Drew Conroy Professor, TSAS, travels to Sub-Saharan Africa

In June and July, I spent 3 weeks in five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. These included Kenya, Rwanda, The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Namibia. This incredible journey included attending an agricultural forum, visiting an agricultural development project, for which I have been an advisor for some years, checking out sabbatical possibilities in Tanzania and Rwanda, and finally visiting UNH undergraduate student, Alicia Walsh at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, with the financial help of the UNH Center for International Education

The Economic Importance of Draught Oxen on Small Farms in Namibia\u27s Eastern Caprivi Region

The main aim of this study was to analyse and document the value of smallholder farmers’ use of Draught Animal Power (DAP) systems in the Eastern Caprivi Region and to test the economic viability of DAP usage versus using tractors. This study applied Rapid Rural Appraisal techniques (RRA), including a survey. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 312 farmers at their farms and data was gathered on the use of and economics related to the draught animal power system. Crop enterprise budgets, project reports, expert opinions and group discussions were analysed. The research found that the use of animal power performs better in terms of physical productivity per ha compared to tractor usage. Furthermore, agricultural production in Sibinda village area, with the use of oxen outperformed the other systems when it was evaluated with parametric analysis. From a financial perspective, faremrs in Sibinda and Linyanti using oxen ranked above their counterparts using tractors. Further, the exercise indicated that farmers are facing a multitude of challenges such as damage incurred from wild animals and high input costs. There were many difficulties facing the next generation in entering commericial agricultural production in Caprivi within the current cost-price squeeze environment. Therefore, understanding the role draught oxen power can play as a tool to increase the level of success for new farmers’ in agricultural production and management was noted

Oxen: Status, Uses and Practices in the U.S.A., Encouraging a Historic Tradition to Thrive

Oxen in the United States of America have played an important role throughout its history. Unlike other countries,oxen were never completely given up for horses, mules, or tractors. Instead, the culture of keeping oxen has been maintained by a small group of teamsters in the North- eastern states collectively called New England. Their continued presence has been largely due to agricultural fairs and exhibitions where they have been used in competition for the last 200 years. Ox teamsters were sur- veyed in 2021via social media using Qualtrics. The 423 ox teamsters responding owned 1791 oxen in 39 states, with the majority of oxen and teamsters in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachu- setts and New York respectively. The gender breakdown of ox teamsters was 59 % men, 40 % women. Results showed 257 teamsters used their oxen for farm work, 213 for exhibitions and parades, 191 for logging, 173 for recreation, 165 for competition showing, 144 for competition pulling, 85 at living history farms and in historic settings, and 18 in television and movies. Teamsters worked oxen an average of 7 hours/week and 89 % train the oxen as calves. 289 people learned to train from friends, 211 from family, 202 from books, 158 from organizations related to oxen, 156 from the Internet, 152 in the 4-H program, 129 from videos, 94 at hands- on workshops, 54 from magazines and 42 from living history farms. More than 20 breeds of cattle were used as oxen with Milking Shorthorns (11.9 %), Holstein-Friesians (10.9 %), Chianina (9.6 %) and Brown Swiss (9.3 %) being the most numerous

Ox Yokes: Culture, Comfort and Animal Welfare

Three yoking systems are used globally to capture the power of oxen. These are the head yoke, withers yoke, and neck yoke. Each system has its strengths and weaknesses, with culture and cattle playing a role in the adoption and use of each system. The neck yoke system offers important lessons in understanding animal comfort and yoke design. Despite its success, the neck yoke should not be universally adopted, nor should it be universally promoted. However ignoring the lessons learned in North America over the last 400 years would ignore animals and teamsters who perfected this system and learned to maximize animal comfort and performance. Using history, research in Africa, as well as farm and competition experience from the United States and Canada, this paper addresses improving animal comfort, performance and welfare by understanding and appreciating yoking systems for oxen

Handling Large Farm Animals

Livestock Handling Techniques for 4-H Yout

The Density Profiles of Massive, Relaxed Galaxy Clusters. II. Separating Luminous and Dark Matter in Cluster Cores

We present stellar and dark matter (DM) density profiles for a sample of seven massive, relaxed galaxy clusters derived from strong and weak gravitational lensing and resolved stellar kinematic observations within the centrally-located brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). In Paper I of the series, we demonstrated that the total density profile derived from these data, which span 3 decades in radius, is consistent with numerical DM-only simulations at radii >~ 5-10 kpc, despite the significant contribution of stellar material in the core. Here we decompose the inner mass profiles of these clusters into stellar and dark components. Parametrizing the DM density profile as a power law rho_DM ~ r^{-\beta} on small scales, we find a mean slope = 0.50 +- 0.10 (random) +0.14-0.13 (systematic). Alternatively, cored Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profiles with = 1.14 +- 0.13 (random) +0.14-0.22 (systematic) provide an equally good description. These density profiles are significantly shallower than canonical NFW models at radii <~ 30 kpc, comparable to the effective radii of the BCGs. The inner DM profile is correlated with the distribution of stars in the BCG, suggesting a connection between the inner halo and the assembly of stars in the central galaxy. The stellar mass-to-light ratio inferred from lensing and stellar dynamics is consistent with that inferred using stellar population synthesis models if a Salpeter initial mass function is adopted. We compare these results to theories describing the interaction between baryons and DM in cluster cores, including adiabatic contraction models and the possible effects of galaxy mergers and active galactic nucleus feedback, and evaluate possible signatures of alternative DM candidates.Comment: Updated to matched the published version in Ap

Early detection and intervention evaluation for people at risk of psychosis: multisite randomised controlled trial

Objective To determine whether cognitive therapy is effective in preventing the worsening of emerging psychotic symptoms experienced by help seeking young people deemed to be at risk for serious conditions such as schizophrenia

Author Correction: A consensus-based transparency checklist.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper