Projected Impacts of Climate Changes and Sustainability of Sheep Production Systems
Sheep production plays a major role in terms of meat, milk and fibre production in countries that are very susceptible to climate change. Climate change will have both direct and indirect effects on sheep production systems and the effects are largely mul
- PDF / 205,354 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 80 Downloads / 195 Views
Projected Impacts of Climate Changes and Sustainability of Sheep Production Systems John Gaughan
Abstract
Sheep production plays a major role in terms of meat, milk and fibre production in countries that are very susceptible to climate change. Climate change will have both direct and indirect effects on sheep production systems and the effects are largely multi-faceted and it is difficult to adequately predict how all of the underlying factors will interact. The indirect effects of climate change on sheep production especially in regard to nutrition may have a greater impact than the direct effect of ambient temperature. The low availability of pastures during summer was found to be the most crucial factor reducing sheep production. Further, exercise stress was found to be an important stress, particularly in extensive system of rearing, which negatively influences the production potential of sheep. Although the production potential of sheep is influenced by climate change-induced sudden disease outbreaks, it remains a largely unexplored area of research. Therefore, developing appropriate strategies involving management of rangelands, disease surveillance and genetic selection of sheep for greater heat tolerance may offer longer term solutions to sustain sheep production in the changing climate scenario. Keywords
Exercise stress • Genetic selection • Heat stress • Pasture management • Sheep
J. Gaughan (*) School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD 4343, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 V. Sejian et al. (eds.), Sheep Production Adapting to Climate Change, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4714-5_8
189
190
J. Gaughan
Contents 8.1 I ntroduction..................................................................................................................... 190 8.2 I mpact of Climate Change on Sheep Production............................................................ 190 8.2.1 Sheep Production and Climate Change............................................................... 191 8.2.2 Effect of Climate Change on Grazing................................................................. 191 8.2.3 Mixed Farming.................................................................................................... 192 8.2.4 Diseases and Parasites......................................................................................... 193 8.3 Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 194 References................................................................................................................................ 195
8.1
Introduction
Sheep are an important food and fibre source in many countries and approximately 25% of the global ruminant population is sheep (Marino et al. 2016). The global sheep population was approximately 1.2 billion in 2013 (FAO 2016). China has the largest sheep population (202 million), followe
Data Loading...
