This book is the first detailed and comprehensive guide to the use of feedpads in the dairy industry, from planning and construction to day-to-day management, written especially for farmers. With ongoing droughts and access to water driving up the cost of conserved forages and feeding concentrates, feedpads offer flexible and efficient systems to maximise returns on feeding expensive supplements to grazing dairy cows, and form part of the risk management strategy for dairy farms. Feedpads for Grazing Dairy Cows covers all the aspects of animal husbandry involved in running a successful system and addresses key issues such as formulating rations to balance grazed pasture, management of farm labour and effluent management. The key principles of dairy nutrition are explained along with the concept of partial mixed rations and the range of potential ingredients. The authors also cover the physical features of feedpad design and construction and provide a checklist for planning a feedpad. They discuss important issues such as cow welfare, animal health and the management of effluent, including cleaning the pad, storing and recycling these solids and liquids on farm while minimising feedpad odours, flies and vermin. This book demonstrates a wide range of long-term economic benefits and will play an important role in helping dairy farmers achieve higher farm profitability.

The main theme of this year’s congress is 'Animal lives worth living'. This theme focuses on our responsibility for all animals kept or influenced by humans, to ensure that we can provide a life for them that takes into account all relevant aspects of animal welfare, aided by applied ethology as the key scientific discipline. This not only means avoiding and alleviating suffering but also promoting resilience and positive experiences. By monitoring and interpreting animal behaviour, we gain important insights into each of these aspects of quality of life.

Dairy consumption in Asia has more than doubled over the last 25 years, and has led to more than 50% of the world’s total dairy imports now entering Asian markets. Consequently, Asian countries are seeking to improve their self-sufficiency in dairy produce by developing their local milk industries. Asian livestock importers are looking for increasing numbers of high grade dairy stock from established dairy industries in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, a major problem encountered throughout Asia has been the poor performance of these exotic high grade dairy heifers when exported from their country of origin to a new, more stressful environment. This has been due to a failure to prepare for their introduction. Exotic dairy cows, particularly those from farms with high levels of herd performance, have high management requirements. If subjected to local and traditional small holder dairy farm practices, they are unlikely to produce acceptable yields of milk or may not even get back into calf. Poor management practices can lead to low growth rates, delayed breeding, stock diseases and even deaths among imported stock both before and after first calving. Managing High Grade Dairy Cows in the Tropics addresses the entire range of management practices found on tropical small holder dairy farms, highlighting those which are likely to adversely impact on heifer and cow performance, hence farm profitability. It is a companion volume to three other manuals written by John Moran: Rearing Young Stock on Tropical Dairy Farms in Asia, Tropical Dairy Farming and Business Management for Tropical Dairy Farmers.

Blueprints for Tropical Dairy Farming provides insight into the logistics, infrastructure and management required for the development of small and large dairy farms in tropical developing countries. Farmers will learn how to improve the welfare, milk quality and productivity of their dairy herds. This book complements author John Moran’s five previous books on the principles of tropical dairy farming. The manual covers a wide range of topics related to ensuring the sustainability of dairy production systems in tropical developing countries, such as South and East Asia, Africa and Central America. It also provides guidelines for the best management practices of large-scale, more intensive dairy systems. While smallholder farms are the major suppliers of milk in the tropics, many larger farms are becoming established throughout the tropics to satisfy the increasing demands for fresh milk. Blueprints for Tropical Dairy Farming will be a valuable resource for farmers and stockpeople who want to improve the productive performance of their dairy herds, farm advisers who can assist farmers to achieve this aim, educators who develop training programs for farmers or who train dairy advisers in the basics of dairy production technology, and other stakeholders in tropical dairy production, such as local agribusiness, policy makers and research scientists. National and international agencies will learn new insights into the required long-term logistics for regional dairy development, while potential investors will acquire knowledge into intensive tropical dairy farming.

The aim of this manual is to improve the welfare of dairy cattle in tropical developing countries, and by doing so, optimise cow and herd performance. It gives the stockmen and farmers directly concerned with the cattle a better understanding of animal behaviour and the ways cattle communicate their comfort or distress. The book discusses normal cattle behaviour and shows how domestication and breeding can affect behaviour to achieve high levels of production of milk, live weight gain and fertility. Animal welfare is important for producers because it can affect the health, production and contentment of cows. Animal welfare practices which adversely affect cow and herd performance on tropical small holder dairy farms are identified. Advice is then given to change the animal's environment or modify a handler's technique to ensure cattle have the degree of comfort needed to achieve more profitable and sustainable systems of livestock farming. Cow Talk will be a beneficial resource for farmers who want to improve animal welfare, farm advisers who can assist farmers to improve their welfare practices, educators who develop training programs for farmers and dairy advisers, and other stakeholders in tropical dairy production such as local agribusiness, policy makers and research scientists.

Rearing young stock for replacement heifers is probably one of the least well understood and practised aspects of herd and feeding management on dairy farms throughout the world, particularly on small holder dairy farms in the tropics. This book addresses all the major concerns of the small holder dairy farmer in Asia. It shows how to attain optimal growth in young stock, so that as cows, they can calve at an appropriate early age at the lowest cost and promptly substitute for any cows culled from the milking herd. This provides continuing returns on the investments of feed, labour and other farm resources. Low reproductive rates and high calf mortality are the major causes of reproductive wastage. This has a direct bearing on culling and replacement strategies and on genetic improvement. In many tropical countries, calf mortality can be as high as 50%. In some areas this can be due to climatic stress on temperate or crossbred stock. While climatic stress compounds the other hazards of calf life, high calf mortality is usually due to diseases and poor feeding management. Rearing Young Stock on Tropical Dairy Farms in Asia encourages the small holder dairy farmer to maintain their investment in replacement heifers and gives them the tools necessary to achieve realistic targets for mortalities, live weight gain, mating age, and age and live weight at first calving. It is a companion volume to three previous manuals written by John Moran: Tropical Dairy Farming, Business Management for Tropical Dairy Farmers and Managing High Grade Dairy Cows in the Tropics.

Advances in Agronomy, Volume 145, the latest in a series that is recognized as a leading reference and first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy presents new chapters that focus on A Chinese Model for the Planet, Allelopathic Potential of Sorghum Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench in Weed Control: A Comprehensive Review, Weed Dynamics and Management in Wheat, Improving Soil Health and Human Protein Nutrition by Pulses-Based Cropping Systems, and Potential Hotspot Areas of Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Grazed Pastoral Dairy Farm Systems. Each volume in this regularly updated series contains an eclectic group of reviews by leading scientists. - Includes numerous, timely, state-of-the-art reviews on the latest advancements in agronomy - Features distinguished, well recognized authors from around the world - Builds upon this venerable and iconic review series - Covers the extensive variety and breadth of subject matter in the crop and soil sciences