Cattle Breeding under Climate Change

This article has been prepared to examine the effects of heat stress on livestock nutrition, yield and product quality, and to reveal strategies for adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Global climate change is primarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions, which result in warming of the atmosphere. Therefore, soil, air, water pollution and reductions in biodiversity may occur. At the same time, climate change can directly and indirectly affect livestock and animal nutrition. Heat stress results from inability to dissipate enough heat to maintain homeothermy of the animals. High ambient temperature, relative humidity and radiant energy compromise ability to dissipate heat of the animals. Ruminants, pigs and poultry are susceptible to heat stress due to their species-specific characteristics such as their metabolic rate and growth, high yield levels, rumen fermentation, sweating disorder and skin insulation. The indirect effects of climate change on livestock are changes in crop and forage production and quality, decrease in pasture/rangeland quality as a result of decrease in biodiversity and decrease in water availability. The direct effects are on the feed and water consumption, growth, milk, meat, egg, wool/hair and honey yield and product quality of the animals. These effects are primarily the result of a combination of temperature and increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, variation in precipitation, and relative humidity. Heat stress can cause significant losses in animal production, some of these may be immediate and some may be delayed. Animals under heat stress can decrease feed consumption to reduce metabolic heat. The decrease in feed consumption may cause a decrease in the growth rate of animals, decrease in milk, meat, egg, wool/hair yield and quality. The rations of animals can be manipulated to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.

Ukraine's population living in cities is about 68%. The tendency of population growth and increasing their concentration in large cities of the country is anticipated. There happens the formation of a qualitatively new urbanized environment. The relevance of this study stems is dued to the global report on human settlements “Cities and climate change: strategy directions” (United Nations Human Settlements Program, 2011). The consequences of urbanization and climate change are dangerously combined, threatening environmental, economic and social stability in the world. The report aims to raise awareness of governments and anyone who's interested in the strategic development of cities on a number of topical issues: the impact of cities on climate change; the impact of climate change on cities; the role of cities in consequences mitigation. The aridity of climate has significantly increased in Ukraine, during the last decades. This article discusses the main effects of climate change, mitigation measures, and ways to adapt the urban environment. The factors affecting the increased climate change in the urban environment are described here. And the negative effects of climate change in the cities of the country are analyzed. Much attention is paid to the problem of the formation of heat island in an urban environment. The heat island is the result of a temperature anomaly over the central part of the city and factor influencing the manifestation of heat stress. The leaded research has been analyzed in next direction: heat stress - as a consequence of climate change in an urbanized city environment. Here were learned the groups of measures to improve the adaptability of the city to the negative effects of climate change. The article deals with research on modeling urban spaces. Much attention is paid to developing a plan for adapting the urban environment to climate change. The fountains were recognized as the main architectural and construction method for adapting large cities of the country to heat stress. The evolution of the development of modern fountains as architectural objects in the urban environment is traced, as well as a historical change in the functional content. Modern fountains are “living” urban air conditioners that regulate the climate of the urban environment (cool and moisten the air, reduce air pollution). The noise of urban street fountains, created by the variety of water sounds, improves the sound of urban areas affected by traffic noise. Fountains contribute to increasing the comfort of an urbanized city environment and increasing the adaptation of cities to heat stress. Here's clarified the definition of the term. A fountain is a specific structure for improving the climate of the environment with all the main and auxiliary devices and equipment that belong to it (State Standard D.1.1-1: 2013 Rules for determining the cost of construction). Here's raised the issue of the rational use of water resources in the organization of fountains in an urban environment. The article examines the experience of building fountains in countries with arid climate. Described in detail: • The Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas - the brand identity of tourist destinations, internationally recognized as the most spectacular; • The Dubai Fountain is the largest fountain in the world, a prime example of the rational use of water resources. As a result of the study, the following conclusions were made: modern fountains help to reduce the negative effects of climate change, reduce the manifestation of heat stress, passively cool urban spaces, normalize the functioning of urban energy systems, reduce air pollution, improve the quality of used water. Fountains also improve the sound of urban areas affected by traffic noise. Fountains as a part of the city’s adaptation plan to climate change manifestations increase the adaptability of the urbanized city environment to heat stress and carry out a set of measures aimed at increasing the comfort of urban areas. Creating interactive maps of cool zones with the presence of fountains on the territory of large cities where people can spend a hot day, and giving a block of such information to maps located in the city for tourists are the first steps to improve the adaptation of cities to climate change. Also, fountains are a tourist potential for the development of recreation zones and the historical part of the cities of Ukraine.

Climate change is one of today's biggest problems and a major concern and continues globally. Due to population growth, the increasing needs and industrial activities of people negatively affect most of the natural resources. Hydrology and water supply system; it is in close contact with industry, agriculture, city and economic areas, and water resources are exposed to the negative effects of climate change. The most important effect of the greenhouse effect and global warming caused by human activities and other reasons is the emergence of imbalances in the ecosystem by making the climate warmer and more variable. The negative effects of global climate change are mostly seen on water resources, agricultural activities, forest areas, sea level, soil characteristics, ecological balance, social life, energy, human health and biodiversity. Studies to examine the effects of climate change on hydrological and water resources have theoretical and realistic meanings. It is important to understand the problems in water resources, disturbances in the ecological balance and the causes of many problems caused by climate change and to know the effects of climate change on the ecosystem in order to solve them. Thus, it will be easier to develop strategies that can combat problems that may arise due to climate change today and in the future. Turkey also between in the risk group country in terms of climate change and its adverse effects. In this study, by analyzing climate change, the causes and effects of climate change, and especially the negative effects of climate change on water resources, solution suggestions are presented in order to eliminate or minimize the negative effects that occur. Key Words: Climate, Global warming, Climate change, Water resources. DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-11-07

The Dutch national breeding programmes have developed to major globally operating companies.

Harvest Moon: Some personal thoughts on past and future directions in animal breeding research.

The impact of climate change has become a very important topic and can have a direct impact on predator-prey interactions. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a novel competitive predator-prey model under the negative effects of climate change due to its effects and importance. Based on their different properties, Holling type I and II functional responses are considered to be two different models for studying dynamic behaviors. Two approaches to the negative impacts of climate change are assumed: static and periodic changes. Firstly, models with negative climate change are taken as static changes. The existence, positivity, and boundedness of solutions are established. Local and global stability conditions are obtained for all feasible equilibrium points. The Hopf bifurcation is investigated, by taking climate change constants, as bifurcation parameters. Which shows that the model with Holling type I is globally stable whenever there exists an internal equilibrium point. However, the model with Holling type II contains two dynamics: stable and limit cycle dynamics. Uniform persistence is proved, and various extinction scenarios have been analytically yielded. In addition, numerical simulations are used to demonstrate and verify our theoretical findings. Negative climate impacts have a significant impact on system stability as well as on the coexistence and extinction of species. Secondly, models with negative climate change are considered periodic changes taking seasonality into account, which is considered tangible evidence of climate change. The dynamics of these effects are investigated numerically. Due to the existence of seasonality, the dynamics become more complex and different, as there are multiple cycles and chaos, which makes the systems more realistic for describing some environments due to the presence of some environmental impacts. The findings of this study show many undesirable scenarios for predator-prey interactions due to negative climate change. In light of these findings, many phenomena and changes due to negative climate change in ecosystems can be explained and predicted from an ecological point of view.

The impacts of climate change on agriculture are both positive and negative. The effects of climate change on agriculture and food security are also direct and indirect in nature. It impacted soil carbon losses, freshwater availability, crop yield, livestock production, fish migration, spawning, etc. directly. And, at the same time, it causes frequent floods, drought, salinity, heat stress, and an unprecedented tropical cyclone that threatens food security and biodiversity. Evidence of positive and negative effects of climate change on agriculture are clear cut. Moreover, the predicted climate change consequences are also going to adversely affect agriculture and food security in the near future. Specifically, the productivity of major field crops like rice, wheat, maize, soybean as well as millet and sorghum would be affected. The impacts on fruits and vegetables are widely varied and primarily depend on latitude and region of cultivation. The CO2 fertilization effect is positive for most of the C3 crops but up to a certain temperature rise. In the livestock sector, pastoral system productivity is going to be reduced along with lower animal growth rates and productivity, higher pests and disease incidence, and loss of biodiversity. This sector is also likely to be adversely affected differently in different regions by rising temperatures, water scarcity, and low-quality feed supply, and the spreading of unexpected diseases. The vulnerability of rangeland (both productivity and composition) and pastoral systems to climate change is reasonably high. Moreover, the pests and diseases outbreak with altered vectors for both crop and livestock are going to take different dimensions in future climate change scenarios.

Climate change and extreme weather shocks pose serious threats to a number of agricultural outcomes, including agricultural production, productivity, and income, especially when households depend heavily on this activity. Agricultural extension and rural advisory services are key instruments in promoting technical change, advancing agricultural productivity growth and, ultimately, improving farm livelihoods, and are expected to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and extreme weather shocks. Their mitigation effects, however, may vary depending on the sex of the recipient. This paper investigates the role of sex-disaggregated agricultural extension recipients in contexts where agricultural performance of farm households is affected by weather variability. To this aim, we match multiple rounds of panel microdata from the nationally representative, consumption-based Living Standards Measurement Study -Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), collected in four sub-Saharan African countries, with remote sensing data on biophysical dimensions over a long-term horizon as well as year-specific weather shocks. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a micro-level dataset with individual-level information on agricultural extension services’ recipients has been assembled and examined to investigate the effects of extreme weather shocks and climate change. Applying panel data econometric estimators, the study finds that agricultural extension and advisory services translate into higher agricultural performance of farm households where women are also among the beneficiaries, as compared to non-beneficiaries and households where beneficiaries are men only. Moreover, these services can mitigate the negative effects of weather variability and climate change, controlling for country and time fixed effects as well as holding all other variables constant. These results call for national and international policies and interventions strengthening rural advisory services, especially targeted to women in settings where household livelihoods are predominantly agriculture-based and weather variability and shocks are expected to negatively affect farming activities.

Chapter 1 - Climate change and drought: challenges for agriculture in arid environments

Opportunities and challenges in assessing climate change vulnerability through genomics

The maintenance of genetic diversity in a local cattle breed through optimal contribution selection

Зміну клімату визнано однією з найсерйозніших сучасних загроз довгостроковим цілям суспільного розвитку. В сільському господарстві такі зміни провокують недоотримання агровиробниками гарантованих доходів і ризики продовольчої безпеки й здатні в цілому негативно вплинути на стійкість агросистеми. Забезпечення стійкості сільськогосподарського виробництва пов’язане з його екологізацією, кліматичною нейтральністю й високою опірністю негативним наслідкам різких кліматичних змін. Дослідження ризиків стійкості сільськогосподарського виробництва повинно мати системний характер і прив’язку до конкретних умов певної території.Ризики стійкості вітчизняного агровиробництва пропонується групувати за економічною, кліматичною, екологічною, соціальною сферами їх прояву. Для ефективної протидії негативним наслідкам кліматичних змін у сільгоспвиробництві й зменшення впливу на клімат з боку аграрного сектору необхідними є своєчасне прогнозування й управління відповідними ризиками, для чого має бути сформована система індикаторів стійкості. Це дозволить визначати вразливості й прогалини в спроможності забезпечення стійкості, а також оцінювати ефективність заходів з нівелювання негативного впливу несприятливих чинників на стійкість агрогосподарювання.Для умов України запропоновано комплексну систему індикаторів стійкості сільського господарства, яка включає чотири блоки: економічну, екологічну і кліматичну, соціальну стійкість, а також кліматичну нейтральність. Ключовими орієнтирами досягнення стійкості визнано: забезпечення національної продовольчої безпеки і доходів аграріїв; зниження волатильності врожайності сільгоспкультур; зменшення викидів вуглецю в результаті агрогосподарювання; забезпечення кадрового потенціалу агровиробництва. Розрахунки відповідних показників засвідчили, що в довоєнний період (зокрема, у 2021 р. порівняно з 2015 р.) ситуація не була загрозливою лише в економічній сфері. Водночас мали місце суттєві загрози у сферах екологічної і кліматичної стійкості, а також кліматичної нейтральності.

Climate change is impacting milk production worldwide. For instance, increased heat stress in cows is causing average-sized dairy farms losing thousands of milk gallons each year; drastic climate change, especially in developing countries, pushing small farmers, farmers with less than 10 to 25 cattle, below the poverty line and is triggering suicides due to economic stress and social stigma. It’s profoundly clear that current dairy agriculture practices are falling short to counter the impacts of climate change. What we need are innovative and intelligent dairy farming techniques that employ best of traditional practices with data infused insights to counter negative effects of climate change. To achieve innovative and intelligent dairy farming techniques, we need to disseminate state of art data science to masses. In other word, provide the state of art data science algorithms to every food harvesting citizen data scientist, farmer. The democratization of artificial intelligence to farmers, importantly, is not only empowers farmers to understand the patterns and signatures of climate change but also provides the ability to forecast the impending climate change adverse events and recommends data driven insights to counter the negative effects of climate change. With the availability of new data tools, farmers can not only improve their standard of life but also conquer, importantly, perennial “climate change related suicide” issue. It’s our staunch believe that the gold standard for the success of the democratization of artificial intelligence is no farmer life loss due to negative effects of climate change. In this paper, we propose an innovative machine learning Sensor edge approach that considers the impact of climate change and develops artificial intelligent (AI) models that is validated globally but enables localized solution to thwart impacts of climate change. The paper presents prototyping dairy IoT sensor solution design as well as its application and certain experimental results.

In order to deal with the effects of globalization, urbanization, increase in world population, global warming, and climate change; and according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 targets, which aim to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, it is urgently needed to transform our agriculture and livestock farming systems by taking into account the environmental considerations. The Breeding and management practices of indigenous bovine breeds: Solutions towards a sustainable future (BOVISOL) project is a scientific cooperation between three Mediterranean countries (Greece, Tunisia and Algeria) supported and funded by the European Commission under the European Research Area Networks (ERA-NET) scheme of the 7th Framework Programme. This project has been formed around the hypothesis that the local bovine breeds must be preserved since they possess a valuable genetic pool, and they are a part of the landscape and the biodiversity of rural areas. Moreover, their products (milk, cheese, meat, etc.) could contribute significantly to the local economies as they could easily be associated with recent food trends like “local” and “slow food”, which are considered today, as, not only a mean of nutrition, but also a way of living and a part of people’s identity. BOVISOL project aims to: (i) identify the local breeds and populations in a national level, (ii) describe the existing farm and breeding practices, (iii) analyze the quality of the main local animal products, (iv) propose solutions that will promote the sustainability of the traditional farming systems, especially nowadays that climate change proposes new challenges on animal production, and (v) disseminate the solutions on all the levels of the sector (farmers, scientists, local communities, governmental agencies).

In the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation, biotechnology can respond positively towards reducing vulnerability of natural and human systems to climate change effects. This paper reviews different approaches in which both conventional and modern biotechnology can be employed to address climate change adaptation and mitigation for improved crops adaptability, productivity and food security and contributing to the reduction of the greenhouse gases. The current challenges and future perspectives of biotechnology for climate change adaptation and mitigation are highlighted. The negative effects of climate change on agricultural productivity and food security as a result of extreme temperature, drought, salinity and infectious disease vectors include low yield, hunger and malnutrition. Conventional agricultural biotechnology methods such as energy-efficient farming, use of biofertilizers, tissue culture and breeding for adaptive varieties are among feasible options that could positively address the potential negative effects of climate change and thereby contributing to carbon sequestration initiatives. On the other hand, the adoption of modern biotechnology through the use of genetically modified stress-tolerant, energy-efficient and high-yielding transgenic crops also stand to substantially counter the negative effects of climate change. Safe application of biotechnology will greatly complement other on-going measures being taken to improve agricultural productivity and food security. Both conventional and modern agricultural biotechnologies will significantly contribute to the current and future worldwide climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. Key words: Adaptation, carbon sequestration, climate change, green biotechnology, marker assisted selection, mitigation.