Time budgets, blood urea content, total protein and body condition scores as adaptive responses to seasonal dynamics by breeding Nguni cows and heifers reared on a sweetveld
- Authors: Mapfumo, Lizwell
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Nguni cattle -- South Africa , Cattle -- Feed utilization efficiency -- South Africa , Beef -- Quality -- South Africa , Slaughtering and slaughter-houses -- South Africa , Cattle -- Breeding -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc Agric (Animal Science)
- Identifier: vital:11826 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1015738 , Nguni cattle -- South Africa , Cattle -- Feed utilization efficiency -- South Africa , Beef -- Quality -- South Africa , Slaughtering and slaughter-houses -- South Africa , Cattle -- Breeding -- South Africa
- Description: The objective of this study was to determine time budgets, blood urea content, total protein and body condition score as adaptive responses to seasonal dynamics by breeding Nguni cows and heifers reared on a sweetveld. Twenty four clinically healthy Nguni cows and heifers were selected for the study. The animals were grouped according to their parities namely: Parity 1 (n=5), Parity 2 (n=5), Parity 3-6 (old cows) (n=9) and in-calf heifers (n=5). Two separate experiments were conducted and running concurrently. In the first experiment time budgets (time spent walking, grazing, lying down, drinking water and browsing) of the cows and heifers were monitored for two consecutive days once a month, while in the second experiment blood samples were collected from the coccygeal vein once a month during weighing. Body condition scores were also determined during weighing times. Heifers maintained significantly (p0.05) of both blood urea nitrogen (BUN) (7.5±0.39 mmol/l) and TP (80.7±1.19 g/l) in November. All the animals had the least BUN levels in January (1.93±0.18 mmol/l) while the highest total protein (TP) (82.1±1.08 g/l) was recorded in February. All the animals showed distinct (p0.05) in most behavioural attributes in the cool-wet season. Heifers spent significantly (p0.05) body condition scores, amount of time spent browsing and drinking water. On the other hand, heifers (14.7±1.50%) and first parity cows (13.9±1.50%) traded-off most (p<0,05) of their time walking during the cool-dry season. Similarly heifers spent more time browsing (6.4±0.62%) forage plants (p<0.05) than all the cows during the cool-wet season. Grazing (r = 0.17) and standing (r = -0.18) were correlated (p<0.05) with all the behavioural attributes measured in this environment. It was concluded that seasonal dynamics in trade-off behaviour through time budgeting, maintenance of BUN and TP were necessary for the Nguni cows and heifers to maintain their body condition scores within a narrow range throughout the four seasons.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Mapfumo, Lizwell
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Nguni cattle -- South Africa , Cattle -- Feed utilization efficiency -- South Africa , Beef -- Quality -- South Africa , Slaughtering and slaughter-houses -- South Africa , Cattle -- Breeding -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc Agric (Animal Science)
- Identifier: vital:11826 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1015738 , Nguni cattle -- South Africa , Cattle -- Feed utilization efficiency -- South Africa , Beef -- Quality -- South Africa , Slaughtering and slaughter-houses -- South Africa , Cattle -- Breeding -- South Africa
- Description: The objective of this study was to determine time budgets, blood urea content, total protein and body condition score as adaptive responses to seasonal dynamics by breeding Nguni cows and heifers reared on a sweetveld. Twenty four clinically healthy Nguni cows and heifers were selected for the study. The animals were grouped according to their parities namely: Parity 1 (n=5), Parity 2 (n=5), Parity 3-6 (old cows) (n=9) and in-calf heifers (n=5). Two separate experiments were conducted and running concurrently. In the first experiment time budgets (time spent walking, grazing, lying down, drinking water and browsing) of the cows and heifers were monitored for two consecutive days once a month, while in the second experiment blood samples were collected from the coccygeal vein once a month during weighing. Body condition scores were also determined during weighing times. Heifers maintained significantly (p0.05) of both blood urea nitrogen (BUN) (7.5±0.39 mmol/l) and TP (80.7±1.19 g/l) in November. All the animals had the least BUN levels in January (1.93±0.18 mmol/l) while the highest total protein (TP) (82.1±1.08 g/l) was recorded in February. All the animals showed distinct (p0.05) in most behavioural attributes in the cool-wet season. Heifers spent significantly (p0.05) body condition scores, amount of time spent browsing and drinking water. On the other hand, heifers (14.7±1.50%) and first parity cows (13.9±1.50%) traded-off most (p<0,05) of their time walking during the cool-dry season. Similarly heifers spent more time browsing (6.4±0.62%) forage plants (p<0.05) than all the cows during the cool-wet season. Grazing (r = 0.17) and standing (r = -0.18) were correlated (p<0.05) with all the behavioural attributes measured in this environment. It was concluded that seasonal dynamics in trade-off behaviour through time budgeting, maintenance of BUN and TP were necessary for the Nguni cows and heifers to maintain their body condition scores within a narrow range throughout the four seasons.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
A participatory communication approach of rural cattle project: a case study of Nguni cattle project in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Usadolo, Sam Erevbenagie
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Communication in community development -- South Africa , Nguni cattle -- South Africa , Participatory rural appraisal
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Com)
- Identifier: vital:11370 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1015407 , Communication in community development -- South Africa , Nguni cattle -- South Africa , Participatory rural appraisal
- Description: project. It did this by reviewing relevant literature in development communication. The review done showed that literature is replete with arguments critical of the dominant paradigm due to its top-down nature of communication. Scholars critical of dominant paradigm argue that participatory communication should be given a prominent role to ensure that stakeholders work in concert to realise the stated objectives of their development project. The study highlighted many contentious issues surrounding the nature and practices of participatory communication. It pointed out that the issues have played themselves out in literature in the form of different typologies of participatory practices, which were dealt with extensively in this study. The discussion of participatory communication in literature is also mindful of different models of communication and the space they occupy in participatory communication practices. In this study, there was a discussion of transactional communication models as depicted by Nair and White (1993:52) and Steinberg (1997:19). Both scholars emphasise that participatory communication will not achieve its stated purpose without mutual agreement of the parties in communication. They equally stress the recognition of the possible effects of some contextual factors which may have bearing on the prevailing nature of communication. A review of different communication tools used by participatory development communicator was given in the study. These different communication tools were discussed in view of how these tools can be used to advance participatory practice in a development project, especially with reference to the project examined in this study. Using qualitative research method, different and appropriate interview methods such as semi-structured, focus group and post-survey interviews were used to collect data from the respondents in this study. The analysis and discussion of the data revealed that different challenges on the ground could affect participatory communication practices in a development project. With regard to the project examined in this study, the analysis showed that there is a weak stakeholder relationship, especially stakeholders identified in this study as field officers. The study highlighted that stakeholders such as the agricultural extension officers and animal health technicians are not very active in the implementation process of the project. Some of the reasons pointed out is the fact that the secondary stakeholder such as the Provincial Department of Agricultural (PDoA) to which these field officers belong is not playing active role in ensuring that they complement the efforts of other field officers such as the IDC representatives. The second reason is the fact that the participatory focus of the project was not properly communicated to the beneficiaries. This also transpired in their inability to reflect participatory practice in their relationship with the beneficiaries and other stakeholders of the project. Other challenges, among others, as pointed out in the analysis showed that participatory communication practice requires expert personnel to be successful. In the case of the project examined, apart from the fact that there is shortage of manpower to handle the challenges mentioned in the study, there is no communication expert among the few active personnel in the field. The findings of this study showed that there was no clear role and identification of responsibilities let alone coordination of all actors involved in the project. Through the selected case study, this study has not only provided avenue to explore both theoretically and practically participatory communication, but has added to participatory communication discourse that there is no easy answer to challenges field officers encounter in practice. This is the reason the different participatory practices characterising nature of the project this study has investigated was given.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Usadolo, Sam Erevbenagie
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Communication in community development -- South Africa , Nguni cattle -- South Africa , Participatory rural appraisal
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Com)
- Identifier: vital:11370 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1015407 , Communication in community development -- South Africa , Nguni cattle -- South Africa , Participatory rural appraisal
- Description: project. It did this by reviewing relevant literature in development communication. The review done showed that literature is replete with arguments critical of the dominant paradigm due to its top-down nature of communication. Scholars critical of dominant paradigm argue that participatory communication should be given a prominent role to ensure that stakeholders work in concert to realise the stated objectives of their development project. The study highlighted many contentious issues surrounding the nature and practices of participatory communication. It pointed out that the issues have played themselves out in literature in the form of different typologies of participatory practices, which were dealt with extensively in this study. The discussion of participatory communication in literature is also mindful of different models of communication and the space they occupy in participatory communication practices. In this study, there was a discussion of transactional communication models as depicted by Nair and White (1993:52) and Steinberg (1997:19). Both scholars emphasise that participatory communication will not achieve its stated purpose without mutual agreement of the parties in communication. They equally stress the recognition of the possible effects of some contextual factors which may have bearing on the prevailing nature of communication. A review of different communication tools used by participatory development communicator was given in the study. These different communication tools were discussed in view of how these tools can be used to advance participatory practice in a development project, especially with reference to the project examined in this study. Using qualitative research method, different and appropriate interview methods such as semi-structured, focus group and post-survey interviews were used to collect data from the respondents in this study. The analysis and discussion of the data revealed that different challenges on the ground could affect participatory communication practices in a development project. With regard to the project examined in this study, the analysis showed that there is a weak stakeholder relationship, especially stakeholders identified in this study as field officers. The study highlighted that stakeholders such as the agricultural extension officers and animal health technicians are not very active in the implementation process of the project. Some of the reasons pointed out is the fact that the secondary stakeholder such as the Provincial Department of Agricultural (PDoA) to which these field officers belong is not playing active role in ensuring that they complement the efforts of other field officers such as the IDC representatives. The second reason is the fact that the participatory focus of the project was not properly communicated to the beneficiaries. This also transpired in their inability to reflect participatory practice in their relationship with the beneficiaries and other stakeholders of the project. Other challenges, among others, as pointed out in the analysis showed that participatory communication practice requires expert personnel to be successful. In the case of the project examined, apart from the fact that there is shortage of manpower to handle the challenges mentioned in the study, there is no communication expert among the few active personnel in the field. The findings of this study showed that there was no clear role and identification of responsibilities let alone coordination of all actors involved in the project. Through the selected case study, this study has not only provided avenue to explore both theoretically and practically participatory communication, but has added to participatory communication discourse that there is no easy answer to challenges field officers encounter in practice. This is the reason the different participatory practices characterising nature of the project this study has investigated was given.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
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