Researchers from the State of Victoria’s Department of Primary Industries (DPI) have discovered an eco-friendly way to use the by-products of winemaking to improve the quality and quantity of milk production. Scientists at the DPI’s Centre for Dairy Excellence, at Ellinbank, found that supplementing the cows’ feed with the stems, seeds and skins from wine grapes reduced their emissions by 20 per cent, increased milk production by five per cent and increased the healthy fatty acids in their... ...Read more »

Milk that fights cholesterol absorbtion, from specially fed cows, is being developed by Victorian Government scientists, with the aim of eventual commercial availability. Victorian Minister for Agriculture and Food Security Peter Walsh said the search for cholesterol-fighting milk was the focus of collaborative research underway at the Department of Primary Industries’ (DPI) dairy research centre at Ellinbank. “The research being undertaken at Ellinbank could show that milk can play an instrumental... ...Read more »

Milk and meat from the offspring of cloned animals would not need to carry labels informing consumers of the origin of the food, the UK’s food-safety watchdog has argued. A meeting of the Food Standards Agency board yesterday agreed that the mandatory labelling of milk meat from the descendants of cloned cattle and pigs would be “unnecessary and disproportionate”. The use of such labels would provide “no significant food safety benefit to consumers”, the FSA board said. The... ...Read more »

CSIRO is researching ways to improve the welfare of livestock by developing scientific methods for assessing how animals ‘feel’ in response to common management practices, with the aim of reducing stress and pain in livestock, and increasing wellbeing and productivity. The research, partly funded by Meat and Livestock Australia, will use cognitive principles based on human psychological theories, to assess animal emotions. “With increased public concern about the welfare of animals,... ...Read more »

Federal Labor MP Janelle Saffin announced today that she plans to introduce a private members motion into Parliament to move for the banning of live cattle exports from Australia. Saffin told ABC Rural that there was support in her electorate of Page in northern NSW on two fronts, with beef producers and processors opposing live exports, and animal welfare concerns bringing support from animal advocates. Saffin also spoke in parliament in March this year, declaring the opposition of the Australian... ...Read more »

The Coles supermarket chain has confirmed that it will phase out beef from animals treated with hormone growth promotants, or HGPs. The hormone implants are used by graziers and feedlots to boost cattle growth. Meat general manager at Coles, Allister Watson, says untreated animals produce better meat. He says 80 per cent of what he buys is already HGP-free and he pays more for it. “We have a closed loop supply chain that we are currently paying more for to ensure that the cattle don’t... ...Read more »

The UK’s Food Standards Agency has released a statement confirming that meat from the offspring of a cloned cow has been sold to consumers in the UK. Related claims of dairy from the offspring of cloned animals being sold have not yet been substantiated. While meat and dairy from cloned animals has been approved in the United States for two years, the UK regulations consider it a ‘novel food’: a food or food ingredient that does not have a significant history of consumption in the... ...Read more »

It sounds like the punchline to a joke, but glowing eyes may be the key to a noninvasive test allowing scientists to identify animals suffering from prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease. Researchers from Iowa State University and the National Animal Disease Centre examined sheep with scrapie – also a prion disease, and one of the prime suspects of the cause of the original BSE outbreaks, after cows were fed meal made from the remains... ...Read more »

Ground breaking findings by an international consortium of scientists who sequenced and analysed the bovine genome, could result in more sustainable food production. The findings, published in two reports in the journal Science today, will have a profound impact on Australia’s livestock industry, according to the CSIRO. CSIRO scientists were among the 300 researchers from 25 countries involved in the six-year Bovine Genome Sequencing Project designed to sequence, annotate and analyse the genome... ...Read more »