• Higher somatic cell counts (SCC) were associated with reductions in milk yield and efficiency of metabolizable energy use for lactation in Nordic Red cows. • The reduction in efficiency was primarily due to an increase in heat energy losses. • Adverse effects on energy utilization efficiency were apparent above 74 000 cells/mL. • Rising SCC levels were linked to higher methane emission intensity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship of somatic cell count (SCC) with production efficiency, energy partitioning, and methane emission in Nordic Red cows. Data were obtained from 10 previously conducted experiments consisting of 3 milk production trials and 7 GreenFeed (GF) studies, with available information on SCC, body weight (BW), milk production and feed intake. The complete data set consisted of a total of 924 cow/period observations from 265 cows. A subset of 150 cow/period observations from three of the GF studies, with available data on digestibility, and heat production were used for analysing energy partitioning variables. All measurements were made on cows fed diets based on grass silage with a range of protein and energy supplements. Production efficiency and energy partitioning variables were evaluated by mixed-model regression in SAS (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). with the natural logarithm of SCC (lnSCC) treated as a fixed variable. Experiment (Exp), diet(Exp), and period(Exp) were included as random effects, allowing their effects to be excluded from the fixed-effect estimates. Additionally, segmented regression (PROC NLMIXED in SAS) was applied to determine SCC thresholds affecting feed efficiency variables. An increase in lnSCC showed a negative relationship with milk lactose concentration, milk yield, energy corrected milk (ECM), residual ECM, and feed conversion efficiency. Conversely, milk protein concentration increased with rising lnSCC. A trend towards increased BW was noted with rising lnSCC. Methane energy intensity and heat production increased while the efficiency of metabolizable energy (ME) use for lactation ( k l ) decreased with elevated lnSCC. We identified SCC thresholds of 40 000 cells/mL for heat production (HP) and 74 000 cells/mL for k l , indicating that HP increases at an earlier stage of infection, while a more advanced infection is required to impair energy utilization efficiency. These findings underscore the importance of early SCC management to sustain production, minimize energy losses, and enhance feed efficiency and overall dairy sustainability.

• The study recorded activity in sows before and after farrowing using accelerometers. • High activity in total was associated with a higher total piglet mortality. • The distribution of load between the legs was not affected by recording before or after farrowing. • There was no relationship between activity and gait asymmetry. Lameness and poor limb quality of the sow is, apart from being painful and causing discomfort to the sow, also associated with an increased risk of crushing of piglets. Records of sow activity, as a potential indicator for increased risk of crushing, or increased risk of limb problems, were studied. Records of activity were collected using accelerometers attached to a collar around the neck of the sow. Data was collected on 63 sows at Research centre Lövsta, Uppsala, before and after farrowing. The accelerometers recorded movements over a period of 2.5 days per recording period. Sows were housed individually in farrowing pens with access to straw. Litter size at birth, number of dead piglet and cause of death was recorded by the staff in the stable. A pressure mat was used to investigate how sow gait was affected before and after farrowing. Differences in sow gait parameters were small before and after farrowing. The results show a significant difference in stride velocity between the left and right forelimbs. Further differences were recorded for the stride length of hind limbs. No significant changes were recorded for the weight load distribution between limbs. Activity levels varied over the day with highest activity during the day and lowest at night and in the early morning. Sows with higher levels of activity had a larger proportion of dead piglets, and high levels of activity in total after farrowing was associated with a higher proportion of crushed piglets. However, sows with higher activity levels during the night before farrowing had a lower proportion of crushed piglets. There was no association between activity levels and signs of lameness. In conclusion, activity may serve as an indicator of risk of piglet mortality, but activity in the farrowing pen does not seem to be a useful indicator of lameness.

• Cattle in a Y-maze avoid electric stimulus more when predicted by visual cues than audio cues. • Cattle with both visual and audio cues perform similar to those with visual only. • Visual cues could heighten animal compliance to virtual fence. Virtual fence relies on an animal’s ability to associate a cue with a pending electric stimulus that is delivered if the animal does not retreat from the boundary. The effectiveness of these cues as a warning signal dictates the strength of the virtual boundary. Current virtual fence systems apply audio cues as warning signals because they are easy to include on a collar, allow for simple movement of boundaries, and do not require physical changes on the ground. However, vision is the dominant sense that most livestock species, including cattle, use to navigate through their environment. Previous research and our own preliminary data suggest that cattle interact differently with visual than audio cues in a virtual fence system. To compare visual vs audio cues and any combination effect from using both cues, 16 steers were tested in a Y-maze with a virtual boundary creating an exclusion zone in one of the arms. We found that animals with visual cues outperformed their audio counterparts, showing a higher proportion of exclusion zone avoidance and demonstrating that avoidance more quickly ( p < 0.05). At the small spatial scale of this study, no difference was observed between visual cues alone and the combination with audio cues ( p = 1.0). These results suggest that visual cues may be important for virtual fence applications where training opportunities are limited or when high containment requirements are necessary.

• Reducing diet NDF content decreased dry matter and metabolizable energy intake. • Lower diet NDF content increased lamb muscle tissue n-6 content and n-6:n-3 ratio. • A reduction in diet NDF content increased lamb adipose tissue MUFA and UFA content. • A low diet NDF content increased lamb adipose tissue n-6:n-3 and PUFA:SFA ratios. • Diet NDF content had no effect on lamb muscle tenderness or oxidative stability. A trial was conducted studying the effect of reducing neutral detergent fibre (NDF) content in the diet of finishing South African Mutton Merino wether lambs on meat fatty acid (FA) composition, tenderness and stability. Fifty four-month-old lambs (29.14±1.66 kg; mean±SD) were assigned at random to the five dietary treatments with n = 10 lambs per treatment ( n = 1 lamb per replicate), culminating into a randomised trial design. The lambs were housed individually in pens (1.404 m²) on elevated wooden slatted floors. Five dietary treatments similar in nitrogen content were formulated differing in respect to the NDF content thereof. Treatments were described as containing 379 (CON), 314 (NDF1), 251 (NDF2), 192 (NDF3) and 143 (NDF4) gram NDF/kg dry matter (DM), respectively. The production study was conducted over a period of 61 days. Means were analysed using the LSMEANS/DIFF with treatment as fixed effect, and post hoc using Tukey's HSD test. Regression analyses was conducted by PROC REG. All estimates were tested at the 5 % probability level. A reducing dietary NDF content linearly decreased the stearic and α-linolenic acid content of South African Mutton Merino muscle tissue, but linearly increased the palmitic, palmitoleic, vaccenic, linoleic acid, total omega-6 (n-6) and n-6:omega-3 (n-3) ratio, as well as ∆ 9 desaturase index of the same tissue. Subcutaneous lipid tissue was more extensively affected by dietary treatment and linearly increased ( P < 0.0001) oleic, vaccenic, linoleic and arachidonic acid content, ∆ 9 desaturase index, as well as total mono-unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), unsaturated fatty acid (UFA), n-6, n-6:n-3 and PUFA:SFA ratios following decreased dietary NDF content. In contrast, adipose tissue lipid content, stearic acid and total saturated fatty acid (SFA) content, as well as atherogenicity index linearly decreased ( P < 0.0001) following a decreased dietary NDF content. Treatment did not affect the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA: C18:2c9,t11) content of lamb muscle or adipose tissue. Reducing dietary NDF content linearly decreased lamb longissimus muscle tissue lightness (L*) of day-4 and day-8 storage samples, yellowness (b*) and hue angle of the fresh (day-0) and day-8 samples, as well as chroma of the day-8 sample. In contrast, the redness (a*) of the day-8 storage muscle tissue increased linearly following a decrease in dietary NDF content. Dietary treatment had no effect on longissimus muscle tenderness nor oxidative stability. The advantage of reducing the NDF contend of a finishing diet for South African Mutton Merino lambs seems to favourably affect the PUFA:SFA ratio of subcutaneous lipid tissue, but negatively affect the n-6:n-3 ratio of both lipid and muscle tissue, whereas the total n-3 content was left unaffected. A lipid source high in n-3 would be of benefit if added to a low-NDF finishing diet fed to South African Mutton Merino wethers to possibly increase its content within their meat.

• Increased slow protein in diet reduces sow body protein loss during lactation. • Litter weight gain decreases with the increased resistant protein in sow diet. • High dietary CP level increases nitrogen loss to the environment in lactating sows. Over the last decades, litter size has increased considerably in modern hybrid sows. This raises concerns over body tissue mobilisation during lactation. Recent evidence suggests that protein tissue mobilization is specifically associated with reduced milk production, affecting litter weight gain, and with impaired ovarian function, affecting sow subsequent reproductive performance. Therefore, efficient utilization of dietary protein for milk production is critical during lactation. A meta-analysis was performed to investigate the role of dietary protein digestion kinetics in lactating sow weight loss, litter weight gain and nitrogen loss to the environment. Data were obtained from 17 peer reviewed publications between 1993 and 2019, including 63 different groups of sows fed with 59 different lactation diets. These publications were selected for their research focus on dietary crude protein concentration in relation to sow body weight loss and litter weight gain during lactation. Percentages of slow, fast and resistant protein in the total protein of the diets were estimated based on previously established in vitro protein degradation characteristics of the used ingredients. Results showed that higher total crude protein reduced sow weight losses and estimated body protein losses during lactation (β = -0.07 kg · (g/kg) −1 , P = 0.01; β = -0.02 kg · (g/kg) −1 , P < 0.01, respectively). An increase in the percentage of slow protein in total protein was associated with decreases of sow total weight loss (β = -1.85 kg/%, P < 0.01), estimated body protein loss (β = -0.33 kg/%, P < 0.01), while the percentage of fast protein in total protein was estimated to increase sow weight loss and estimated body protein loss during lactation (β = 0.46 kg/%, P = 0.03; β = 0.09 kg/%, P = 0.01, respectively). The percentage of resistant protein in total protein did not affect sow body losses but showed a negative relationship with litter weight gain during lactation (β = -0.80 kg/%, P < 0.01). Sow nitrogen loss to the environment during lactation was increased with a higher crude protein in the diet (β = 13.9 g· (g/kg) −1 , P < 0.01), but not affected by protein digestion kinetics. This meta-analysis suggests that a high percentage of slow protein reduces sow body protein mobilization during lactation, probably due to a more sustained and prolonged amino acid delivery to the circulation than with fast protein, and therefore improves utilization of dietary amino acids rather than use them as energy source.