Exercises

1. Translate the following words and word combinations:

To handle, premature birth, sterility, slaughter, to vaccinate (vaccination), an udder, pain, swelling.

2. Guess the word by its definition (all the words can be found in the text):

1. C………….. – animals with horns and hoofs, kept by farmers for their milk and beef.

2. P………….. - an animal or plant that lives in or on another, from which it gets its food.

3. D…………. – an unhealthy condition, an illness.

4. A…………. – the birth of a baby before it has developed enough to live (a miscarriage).

5. S…………… - killing an animal for food or because of some disease affecting it.

6. H…………… - a group of cattle of other animals that feed together.

7. U…………… - the bag-like part of a cow, ewe, female goat, from which milk is taken.

3. Complete the table:

Disease	Symptoms	Prevention and treatment
Brucellosis or Bang’s disease
Mastitis

4. Make a report on the topic under discussion.

Breeding and Improving

It is better to make a start with selecting promising individual animals.

The owner of a dairy herd is interested in securing high production per cow in terms of butterfat and milk. He is interested in improving the level of inheritance in his herd so that more and more of the heifers raised prove to be high producers when they reach maturity. It is necessary to secure individuals that transmit high production to most or all of their offspring.

There are many factors that influence improvement in the herd:

• keeping records year after year and culling out low producers,

• providing proper feeding,

• controlling diseases and parasites.

The owner should maintain a high rate of reproduction in the herd. Here we can speak about ‘calving percentage’ or ‘calving rate’. Freshening regularly at least every 12 months with 6 to 8 weeks as a dry period between lactation periods, seem to be most desirable. This results in a favorable annual production and a large number of calves for herd replacements and sale. The calving rate in a herd may be low because of careless breeding and failure to breed the cows back soon enough after freshening. Sometimes a low percentage may be due to Bang’s disease or other ailments of the cows or may result from using a bull that is not a reliable breeder.

Exercises

1. Find the equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

Обеспечение высокой продуктивности, улучшение наследственности, быть хорошими производителями, влиять на улучшение стада, фиксировать данные год за годом, отбирать животных с низкой производительностью, поддерживать высокий уровень продуктивности, обновление, годовой, болезни.

2. Translate the text in writing.

Peculiarities of Calving

In farming practice the majority of calves are born to dairy cows kept for the production of milk for sale. Therefore, in order to rear calves it is necessary to deprive them of their natural feeding and environment and to rear them in some artificial way.

If the calf is left with his mother it will start to suckle as soon as it can stand. If the calf is removed from his mother, the first milk must be provided regularly for at least the first 3 or 4 days.

The first 6 months is the most important time in the rearing program. Good feeding and management at this stage are the best means of ensuring the calf grow quickly for production and profit.

The calf born in autumn will get most of its food from good nutritious grazing during the first summer. The calves grow faster with some grain. It helps them to resist disease and parasitic troubles. About 0,9 kg of a mainly cereal mixture per head per day is adequate. At the same time, a mineral supplement can be added to the concentrates. A clean water supply is most important.

A heifer is usually bred at the age of 2 years.

The gestation period of the cow is 280 days. Normally, the cow will calve at 12-monthly intervals.

A liberal diet is given to the cow in calf for the last 6 or 8 weeks before she is to calve. It is the best to prepare the cow slowly so that she has time to build up body reserves. High feeding should last 2 or 3 months. This period is especially important in the development of the unborn calf.

It is well known that the sire is half of the herd. That is why the herd bull must be kept in good breeding condition. The ability to produce milk and butterfat can be transmitted to the offspring through the male as well as through the female.