JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE IN FINLAND Maataloustieteellinen Aikakauskirja Vol. 61: 489—493, 1989 Finnish animal production research during (he past 20 years ESKO POUTIAINEN, MATTI NÄSI & ASKO MÄKI-TANILA Agricultural Research Centre ofFinland 31600 Jokioinen Introduction Animal production is a dominant feature of Finnish agriculture. Milk, meat and eggs con- stitute about three-fourths of total value added agricultural production. One-third of Finland’s total arable land is allocated to hay, silage and pasture. Of a total productive area of 2.2 million hectares, around 1.0 million hectares are used for feed grain production. In central, eastern and northern Finland, only grasses and feed grain can be grown without great risks. Finland’s agricultural policy aims at a balanced, high-quality supply of food that meets domestic demand under all circum- stances at a reasonable cost to consumers. During the two last decades the animal pro- duction has exceeded the limit of self- sufficiency and therefore has been subjected to regulative measures for reductions in pro- duction volume. There is unanimous agreement that in the present situation, agricultural research should pay particular attention to facilitating the sec- tor’s adjustment to a reduction in overall pro- duction and try to find alternative production possibilities. Food quality and safety is con- sidered another major subject of agricultural research, and aspects such as the utilization of biotechnology and environmental issues have more recently become important areas of study. Owing to the central role of animal produc- tion in Finnish agriculture, inputs to research in this field have been rather high. During the last decades experimental facilities have been improved markedly. New buildings have been built and most of the old animal houses have been renovated so as to be suitable for mod- ern animal experiments. At present, Finland has 750 individually fed cattle, 700 swine, 300 sheep, 12 000 poultry and 350 horses for ex- perimental purposes. The number of research- ers and support personnel has increased only slightly within the same period thus restrict- ing animal research. Animal production re- search is conducted mainly by the Agricultural Reseach Centre’s institutes and experimental stations and at the various departments of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Helsinki. 489 https://www.c-info.fi/en/info/?token=3rXpdgIoAMt4qPfB.rpsRejOYlafmediB5-1TMA.QmKdXzb0d6CpODmhsP7JS-CgwIWuLHiK39hHB7UGbZ6tNDg-J4gjwCus44P7T04s9yKkygfqQXJrrxMueog16UGh3bQjGWxwyDYWd6ECXi_zQVFIXfcUwk8kwCGqcHKiQII2gqoCv3aOAAawPqXWHddqLU5ntNiJL894KxGmXNKolZFC5AdeZ7tuK-m-1JZrjZANrLin7Ru5HusHfCx3eHe8LTz19w Dairy cattle feeding Nutrition research has aimed at improving the efficiency of feedstuff conversion into milk and meat for human consumption. Con- siderable research has been focused on the utilization of domestically produced feeds. The so-called “green line” feeding method, in which high-quality grass silage serves as the basal feed during the indoor season, was in- troduced to cattle feeding in the late 19605. Technical improvements in harvesting and safe methods of ensiling have essentially fa- vored silage making. Flail harvesters that chopped and loaded grass and were equipped with an acid applicator, promoted the rapid increase of silage use in feeding. This model has been further developed, and has been suc- cessfully applied in practical cattle feeding since the 19705. A new method of grassland production was adapted simultaneous to the technical ad- vancement made in silage making. Leys were based on grass species and nitrogen fertiliza- tion was employed to increase the yield and protein content of the grass. The contribution of silage to the total feed intake ofFinnish dairy cows has markedly and rapidly increased comprising ca. 25 % of the total annual supply of feed units. The utility of silage as a feed depends both on the animals’ voluntary intake as well as on its nutritional quality. During the last 20 years of active research, most of the major practical aspects have been dealt with in a series of experiments. The fol- lowing topics have been the most important: Plant material: grass species, fertilization, stage of growth at harvest, method of harvest- ing Additives: acid and acid mixtures, mixtures containing formaldehyde, bacterial and en- zyme preparations and their mixtures Storage losses: material and quality, pre- wilting Feeding value: palatability, digestibility, energy and protein value, productive value in dairy cow and growing cattle feeding. Numerous feeding experiments have been carried out on dairy cows and growing cattle especially. Experiments with cows have shown that by a silage supplemented with a small amount of hay, daily yields exceeding 14 kg may be obtained without loss of weight. Die- tary supplementation with concentrates in- creases yields because the intake of digestible organic matter also increases. Several feeding experiments have been con- ducted in order to study the level and type of concentrate supplementation. Comparisons of barley and oats have shown that on a weight basis oats have produced slightly more milk, but have lowered milk fat and protein content consistently in all experiments. Oats are also recommended for dairy cows instead of barley due to their better economy in milk production in addition to the resultant milk fat composition which is more desirable in human nutrition and dairy technology. The optimal concentrate supplement for dairy cows has been investigated in many studies. The response to the replacement of barley with fibre-based concentrates has been variable depending on the fibre source. Sup- plements were fed equally on a DM basis and on a silage diet and the best response was obtained with unmolassed sugar beet pulp and barley fibre with solubles. The pro- duction response with fibrous concentrates was in all cases higher than that which could be expected from their lower energy values as evaluated by digestibilities. A long term feeding study on dairy cows was performed with two home-grown forages supplemented with grain. The experiment comprised a silage and hay comparison in the three dairy breeds used in Finland: Ayrshire, Friesian and Finncattle and included two years of growth and six years of lactation. The differences in performance were slight among the forages, but a silage-cereal diet was found to be more profitable than a hay-urea-cereal diet. An extensive study on strategies for concen- trate feeding with ad lib. silage supply to high yielding dairy cows has been carried out both 490 under experimental conditions and in practice. A simplified principle of a flat rate sup- plementation of concentrates was considered to be a realistic and economically feasible al- ternative provided the silage is of a high nutri- tional and palatable quality. Several tests comparing the effects of differ- ent protein concentrates on milk yield with si- lage based rations have been carried out. Responses to protein supplements have been variable, although in most cases positive, de- pending to a large extent on the effects on di- gestibility and feed intake. The protein requirement for milk produc- tion has been investigated intensively and var- ious protein evaluation systems for ruminants have been developed. Protein protection treat- ments eg. for rapeseed meal have been tested in many experiments. Basic research has emphasized the physio- logical and biochemical bases of feed intake, microbial degradation and digestion of feeds, absorption and utilization of nutrients. Growing cattle feeding In a series of feeding experiments on grow- ing cattle, various forages and diet supplemen- tationhave been investigated. In some produc- tion trials te average daily weight gain of young bulls on sole silage feeding has ranged from 0.75 to 0.94 kg/day. Supplementation of the diet with up to 3.0 kg barley meal in- creased the rate of gain by about 230 g. In the case of good silage, a similar response was achieved already by a 1.5 kg level of sup- plementation. Practically no further improve- ment has been found above a 3 kg supplemen- tation level but the maximum response has been found to occur already at the level of 1.5—2.0 kg. When ordinary hay was compared with grass silage at two levels of barley supply, the estimated carcass gains of young bulls fed hay were 83 to 88 % of that on silage. When different forages and supplementation levels were compared, it was concluded that carcass gains on hay rations were from 76 to 83 % of those obtained on silage with the same level of concentrate supply. About 2 kg or more concentrate was needed on hay to reach the same carcass gain as that on silage. The improvement of low digestibility for- ages by chemical and other processing meth- ods has been investigated rather intensively. Sodium hydroxide treated straw has been used in many feeding trials involving growing cat- tle. Only moderate or rather poor perfor- mance has been obtained with diets based on treated straw. The need for an increased con- centrate supplement has also become neces- sary in order to achieve reasonable growth rates. Non-ruminant feeding Investigations have sought to improve the efficiency of non-ruminant livestock produc- tion by expanding basic knowledge on nutri- tional and management practices that affect growth, production and reproduction. In the case of non-ruminants, research has focussed on finding the optimum levels for both domes- tic and imported protein feeds in order to at- tain high performance with pigs, poultry and furbearing animals. Pig feeding Feeding standards and methods have been investigated intensively in both breeding sows and growing pigs in order to achieve good per- formance and high carcass quality. A nutri- tional evaluation of domestic cereal grains and their protein supplementation has supplied good knowledge in pig nutrition, their require- ments and feed utilization. Domestic protein supplements such as rapeseed meal and pulses have proved rea- sonable replacements for soybean meal. Ex- periments in which fish meal has been used as the protein source have shown that only low levels can be used to avoid detrimental effects on meat quality. Promising results have been 491 obtained in studies where natural protein sources have been balanced with the pure ami- no acids, lysine and methionine. Some of the by-products of the milling and brewing industries, alcohol distillation, cheese making and abattoir have been evaluated in pigs as replacements for grain and some of these have been shown to be of high value while others are of low value. Various process- ing methods, hydrothermal and enzymatic treatments have been demonstrated to have potential in improving the feed value of some feedstuffs. In piglet feeds, processing and en- zyme supplementation have increased the per- formance and health status of piglets. The results have shown that even though it is possible to design nutritionally balanced diets based entirely on home-produced energy and protein feeds, this approach is not eco- nomical in the present situation. The sup- plementation of domestic feeds with restricted quantities of imported feeds has been found to be the most efficient and sound situation. Poultry feeding Nutrition research in poultry has been con- centrated on the study of feed grains, the basic component of poultry feeds, and their supplementation. Such home-grown protein supplements as rapeseed meal and peas as well as protein rich agroindustrial by-products have been investigated intensively. Good pro- duction results can be obtained using domes- tic sources of protein, provided that the limit- ing amino acids are properly balanced with synthetic amino acids. A supplementation containing cellulolytic enzymes has improved layer performance when barley and oats have served as the basic grain sources. Broiler nutritionresearch has been directed towards improving feed utilization when bar- ley is used as a replacement for wheat in the diet. Barley contains non-starch polysac- charides which reduce nutrient absorption. Enzyme mixtures containing several cellulases and hemicellulases supplemented in barley based broiler diets have reduced digestive problems in the birds and increased feed con- version efficiency. Basic principles of breeding programs The genetic improvement of farm animals is based on simple principles. They involve normal out-breeding populations and fair comparisons of performance under common test conditions. The best animals are then selected and used for breeding the next genera- tion. The expected genetic response is predict- ed from measuring to what extent the ob- served differences between individuals are in- herited. In Finland, animal breeding research and development work is done in close co- operation between research and extension or- ganisations, industry also provides some pro- ject funding. A practical breeding program is constructed by assessing economic objectives, use of test resources, reliability of genetic evaluation method, and reproductive capacity in the spe- cies. Simultaneous contemplation of these fea- tures has produced coherent operational sys- tems with the reproductive rate having the most important effect on the differences be- tween species. From artificial insemination to embryo transfer Finland has been amongst the most ad- vanced countries in the utilization of artificial insemination (AI). In the 60’s frozen semen replaced fresh semen in cattle and Al was suc- cesfully set up in pigs so that now all the dairy cows and some 40 % of sows are inseminated. Another significant development has been the rapid progress made in embryo technology since the first transfer in 1979. The advantages which superovulation and embryo transfer can offer have been studied through computer simulation. First steps have been taken also in molecular genetics research which aims for 492 improvements in animal production technol- ogy. Dairy cattle breeding Research efforts have concentrated on the optimization of breeding programs under giv- en economic objectives, test resources and desired accuracy of genetic evaluation. The main breed, Finnish Ayrshire, is a dual- purpose breed, where most of the selection on growth is by performance testing all AI bulls. Beef production requirements are also met by recommendations to inseminate the poorest cows with bulls of beef breeds. This and oth- er on-farm breeding decisions can be based on the national cow evaluation system made available for farmers by on-line computer techniques. Health recording has been in oper- ation since the early 80’s and can be expected to bring successful results because in Finland the number of daughters per bull is high enough even for poorly heritable traits such as disease resistance. During the last ten years, satisfactory genetic progress (50 —60 kg per year) has been made in milk yield. At the same time special programs have been set up to screen rare landrace breeds for maintaining the genetic variation for future needs. Pig breeding Pig breeding is based on centralized testing. Since the early 70’s, all A 1 boars have been performance tested. The test provides suffi- cient accuracy for highly heritable traits and therefore accelerates progress in traits such as feed efficiency and backfat thickness. Meat quality has been given special attention in sib/progeny testing. Together with the sys- tematic eradication of the halothane gene, var- ious criteria for quality have been used and studied. Consequently, all AI boars and most of breeding herds are now halothane-free. On- farm records on growth and reproduction have been utilized for within-farm selection and their use in national breeding programs has been investigated. A measure of the qual- ity of Finnish pigs can be indicated by the sub- stantial export of breeding material to sever- al major pig production countries. Selection index Due to an efficient recording system, ad- vanced measurement techniques and modern computing methods, genetic evaluation is done for several traits in many species. By considering the economic importance and genetic associations between traits as well as the informationavailable, each test context is provided with a selection index where traits are evaluated appropriately. The indices were first set for pig breeding, but since 1983 also dairy bull selection has been based on an in- dex. Genetic evaluation The most revolutionary development has taken place in genetic evaluation routines. Whereas the old methods could only very poorly take into account the environmental and genetic differences between animals over place and time, recently developed estima- tion routines can simultaneously remove ef- fects due to feeding level, year and selection amongst parents. These so-called best linear unbiased predictions (BLUP) are obtained via ihe construction of mixed linear model equa- tions. The first developments have occurred in dairy sire evaluation BLUP has been used in Finland since 1981 but now even more powerful methods have become feasible according to advancements in computing tech- nology. Recent developments have made it possible to evaluate a larger number of animals under a uniform system and therefore also to monitor changes in genetic and en- vironmental levels. 493 Other species Livestock production research also involves furbearing animals, horses, sheep, goats and reindeer. Feeding and management research has been carried out in all of the above ani- mals. Being alternative production branches these would all have growth potential, and are therefore areas to be emphasized in future re- search. Although the major breakthroughs in genetic improvement programs have been made in cattle and pigs, the same principles and methodology are applied in breeding pro- grams for egg-laying hens, sheep and horses. Live animals or frozen embryos of Finnsheep have been exported to several countries with the aim of improving prolificacy in local sheep production. Fish farming and fur production are somewhat different from conventional farm production systems and therefore require special types of breeding programs. Conclusion Food research has been linked to agricul- tural research and this expands the scope of the animal production task to cover the whole production chain from the animal as a raw material to the processed finished product. Comprehensive research projects are needed in order to satisfactorily solve today’s prob- lems. The quality of animal products is of cru- cial significance today. In several research projects, objectives have been set for improve- ment in the composition of milk, meat and eggs according to consumer desires and to the recommendations of health specialists. Inten- sive research is in progress to meet this aim in the fields of animal breeding and nutrition. 494