superovulated ewes (n=40) were artificially inseminated with semen from one ram. Ewes were then divided into four groups (n=10): group 1 (control) was fed at maintenance level, group 2 (high) at 2x maintenance, and group 3 (low) at 0.5x maintenance on days 2-6 after conception. Group 4 (stress) was fed at maintenance level and then an intense physical and psychological stress challenge was applied for 1 h only on days 2 and 3 after conception. Embryos were recovered at day 6. A total of 113 transferable grade embryos were transferred singly into synchronized untreated recipients, while the remaining embryos (n=165) were fixed and stained for cell counts. Post-conception maternal stress or feed intake did not alter the cell count or grade of day 6 embryos. Fetuses from the stress group had longer crown-rump lengths at day 30 and longer femur length at day 58. Fetuses from the stressed and high feed groups had greater abdominal circumferences at day 85. Subsequent birth weights were not significantly different. Ewes carrying lambs from the stress treatment had shorter gestation lengths. These results show that short-term perturbations of the post-conception maternal environment have measurable effects on fetal development and gestation length.