Table of Contents

Opening; Opening speech by the ICAR President 3; The President's report on the activities of ICAR since the last session M. Jeffries 5; Preface M. Guellouz 13; Session 1: Keynote presentations; Animal production in Tunisia M. Guellouz 17; New services for sustainable animal farming J. Stoll 29; Animal recording for low to medium input production systems M. Djemali 41; The role of breeders organisations in the BSE crisis P. Cunningham 49; Session 2.1: Morphology evaluation and recording of functional traits; The use of direct udder scanning to evaluate udder cistern size in dairy cows M. Ayadi & G. Caja 59; Image analysis and udder linear trait classification in dairy ewes Z. Abas, E.Sinapis, D. Roustemis, I. Hatziminaoglou, G. Banos & A. Pampoukidou 63; Technical assistance developments for fertility problems for Tunisian livestock systems: AIA and OEP cooperation C. D. Dago, P. Scrocchi, G. Marigliano & M. Guellouz 65; Genetic analyses of fertility parameters and their relations to milk yield of Holstein-Friesian cows in Tunisia M. Ben Hamouda, M. Ben M'rad & M. Hemdene 71; Use of the fat tail and body scores to estimate lamb weights in fat tailed meat sheep S. Bedhiaf Romdhani, N. Soumri & M. Djemali 77. Session 2.2: Performance recording for small ruminants; Constraints and challenges of growth recording in meat sheep S.B. Romdhani, M. Guellouz & M. Djemali 87; Minimum sequential records to adequately fit growth curve in fat-tailed Barbarine lambs and implications on genetic evaluation M. Ben Hamouda 91; Current challenge for milk recording in dairy sheep and goats: the simplification of milk sampling design for chemical composition and somatic cell counts of milk J.M. Astruc & F. Barillet 97; Milk recording for goats and dairy cattle in France: Individual qualification of the lactation C. Lecomte, S. Bazin, J. Delacroix & J.-P. Sigwald 103; The Sicilo Sarde dairy sheep in Tunisia: threats and strength L. Saadoun, S. Bedhiaf Romdhani, C. Darej & M. Djemali 109; Prediction of daily and total lactation milk yield of the Chios sheep from single milking records Z. Basdagianni, G. Banos, Z. Abas, G. Arsenos, G.E. Valergakis & D. Zygoyiannis 115; Evaluation and definition of reference lactation length in Chios dairy sheep Z. Basdagianni, G. Banos, Z. Abas, G. Arsenos, E. Sinapis, D. Zygoyiannis 115; Session 3.1: Performance recording of beef traits; A new information system for beef performance recording in France I. Boulesteix, L. Marguin, E. Rehben, B. Balvay, L. Journaux, R. Champy, E. Poisnel, G. Barthes & C. Bertrand 129; Implementing a PDA based field recording system for beef cattle in Ireland A. Grogan 133; Organisation of beef cattle recording and breeding in Hungary F. Szabo & S. Sebestyen 141; L'utilisation de PDA pour collecter les donnees du controle de performances des aptitudes boucheres C. Lecomte & S. Bazin 147; Advances in using nationally recorded data to address breeding objectives in beef cattle breeding J. van der Westhuizen, T. Rust & R.R. van der Westhuizen 153. Session 3.2: Performance recording of dairy cattle; Study of the milk somatic cell count in Tunisian dairy herds Y. Hachana & B. Haddad 159; Official milk recording with automatic milking systems: the italian situation P. Amodeo & A. Tondo 165; Methods of milk recording for 3-, 4-, and 6-times daily milking in Germany A. Wangler, F. Teuscher & O. Weiher 175; Trends in milk recording of the Holstein breed in Brazil C.N. Costa, N.M. Teixeira, A.F. Freitas, J.A. Cobuci & K. Haguihara 179; Argentine genetic evaluation. Results of bull performance D. Casanova, C.I. Andere, E.M. Rodriguez & P. Bergonzelli 185; Future changes in the organization of milk yield recording in Spain A. Martin, R. Bolivar, M. Castellanos, E. Ruiz de Villalobos 195; Organization of milk recording and milk quality control in Croatia K. Kuterovac, A. Dakioe, Z. Baraoe, M. Draioe & S Krnjak 201; Session 3.2: Scientific presentations; pH - A useful by-product in infrared analysis for DHI quality assurance A. Rensing 205; Simplification of milk recording in dairy cattle for low input systems H. Hammami, S. Bedhiaf Romdhani & M. Djemali 209; Detection of consequences of NEB based on milk production records of Dutch Black-and-White Holsteins R.M.G. Roelofs & G. De Jong 215; Comparison of protocols to estimate 24 hour percent fat and protein K. J. Hand, D. Lazenby, F. Miglior, & D.F. Kelton 219; Changes in milk yield and milk composition as a consequence of the omission of one milking weekly in dairy cows M. Ayadi, G. Caja, & X. Such 225; Benefits from daily milk recording data A. Bunger, K. Kuwan, F. Reinhardt, H.-U. Brahmstaedt & R. Reents 229; Milk Recording: a comparison of the T, Z and standard methods (Z = Milk yield recorded on 2 milkings and the Contents on one alternate milking) H. Leclerc, J. Delacroix, H. Larroque, Y Gallard & S. Mattalia 237. Dairy cattle performance recording in the context of integrated farming D. Chatziplis, A. Georgoudis & Ir. Kotroni 243; Modelling lactation curves for Irish dairy cows N. Quinn, L. Killen & F. Buckley 247; Deep frozen raw milk standards. The way from reference methods to reference systems C. Baumgartner & A. Landgraf 253; Session 4: Presentation of Sub-Committees, Task Force and Working Groups; Report of the activities of Sub Committees, Task Force and Working Groups J. Juga 261; Report of the Sub-Committee on Animal Identification R. Pauw 263; Report of the ICAR Working Group on Animal Recording Data F. Armitage 273; Report from Meters & Jars Sub Committee U. Lauritsen 277; Report of the ICAR Working Group on Lactation Calculation Methods F. Miglior, S. de Roos, Z. Liu, V. Darvishi, L.R. Schaeffer, A. Tondo & P. VanRaden 281; ICAR Working Group on Milk Testing Laboratories: Biennial report of activities in 2002-2003 O. Leray 285; Report of the Conformation Recording Working Group D. Hewitt 289; Report of the ICAR Working Group on Functional Traits E. Strandberg 291; Report on activities of the ICAR Beef Group H. J. Schild 293; Interbull Report for 2002 and 2003 J.C. Mocquot, U. Emanuelson, W.F. Fikse & J. Philipsson 299; ICAR Working Group on AI and other relevant technologies. Summary Report 2003-2004 A. Malafosse 309; Report of the Working Group on milk recording of sheep J.M. Astruc, F. Barillet, M. Fioretti, D. Gabina, E. Gootwine, A.P. Mavrogenis, F.J. Romberg, S.R. Sanna & E. Stefanake 315. Report of the Working Group on Goat Milk Recording D. Kompan, A. Cividini, M. Simcic & M. Klopcic 323; Report of the Genetic Analysis Working Group (GAWG) P. Ajmone Marsan 333; Session 5: Mixed session with emphasis on traceability and animal health recording; Establishing a shared cattle breeding database: Recent experiences in Ireland B.W. Wickham 339; Milk recording logistics H. van den Bijgaart & U. Lauritsen 343; The use of ICAR test procedures for electronic animal identification P.H. Hogewerf & R. Pauw 349; Implementation of animal identification and registration system with farm products traceability D. Pranic, Z. Fatovic, K. Kuterovac, A. Pezo & M. Drazic 353; Results of the IDEA project on cattle, sheep and goats in Spain O. San Miguel, G. Caja, R. Nehring, F. Miranda, J.A. Merino, V. Almansa & M.J. Lueso 357; Comparison of current costs of using conventional and electronic identification for sheep and goats in Spain C. Saa, M.J. Milan, G. Caja & J.J. Ghiradi 361; Harmonised protocol for the evaluation of milk analysers and their international approval for milk recording C. Baumgartner, H. van den Bijgaart, E. Brennel, O. Leray, U. Paggi, G. Psathas & J. Rhoads 365; Quarter milk flow patterns: possible effect on SCC V. Tancin, M. Uhrincat, S. Mihina, J. Bandosova & V. Foltys 369; Development of a Hanwoo (Korean Brown; a beef cattle) tracing system using RF technology in Korea Sidong Kim, Kangseok Seo, Junggyu Lee, Byeongwoo Kim & Minho Baek 373; Appendix A: Statistics. Yearly inquiry on the situation of milk recording in ICAR member countries. Results for the years 2001 and 2002 379.