THE PACIFIC RIM BEEF TRADE: IMPACTS OF LIFTING FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE TRADE BARRIERS

International Relations/Trade,

Faecal seeding, drought, and seed survival in dung

Desmanthus is a tropical sub tropical pasture legume with hard seed. Seed was fed to cows in a molasses dry season supplement. The resulting dung was collected and stored for later use. Eight years later the dung was sieved and seed extracted and tested for germination. 84% of the seed recovered from the dung germinated suggesting that Desmanthus seed is very resilient and stays viable after passing the gastro intestinal tract. The seed is very hardy and long lived in dry conditions, potentially surviving drought to germinate later under moist conditions

New legume capable of persisting in dry times

As major parts of Queensland are again in the grips of unusually dry conditions, Progardes, a recently released legume is demonstrating persistence in the harshest of conditions. The Progardes had received just two small rainfall events since December but was thriving. Agrimix General Manager Iain Hannah and JCU lecturer and researcher used the Richmond weigh-in as an opportunity to check on the progress of the Progardes trial plot. They are now extremely confident the Progardes will prove to be a fodder that can withstand some very tough conditions. The legume has proven extremely successful in central and southern Queensland where over 10,000ha have been successfully established. The Progardes has been proven to have 20 per cent protein content in the leaf and up to 12pc in the stem. Agrimix are now at the stage of commercial production in Central Queensland and with several trial plots across the north-west including a 250ha plot near Hughenden, Mr Hannah is confident it will prove to be a big plus to beef production in the north. Progardes (www.progardes.com.au ) is a perennial tropical legume developed over 20 years of research by Chris Gardiner from James Cook University and in recent years Agrimix, a Queensland based agriculture technology group. Progardes has been bred to be productive and persistent in clay soils and persist in low rainfall semi-arid conditions. The legume is a highly palatable legume, with high protein content, with good biomass potential, non-thorny and non-toxic, frost and grazing tolerant plant of around waist height. Progardes has the potential to make significant impacts on animal production and ecosystem function whether it is live weight gains, increased stocking rates, turn off weights and timing, improved wool production, reproductive performance, reduced methane production or sustaining grasslands. As testament to Progardes's strength, it was observed recently at the Richmond Beef challenge despite the 57mm of rain received all summer, to be about the only plant of value growing and providing protein and quality feed

Successful aerial seeding of Progades Desmanthus at Wambiana

In 2011 Progardes Desmanthus (a pasture legume) seed was aerial seeding into ash after the vegetation was pulled and burnt. Initial establishment was slow but in 2017 the plant density across the paddocks averaged 5 Progardes plants/m2. The frequency of plants was 39% and a distinct pattern of plants across the paddock could be identified and is related to the aircraft flight paths. The paddock is well grazed and has a botanical mix of native grasses and the Progdes Desmanthus legume. Progardes is proving to be a success on neutral to alkaline clay soils in the subtropics/tropics across Queensland. Aerial seeding was a successful method of establish this legume at Wambiana near Charters Towers

The effects of diet preference on feed intake, digestibility and nitrogen balance of sheep given Iseilema spp. (Flinders grass) hay and/or Desmanthus leptophyllus cv JCU 1 Ad libitum

Eighteen male Merino sheep (34.83 ± 2.73 kg) were used in this experiment with a completely randomised block design to evaluate the effects of diet preference on feed intake, apparent digestibility and nitrogen balance. The sheep were fed ad libitum one of three experimental diets: Flinders grass hay (F); freshly cut Desmanthus leptophyllus (D) and a choice of Flinders grass hay and fresh cut D. leptophyllus (D+F). The results showed that sheep had a 70% preference for D and had a 30% preference for F when they were provided the D+F diet. The highest dry matter intake (DMI) and organic matter intake (OMI) (P < 0.05) were recorded for the D+F diet compared with the other two diets. The dry matter digestibility (DMD), organic matter digestibility (OMD) and nitrogen digestibility did not differ between the D and the D+F diet, but these values were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of the F diet. Sheep fed either the D or the D+F diet gave rise to positive nitrogen balance, while the F diet was in negative nitrogen balance. Both D and D+F diets had greater (P < 0.05) efficiency of nitrogen retention in comparison with the F diet. Lower nutrition utilisation of the F diet was relative to loss of sheep liveweight, whereas sheep given either D or D+F diet slightly increased their liveweight. It is suggested that in the semi-arid sheep country, diet quality and animal production could be enhanced by utilisation Desmanthus spp. during the dry season

Low-input, high quality legume hays for north Queensland

Perennial herbaceous legumes grown for hay can improve beef and dairy production in north Queensland through providing affordable high-quality (digestible protein) dry season feed. Eleven Arachis ecotypes (A. pintoi (5), A. glabrata (3), A. paraguariensis (2) and A. kretschmeri (1)), two Stylosanthes guianensis varieties and two commercially recommended Medicago sativa varieties were grown for hay under irrigation using standardised populations in replicated small-plots over two wet seasons (summer) and compared for dry matter production and fodder quality using 8 week cutting cycles. All initially grew well but M. sativa plants were damaged by leaf and stem diseases during wet summer periods reducing leaf and stem growth and resulting in open, weedy stands; the Arachis and Stylosanthes were relatively unaffected and exhibited strong summer-dominant growth throughout the study. There were significant species and varietal differences in biomass production and some A. pintoi, M. sativa and S. guianensis produced over 30 T DM (stem plus leaf above 5 cm cut height) over 19 months. Arachis glabrata also yielded well (16-18 T DM) following a prolonged establishment phase. Feed quality was high for all legumes compared, and overall best in the Arachis spp., with crude protein percentages mostly above 16% and high levels of protein and carbohydrate rumen degradability

Desmanthus for silage

Introduction: Desmanthus is known as a pasture legume where its inclusion can increase animal performance. However, under a cropping scenario desmanthus can produce high yield of good quality forage (Mwangi et al. 2022). This study was initiated to determine if desmanthus could be preserved as silage. Materials and Methods: Progardes desmanthus, cultivars JCU 4, JCU 6 and JCU 9, were established in three irrigated 4 ha blocks in north Queensland (19°35’S 146°54’E) on 21/12/2021. The blocks were slashed and regrowth was mowed after 60 d on 12/4/22. Within 4 hours of mowing, cultivars were round baled and wrapped in 5 to 8 layers of white plastic film wrap. Bales were stored on their ends outside. On 14/9/22 two bales of each cultivar were unwrapped and presented to a group of 15 beef cows for 24 h for monitoring of feeding behaviour. Samples at ensiling and feed-out were analysed by NIR. Results: The dry matter (DM) at mowing was similar, but JCU 9 silage was drier than the other silages (Table 1) leading to more extensive moulding. The loss of water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) in all silages was matched by a reduction in pH and production of fermentation acids. All silages had a restricted heterotactic fermentation typical of round bale silage. Video monitoring revealed that cattle spent more time at cultivars JCU 4 and 6, possibly due to visibly less mounding in these bales. Conclusions: This preliminary study demonstrated that desmanthus can be ensiled. All three silages were of good nutritive value and satisfactory fermentation and should support good levels of animal production. The higher apparent presence of moulds in the drier JCU 9 silages suggests ensiling above ~ 50% DM increases moulding and reduces preference for the silage

Passage and survival of Acaciella angustissima (Mill.) Britton & Rose and Aeschynomene paniculata Willd. ex Vogel seed through the sheep gut

Acaciella angustissima (syn. Acacia angustissima) (white ball acacia) and Aeschynomene paniculata Willd. ex Vogel (pannicle joint vetch), were rejected for release after their identification as potential weeds in pasture evaluation trials. These plants are now targeted for control and, where possible, eradication from old experimental sites across Queensland. It is suspected that domestic livestock, feral and native animals contribute to the movement of these seeds through the ingestion and defecation of viable seeds across the landscape. This aspect was explored by feeding the intact seeds of these two species to sheep in metabolism cages. Sheep faeces were collected each day for 5 days after which time the faeces were sieved and the surviving intact seeds were then collected, counted and germination tests undertaken. The results show that seeds of both species pass through sheep with most seeds being passed after 48 h with a percentage of these seeds being viable. Of the number of seeds fed, 4.25% were recovered for A. angustissima and 1.4% for A. paniculata. Seed recovered from the faeces had 0% and 13% germination for A. angustissima and A. paniculata respectively, but with additional post-digestion hot water scarification germination increased to 75% and 33% for A. angustissima and A. paniculata respectively. This paper discusses these results and the implications for the possible spread of these species across the northern Australian landscape

Improving urban and regional policy-making using microdata from UK population censuses.

The United Kingdom's population censuses have been a vital source of information for the formulation of policy. This application of census data has been for spatial classifications from national down to sub-local authority levels. Traditionally the information from the censuses has been primarily in the form of fixed, predetermined tabular output. This has restricted the usefulness of the censuses for policy-making processes. The 1991 and 2001 censuses have provided data in a new format (microdata) which potentially overcomes many of the constraints inherent in earlier censuses. The sets of microdata are large samples of anonymised records (SARs) which contain over one million records of individual persons. The research undertaken by the candidate examined whether, and how, these sets of microdata could be successfully utilised by urban and regional organisations to improve the quality of information available for the formulation of their policies. In principle the sample sizes and ranges of variables available in the SARs, used in conjunction with appropriate analytical techniques, could provide a powerful mechanism to improve policy formulation. In practice a set of developments would need to be undertaken to maximise the effective utilisation of microdata for policy applications. The candidate has published a series of refereed research papers which have explored and developed some of the main aspects of this field of study. The research work required the identification, development and application of techniques which would be both valid with the data available and which would be simultaneously operationally useful to the policy-making agencies. In this context it is argued that the research has made original contributions to knowledge

The 2nd United Kingdom Extracellular Vesicle Forum Meeting Abstracts

The UK Extracellular Vesicles (UKEV) Forum meetings were born of the realization that there were a number of UK laboratories studying extracellular vesicle biology and using similar techniques but without a regular national meeting dedicated to EVs at which to share their findings. This was compounded by the fact that many of these labs were working in different fields and thus networking and sharing of ideas and best practice was sometimes difficult. The first workshop was organized in 2013 by Dr Charlotte Lawson, under the auspices of the Society for Endocrinology, led to the founding of the UKEV Forum and the organization of a British Heart Foundation sponsored 1-day conference held in London in December 2014. Although growing in size every year, the central aims of these workshops have remained the same: to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas, to allow young scientists to present their data in the form of short talks and poster presentations and to discuss their work with more established scientists in the field. Here we include the presented abstracts for the 2015 1-day conference hosted by Cardiff University. This meeting was attended by approximately 130 delegates throughout the United Kingdom, but also attended by delegates from Belgium, Netherlands, France, Ireland and other nations. The day composed of plenary presentations from Prof Matthias Belting, Lund University, Sweden and Dr Guillaume van Niel, Institut Curie, Paris together with 10 short presentations from submitted abstracts. The topics covered were broad, with sessions on Mechanisms of EV production, EVs in Infection, EVs in Cancer and in Blood and Characterizing EVs in Biological fluids. This hopefully gives a reflection of the range of EV-related studies being conducted currently in the UK. There were also 33 poster presentations equally broad in subject matter. The organizers are grateful to the Life Science Research Network Wales – a Welsh government-funding scheme that part-sponsored the conference. We are also grateful to commercial sponsors, and 3 paid-presentations are included in the abstracts. The UK EV Forum is expected to become an established annual event held at different Universities across the UK and continue to attract increasing delegate numbers and abstract submissions. We look forward to the next planned conference, which will be hosted by David Carter and his colleagues at Oxford Brookes University on 13th December 2016