An old sheep ...
The shepherd and his wife lived on the upper side of the road leading to the old Roman bridge. Their isolated abode was a small, square building with rough stone walls, low roof and paved stone floor. Inside was a small storage area, a dining-table with two...

Association between polymorphisms of MSTN and MYF5 genes and growth traits in three Chinese cattle breeds.
ABSTRACT : The objective of this study was to assess the association of polymorphisms in MSTN and MYF5 genes with growth traits in three Chinese cattle breeds. Only one homozygous animal with BB genotype at MSTN locus was observed in Jiaxian population which was at Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium (p<0.05). The...

"Grassroots" history: agricultural land use in Alberta.
Historians explore the past by focussing on human and institutional interactions. Here, political, social, economic and cultural forces comprise the primary interpretive vehicles for historical inquiry. In Alberta, and western Canada for that matter, agricultural development has been a major area of interest to historians, and predictably their focus...

Class action certified against federal government as farmers seek damages arising from "mad cow" crisis.
On September 3, 2008, Madame Justice Joan Lax of the Ontario Superior Court certified a $10 billion class proceeding brought on behalf of 115,000 Canadian cattle farmers (excluding those in Quebec) against the Government of Canada. The class action was commenced in April 2005 and seeks damages for economic...

Ethics of food production: from the pasture to the plate: current farming controversies give food for thought to Joanna Grigg, a New Zealand hill-country farmer.
My favourite meal is hazelnut and lemon crusted lamb, served with kumera and fresh beans. Delicious. Food is not just our sustenance and fuel, it also touches on our identity. How we eat, when we eat, whom we eat with and what we eat is an intrinsic...

Mapping development in Brazil.
A new map released by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geographia e Estatistica (IBGE)--Brazil's census bureau--displays for the first time the spread of agricultural and other activity into the Amazon rainforest and, according to an IBGE statement, will help to monitor the impact to the area. Using satellite...

Beef production and the environment: is it really 'hard to be green when you are in the red'?
Abstract The statement, 'it is hard to be green when you are in the red' is commonly used by primary producers to explain the necessity of placing a greater emphasis on financial survival rather than longer-term environmental sustainability. The subject of environmental sustainability on pastoral properties was...

Crucial and contentious: the American market and the development of the western Canadian beef cattle industry to 1948.
If I were to be offered the fulfillment of one solitary wish in the interests of western agriculture, I should without hesitation name the free admission of lighter cattle to the United States. --C.W. Peterson, Editor, Farm and Ranch Review, 25 September 1925 Beef cattle...

CATTLE RAIDING AND HOUSEHOLD DEMOGRAPHY AMONG THE KURIA OF TANZANIA.
Although a fair amount has been written on the subject of African `crime' in general (e.g. Read, 1964; Brillon, 1985; Austen, 1986; Cohen, 1986; Crummey, 1986) and East African livestock theft in particular (e.g. Fukui and Turton, 1979; Anderson, 1986; Hendrickson et al., 1996), scant effort has been made...

`War is good for thieving!' The symbiosis of crime and warfare among the Kuria of Tanzania.
Among the agro-pastoral Kuria people, whose population straddles the border between Tanzania and Kenya, many young men are actively engaged in an illicit livestock trade in which cattle stolen in Tanzania--A mainly from other Kuria, but from neighbouring peoples as well--are sold to buyers, mainly butchers, inside Tanzania or...