Editorial EditorialGraham Barrell
A note from the PresidentOn behalf of NZSAP, I attended the 8th World Conference on Animal Production in Seoul, Korea and a meeting of the Management Committee of AAAP from June 28 to 4 July. The WCAP was interesting for the people met rather than the information gained. I had the distinct impression that many of the papers delivered would have been better presented by members of NZSAP as I was able to compare the standard of presentation and content with our conference the previous week. It seemed to me that many of our colleagues in other countries would learn and benefit from the concerns for standard of delivery of information shown by NZSAP presenters.
As you will know, the next AAAP conference is to be in Sydney in the year 2000, from 30 April to 5 May. The conference is scheduled to follow the Sydney Royal Easter Show. NZSAP has been asked to organise a contract on Deer Production for an afternoon session. Contributed papers on other aspects of animal science- production will be called for in early 1999.
I was very pleased to have the opportunity to represent NZSAP at these meetings. One has to say the first perks of the job of President did not take long to arrive, i.e. elected Wednesday, away on trip Friday of the same week!!
Dennis Elvidge
Industry speakers at the 1998 annual conferenceWed 24 June- Meat industry
Thu 25 June - Wool and pelt industries
Award recipients
SIR ARTHUR WARD AWARD:
Landcorp Farming Limited for excellence in the application of scientific principles applied to animal production. The company, which is New Zealand’s largest farming operation is a State Owned Enterprise currently farming 101 sheep and beef, and 25 dairy units with a total of 1.52m stock units. In managing their large and complex mix of enterprises, the company have effectively incorporated scientific principles in a range of areas, particularly performance recording and genetic improvement. These in combination with good practical judgement, have resulted in a progressive improvement in the overall productivity and profitability of their core business - livestock farming.
LIFE MEMBERSHIPS:
Dudley Cameron Lane for services to the New Zealand Dairy Industry.
Kenneth Eric Jury for services to research and development within New Zealand livestock industries.
YOUNG MEMBER’S AWARD:
This year the judges found it impossible to separate the two leading contenders for the Young Member’s Award. Consequently two awards were made.
The winners were:
Justine McGrath - Her paper was "Using nitrogen fertiliser to increase dairy farm profitability" by J M McGrath, J W Penno, K A Macdonald and W A Carter from the Dairying Research Corporation at Hamilton. Justine has a B Ag Sc (Hons) from Massey University and has worked as a LIC Advisory Consulting Officer on the West Coast of the South Island and in Hawkes Bay. She is currently employed as a Scientist by the Dairying Research Corporation.
Fiona Miller - Her paper was "The role of cysteine in the increased parasite susceptibility of Romney sheep selected for hogget fleece-weight" by F M Miller, H T Blair, G W Reynolds and D K Revell from the College of Sciences at Massey University. Fiona hails from Cambridge and has completed B Sc and B Appl Sc (Hons) degrees at Massey University.
JUBILEE UNIVERSITY AWARD:
Jubilee University awards to the leading third year undergraduate students in Animal Science during 1997 at the two Agricultural Universities were awarded to:-
| Claire Cooper | Massey University |
|---|---|
| Nancy-Jane Urquhart | Lincoln University |
NZSAP SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AWARD:
This new award was inaugurated at the Annual Conference this year. It
seeks to acknowledge the best conference paper, judged in terms of
progress made. Judging was a relatively simple process in that each
paper was examined for evidence of progress relative to the knowledge
base before the work was done. While this has an element of
subjectivity, there was good agreement between the judges as to the top
five papers and these were appraised from the presentations and with a
bit of digging behind the scenes.
In the judges’ opinion, the best paper was - "A candidate gene marker for bloat susceptibility in cattle?" by Tom Wheeler, Brendan Haigh, Dick Wilkins, Judy McCracken and Chris Morris which was presented by Tom Wheeler of Dairy Science Group, AgResearch Ruakura. The authors will now have to sort out how to share the cheque for $250. Congratulations to the winners.
Letter to the Newsletter Editor
Dear Sir,
To represent fairly the contribution of the beef and dairy industries to anything other than numbers, requires crediting the beef harvested to the industry which produced it. Thanks to Paul’s clear documentation of the assumptions he made, this is an easy exercise, i.e. - credit the bobby calf equivalent carcass weight of all Friesian bulls (less say 5000 per annum, as genuine adult cull bulls from the dairy industry) and dairy x beef steer and heifers/cows to the dairy industry, and their carcass gain from birth to slaughter to the beef industry.
This re-analysis shows that although 67% of the animals harvested each year may have originated from the dairy industry, the beef industry produced 86% of the beef.
Alastair Nicol, Lincoln University
31 July 1998
Note from Editor - Paul Charteris did not exercise his right of reply to this letter.
Annual subscriptions and membership
Members: The 1998 annual subscription is now due! For full members from N.Z. and Australia the fee is NZ$50 (reduced to NZ$25 for student and retired members). Members residing overseas (except Australia) pay US$50.
All members received an account (yellow sheet) for their fees with the last newsletter.
The 1998 Proceedings have been sent to those who have paid their 1998 subscriptions. If you want a copy - pay your subscription!
NZSAP now has the facilities to accept payment via credit cards.
This can be done by submission of the card Name; card Number; card Type and card Expiry Date by either mail, fax, or Email to the NZSAP Executive Secretary detailing what and who the payment is for and including contact postal addresses and phone/fax numbers etc.
CARD SWIPE facilities for these two cards will be available at future meetings.
Payment by Electronic transfer is also available to some clients but these are only accepted under strict conditions. Contact Lynne Smith for further details.
Non-members: An invitation is extended to those involved in the field of Animal Production to apply for membership in the New Zealand Society of Animal Production. The Society is concerned with all aspects of Animal Production and in particular:
| Peter Bodecker | LIC, Hamilton | Claire Cooper | Palmerston North |
| Girish Upreti | AgResearch, Hamilton | Jo Wrigley | Palmerston North |
Resignations were accepted from the following 5 members:
Bruce Kyle, Judi McCracken, David Nation, Roberto Sainz, Stephen Woolly
Occasional Publications
Reproductive Management of Grazing Ruminants in New Zealand
Edited by E. D. Fielden and J. F. Smith
Substantial knowledge from New Zealand based research on managing reproductive performance within the herd or flock is a key element to the improved efficiency of New Zealand farming systems.
This knowledge is drawn together within this publication.
A multi-author approach has been used and all authors are experts in their particular field.
This publication of 220 pages contains chapters on:-
Hormonal Control of the Reproductive Processes; Comparative
Reproductive Performance; Seasonal Factors Influencing Reproductive
Management; Modifying Reproductive Processes; Reproductive Management of
Dairy Cattle; Sheep; Beef Cattle; Deer; Goats; Camelids; Monitoring
Reproductive Performance as an Aid to Management; Future Developments in
Reproductive Technology for Livestock Species; and has been aimed at
all those with a serious interest in the efficient reproductive
management of domestic ruminants in New Zealand.
See the Occassion Publications page for prices and ordering information.
 
The NZSAP is offering a special package deal of:-
for NZ$50 (Australia,NZ and Pacific) or US$50 (Rest of The World)...a saving of $25.
See the Occassion Publications page for ordering information.
Wool Technology and
Sheep BreedingThis journal, previously published by the University of New South Wales, is now published by the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ). Members of the New Zealand sheep and wool industries, from farmers to scientists, are invited to subscribe and/or contribute, with original articles dealing with on-farm production, handling, transport, early-stage processing and marketing of wool, and all aspects of sheep breeding and husbandry in Australia and New Zealand. For further details, contact the Editor, Dr David Cottle, WRONZ, Private Bag 4749, Christchurch, New Zealand. Phone 03 325 2421 Fax 03 325 2717 E-mail Cottle@wronz.org.nz
Upcoming Events
Quality Food and Fibre, 24-26 August 1998
"Dimensions of quality in food and fibre production" is the theme of the NZ Institute of Agricultural Science/NZ
Society for Horticultural Science/NZ Agronomy Society National Science Convention in Hawke’s Bay. For
further details contact Susan Fitzgerald, Hawke’s Bay Research Centre, HortResearch, Private Bag 1401,
Havelock North. Phone: 06 877 8196; Fax: 06 877 4761;
E-mail: natsci.convention@hort.cri.nz
Meat Science and Technology, 30 August - 4 Septmber 1998
The 44th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology with the theme of "Meat
consumption and culture" is to be held in Barcelona, Spain. Contact the Congress Secretariat,
AOPC - ICoMST 1998, Edif Colon,
Av. Drassanes 6-8, E-08001 Barcelona, Spain.
Phone: (34) 93 302 7541; Fax: (34) 93 302 1255; E-mail: aopc@ncsa.es
Farm Animal Endocrinology, 7-10 December 1998
The Third International Conference is to be held in Gembloux, Belgium, and includes a special topic on the
somatotrophic axis. Further details can be obtained from University of Agronomy, Molecular Biology & Animal
Physiology Dept, 13 Avenue Marechal Juin, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium. Phone: 32(0)81-622418;
Fax: 32(0)81 613888;
E-mail: gh.igf@fsagx.ac.be;
Website: www.fsagx.ac.be/gh_igf/
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, Texas 77843, USA;
Phone USA 409-845 5063; E-mail: w-ellis@tamu.edu.
For registration details contact Ms Caroline Adkins, Secretary, 5th International
Herbivore Symposium, Department of Animal Science, Texas A & M University, College Station,
Texas, USA 77843-2471; Phone USA 409 845 5214, Fax USA 409 845 5292; Email:
caroline-adkins@ansc.tamu.edu.
Satellite Symposia:
NZSAP Annual Conference 1999Venue Otago, date and location yet to be finalised
NZSAP Award nominationsPlease nominate appropriate persons for the Society’s Awards. The McMeekan Memorial Award recognizes a substantial recent (within the last five years) individual contribution to animal production in New Zealand. Nominations must contain documented evidence in support of the nominee and must be signed by two financial members of the Society. The nominee need not be a member of the Society. The Sir Arthur Ward Award recognizes the successful application of research or experience to an aspect of animal production in New Zealand. The nominee may be an individual, a company or an organisation, and need not be a member of the Society. Nominations, signed by two currently financial members of the Society, must document how the nominee has contributed towards the adoption of a practise(s) that has facilitated more efficient animal production. The phrase 'adoption of a practise' is interpreted widely in order to accommodate contributions through extension, product development etc. Nominations for both awards must be submitted to the Executive Secretary by 1 February 1999 and remain active for consideration for three years.
1998/99 Management Committee
WWW site accessIn the weeks prior to the annual conference, some of you may have noticed some subtle changes to the Society’s website. A new "members only" part of the site has been developed, which is to be used to hold downloadable copies of all the individual papers from the annual proceedings. Currently papers from the 1998 conference are available, and papers for the 1995-1997 conferences are to follow shortly. Ultimately, the aim is to get all back issues of the proceedings available for downloading so that members will be able to search all years of the proceedings for any papers on a given topic. The papers are in Adobe portable document format (PDF) which is fast becoming an internet standard. PDF is an exact copy of the paper as it occurs in the proceedings and can be read regardless of whether you have a MAC or PC, and it has a text searching capability. The files can be either read on screen or printed off for those who (like me) like to slouch in a comfortable chair when reading papers. The printed PDF is better quality than a photocopy out of the proceedings, and saves damaging the spine of the book when a reprint or copy is required. To view PDF you need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not already have it, it is freeware and can be downloaded from Adobe’s website. Make sure you select the version for your operating system (Win 3.1, Win95/NT, MAC, Unix etc.) and then follow the installation instructions.
So how does one access the members only area and download papers? All members have received a label attached to their "paper copy" of this newsletter showing their username and password to access this part of the site. However, only current financial members have had their passwords activated. Non-financial members (or new members) will have their access activated following payment of outstanding fees.
Both the username and the password are "case sensitive" so the username must be all lowercase and the password with lower and uppercase as seen on the label. When prompted by your browser, you must supply these details to access the restricted part of the site. If you enter the wrong username or password, you will remain in the public access part of the site. You will only be prompted for a password to the restricted part of the site once for a given session.
Downloading a given paper is as simple as clicking the PDF button beside the paper’s title when searching the Proceedings (titles by year and topic). The contents page for the 1998 papers can be found at http://nzsap.rsnz.govt.nz/proc/sapt98.html. Depending on your browser you can save the paper to disk or open it without saving to disk, view the paper directly, search the text for key words (within Acrobat Reader) and print a copy if required.
If you have any problems accessing the members area on the web site, email Neville Jopson at jopsonn@agresearch.cri.nz
About this issueThis Newsletter is compiled at the Animal and Veterinary Sciences Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury and copied and distributed at AgResearch Ruakura.
Any contributions should be forwarded to:
Graham Barrell
Animal & Food Sciences Division,
P.O. Box 84,
Lincoln University,
CANTERBURY
Email: barrell@lincoln.ac.nz
