School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
ItemStudies in animal husbandry and agricultural history( 1963)About 8,000 years ago man began domesticating wild animals and turning their growth and production to his own use. Since this time considerable progress has been made towards the complete utilisation of domesticated animal products but only now is the efficiency of production of these products being investigated. To increase this efficiency a thorough understanding of animal body functions is essential. The importance to the ruminant of one body function - salivation, has not been established although various aspects of this subject have been investigated in recent years . To continue these investigations the development of total salivation in . lambs and the effects of the diversion of saliva on the rumen function in adult sheep were examined. In this second experiment the effects of anaesthesia and lateral recumbency on rumen function were also examined because if the use of these unnatural conditions in some experimental techniques. Some animals have been domesticated but many have not. Nearly 8,000 years have passed since the predecessors of our present day domesticated animals were tamed and conditions have changed considerably. Hence it is feasible that domesticated animals may be less efficient producers of the animal products we now need, than the wild animals. This may be particularly true with regard to protein production in the form of lean meat. To investigate this proposition a body composition study was made on a population of wild kangaroos, and an assessment made of this animal species as a potential producer of lean meat. Not only may the efficiency of agricultural production be increased by re-assessing the livestock potential, but this may also be achieved by re-assessing the agricultural use of any given area of land. In countries settled and developed by people from other countries, the new settlers have applied to the new land the agricultural practices of the old. This has often occurred inspite of vast physical differences between the two countries. The practices have been modified and adapted, the crops and livestock acclimatised, nevertheless the whole range of possible forms of agriculture are usually never investigated. In southern Victoria, for almost a century, vines were grown by European settlers had been familiar with these plants in their own countries. The success and failure of the cultivation of this crop by Europeans in a country very different from their own is examined in the second part of this thesis.