Achieving Reproductive Efficiency

What is reproductive efficiency in terms of the beef cow? By traditional definition, it would be one calf per cow each 12 months. However, there is more to it than just a calf . We want a heavy weaning calf and would like to do it on the least amount of feed possible to accomplish the task. The number of calves produced per female in the breeding herd is no doubt the single most important factor influencing the income of the cow-calf operation. Increasing the calf crop by 10% is equal to approximately a 50 lb. increase in the average weaning weight of the calf crop. Reproduction in terms of the time the calf is born in relation to the calving season has a direct effect on the weaning weight of the calf. The older the calf at weaning the more it should weigh

Book Review on The Whole Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child\u27s Developing MInd

In the book The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind, Siegel and Payne Bryson share tools for parents to use to make parenting an easier process as they help their children be more healthy and happy

Lambing Performance of Finn Crossbred Ewes

Increased prolificacy of our domestic ewe flock offers one potential means of increased production per ewe unit. Utilization of a known littering breed, such as the Finnsheep, in a crossbreeding program on the ewe side offers an opportunity to increase the lamb drop from our domestic breeds. Results of studies at South Dakota State University utilizing Finn crossbred ewes are reported in this paper

Reproductive Performance of Ewes Treated with Melatonin

Extending the breeding season in the ewe offers several potential benefits to the producer. In addition, this may result in a more constant supply of fresh lamb which could have a major beneficial impact on the slaughter and merchandising segment of the industry. By nature, the ewe is a short day breeder, normally conceiving in the fall-winter period. Physiologically, the breeding season in the ewe is triggered by an increase in the blood level of the natural hormone melatonin. This is in response to the increasing length of daily darkness. Administration of exogenous melatonin should mimic the secretion of endogenous melatonin. This study examined the effectiveness of exogenous administration of melatonin to induce cyclic reproductive activity and conception during July and August

“Mirrors Can Give Us Space to Imagine…” Representations of Gender and Sexuality in BBC’s Dracula (2020)

What follows discusses how BBC’s Dracula uses character representations, scripted dialogue, and narrative to challenge and perpetuate the dominant ideologies of our society. Dracula exposes the tensions in the growing cultural acceptance of, but also increased resistance to, the fluidity of gender and sexuality in contemporary western culture. I contextualize representations of women and queer characters in Dracula with the broader issues of gender and sexuality in our current socio-political environment. Queer horror looks at Dracula as a text that arouses cultural anxieties concerning sexuality, while also attempting to illustrate fear within queer communities and subcultures. In many ways, the current Dracula parallels the queer historical readings of this text, but often, instead of embracing queerness, the ancillary LGBTQ+ representations in Dracula (2020) are regressive. These problematic representations, coupled with the co-creator, Steven Moffat, refusing to see the queer tendencies in Dracula, imposes a resistance to the queer horror narrative. In addition to examining the representations of sexuality I also analyze the portrayals of gender and race featured in the mini-series. My thesis investigates the sexist and racist representations of women in Dracula, asking whether the genderswap of Agatha Van Helsing can be considered feminist from the mere embodiment of a traditionally male role. I analyze queer and feminist theories in relationship to Dracula and contemporary horror television. Dracula’s character representations straddle the binaries of masculine/feminine, gay/straight, life/death, and attractive/repulsive, thereby arousing cultural anxieties concerning gender and sexuality. Dracula resists the canonical queer readings of the text and fails to address the concerns of women in the show, mirroring society’s continued fears of nonnormative identities. This project is a critique of one example from the growing horror television landscape and its focus on bringing marginalized stories to the center of the narrative. Dracula illustrates that even when the representations of characters revert to heteronormative displays, queerness always resides in the vampire metaphor, and in the horror genre more broadly. Holding a mirror up to Dracula provides opportunities to interrogate our biases and prejudices and begin to reveal the truths about ourselves and our societies

Effect of Management System on Lamb Return

The effects of sex (ram vs wether) and management system on market returns were investigated utilizing 256 February-March born lambs produced at the Antelope Range Field Station, Buffalo, South Dakota. Lambs weaned in early June and finished on a high concentrate ration made superior gains to either lambs weaned a month later or lambs left on native range with their dams. Early weaned-drylot finished ram lambs were heavier when marketed and grossed more total dollars per head than any of the other management-sex combinations, although they brought less per pound than early weaned-drylot finished wethers. Market alternatives that avoid such differential in favor of the intact group. In general, short-fed lambs did not return enough additional dollars to offset feed cost. Discounts on ram lambs compared to wether tended to be higher in the short-fed and all pasture system

Lambing Performance of Aged Targhee Ewes

Targhee ewes procured in the range area of western South Dakota were utilizaed to study the productivity of western aged ewes managed under farm flock conditions. Lamb crops were produced from these ewes lambing at 7, 8 and 9 years of age. An average of 90.4% of ewes exposed lambed with an average drop of 1.79 lambs per ewe lambing. Data from this study indicate that sound aged ewes obtained from range areas can be utilized for additional years of production under farm flock conditions. Furthermore, production levels (percent lambing and lambs per ewe lambing) may equal or exceed that for younger ewews of comparable breeding and management

Effect of Breed of Sire, Level of Postweaning Nutrition and Type of Birth (Single vs. Twin) on Lambing Performance at 12 Months of Age

One of the potential area to increase efficiency of sheep production, and thereby net return, is through an increase in the reproductive efficiency of the ewe. The practice of breeding ewes as lambs and thereby getting an additional lamb crop during a ewe\u27s lifetime offers one possibility to increase the lifetime production of the ewe. Proper growth and development of replacment ewe lambs is necessary if this practice is to become a working reality. A study was designed and initiated in the fall of 1970 to evaluate the effect of breed of sire, level of pre- and postweaning nutrition, age at first breeding and type of birth on subsequent reproductive performance of the ewe. The lambing performance at 12 months of age for the first two sets of lambs from this study will be reported in this paper

Reducing Breeding Seasonality in the Ewe (Progress Report)

Seasonality of breeding is a major obstacle to providing a stable market supply of lamb for the consumer. Seasonality of breeding was listed as the number one research priority by the Western Sheep Task Force and adopted as the number one objective of the recently approved NC-111 Regional Research Project. Reducing breeding seasonality, expanding the fertile breeding season, offer a wide array of potential benefits to the sheep industry and ultimately the consumer. the consumer will benefit by a more stably supply that is more readily available at a more competitive price. Previous experiments at SDSU indicate the potential to develop breeding stock and(or) management systems and ewe stock selected for fall lambing

Influence of Mating and Management Systems on the Performance of Beef Cows and Calves

Research was initiated at the Newell Field Station in 1968 to study the influence of certain mating and management systems of crossbred beef cows on subsequent beef production. Factors under investigation include year-round drylotting vs. summer pasturing and backcrossing vs. outcrossing. Preweaning calf treatments, creep feeding and stilbestrol implantation are being studied