RSS 1.0Céad Mile Fáilte go T-Stór (Welcome to T- Stór)
T-Stór is Teagasc’s Open Access Repository, maintained by the Teagasc Library Service. Stór is the Gaelic word for Repository or Store or Warehouse, and T-Stór is an online “store” of Teagasc Research outputs and related documents. T-Stór collects preserves and makes freely available scholarly communication, including peer-reviewed articles, working papers and conference papers created by Teagasc researchers. Where material has already been published it is made available subject to the open-access policies of the original publishers. About Teagasc
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Prepubertal nutrition alters Leydig cell functional capacity and timing of pubertyLeydig cell functional capacity reflects the numbers and differentiation status of the steroidogenic Leydig cells in the testes and becomes more or less fixed in early adulthood with the final establishment of the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis after puberty. Factors influencing Leydig cell functional capacity and its role in puberty are poorly understood. Using a bovine model of dairy bulls fed four different nutritional regimes from 1 month to 12 months, and applying circulating Insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3) as an accurate biomarker of Leydig cell functional capacity, showed that a high plane of nutrition in the first 6 months of life, but not later, significantly increased INSL3 in young adulthood. Moreover, INSL3 concentration at 4 months indicated a marked differential in early feeding regime and correlated well (negatively) with the timing of puberty, as reflected by the age in days for the first production of an ejaculate with >50 million sperm and >10% forward motility, as well as with testis size at 18 months. Reversing the diet at 6 months was unable to rectify the trend in either parameter, unlike for other parameters such as testosterone, body weight, and scrotal circumference. This study has shown that early prepubertal nutrition is a key factor in the development of Leydig cell functional capacity in early adulthood and appears to be a key driver in the dynamic progression of puberty.
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Measuring the impact of improved animal health practices on the economic efficiency of Irish dairy farmsCost and production efficiency gains must be achieved across herds if the Irish dairy sector is to prosper in a post-quota environment. As such, improvements in animal health are required and the costs of diseases such as mastitis must be reduced. Elevated levels of somatic cell count (SCC) found in milk are an indicator of the prevalence of clinical and subclinical mastitis in dairy herds. Given an EU regulatory limit of 400,000 (cells/mL) (Council Directive 92/46/EEC), the adverse effect of the disease on milk quality and the increasing practice of milk processors offering financial incentives for reduced cell count levels, the benefits of improved farm management practices resulting in lowered SCC are quantified here at the farm-level. Teagasc National Farm Survey data from over 300 nationally representative Irish dairy farms over a four year period (2008-2011) is utilised in the analysis. Preliminary regression results from a pooled OLS model indicate that a cell count reduction of 100,000 (cells/mL) results in an increase in gross margin of 6% or €87 per cow when all other pertinent factors are controlled for. The efficacy of herd management practices such as milk recording in improving animal health was also confirmed within the model. A cell count reduction of 17% was found as a result of milk recording within the herd, when all other variables were taken into account.
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Self-Agglomeration in Fluidised Beds after Spray DryingMany powders are produced in spray-drying processes from liquid concentrates. Self-agglomeration can be performed in a fluidised bed where the spray-dried powder is agglomerated using the liquid concentrate as the binder material. This has advantages over traditional wet agglomeration in fluid beds using liquid binders (such as water or sugar solutions). These include thermal energy savings and no additional non-aqueous binder components added. The work presented has two parts. The first part is experimental, which investigated the self-agglomeration of whey protein isolate (WPI) powder as a case-study. It showed that satisfactory agglomeration was achieved with a great improvement in the wettability of the powder. The second part of the work performed thermal energy analysis to estimate the energy saving potential of self-agglomeration, and how this is influenced by binder to powder ratio and binder solids concentration. For the WPI case-study, the analysis showed there is potential for a 19% saving in thermal energy requirement for self-agglomeration in comparison to traditional agglomeration using a water binder.
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Factors affecting ewe longevity on sheep farms in three European countriesThe ability to identify ewes that can outperform their contemporaries, in terms of how long they remain productive in the flock, will help towards improving flock efficiency and profitability. The main objectives of this study were to: (1) identify the main reasons for mortality or culling within diverse sheep production systems in Ireland, Norway and UK; (2) investigate the influence of early life factors on ewe longevity within each of these systems; and (3) determine whether common approaches or recommendations could be employed to improve ewe longevity. The main reasons for mortality or culling were, in addition to old age, mastitis (Irish and Norwegian sheep) and tooth loss (UK hill sheep). In each country, there were significant differences in age at last lambing due to the year the ewe was born (but in no consistent pattern), and due to her flock of birth (P < 0.05). From the Norwegian data, there was some indication ewes from younger dams lambed for the last time at a younger age, however, this trend was not seen in the Irish or UK data. Ewes born as singletons, in the Irish data, lambed for the last time at an older age than those that had been born in larger litters, although this was not observed in the other data sets. Age at first lambing and some breed proportions (proportion of Texel and Suffolk particularly) of the animal (both not fitted in the Norwegian or UK analyses) were found to have a highly significant (P < 0.0001) effect on age at last lambing in the Irish analyses. The results suggest that longevity is influenced by a range of different factors and the early life predictors investigated could not be used to provide consistent recommendations across countries, production systems and breeds that would influence ewe longevity. One common definition or solution to select ewes for longer productive life in divergent sheep flocks may not be appropriate.
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Evaluation of the n-alkane technique for estimating the individual intake of dairy cows consuming diets containing herbage and a partial mixed rationEstimation of dry matter intake (DMI) using the n-alkane technique was evaluated in lactating dairy cows fed fresh herbage and a partial mixed ration (PMR). Four dietary treatments were investigated in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment using 16 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. Dietary treatments were combinations of low and high amounts of fresh herbage (8 or 14 kg DM/cow per day) and PMR supplement (6 or 12 kg DM/cow per day). The pre-experimental period was 14 days followed by a 10-day experimental period. Cows were housed in individual metabolism stalls to allow for accurate measurement of DMI and total fecal output. Fecal n-alkane recovery rates were calculated to determine the most accurate corrections for incomplete fecal n-alkane recovery. The n-alkane technique accurately estimated DMI when corrected for incomplete fecal recovery using both published recovery rates and recovery rates calculated in this experiment. The most accurate application of recovery rates was with those calculated for each combination of dietary treatments, compared with using an average recovery rate. This research has important implications for the future use of the n-alkane technique, especially in PMR feeding systems. The discrepancy between estimated (when treatment recovery rates were applied) and measured herbage DMI increased with the amount of herbage offered but was not affected by amount of PMR. It was also found that the recovery rates of all natural n-alkanes increased as the amount of herbage increased. This research demonstrates that the n-alkane technique can be used to accurately estimate individual cow intake when fresh herbage and PMR are offered separately, evidenced by strong Lin’s concordance estimates.
