Summary

Effectively managing the number of animals in a pen, the condition of their bedding and the amount of ammonia in the air are all part of achieving good animal welfare outcomes during the export of livestock by sea. These three factors also contribute to the social license and profitability of live sheep and cattle exports.

A long-term, strategic project partnership was established between the livestock export industry and the University of New England (UNE) to take a holistic approach to research into these critical areas, which in many ways are interdependent.

This project was managed by the Livestock Export RD&E Program, a collaboration between LiveCorp and Meat & Livestock Australia.

Objectives

• Conduct scientific research into stocking densities to understand animal needs and behaviours to inform policy and industry improvements.

• Investigate how livestock respond to different levels of ammonia, stocking density, temperature and bedding in controlled environments and on-board livestock export ships.

• Develop practical predictive tools and interventions to identify and manage risks.

Benefits to industry

The outcomes of this project provide insights which help to inform best practice management decisions to enhance the health, welfare, and performance of sheep and cattle during live export voyages.

The findings also enable the industry to make scientifically supported recommendations into future reviews of the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock (ASEL).

Journal articles

A series of journal articles has been developed from this project, links to articles are available below:

• Effect of bedding application and air change rates on environmental ammonia concentrations for intensively housed beef cattle (here)

• Stocking density in intensive housing and the implications for beef cattle behavior, stress physiology, and liveweight (here)

• Effects of stocking density during a livestock export voyage on sheep behaviour, liveweight, indicators of stress, and responses to environmental heat load (here)

• The effect of stocking density on the production of ammonia and faecal pad formation under thermoneutral climatic conditions (here)

• Stocking density, restricted trough space, and implications for sheep behaviour and biological functioning (here)

• The effects of stocking density on behavior and biological functioning of penned sheep under continuous heat load conditions (here)