Juniper Publishers Journal of Dairy and Veterinary Sciences

Journal of Dairy & Veterinary Sciences - Juniper Publishers   Introduction Intensive and semi-intensive dairy farms invest in automatic milking systems motivated by increased milk production per goat. Milking frequency is an important factor determining milk yield and quality of dairy goats that requires adequate feeding, welfare, health and environmental conditions [ 1 ]. The potential advantage of increased milking frequency for milk production and composition used to be main reason for applying this kind of management; nowadays, however, the production model that takes priority is one known as "low cost, high return"[ 1 ]. Since more frequent milking requires more variable costs, knowledge about the real increment of production per goat under a double milking system is necessary to decide if this practice will be adequate for each dairy system. For the twice daily milking frequency, increases in milk production of 6-...

Towards a Sustainable Reproductive Sheep Management: Use of Photoperiod-Treated Rams to Increase Lamb Production in an Organic Farm Authored by José-Alfonso Abecia The aim of this experiment was to determine the effect of the exposure of 45 days of long days without exogenous melatonin, on the results of a ram effect in June in a Churra sheep organic farm. Eight rams were divided into two groups, so that half of them exposed to 45 days of long days (16 h of light/day) from 15 Apr to 31 May (Artificial photoperiod, AP rams), and the remaining rams were under the natural photoperiodic conditions (NP rams). On 15 June, rams were introduced in two groups of ewes, which had previously been isolated from rams: AP-group (n=72), mated with AP rams, and NP-group (n=72), mated with NP rams. Proportion of ewes pregnant (fertility) was significantly higher in the AP-group of ewes (68%), compared with the NP-group (42%) (P<0.001). No differences between groups were observe...