AGRI302028 Animal production systems
- Type
- Seminar
- Semester hours
- 4
- Lecturer (assistant)
- Winckler, Christoph , Knaus, Wilhelm Friedrich , Leeb, Christine , Zollitsch, Werner
- Organisation
- Livestock Sciences
- Offered in
- Wintersemester 2025/26
- Languages of instruction
- Englisch
- Content
-
General information: The umbrella topic changes annually; current topics of relevance to livestock production will be addressed in the seminar. The students will formulate their individual topics and the underlying research question on their own, but will be assisted by the lecturers upon request.
The topic and the research question must address an animal production system from an overall perspective and should not be narrowed down towards a segmented approach. Topics such as "The cattle breeding program xy", "Use of feedstuff ABC in growing-fattening pigs", "Animal friendly husbandry systems for ......", etc. are not appropriate and will not be accepted!
Within the chosen topic, a research question is to be formulated and answered, based on the information collected.
Content for the upcoming winter semester (2025/26):
The umbrella topic is "Securing animal welfare by optimizing breeding, feeding and husbandry".
Within this umbrella topic, you are expected to perform the following tasks:
- Choose an animal production system you want to cover.
- Provide a thorough characterization of the animal production system and its functionalities.
- Identify the connections between breeding, feeding and husbandry on the one hand and animal welfare status on the other. Derive the factors in breeding, feeding and husbandry which are potentially key to achieving a high animal welfare status. Reflect on the practicability of respective optimization approaches.
- Teams of two students each present their findings in a way that the auditorium can easily follow (mid-term and final presentations).
- All students provide written feedback to the midterm presentations of each of the presenting teams; this shall serve as an important input for the presenters to optimize their final presentation.
- All students develop a written hypothesis on the probability of implementation of the optimization options for each of the production systems presented.
----------
- Previous knowledge expected
-
Sound knowledge of the basics of animal breeding, husbandry and nutrition which are at least equivalent to the respective bachelor courses is an indispensable precondition. IMPORTANT: incoming students (mobility programmes) are warmly welcome, but are strongly advised to critically reflect their respective knowledge BEFORE they register for this course! The ability to integrate different disciplinary perspectives at the level of production systems is absolutely necessary for describing and analysing complex problems in animal production systems. Having achieved a first insight into the characteristics of Animal Production System is expected, as well as into approaches which are suitable for addressing the production system in its entirety.
----------
- Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)
-
The students develop the competence to characterize, reflect on and present an animal production system in terms of its constituting elements and its effects on the environment, animal welfare and relevant stakeholder groups.
In order to achieve this, students learn to:
- Understand the functional concept of production systems;
- Critically analyze a self-selected animal production system, focusing on required inputs and (multiple) outputs; identify key driving factors and framework conditions;
- Integrate different disciplinary perspectives and solutions, including the interactions between influencing factors;
- Present the self-selected animal production system and its mode of functioning in a way that is easily understood by fellow students;
- Provide feedback in order to help the presenters to draw a concise and accurate picture of the production system;
- Formulate a well-founded hypothesis on the likely future development of an animal production system.
----------
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.