Editorial Editorial
October
Details of conference themes and call for abstracts, call for
Animal Science and other Society Awards and nominations for the Management
Committee.
March/April
Annual Conference details and call for Animal Science Awards.
July
Report on the Annual Conference and calls for expressions of interest
in the theme, contracts session and Livestock Improvement Corporation Lecture
for the next Annual Conference.
It is also hoped to give more emphasis to Animal Science Award reports and the discussion of conference themes and the visions and perspectives of those involved in New Zealand agriculture. In this newsletter I have included an extract from an article giving consideration to how agriculture and food processing might alter our health, suggesting perhaps these sorts of cultural factors could be incorporated into the future of the Society. In subsequent newsletters the views of individual members will be solicited and will hopefully serve to broaden the scope of the debate about the future directions of the Society. Please feel free to submit your own views, particularly if they add new dimensions to those already published (novel contributions rather than responses dissenting with existing contributions are encouraged).
Finally, I would like to take the opportunity on behalf of the Society to acknowledge some of the individuals who continually help it function. In particular Sue Jones (newsletter), Claire Grant (media reports) and Craig Wright (Internet) are thanked for their work here in Otago.
Mark Fisher
Food Production, Nutrition and HealthBy the beginning of the Second World War, most of the vitamins had been discovered and there was a good understanding of general nutrition. In September 1939, the British Government, conscious of the debilitating effects of poor food on the fighting force in the First World War, created a Ministry of Food. They stressed the need to provide bread of high nutritional quality and argued for an increased consumption of potatoes, fresh green vegetables, oatmeal and cheese, as well as supplying not less than a pint of milk a day to expectant and nursing mothers and children up to the age of fifteen years, and increasing the intake of vitamins A and D through cod liver oil supply and fortification of margarine.
The aim was to secure the health and efficiency of the military and to ensure that women and children were prioritised. A team of nutritional scientists, economists and people from administrative backgrounds were gathered to deliver a publicity campaign and action programme, which ranged from recruitment of "land girls" and prisoners to work on farms, to revitalisation of Britains beehives, and to the turning of parks and gardens into grand vegetable gardens - literally "digging for victory". The priority was health.
Nutrition, health and economy were often found as co-partners; for example, every part of the wheat head was used to make a bread which was truly wholemeal. The variety of meats and fish eaten was widened. Strenuous efforts were made to ensure efficient transportation of food from the docks and throughout the country. The campaign was spectacularly successful and included a fall in the death rate from heart disease. This improvement in health was not due to privation because the population actually benefited from a much greater diversity of food than it might otherwise have enjoyed.
After the war, it was assumed that all the answers to nutrition and community health were known. The Ministry of Food and its work was disbanded. This is remarkable because there was an even greater call for the Ministry post-war. Whilst some foods were in short supply during the war, there was plenty to eat and the shortages of common foods often meant people ate a greater variety of food. After the end of the war, the "lease lend" financial support from the USA came to a halt but vegetable gardens were put back to flowers and the parks to grass and rose beds. Food shortages and rationing became a serious issue.
In response to the privations, the Ministry of Agriculture declared a target of cheap food. This meant fast growth, and emphasised quantity rather than quality. The increase in food production was aimed at filling stomachs but was without due regard to the health of the consumer and the environment. This policy was diametrically opposed to that of the scientific nutritional expertise which has seen the country through the war in better health than it had been for some time.
Cheap food was a fatal mistake. In our opinion, it was the single major cause of the progressive rise in nutrition-related diseases, such as heart disease, that occurred post-war. In the UK, mortality from heart disease rose, until Scotland recently achieved the distinction of first place in the international mortality league. In effect, the cheap food growth-driven policy led to over-production of energy-rich, nutrient-poor foods, ending in the bizarre situation of mountains of surplus food in Europe and the extraordinary policy of farmers being paid to set aside land from agricultural use.
NZSAP Award Nominations Animal Science Applications Animal Science Award Recipients
Congratulations to the following members who have recently received Animal Science Awards:
Eric Lord, AgResearch Invermay, to attend the 7th International Workshop
on the Identification of Transcribed Gene Sequences in California and visit
human genome research centres in the US.
Chris Burke, Dairying Research Corporation, Hamilton, to attend the
American Society of Animal Science and the Society for the Study of Reproduction
annual meetings as well as the 5th International Symposium on Reproduction in
Domestic Ruminants, all in the US. Chris will also explore opportunities for
PhD study in the US.
Jeremy Thompson, AgResearch Ruakura, to attend the International Embryo
Transfer Societys annual conference in Boston.
Chris Morris, AgResearch Ruakura, to attend the 6th World Congress on
Genetics Applied to Livestock Production at Armidale.
Animal Science Award ReportsJohn Hodgson, Massey University, attended the 18th International Grassland Congress in Winnipeg and Saskatoon, Canada, with a mid-Congress tour of crop and pasture land in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Technical sessions evaluated recent progress in research on aspects of foraging strategy in grazing animals, forage intake and the management of grazing systems. John found particular value in exchanges between temperate and tropical research programmes, and between researchers working in natural ecosystems and controlled studies with farm animals. These exchanges identified the specific need for focusing research attention on the interface between ingestive and digestive limits to forage intake in grazing ungulates as an important component of models of pastoral systems. The Congress programme also involved visits to "First Peoples" communities, and to sites of early European settlement. These all give a strong impression of a somewhat marginal agricultural activity, currently heavily dependent upon supported cropping programmes for survival, but with increasing interest in alternative pastoral programmes involving some return to traditional land management practices and animal species.
Cory Matthew, Massey University also attended the 18th International Grassland Congress in Canada, as well as visiting Utah State and Cornell Universities. Cory received instruction on AMMI (Additive main effect, multiplicative interaction) a relatively new and potentially important data analysis tool whereby data are compared across rows and columns in a matrix, adjusting means to selectively eliminate "noise" and recover "pattern". This results in the same effect as increasing the number of replicates in an experiment. The reduction in the standard error of the mean with AMMI analysis in one experiment was equivalent to having approximately three times as many plots (replicates) suggesting it may prove a powerful statistical technique for experimenters. Other highlights included viewing of the world-wide collection of native wheat grasses, a very large scale rain-out shelter for agronomic experiments and various forage plant drought-tolerance experiments.
Alastair Nicol, Lincoln University, attended the 18th International Grassland Congress in Canada as well. Perhaps one of the greatest things Alastair noted was the progress that the Canadian beef industry is making with the greater use of animal-harvested forages in their beef production systems. Their claim, that every time a forage is moved, e.g. carted in or out, it doubles the cost, has spurred action. Six weeks extra on-paddock grazing for beef cows is being obtained in the late-autumn, early-winter by growing a late crop of barley, windrowing this at the early dough stage just before the first frosts and snow and subsequently strip grazing the windrows. Round bales are left out around paddock perimeters rather than brought to a central feeding area. Windshelters are towed around the paddocks to the hay and cattle. This way, there is less cartage of the hay and no reverse cartage of the dung back to the paddocks. Lucerne is being grazed, by growing cattle over the short (100 day) spring/summer season with production of up to 500 kg liveweight gain/ha. An interesting field trip was to a community pasture administered by the Prairie Land Rehabilitation Authority. This federal organisation is charged with nursing marginal cropping areas which had been degraded back to lightly grazed native pasture.
Science FairsThe Society has, for a number of years, supported secondary school science fairs in Hamilton, Palmerston North, Christchurch and Dunedin by providing judges and prizes for exhibitors contributing projects involving animals. However, in many cases this support is not being well utilised and the Management Committee is currently investigating other ways of supporting science in schools. The exception is the Otago science fair where Grant Shackell was impressed with the number of different projects in awarding top prizes to the following exhibits in the junior, intermediate and senior categories for: What is the best method for checking bacteria on cleaned animal cages? by Katie Schofield and Kirby Leckie; Wool: champion insulator by Ben La Hood and Isaac Hills; and Amazing maze by Carl Sagstad and Govind Pillai. At the Waikato science fair, Steve Davis reported that only a handful of the 400 or so entries had an animal production theme. Prizes were given in the two younger age groups only, one to a marvellous exhibit from Ngaruawahia High School on quail farming, and the other to Chris Nicoll from Hamilton Boys High for an investigation into meat quality.
McMeekan Awards DisplayThe display featuring those who have received McMeekan Awards is currently being refurbished and will be re-erected in the McMeekan Centre at Ruakura shortly before Christmas. Any past awardees who would like their photographs updated, please contact Steve Davis at Ruakura.
Young Members AwardThe purpose of this award is to encourage a high standard of research planning, execution and of paper preparation and presentation by young members of the Society's Annual Conference. Eligibility for this award is restricted to the following:
1998 Annual ConferenceThe 1998 Annual Conference of the NZ Society of Animal Production will be held at Massey University's Palmerston North campus from 22-25 June. The Conference is be arranged around:
The Programme Committee will meet in early December to consider the abstracts and in mid-December successful authors will be invited to submit full papers by 8 March 1998. The full papers will be peer reviewed, revised (the deadline for the receipt of the revised paper will be 26 April 1998) and published prior to the annual conference. If an abstract is accepted by the Management Committee the author is committed to presenting the paper to the Conference and submitting the written paper for publication in the Conference Proceedings to the Editor by 8 March 1998. In the case of unavoidable withdrawal of a paper, the author must advise the Secretary in writing at the earliest possible date.
REMEMBER
| 1 DECEMBER 1997 | CLOSING DATE FOR ABSTRACTS |
|---|---|
| 8 MARCH 1998 | SUBMISSION OF FULL PAPERS |
| 26 APRIL 1998 | RECEIPT OF REVISED PAPERS |
Guidelines for the Preparation of AbstractsAbstracts are the basis on which the Management Committee accepts or rejects your offer of a paper(s) for presentation at the Conference. You will increase your chance of acceptance by complying with these guidelines. The abstract should be self contained, readable and easily understood by people not intimately involved in the field. You should emphasise not just the science of your work but also the value of it to the science and/or farming communities you are serving. The abstract should contain clear objectives, appropriate data (with statistical parameters such as standard error of means of probability estimates) and conclusions as appropriate. Unnecessary jargon and abbreviations, and information not relevant to the objectives and conclusions are to be avoided. Please ensure that:
Upcoming Events
Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, 11-16 January 1998
The Sixth World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production will be
held at University of New England, Armidale NSW, Australia. Further
details can be obtained from 6WCGALP, Livestock Industries Institute,
University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351 Australia.
Telephone: 61-67-733609 Fax: 61-67-733611
E-mail: 6wcgalp@mendel.une.edu.au
Web page: http://www.une.edu.au/~6wcgalp/
Animal Recording, 17-22 January 1998
The 31st International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) and an associated
INTERBULL meeting, of interest to those involved in animal recording and
genetic improvement of livestock, will take place in Rotorua. Further details
can be obtained from ICAR 98 Secretariat, Livestock Improvement Corporation
Ltd, Private Bag 3016, Hamilton. Telephone: 07 856 0901 Fax: 07 856 2428
E-mail: vsmith@ccm.livestock.org.nz
World Conference on Animal Production, 28 June-4 July 1998
The Eighth World Conference on Animal Production will be held at Seoul National
University, Seoul, Korea. For more information contact Dr Jong K. Ha, Chairman,
Organizing Committee, 8th WCAP, Dept. of Animal Science and Technology, Seoul
National University, Suweon, Korea 441-744. Telephone: 82-331-290-2348
or 292-0896, 0898 Fax: 82-331-292-3801 or 291-7722
E-mail:
jongha@plaza.snu.ac.kr
Homepage: http://plaza.snu.ac.kr/~wcap
Reproduction in Domestic Ruminants, 1-4 August 1998
The Fifth International Symposium on Reproduction in Domestic Ruminants
will be held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. Further information can
be obtained from Ms Kathy Thomas, Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
Lab, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Colorado 80523, USA.
Telephone: 001 970-491-5621 Fax: 001 970-491-3557
E-mail:
kthomas@cvmbs.colostate.edu
Nutrition of Herbivores, 11-16 April 1999
The 5th International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores to be held in
San Antonio Texas, is dedicated to an ecological approach to the nutrition of
herbivores and will focus on mechanistic concepts of the biological process that
comprise nutritional ecology. Further details can be obtained via the web site
home page ( http:// cnrit.tamu.edu/conf/isnh) or by contacting W.C. Ellis,
Department of Animal Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843;
Phone USA-409-845-5063
E-mail:
w-ellis@tamu.edu
International Society for Animal Genetics, 9-14 August 1998
The International Society for Animal Genetics meeting is to be held in Auckland.
Further details can be obtained from Dr Tom Broad, Invermay Agricultural Centre,
Private Bag 50034, Mosgiel, New Zealand.
Telephone: 03 489 3809 Fax: 03 489 9038
E-mail: broadte@agresearch.cri.nz
Animal Science and Production, 15-18 May 2000
The 9th Animal Science Congress of the Asian Australasian Association of Animal
Production Societies is to be held in Sydney in conjunction with the 23rd
Biennial Conference of the Australian Society of Animal Production. For more
information contact Dr Peter Wynn, Department of Animal Science, University of
Sydney, PMB3, Camden NSW 2570, Australia. Telephone: 61 46 55 0232
Fax: 61 46 55 2374
E-mail: peterw@camden.usyd.edu.au
Membership
The New Zealand Society of Animal Production warmly welcomes the following new members:
Meridith Longley Otago University
Sergio Garcia Massey University
Andreas Muenger Switzerland
Dean Revell Massey University
Joanne Stevenson-Barry AgResearch Invermay
Ceasar Pinares Palmerston North
Andrew Fisher AgResearch Ruakura
Colin Brown AgNZ Mosgiel
Barry Palmer AgResearch Lincoln
Bill Edgley Hamilton
Marcelo De Las Heras Argentina
Russell Hurst Oamaru
Alberto Torres-Rodriguez Mexico
Akilisa Yamada Japan
Gareth Bruce AgResearch Invermay
Sharon Harris DRC, Hamilton
Danielle Croke-Auldist AgResearch Ruakura
Ingrid McConochie Nelson
Richard Kramer AgResearch Palmerston North
Resignations were accepted from 19 members leaving a current membership of 516 (consisting of 18 Life Members, and 431 New Zealand and 67 overseas ordinary members).
Management CommitteeNominations are sought for the 1998-99 Management Committee of the Society. The Management Committee consists of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Immediate Past-President, Editor of Proceedings, Publicity Officer, Publications Officer, Internet Officer and two other elected members, all of whom shall be members of the Society. The AGM also elects the Auditor on the recommendation of the Committee. All offices except the President and Immediate Past-President are open for elelection. Nominations must be in the hands of the Executive Secretary by 1 December 1997.
Name of Nominee (Print):______________________________________________________
Signature of Nominee:______________________________________________ Date:__________________
Proposer (Print Name):_________________________________Signature:______________________
Seconder (Print Name):_________________________________Signature:______________________
About this issueThis Newsletter is compiled at AgResearch Invermay and copied and distributed by the Animal and Veterinary Sciences Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury.
An electronic version is available at: http://nzsap.rsnz.govt.nz/.
Any contributions should be forwarded to:
Mark Fisher
AgResearch, Invermay Agricultural Centre,
Private Bag 50034,
MOSGIEL
E-Mail: fisherm@agresearch.cri.nz
