Animal breeding in organic farming:Discussion paper

It is uncertain whether animals which have been bred for conventional production are capable of optimum performance in organic conditions. In conventional agriculture there is a movement towards maximum control of production conditions in order to optimise animals' yield in intensive production systems. By contrast, organic agriculture is based on natural processes and closed cycles, and takes into account the underlying connections between production factors. Following organic ideology, production capacity should be curtailed by acting in accordance with guiding principles such as naturalness, animal welfare, efficient use of fossil fuels in the farm cycle, and agri-biodiversity (IFOAM, 1994). Organic production should be tied to the land, with farms preferably being self-sufficient mixed farms with closed cycles. An additional point of concern are the reproduction techniques used in conventional breeding. Artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET) are commonplace in conventional animal breeding. But these techniques are 'artificial' and they deprive animals of natural mating behaviour and negatively affect the animals' welfare and integrity. By bringing in animals from conventional agriculture, organic farmers are indirectly making use of these techniques. These and other concerns have led to the project 'Organic breeding: a long way to go', which aims to lay down clear visions and an action plan for an organic breeding system

Animal breeding in organic farming

After a general introduction into the available breeding techniques for animal breeding and an overview of the organic principles, points for discussion are identified and scenario's for organically accepted breeding methods are discussed

Vision of breeding for organic agriculture

This report describes the results of research into the vision of breeding systems within organic agriculture in the Netherlands. The purpose of the research was to arrive at a vision for breeding in organic agriculture by means of interviews and discussions with organic livestock farmers and social organisations. The research was prompted by the fact that, as things stand, organic livestock farmers generally have to rely on the conventional breeding supply. Neither the breeding method not the animal type produced meet the requirements of organic agriculture. Interest in breeding has increased because organic agriculture is expanding, and as yet too little attention has been paid to the development of specific organic breeding programmes and associated legislation. In recent decades conventional agriculture and breeding have tended more and more towards industrialisation and uniformity with breeding becoming a multinational concern. The breeding organisations have no incentive at present to provide special services for organic agriculture as the market is too small and the costs are too high. Taking the current breeding situation as the starting point, a number of scenarios are described for each animal sector which could gradually lead to a system of breeding which is more organic both in its aims and in the chain-based approach. The naturalness of the breeding techniques is an important factor in considering the available options. The different scenarios served as a basis for the interviews and discussions with livestock farmers and social organisations. We have established that the farmers and organisations consider it important for organic agriculture to work on developing a breeding system which follows the principles of organic agriculture. The most important reasons for this are that: (1) consumers expect all production factors in the chain to be of organic origin, (2) most livestock farmers currently use conventional breeding techniques which fall short of the organic requirements on a number of points, such as the use of artificial reproduction techniques and mono-functional breeding for production. For the development of organic breeding, livestock farmers feel that in the first instance the use of artificial reproduction techniques, including cloning and transgenic techniques, should be restricted. Next the livestock farmers and social organisations want breeding to be adapted to or based on the organic environment. There is a suspicion that owing to genotype-environment interaction (G x E) conventionally-bred animals cannot adapt well to the organic environment, and this leads to health and welfare problems. The farmers would like to see this development taking place within 5 to 10 years. It must however proceed one step at a time since the farmers cannot yet form a complete picture of the impact of all the different factors. Most of the people involved see the ideal form of breeding, with natural reproduction and regional or farm-specific selection, as a standard to be achieved in the distant future. At the moment most livestock farmers have neither the knowledge nor the socio-economic means to set up such breeding programmes. The development of breeding and the associated legislation require an international approach, for which suitable contacts must be sought in other countries. The final chapter of this report looks in more detail at the steps to be taken in each sector. Ideally developments should probably be initiated and supervised by a central body, such as an organic breeding foundation, which could be set up to govern the breeding of all farm animals

Visie op fokkerij voor de biologische landbouw

In dit rapport worden de resultaten beschreven van eenonderzoek naar de visie op fokkerij binnen de biologische landbouw in Nederland. Het doel van dit onderzoek was om, door middel van interviews en discussies met biologische veehouders en maatschappelijke organisaties, te komen tot een duidelijke visie op de fokkerij in de biologische landbouw

Breeding in organic farming: different strategies, different demands.

Abstract – Due to regulations organic farming is sub-jected to a different regime then conventional farm-ing. This results in different environments for ani-mals. The question is whether one overall breeding goal is sufficient to cover all different demands of organic farmers. A survey among 132 Dutch organic dairy farmers revealed that 55% of the farmers are specialized in milk production and 45% is running a multi-functional farm. The specialized milk production farms were significantly more intensive in farming compared to the multifunctional farms. Farmers from both strategies were also asked to value different breeding aspects of animals. In general farmers val-ued different aspects more or less the same: they wanted a robust, long living cow, with good udder health and fertility. However, farmers wanted to achieve this goal in many different ways. From farm-ers specialized in milk production, 29% used pure bred Holstein cows while 51 % chose for cross breed-ing with more robust breeds. Also 57% of the multi-functional farms chose for cross breeding, but an-other 30% chose for native Dutch breeds. These dif-ference in the use and crossing of different breeds questions the overall breeding goal. It is important to know why farmers opt for different breeds, pure or crossing. We developed some hypothesis on this, to stimulate further discussion and researc

Characterisation of the Hamamatsu photomultipliers for the KM3NeT Neutrino Telescope

[EN] The Hamamatsu R12199-02 3-inch photomultiplier tube is the photodetector chosen for the first phase of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope. About 7000 photomultipliers have been characterised for dark count rate, timing spread and spurious pulses. The quantum eÿciency, the gain and the peak-to-valley ratio have also been measured for a sub-sample in order to determine parameter values needed as input to numerical simulations of the detector.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (contract ANR-15-CE31-0020), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), IdEx program and UnivEarthS Labex program at Sorbonne Paris Cite (ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02), France; 'Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics' funded by the Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association, Germany; The General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT), Greece; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR), Italy; Agence de l'Oriental and CNRST, Morocco; Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), the Netherlands; National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania; Plan Estatal de Investigacion (refs. FPA2015-65150-C3-1-P, -2-P and -3-P, (MINECO/FEDER)), Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence and MultiDark Consolider (MINECO), and Prometeo and Grisolia programs (Generalitat Valenciana), Spain.Aiello, S.; Akrame, SE.; Ameli, F.; Anassontzis, EG.; Andre, M.; Androulakis, G.; Anghinolfi, M.... (2018). Characterisation of the Hamamatsu photomultipliers for the KM3NeT Neutrino Telescope. Journal of Instrumentation. 13:1-17. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/13/05/P05035S11713Adrián-Martínez, S., Ageron, M., Aharonian, F., Aiello, S., Albert, A., Ameli, F., … Anghinolfi, M. (2016). Letter of intent for KM3NeT 2.0. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 43(8), 084001. doi:10.1088/0954-3899/43/8/084001Adrián-Martínez, S., Ageron, M., Aharonian, F., Aiello, S., Albert, A., Ameli, F., … Anvar, S. (2014). Deep sea tests of a prototype of the KM3NeT digital optical module. The European Physical Journal C, 74(9). doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-014-3056-3Adrián-Martínez, S., Ageron, M., Aharonian, F., Aiello, S., Albert, A., Ameli, F., … Anton, G. (2016). The prototype detection unit of the KM3NeT detector. The European Physical Journal C, 76(2). doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3868-9Herold, B., Kalekin, O., & Reubelt, J. (2011). PMT characterisation for the KM3NeT project. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 639(1), 70-72. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2010.09.018Timmer, P., Heine, E., & Peek, H. (2010). Very low power, high voltage base for a Photo Multiplier Tube for the KM3NeT deep sea neutrino telescope. Journal of Instrumentation, 5(12), C12049-C12049. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/5/12/c12049Mollo, C. M., Bozza, C., Chiarusi, T., Costa, M., Capua, F. D., Kulikovskiy, V., … Vivolo, D. (2016). A new instrument for high statistics measurement of photomultiplier characteristics. Journal of Instrumentation, 11(08), T08002-T08002. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/11/08/t08002Adrián-Martínez, S., Ageron, M., Aiello, S., Albert, A., Ameli, F., Anassontzis, E. G., … Anton, G. (2016). A method to stabilise the performance of negatively fed KM3NeT photomultipliers. Journal of Instrumentation, 11(12), P12014-P12014. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/11/12/p12014Lubsandorzhiev, B. K., Vasiliev, R. V., Vyatchin, Y. E., & Shaibonov, B. A. J. (2006). Photoelectron backscattering in vacuum phototubes. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 567(1), 12-16. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2006.05.04

Converting to organic dairy farming: Consequences for production, somatic cell scores and calving interval of first parity Holstein cows

This paper aims to describe the changes prompted by conversion to organic farming for milk production and fertility of first parity Holstein cows. Data was collected for Dutch organic farms, with a distinction made between long-standing-organic farms, converted organic farms and a reference group of conventional farms. The percentage Holstein blood in the herds, milk production (kg milk, % milk fat, % milk protein), somatic cell scores (SCS), calving interval (CI) and age at first calving (AFC) were described over time. An animal model was used to estimate the effects of conversion on different traits based on data from converted organic farms. Milk production was lower and somatic cell counts were higher on long-standing-organic farms than on conventional and converted organic farms. Interestingly, at pre-organic farms, i.e. before their conversion, the milk production level was already lower than at conventional farms. The estimates from our statistical analysis showed a highly significant decrease in milk yield and protein percentage due to conversion. Also fat content decreased, SCS increased and AFC increased significantly. It can be concluded that the conversion to organic farming is a gradual process over years. Dutch farmers who decided during the late 1990s to convert to organic farming, represented a specific group of farmers distinct from conventional farmers, which was reflected by lower milk yields, milk fat percentage and protein percentage before conversion as compared to conventional farms. During conversion, significant changes in milk production, protein and fat contents and somatic cell scores took place. Age of first calving is an important difference between organic and conventional farmin

Farming strategies in organic dairy farming: Effects on breeding goal and choice of breed. An explorative study

Organic farming principles give rise to multifunctionality: different activities are combined at farm level to create ecological and economic synergies. These principles do however allow for different operationalisations and different farm development strategies, for example with regard to the use of external inputs or the decision whether or not to use advanced breeding technologies such as artificial insemination. Maintaining and improving diversity are therefore characteristic to organic farming. Since organic farming took off in the early 1990 s, many specialised dairy farms which tend to be more mono-functional in nature, have converted to organic, adding a new farming strategy to the diverse collection of farming strategies in organic dairy farming. All these farming strategies actually create different organic production environments for cows, which might result in different demands on selective breeding and breeding technology. This differential demand was explored in a survey, among 151 organic dairy farmers, on general farm strategy, milk production, breeding goal, choice of breed and approach to reproduction. Farmers were divided into one of two groups on each of three strategic options: a) diversification in farm business¿Specialised Dairy Farming vs. Multifunctional Farming; b) intensity of milk production¿Low Input vs. High Input Farming and c) naturalness of breeding¿Farming with Artificial Insemination vs. Farming with Natural Servic

Visie op fokkerij voor de biologische landbouw

In dit rapport worden de resultaten beschreven van eenonderzoek naar de visie op fokkerij binnen de biologische landbouw in Nederland. Het doel van dit onderzoek was om, door middel van interviews en discussies met biologische veehouders en maatschappelijke organisaties, te komen tot een duidelijke visie op de fokkerij in de biologische landbouw