text:
Economic weights of fertility, prolificacy, milk yield and longevity in dairy sheep.
ABSTRACT Economic weights have been estimated in two breeds (Latxa and Manchega) using economic and technical data collected in 41 Latxa and 12 Manchega dairy sheep flocks. The traits considered were fertility (lambing per year), prolificacy (number of lambs), milk yield (litres) and longevity (as productive life, in years). A linear function was used, relating these traits to the different costs in the flock. The variable costs involved in the profit function were feed and labour. From this function, economic weights were obtained. Labour is considered in the Latxa breed to be a constraint. Moreover, farm profits are unusually high, which probably means that some costs were not included according to the economic theory. For that reason, a rescaling procedure was applied constraining total labour time at the farm. Genetic gains were estimated with the resulting economic weights to test if they give any practical difference. Milk yield only as selection criterion was also considered. The medians of the estimated economic weights for fertility, prolificacy, milk yield and longevity were 138.60 € per lambing, 40.00 € per lamb, 1.18 € per l, 1.66 € per year, and 137.66 € per lambing, 34.17 € per lamb, 0.73 € per l, 2.16 € per year under the linear approach in the Latxa and Manchega breeds respectively. Most differences between breeds can be related to differences in production systems. As for the genetic gains, they were very similar for all economic weights, except when only milk yield was considered, where a correlated decrease in fertility led to a strong decrease in profit. It is concluded that the estimates are robust for practical purposes and that breeding programmes should consider inclusion of fertility. More research is needed to include other traits such as somatic cell score, milk composition and udder traits.
- SourceAvailable from: Magdalena Serrano
Article: Influence of the Temperature and the Genotype of the HSP90AA1 Gene over Sperm Chromatin Stability in Manchega Rams.[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The present study addresses the effect of heat stress on males' reproduction ability. For that, we have evaluated the sperm DNA fragmentation (DFI) by SCSA of ejaculates incubated at 37°C during 0, 24 and 48 hours after its collection, as a way to mimic the temperature circumstances to which spermatozoa will be subject to in the ewe uterus. The effects of temperature and temperature-humidity index (THI) from day 60 prior collection to the date of semen collection on DFI were examined. To better understand the causes determining the sensitivity of spermatozoa to heat, this study was conducted in 60 males with alternative genotypes for the SNP G/C-660 of the HSP90AA1 promoter, which encode for the Hsp90α protein. The Hsp90α protein predominates in the brain and testis, and its role in spermatogenesis has been described in several species. Ridge regression analyses showed that days 29 to 35 and 7 to 14 before sperm collection (bsc) were the most critical regarding the effect of heat stress over DFI values. Mixed model analyses revealed that DFI increases over a threshold of 30°C for maximum temperature and 22 for THI at days 29 to 35 and 7 to 14 bsc only in animals carrying the GG-660 genotype. The period 29-35 bsc coincide with the meiosis I process for which the effect of the Hsp90α has been described in mice. The period 7-14 bsc may correspond with later stages of the meiosis II and early stages of epididymal maturation in which the replacement of histones by protamines occurs. Because of GG-660 genotype has been associated to lower levels of HSP90AA1 expression, suboptimal amounts of HSP90AA1 mRNA in GG-660 animals under heat stress conditions make spermatozoa DNA more susceptible to be fragmented. Thus, selecting against the GG-660 genotype could decrease the DNA fragmentation and spermatozoa thermal susceptibility in the heat season, and its putative subsequent fertility gains.PLoS ONE 01/2014; 9(1):e86107. · 3.53 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Economic values of 14 production and functional traits for two Slovak dairy sheep breeds (Improved Valachian and Tsigai) were calculated. Semi-extensive production systems with one lambing per year were simulated using a bio-economic deterministic computer model. The marginal economic value of a trait was defined as the partial derivative of the profit function with respect to that trait. The relative economic value expressed the percentage proportion of standardized economic value (marginal economic valuegenetic standard deviation) of a trait in the sum of the absolute values of the standardized economic values over all traits. Milk yield was of highest relative importance (26% and 32% in Improved Valachian and Tsigai) followed by productive lifetime and conception rate of ewes (16% and 15% in Improved Valachian and Tsigai, in both traits). Conception rate of female lambs and litter size had nearly the same relative economic importance in both breeds (9% to 11%). Survival rate of lambs at lambing and till weaning reached slightly lower economic values (4% to 7%). The economic importance of all remaining traits was less than 4%.Asian Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 12/2009; 22(12). · 0.56 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Twenty dairy sheep farms of Assaf breed, located in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla y León and included in a group receiving technical support, were used to study their production cost structure and to assess their economic profitability during 2009. On average, farms had 89.2 ± 38.0 ha (own, 38%), 592 ± 63 ewes, yielded 185.9 ± 21.1 × 10(3) L/yr (i.e., 316 ± 15 L/ewe), and were attended by 2.3 ± 0.2 annual working units (family, 72%). Total annual income was €194.4 ± 23.0 × 10(3)/yr (€1.0 = $1.3) from milk (78.6%), lamb (13.2%), culled ewes (0.5%), and other sales (0.8%, wool and manure), and completed with the European Union sheep subsidy (6.9%). Total costs were €185.9 ± 19.0 × 10(3)/yr to attend to feeding (61.6%), labor (18.2%), equipment maintenance and depreciation (7.6%), finances (3.0%), animal health (2.5%), energy, water and milking supplies (2.2%), milk recording (0.5%), and other costs (4.4%; assurances, shearing, association fees, and so on). Mean dairy sheep farm profit was €8.5 ± 5.8 × 10(3)/yr (€7.4 ± 8.3/ewe) on average, and varied between €-40.6 and €81.1/ewe among farms. Only 60% of farms were able to pay all costs, the rest had negative balances. Nevertheless, net margin was €31.0 ± 6.5 × 10(3)/yr on average, varying between €0.6 and €108.4 × 10(3)/yr among farms. In this case, without including the opportunity costs, all farms had positive balances. Total annual cost (TAC; €/ewe) and total annual income (TAI; €/ewe) depended on milk yield (MY; L/ewe) and were TAC = 161.6 + 0.502 MY (r(2) = 0.50), and TAI = 78.13 + 0.790 MY (r(2) = 0.88), respectively, with the break-even point being 291 L/ewe. Conversely, farm TAC (€/yr) and farm TAI (€/yr) were also predicted as a function of the number of ewes (NOE) per flock, as TAC = 18,401 + 282.8 NOE (r(2) = 0.89) and TAI = 330.9 NOE (r(2) = 0.98), with the break-even point being 383 ewes/flock. Finally, according to the increasing trend expected for agricultural commodity prices, it was calculated that a 10% increase of concentrate price will require 5.2% milk price increase for constant profit. Similarly, a 10% increase of forage price will require 2.0% milk price increase to maintain profitability. Under these scenarios of increasing the commodity prices of key feedstuffs, a change of flock feeding should be expected to compensate the losses in farm profitability. Most Assaf dairy sheep farms studied were economically profitable, with flock size, milk yield, and feeding costs key for their profitability.Journal of Dairy Science 06/2014; 97(8). · 2.55 Impact Factor
Page 1
Economic weights of fertility, prolificacy, milk yield and longevity
in dairy sheep
A. Legarra1†, M. Ramo ´n2, E. Ugarte1and M. D. Pe ´rez-Guzma ´n2
1NEIKER, Basque Institute of Agricultural Research and Development, Apartado 46, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 01080, Spain;2CERSYRA, Avenida del vino s/n, 13.300,
Valdepen ˜as, Ciudad Real, Spain
†Present address: Station d'Ame ´lioration Ge ´ne ´tique des Animaux, De ´partement de Ge ´ne ´tique Animale, Institut Nationale de la Recherche Agronomique, BP 52627,
31326 Castanet Tolosan CEDEX, France. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
(Received 17 March 2006; Accepted 21 November 2006)
Economic weights have been estimated in two breeds (Latxa and Manchega) using economic and technical data collected in 41
Latxa and 12 Manchega dairy sheep flocks. The traits considered were fertility (lambing per year), prolificacy (number of lambs),
milk yield (litres) and longevity (as productive life, in years). A linear function was used, relating these traits to the different costs
in the flock. The variable costs involved in the profit function were feed and labour. From this function, economic weights were
obtained. Labour is considered in the Latxa breed to be a constraint. Moreover, farm profits are unusually high, which probably
means that some costs were not included according to the economic theory. For that reason, a rescaling procedure was applied
constraining total labour time at the farm. Genetic gains were estimated with the resulting economic weights to test if they give
any practical difference. Milk yield only as selection criterion was also considered. The medians of the estimated economic
weights for fertility, prolificacy, milk yield and longevity were 138.60e per lambing, 40.00e per lamb, 1.18e per l, 1.66e per year,
and 137.66e per lambing, 34.17e per lamb, 0.73eperl, 2.16e per year under the linear approach in the Latxa and Manchega
breeds respectively. Most differences between breeds can be related to differences in production systems. As for the genetic
gains, they were very similar for all economic weights, except when only milk yield was considered, where a correlated decrease
in fertility led to a strong decrease in profit. It is concluded that the estimates are robust for practical purposes and that breeding
programmes should consider inclusion of fertility. More research is needed to include other traits such as somatic cell score, milk
composition and udder traits.
Keywords: breeding objectives, dairy ewes, profits, rescaling, selection index.
Economic weights are key in the definition of breeding
objectives and criteria for livestock improvement pro-
grammes (Groen et al., 1997). The methods have largely
been discussed (see Goddard (1998) for references and a
general discussion) and economic weights for many species
and management systems have been calculated. However,
to our knowledge, very few attempts have been made to
estimate economic weights in dairy sheep. Kominakis et al.
(1997) compared several selection schemes based on econ-
omic weights from previous research; unfortunately, details
on the calculus of economic weights remain unpublished.
Moreover, they did not include any functional trait in their
work. Barillet et al. (1997) presented a general discussion of
the subject, but with an emphasis on theoretical approaches
and possible outcomes of the selection schemes; they did
not use any economic data. Gabin ˜a et al. (2000) estimated
the relationship between profit and some characteristics at
the farm level, such as milk production or fertility, although
their work is not a formal research on economic weights.
Most dairy sheep selection programmes have started
with an aim towards increasing milk yield, as a trait a
priori economically relevant and easy to measure and
improve (Barillet, 1997). Later, breeding objectives and cri-
teria (the merit index) have been explicitly extended
towards milk composition (Barillet, 1997; Asociacio ´n Nacio-
nal de Criadores de Ganado Ovino Selecto de Raza Churra
(ANCHE), 2005), udder and body type traits (ANCHE, 2005)
or somatic cell score (Rupp et al., 2002). Other traits such
as milkability or longevity are under consideration. To our
knowledge, the weights given to these traits on the selec-
tion criterion or merit index have been assigned on a
desired-gains basis. There is no information about the
economic aspects of each trait and the future outcome of
the different selection criteria. It has been long pointed
Animal (2007), 1: Pages 193–203 Q The Animal Consortium 2007
doi: 10.1017/S1751731107657814
Page 2
out, though, that a set of weights in a merit index is equiv-
alent to a set of arbitrary 'pseudo-economic weights' and
can yield economically sub-optimal gains (Gibson and Ken-
nedy, 1990). It is also true, as commented by Groen et al.
(1997), that it might be very hard to know all economic
and technical data required to estimate economic weights.
The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to calculate
the economic weights for a set of productive and func-
tional traits (milk yield, fertility, prolificacy, and longevity),
for two different dairy sheep breeds (Latxa and Manchega)
used in very different environments, and considering sev-
eral farms. Second, we want to compare the obtained
economic weights within and across breeds regarding its
practical relevance (i.e. genetic gains). A final aim is to pre-
pare a coherent framework to take decisions in the Latxa
and Manchega breeding schemes.
Milk composition (somatic cell count, fat and protein con-
tents) is important for milk price and cheese yield. Somatic
cell count is also related to the health of the flock. However,
the lack of economic and technical data concerning these
traits in this study does not allow the estimation of econ-
omic weights. Besides, these traits have non-linear profit
functions (Barillet, 1997) that are worth their own treat-
ment. A companion paper (Legarra et al., 2007) describes
economic weights for somatic cell score in dairy sheep.
Material and methods
Description of the breeds
Latxa and Manchega breeds are located in two different
regions of Spain. The Latxa breed is located in the Basque
Country and Navarre, a humid and mountainous area,
whereas the Manchega breed is located in the Castilla-La
Mancha region in an arid environment with a low rainfall
and high temperatures. Management systems are therefore
quite different.
(a) Manchega flocks include about 600 to 1000 pro-
ductive ewes, whereas size of Latxa flocks ranges
from 200 to 400 ewes.
(b) The Latxa farmers make more use of grasslands and
mountain pastures, whereas Manchega farmers, situ-
ated in an agricultural region (vineyards and grain
crops) make use of their own crops (grain) and crop
residues (straw, stubble). To fulfil flock needs they also
make use of purchased forages and concentrates.
(c) Latxa sheep is fairly seasonal and parturitions hap-
pen in autumn and winter. Manchega is a non-seaso-
nal sheep and parturitions occur throughout the year.
This leads to more intensive husbandry practices in
(d) Some Latxa farmers sell sheep milk to cheese factories.
However, many of them also produce cheese for sale,
or even sell sheep milk directly to the consumers, who
produce curd at home. Both methods add value to the
farm production, although they require extra labour
time and investments, especially in machinery. Thus,
Latxa farmers can be roughly classified as milk-sellers
(most milk goes to the factory) or cheese-sellers (most
milk is transformed into cheese). Among the 41 Latxa
farms in this work, 13 were considered as milk-sellers
(more than 80% milk sold), and 21 as cheese-sellers
(more than 80% milk transformed into cheese). This
strategy is less common among Manchega farmers. All
Manchega farms in this work sell milk to the factories.
Economic and technical data for Latxa flocks were gathered
by management support technicians. Management support
programmes have been established in the Basque Country,
and therefore in the Latxa breed, for more than 15 years.
They collect information on economic inputs and outputs and
technical management of the farm such as yearly reproduc-
tive and productive performances. This information is routi-
nely gathered, checked, and used for management support.
Such a programme does not exist in Manchega farms; there-
fore, information for this work was collected through personal
interviews. Economic inputs and outputs were collected from
invoices as far as possible. Technical data were collected
from the milk recording schemes. A few data were collected
from the farmers' own records (number of replacement
lambs) or by their best guesses (labour). Data used in this
study were gathered in 2002 (Latxa) and 2003 (Manchega).
Forty-one Latxa and 12 Manchega farms were included.
Data for this work consisted in a set of overall yearly econ-
omic indicators: feedstuff, veterinarian, financial and other
costs; income from selling milk, lambs, or other products; and
technical indicators such as total number of lambings, num-
ber of lambs born, total milk produced, milk transformed into
cheese, replacement rate, etc. Table 1 shows different aspects
of the farms under study. In general, economic data show a
great variability and skewed distributions. For this reason, we
will present in general medians and quantiles instead of
averages, as medians are a more robust and informative
measure of centrality for this kind of distribution.
Milk. Incomes were declared by the farmers. Milk price (see
Table 1) was therefore calculated as the ratio between
incomes from milk or cheese sale and milk production. In the
Manchega farms, all sales were as milk. Table 1 shows big
variations of milk price, according, among other causes, to
different final products. The median of milk price for Latxa
milk-sellers was 0.92eperl (very similar to prices in
Manchega), whereas for cheese-sellers it was 1.84eperl.
Lambs. Price was also calculated as total sales divided by
total number of lambs. Here, a great part of the variability
in prices (see Table 1) is due to seasonal variations (Latxa)
or weight variations (Manchega). In the Latxa and
Manchega systems, lambs are sold at weaning. Latxa
lambs are sold, at a fixed weight, but lambing is seasonal
and the price changes accordingly. For the Manchega
breed, the prices depend on the average weight of lambs
Legarra, Ramo ´n, Ugarte and Pe ´rez-Guzma ´n
Page 3
according to a set of thresholds. We have not considered
lamb growth rate for two reasons. First, as the system is
focused towards milk production, lambs are sold at a given
date regardless of the weight. Second, and more
important, there is no information collected about lamb
weight (and related expenses and incomes) in the farms.
Other incomes. Other incomes were public aids, variation
in flock size, livestock sale, and miscellaneous. Among the
public aids, the only one considered as variable with the
number of animals in the farm (and hence affecting
the calculus of economic weight, depending on the
method) was the EU agricultural policy subsidy. However,
this income was set to zero because the EU aid system is
changing and in the future the aid will not depend on the
number of animals, as it used to be. Sale of old ewes is of
very low profit as their meat is poorly appreciated by the
consumer. Moreover, this trait is not recorded at the farm
level, and its associated expenses (e.g. feed costs) are hard
to compute. For these reasons, adult weight was not
included as a trait in the profit function.
Main variable costs were feeding and labour. Usually,
labour costs are considered as fixed, but if the flock size
increases more labour will be needed. Moreover, dairy
sheep husbandry is a labour intensive task, involving feed-
ing, milking, lambings, and so on. Therefore, in this work
labour costs were treated as variable costs.
Feeding. Unfortunately, feeding data, as gathered, were not
split into the different functions, i.e. production, reproduction,
or replacement. Rather, an overall yearly expense was
available. To split this cost into the different production
functions, the following procedure was used. Standard
feeding rations were elaborated for production, maintenance,
reproduction and growing, following the Institut National de
la Recherche Agronomique (1988) and Caja (1994) (Table 2).
We assumed the same adult weight for all ewes. For each
flock, the total amount of net energy, measured in UFL (one
UFL is equal to 1700kcal) was calculated as the sum of all
theoretical needs, considering levels of production and
number of animals. Then, the price per UFL was calculated as
the total expense in feedstuff divided by the total
(theoretical) needs of the flock in UFL. This procedure
provided different costs per farm (as presented in Table 1),
although it implicitly considered that feeding management
was the same in different flocks. It implicitly considers as well
that the feed required for each productive function has the
same cost, which might not be true (e.g. use of concentrates
to increase milk yield vs. use of common pasture for
maintenance). Accordingly, the theoretical needs for each
task were included in the profit function.
The costs of pasture food (opportunity costs, which
might be important in the Latxa breed) are not considered,
as these are not out-of-pocket expenses of the farm and
therefore never measured. This might have underestimated
some costs.
Labour. A similar approach was used for labour. It is worth
noting that most Latxa and some Manchega farms are
owned by the shepherds. Therefore, no salaries are paid.
However, farmers declare their yearly labour time at the
farm. Using this information, technicians consider, for
accounting purposes, a salary that is two-fold the
'minimum salary' regulated by the Spanish government,
which was 451.2e per month in 2002 and 2003.
Management technicians also provided their estimates of
work time needs for different tasks as parturitions, care of
the flock, milking, etc. (see Table 2). Note that cheese-
making labour time was also included, considering that
cheese-making offers higher incomes per litre of milk but
Table 1 Features of the economic and technical data in the study
Latxa (no. ¼ 41)
Manchega (no. ¼ 12)
No. of ewes
Fertility (lambings per year and ewe)
Milk yield (l per ewe in the flock)
Longevity (years)
Fixed costs (e per year)
Labour time (man · year)
Feeding costs (e)
Milk price (e per l)
Milk price, cheese-sellers
Milk price, milk-sellers
Lamb price (e per lamb)
Profit (e)
Feeding cost (e per UFL)
Labour cost (e per h)
1 1.52134
13660 193902867034050 6295097160
17290 31530317604142076460
†1Q: first quartile; 2Q: median; 3Q: third quartile.
Economic weights of various traits in dairy sheep
Page 4
has also higher related costs. As for labour in lambing, we
assumed the same for single or twin births. Triplets require
more labour, but they are rather unusual among these
breeds (less than 1% of births in Latxa) and were not
considered. Then, the procedure was the same as for
feeding: the total costs were calculated and divided by the
total theoretical needs, providing a cost per hour variable
among farms.
Amortizations, electricity, water and farm maintenance,
are put together as 'fixed costs' in Table 1. Other costs
included marketing, livestock purchase, veterinary fees and
treatments. These are not shown in Table 1.
For each of the studied farms, we calculated the economic
weights considering profit functions (Ponzoni, 1986;
Goddard, 1998). Four traits were included in the profit
functions: fertility, prolificacy, milk yield and longevity.
Fertility (yes/no) is an important functional trait as not
all animals lamb in sheep husbandry systems, especially
under extensive conditions or seasonal reproduction (which
is the case of Latxa). Fertility was shown to be correlated
to farm profit in Latxa flocks (Gabin ˜a et al., 2000).
Prolificacy (number of lambs born) is also a productive
trait, usually considered in meat sheep breeding schemes.
However, its genetic improvement is not emphasised by
farmers in Manchega or Latxa, because most profit comes
from milk yield and because it is well known that genetic
selection for prolificacy is slow, because of its low heritabil-
ity (Altarriba et al., 1998).
Milk yield (litres per ewe per year) is the major source of
income. This trait has been selected for in these breeds over
the last 20 years, with good results of about 3l/year in the
Latxa breed (Legarra et al., 2003) and 0.82l/year in the
Manchega breed (Serrano et al., 2006). According to Barillet
(1997), milk yield is an appropriate breeding objective in
the beginning of a dairy sheep breeding scheme, as milk
yield is economically important, easy to measure, and
heritable. One of the purposes of this work is to confirm
the economic relevance of milk yield in relation to other
Longevity was considered as productive life, from adult
(1 year old) until culling or death. This is an omnibus func-
tional measure of involuntary culling or death traits. The
economic weight of longevity should reflect the combined
importance of the traits that cause culling of the animals
(e.g. mastitis, problems in legs, milkability) in relation to
other traits.
Therefore the profit function includes productive (milk
yield, prolificacy) and functional traits (fertility, longevity).
Only these four traits were included as, given the data
available, inclusion of other traits (weight, feed intake,
milk composition, udder traits) was difficult without mak-
ing too many assumptions including the production system
and economic repercussions. We have preferred to focus
on the data already available and test the profit function in
a wide variety of farms. A more detailed profit function
including those traits could be considered under a simu-
lation model (the so-called bio-economic models; Groen
et al. (1997)). Two different procedures were used to
define the economic weights. The first is a linear function,
whereas the second applies a rescaling procedure (Smith
et al., 1986).
Linear profit function
The linear profit function was as follows.
Profit ¼income–expenses:
Income ¼number of ewes £ ðfertility £ ðmilk yield
£ milk price þ prolificacy £ lamb priceÞÞ
þ other incomes:
Table 2 Inputs related to variable costs
223.2 UFL per (ewe · year)
34.2 UFL per ewe
30.9 UFL (1 month suckling per ewe)
0.753 UFL per l
227.37 UFL per replacement hogget
292 UFL per (ewe year)
36.6 UFL per ewe
36.0 UFL (1 month suckling per ewe)
0.760 UFL per l
226.30 UFL per replacement hogget
2.2h per (ewe · year)
2h per ewe lambing
2min per (ewe · day)
1h/day (independent of the no. of ewes)
0.08h/l of milk transformed into cheese
2.2h per (replacement hogget · year)
Legarra, Ramo ´n, Ugarte and Pe ´rez-Guzma ´n
Page 5
Note that this profit function avoids double counting
because the interaction among variables in total profit is
already acknowledged (e.g. fertility multiplies prolificacy).
In practice we used profit per ewe, which is obtained divid-
ing the former expressions by the number of ewes. From
the profit function, the partial derivatives for each trait,
evaluated at the present values for other traits, give the
corresponding economic weights. The gestation costs do
not depend on fertility because management and feeding
are almost the same for pregnant and non-pregnant ewes.
Prices in the function are shown in Table 1. The costs, as
obtained from Tables 1 and 2, are detailed as follows.
Maintenance cost ¼ maintenance feeding £ UFL cost
þ maintenance labour
£ man year cost:
Gestation cost ¼ gestation feedings £ UFL cost:
Suckling cost ¼ suckling feeding £ UFL cost:
Single parity lamb cost ¼ suckling cost
þ lambing labour
£ man year cost:
Double parity lamb cost ¼ suckling cost=2
þ ðlambing labour
£ man year costÞ=2:
Milk cost ¼ milk feeding£UFL costþcheese
making labour£ratio £man year cost:
Replacement cost ¼ replacement feeding£UFL cost
þreplacement labour
£man year cost
þsingle parity lamb cost:
For milk cost, cheese making labour is weighted by the
ratio between milk transformed into cheese and total milk
produced, to consider the differences in cheese-making.
Cumulative discounting (e.g. Groen et al., 1997) was not
considered because all traits in the aggregate genotype are
expressed only in females during their full lifetime, which
implies that the discounting applies equally to all traits.
This assumes that culling risk increases at a uniform rate
during lifetime, and, therefore, the effect of increasing 1
year of longevity is expressed during all lifetime as a lower
risk of culling or death. The more simplistic option, that
longevity of all animals in the flock is increased uniformly
from 4 to 5 years, is unrealistic. At any rate, as pointed out
by Ponzoni (1986) the discounting correction has small
effects on the economic values and negligible effects on
the genetic gains. This correction should be applied for
traits expressed differentially in life or to make a cost-ben-
efit analysis of a starting breeding programme.
The profit function has been written at the farm level.
However, problems related to the perspective have long
been discussed, because different perspectives lead to
different economic weights and paradoxes related to the
size of the enterprise (Smith et al., 1986; Amer and Fox,
1992; Goddard, 1998). To solve this point, a commonly
accepted approach is that of 'rescaling' (Smith et al., 1986;
Visscher et al., 1994). All perspectives and methodologies
are equivalent when profit is zero: it is also expected that,
in a competitive market, enterprise profit is expected to be
zero or close to zero. Goddard (1998) suggested that enter-
prise profit should be examined, and that too high a profit
should be considered as an indicator that some costs have
not been correctly included. He suggests a rescaling pro-
cedure constraining the farm, after rescaling, to the input
that accounts for this cost. According to this procedure,
Visscher et al. (1994) constrained total feeding in the farm
for pasture-based systems.
Profit for the farms in the study is quite high, according to
Table 1 (note that labour costs of farm owners have already
been subtracted, according to accounting practices). We con-
sider that in the Latxa farms, labour costs are very difficult to
compute and subject to restriction. The reason is that most
Latxa farms are family-owned, and they fully exploit family
labour time by husbandry and (when existent) cheese pro-
duction. Thus, these farms do not want to grow as an enter-
prise. Moreover, they have difficulties in acquiring additional
foreign labour because the Basque Country is a very industrial
area. We thus applied the rescaling procedure described by
Visscher et al. (1994) and Goddard (1998). The constraint
included was total labour time at the farm. For Manchega
farms, labour is divided into livestock and agricultural activities
and it is difficult to assign labour time for each activity and
the constraint is not so strong. However, the procedure was
also applied in Manchega farms for the sake of comparison.
The rationale behind the rescaling procedure is the following:
as total labour time is fixed, a genetic change in a trait will
determine a change in the labour time. For instance, increasing
milk yield will increase milking time, whereas increasing long-
evity will decrease time devoted to replacement hoggets.
Economic weights of various traits in dairy sheep
Page 6
Therefore, the farmer will change the number of animals in
order to balance labour time. Visscher et al. (1994) showed
how to evaluate this. The method is as follows.
Let P be the profit without considering rescaling, and P1
profit after rescaling. Let x be the vector of values for the
traits in the profit function. The vectors of economic
weights before and after rescaling of the farm are, accord-
ingly, p (p ¼ ›P/dx) and p1(p1¼ ›P1/dx).
Consider W, the total labour time. The function W ¼ f(x)
describes W as a function of x. This function was con-
structed from Table 2. Visscher et al. (1994) showed that,
for small genetic changes,
›P1=dx ¼ ›P=dx 2 ð›W=dxÞðP=WÞ; or; equivalently;
p1¼ p 2 ð›W=dxÞðP=WÞ
where P/W is the farm profit per unit of work, evaluated
before rescaling, that is, with the profit function described
before but excluding labour costs, because, according to
the rescaling procedure, we assume that they are hard to
estimate and that they will be constant before and after
genetic improvement. Note also that, for the same reason,
p, in our case, are not the same economic weights
obtained from the previous linear profit function. The deri-
vation of p1considers the change in the number of animals
due to the change of labour time originated by a genetic
change in one of the traits.
Estimation of genetic gains
To test the effect in practice of the differences in economic
weights, we estimated genetic gains according to selection
indices based on different economic weights. Three different
strategies were compared. The first uses a selection index
based on the median of the economic weights, which will be
shown in Table 4. The second strategy implies that each farm
uses selection indices based on its own set of economic
weights. Obviously, this is not feasible in practice, as several
decisions of selection are taken collectively, as selecting the
young artificial insemination (AI) rams, where a unified merit
index is needed. The third one considers a genetic selection
scheme selecting (and measuring) only milk yield, that is, the
information on the other traits is not used for the estimation
of breeding values. This is the present scenario. Gains in
profit were calculated for each farm, multiplying the vector of
farm economic weights by the genetic gains.
The genetic gains were estimated following a simplified
breeding scheme, modelling the real Latxa breeding
scheme (Legarra et al., 2003). Several groups of candidates
to selection were considered. Groups were: dams of rams,
dams of dams, fathers of dams (with three subgroups: pro-
ven AI rams, rams on AI progeny testing, and natural ser-
vice rams), and fathers of rams (proven AI rams). In the
Manchega breeding scheme, only four tiers were con-
sidered: dams of rams, dams of dams, fathers of dams and
fathers of rams. For each group, the genetic gain obtained
by using a given vector of economic weights was calcu-
lated following selection index theory (e.g. Groen et al.,
1997). The sources of information are: three repeated
phenotypes for each ewe; 20 daughters with one perform-
ance each for each proven ram; and the combination of
both for the young prospective rams. The selection pro-
portions are 0.03 for mothers of ram and 0.60 for mothers
of ewes. For sires of ewes two consecutive selections are
done: first, a selection proportion of 0.22 of lambs chosen
for progeny testing; then, a selection proportion of 0.33 to
select the best rams among the progeny tested. It was
assumed that all four traits in the breeding objective were
measured simultaneously (that is, in each female, in each
lactation). The genetic progresses in the population were
calculated adding up the progress in each group, following
the Rendel and Robertson (1950) formula to take into
account the differences in the generation interval. The
different proportions of use of natural service rams (64%),
testing AI rams (17%) and proven AI rams (19%) were
included in the formula. For a breeding scheme in equili-
brium, the methodology is equivalent to the gene flow
method. No corrections were applied to consider the stat-
istical nature of fertility and prolificacy (categorical traits)
or longevity (a censored, non-normal trait).
There is no joint estimate in dairy sheep of all the appropri-
ate genetic parameters. We combined information from
different studies in sheep and cattle to form the covariance
matrices needed for the procedure (Mavrogenis, 1996; Altar-
riba et al., 1998; Rauw et al., 1998; Rosati et al., 2002; Tsur-
uta et al., 2004). Parameters for milk yield were estimated in
Latxa and Manchega (unpublished). The matrix of phenotypic
covariances turned out to be non-positive definite and a
'bending' procedure (Hayes and Hill, 1981) was applied, set-
ting its negative eigenvalue to 0.001. Final parameters are
shown in Table 3. The Bulmer effect was ignored. All compu-
tations were run in R (R Development Core Team, 2005).
Economic weights
Two different sets of economic weights (using linear and
rescaling approaches) were calculated for each of the 41
Latxa and 12 Manchega farms. Each set consisted of
weights for fertility, prolificacy, milk yield and longevity.
The main results are presented in Table 4. An increase in
Table 3 Parameters for the traits in the aggregate genotype in Latxa
and Manchega†
Fertility Prolificacy Milk yield Longevity
Milk yield 20.30
0.20 0
0.22 0.07‡
0.19 0
Longevity0.48 0.01 0.13
†Heritabilities in the diagonal, genetic correlations above the diagonal, phe-
notypic correlations below the diagonal. s2is the total variance, c2the part
due to common environment.
‡The common environment correlation between prolificacy and milk yield was
set to 0.08.
§These are the values in the Manchega breed.
Legarra, Ramo ´n, Ugarte and Pe ´rez-Guzma ´n
Page 7
fertility provides a high overall increase in profit, as a
result of lambs and milk selling. However, the high econ-
omic weight of fertility is also a matter of scale, as it
implies a change from 0 (no lambing) to 1 (lambing).
Increases in prolificacy or milk yield are also quite profit-
able. The economic weight of milk production in Manchega
does not change from a linear to a rescaling approach.
As was pointed out above (see Table 2), no relation was
considered between labour time necessary for milking and
the amount of milk yield and, therefore, an improvement
in milk production does not involve an increase in labour.
In Latxa, more milk yield implies more time making cheese.
The economic weight of longevity does not seem very
high. Kominakis et al. (1997), working with dairy sheep,
cites economic weights of 0.57eperl for milk yield and
34.70e for number of lambs weaned at 42 days. These
figures are quite similar to ours.
Approach. Differences between the simple, linear profit
function and the rescaling approach can be seen in Table 4
and Figures 1 and 2. Changes are higher in Latxa than in
Manchega. In general, the economic weights are reduced
when using the rescaling approach.
Breeds. Differences among breeds are substantial, as
reflected in Table 1. Economic weights are lower in the
Manchega farms than in the Latxa breed for all traits
except longevity.
Type of farms. As explained before, the differences
between milk-sellers and cheese-sellers in Latxa translate
into the economic data and therefore to the economic
weights. The latter can be seen in Figure 3, where the
economic weights of fertility and milk yield are higher for
Genetic gains
Table 5 shows the estimated genetic gains after one year
of selection using selection indexes based in different
economic weights: the 'median' set of economic weights
(Table 4, linear and rescaled), farms' individual economic
Table 4 Economic weights (per productive ewe at the flock, per
year) for each trait considering a linear profit function and a rescal-
ing approach
Latxa (no. ¼ 41)
Manchega (no. ¼ 12)
Linear approach
Fertility (e per lambing) 106.29 138.60 166.19 109.23 137.66 153.88
Prolificacy (e per lamb) 33.4640.00
Milk yield (e per l) 0.891.18
Longevity (e per year) 1.241.66
Rescaling approach
Fertility (e per lambing) 79.75 104.77 150.80 106.46 134.27 148.82
Prolificacy (e per lamb) 33.46 40.00
Milk yield (e per l) 0.86 1.01
Longevity (e per year)1.21 1.54
†1Q: first quartile; 2Q: median; 3Q: third quartile.
Linear Rescaling LinearRescaling
Linear RescalingLinearRescaling
Milk yield
Figure 1 Box-and-Whisker plots of the different economic weights obtained in the Latxa breed using two approaches. The thick line is the median;
the lower and upper lines of the 'box' are the first and third quartile. The box includes 50% of the data. The 'whiskers' extend to the farthest data point
closer than 1.5 interquartile ranges from the 'box'. The circles can be considered 'outliers'.
Economic weights of various traits in dairy sheep
Page 8
weights, and milk yield as the only trait in the merit index
(as it is now). There are no major differences in practice
for the genetic gains using any procedure to estimate the
economic weights. Neither there is a great loss in efficiency
by using an overall aggregate genotype. Note that profit is
calculated assuming as the 'true' gain the economic
weights for each farm, and thus it is not comparable
among linear/rescaling approaches because the 'true'
increase in profit is different. However, including only milk
yield leads to a great economic loss in the breeding
LinearRescaling Linear Rescaling
Milk yield
Figure 2 Box-and-Whisker plots of the different economic weights obtained in the Manchega breed using two approaches. For interpretation, see Figure 1.
Milk yield
Cheese-sellers Milk-sellers
Figure 3 Box-and-Whisker plots of the economic weights in the Latxa breed for cheese-seller and milk-seller farms. For interpretation, see Figure 1.
Legarra, Ramo ´n, Ugarte and Pe ´rez-Guzma ´n
Page 9
scheme, because of the correlated genetic loss in fertility.
In this case, the increases in profit were assumed to be the
economic weights in the linear approach. Therefore there
might be a loss in economic gain of 32% in Latxa and
42% in Manchega if selection is based in milk yield only.
The present study gives a perspective on the breeding
objectives of the Latxa and Manchega breeds. We had to
use a very simple profit function where important traits
have been discarded. Moreover, the treatment of food and
labour costs has probably increased the similarities among
farms; however, we believe that the profit functions have
succeeded in capturing part of the farm variability.
The prediction of genetic gains is based on a simplified
breeding scheme, but usually this does not pose a
major problem. However, the genetic parameters assumed
(Table 3) do influence the predictions: changing the genetic
correlation between fertility and milk yield from 20.30 to
0 would increase the profit gain under the scenario 'selec-
tion by milk yield'. It is important to ascertain these gen-
etic parameters in dairy sheep.
Both methods (linear profit function and rescaling) provide
similar economic answers. Using the rescaling approach,
economic weights are reduced, thereby taking into account
the changes in the farm produced under the constraint of
fixed labour time. The exceptions are prolificacy, because
we have postulated that no difference in labour time exists
for single or double births, and milk yield in Manchega.
It is worth remarking that without rescaling, weights for
milk and fertility are highly correlated (0.89), whereas for
any other combination of traits the correlation ranges
between 20.05 and 0.20. This is because of the nature of
the profit function. The rescaling procedure lowers this cor-
relation to 0.81.
The rescaling procedure is more appealing to us because
it provides a tool to contrast the results for functional traits
such as longevity, and can be applied to traits whose econ-
omic repercussions are unclear, such as (say) milking
speed. However, it is also true that the constraint (labour
time) and the appropriate functions to solve it (labour as a
function of traits) have to be studied on a case-by-case
basis. We believe them to be applicable in the case of
Latxa, but not that much in the case of Manchega.
Prolificacy and milk yield both show lower economic
weights in Manchega, probably because of higher milk
price and lower labour costs in Latxa. Longevity shows a
different behaviour for each approach. Using the linear
approach, longevity economic weight is higher in Man-
chega because of the higher replacement costs. However,
using rescaling, this weight is higher in Latxa. The reason
could be that because the costs of labour are higher in
Manchega, under the simple linear function an increase in
longevity is more profitable than in the rescaling approach,
in which the change in labour costs is considered.
Type of farms
Cheese-making farmers, obtaining a better profit from the
milk, have higher economic weights for milk and also for
fertility, as a higher fertility implies more milk production.
On the other hand, milk-selling farms have a (slightly)
higher economic weight for longevity, as they need to
increase efficiency; that is, they need to reduce costs and
this might be achieved through an increase of longevity.
Table 5 Genetic gains in the Latxa and Manchega breeds after 1 year of genetic improvement based on different economic weights
Set I, no rescaling Set I, rescaling Set II, no rescaling‡
Set II, rescaling‡
Set III
Milk yield (kg)
Longevity (years)
Profit gain per ewe (e)
Profit gain per farm (e)
1189 1746 15271757 1546
Milk yield (kg)
Longevity (years)
Profit gain per ewe (e)
Profit gain per farm (e)
948.453178.282707.94 3386.22 2829.38
†Sets: (I) using the 'median' set of economic weights; (II) using farms' individual economic weights; (III) using milk yield as the only trait in the merit index.
‡Average genetic gains.
Economic weights of various traits in dairy sheep
Page 10
Comparison with dairy cattle
It is difficult to compare the results of this study with
those obtained for dairy cattle. The differences extend to
management systems, quota (which does not exist in dairy
sheep), and biology. Profit per cow is obviously not equiv-
alent to profit per ewe. Moreover, depending on the study,
units differ. One kg of dairy sheep milk is not the same as
1kg of cow milk, and, besides, they do not show the same
genetic variability. The same applies to longevity or fertility.
However, it seems to us that the studies on economic
weights in dairy cattle make more emphasis in functional
traits (e.g. fertility, feed intake, somatic cell count, longev-
ity), than in the present study, where economic weights for
production traits are high (e.g., milk, prolificacy). For
example, Pryce et al. (2004) stated that "expansion of £PLI
[UK's national dairy selection index] to include mastitis
resistance and measures of fertility could increase econ-
omic response to selection by up to 80%, compared with
selection for milk production alone". Harris and Freeman
(1993) showed that the economic weight of herd life
"increased substantially under production quotas". How-
ever, Philipsson et al. (1994) stated that "failure to con-
sider functional non production traits such as mastitis
resistance and fertility in the selection index decreases effi-
ciency 15 to 25%", which are figures similar to ours in
Table 5. It is possible that the differences in emphasis are
just a matter of opinion and also that they reflect the
longer history of selection in dairy cattle, with increasing
functional problems.
Genetic gains
All sets of economic weights (individual, medians, linear or
rescaled) provided almost identical genetic and economic
gains. This is in agreement with other works (e.g. Ponzoni,
1986) and simplifies the decisions to be taken by the
breeding scheme, which can use any of them in practice.
On the other hand, including only milk yield in the merit
index leads to suboptimal gains, because of the correlated
genetic loss in fertility. This is because of the negative gen-
etic correlation between milk yield and fertility, which is
well known in dairy cattle (e.g. Rauw et al., 1998; Ander-
sen-Ranberg et al., 2005) but has not been investigated in
The study confirms the intuitive previous belief that milk
yield is one of the economically most important traits. In
practice (for genetic improvement purposes) fertility is the
other more important trait. Although fertility is highly man-
agement dependent, it would be wise considering the set
up of a systematic recording towards genetic evaluation.
This might be difficult in Manchega, with parturitions all
throughout the year. Including other traits as fertility in the
breeding objective and in the merit index would need a
cost-benefit analysis considering the cost of recordings and
In spite of its economic relevance, producers do not pay
much attention to fertility, considering that an adequate
management can cope with fertility problems. Rather, they
are concerned about other functional traits such as udder
shape. A study of type traits, as well as milk contents and
somatic cell count, deserves investigation, although it
needs much more economic data that possibly can not be
gathered at the farm level; a farm model will be more ade-
quate for this purpose.
This work has been financed by project INIA RTA-02-002-C2.
Andre ´s Legarra was partly financed by INIA, Spain. Manuel
Ramo ´n thanks the research fellowship given by INIA, Spain.
We thank the information and fruitful discussion kindly pro-
vided by technicians of management centres (LORRA, LURGI-
NTZA, ABELUR and SERGAL) in Latxa: Rafael San Sebastia ´n,
Susana Marijua ´n, In ˜igo Zuriarra ´in and Arantza Balda, and the
technicians from the Manchega breed. This work would have
not been possible without them. We also thank the breeder's
associations of Latxa (CONFELAC) and Manchega (AGRAMA).
Referees and editor are truly acknowledged for their
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Economic weights of various traits in dairy sheep


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sebastian's Roller Skates
Sebastian didn't talk very much, even though he had a lot to say. He wanted to tell the barber not to make his head look like a billiard ball. He wanted to tell the neighbors that he hadn't grown all that much. And he wanted to ask Ester, the little girl who sat in front of him at school, if she wanted to be friends. But he couldn't. He couldn't say any of those things. Sebastian was shy. He was very shy. And then one day he finds an old pair of roller skates in the park. Roller skating is hard to learn, but if you practice, and practice, and practice, and then if you forget about worrying, and forget about falling and just skate, well, everything changes. And sometimes if you forget about worrying and forget about blushing and just talk, well, everything changes again. Children and adults alike will find that this award-winning picture book has a lot to say both about recognizing who you are, and who you'd like to be.
Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2005
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Jan 25, 2011
Nice children's book
Dec 08, 2010
i wate dis labrary
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My saison decided it was done at 1.030, that was 3 weeks in primary ramped up to 90 degrees. It just wasn't going to go any further, no change over the last week. I was racking the beer off the cake and going to pitch champagne yeast to dry it out. Then I decided why not take the yeast from the bottom, clean it, make a starter, and then repitch at high krausen.
It was late so I didn't have any time to research doing this, but I didn't see how it was much different than making any normal starter other than it would be pitched into unaerated beer. I thought the oxygen and nutrients in the starter could get it going again especially since it didn't do that much work in the first place and was always within the yeasts temperature range. It formed some krausen even with the stir plate and I pitched about 10 hours later.
Think it will work? Bad plan? Should have just pitched the champagne yeast?
i dont know what the protocol is for this but it seems like a good idea. Ive had the same one at times but never as high as 1.030. Whats the worst that could happen? as long as you sanitizing properly, worst case is your gravity doesn't drop... Make sure you post back what ends up happing! im curious
WLP565 and wyeast 3724 are both very slow to finish. They start off big and mean and then slow down at the end. The yeast will finish out very dry if you leave it for a few more weeks at room temps.
Stainless Weldless kits and Flat $5.00 shipping to USA 50 States!
STAINLESS STEEL 3 piece valves $10.95! 2 piece valves $7.99
I was listening to the Jamil podcast about Saisons and he said the when he tries to take the temp above about 85 degrees, the yeast stop working. Then when he brings the temp back down to the lower 80's, they start back up again. Not sure if that's a hard rule or just something he experienced, but it might be worth trying.
"Science + beer = good!"
-Adam Savage


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This Tuesday night, March 31st we'll have Fig Mountain Brewery in the house at the Blue Dog! Come out and enjoy specials on some of your favorite brews from this local California craft brewery.Read More →
This Wednesday, April 1st the Blue Dog in conjunction with North Coast Pranquster will be hosting a special edition of Brewsday. We'll have North Coast Pranqster on tap as well as a few mystery taps set up as well. So come out, have some fun and enjoy a few a laughs on us!
"The first of April, some do say
Is set apart for All Fool's Day;
But why the people call it so
Nor I, nor they themselves, do know,
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment."
[--Poor Robin's Almanac (1790)--]Read More →
Ever heard the story of the fox and the hound? Well, this Tuesday, April 4th the fox is coming for a visit with his old friend the Blue Dog! Joseph James Brewing Company of Henderson, NV will be our special guest for this week's installment of Brewsdays! We'll be running specials all night and this will be an event not to be missed!Read More →
Tuseday, April 14th is Game of Thrones night at the Blue Dog! We'll have Ommegang's newest, limited release Game of Thrones beer "3 Eyed Raven" which is a dark saison leading up to the premiere of the new season.Read More →
Three Weavers Brewing Company is an up and coming local craft brewery based right here in Inglewood, CA. On Tuesday, April 21st they will be our special guests here at the Blue Dog. They'll be bringing some of their best brews and we'll be offering up specials all night long!
Read More →
Tuesday, April 28th Surf Brewery of Ventura will be paying a special visit to the Blue Dog. So dude, ride the wave on over, come out and enjoy some rad specials on some of the most gnarly brews this side of the coast! Going all night! Awesomeness!Read More →
It's a new year and here at the Blue Dog we just uppded the game! This week we're rolling out new menus that feature many of our old classics favorites as well as new ones! And for those of you looking to celebrate, we've come up with a few more options to make Happy Hour even a little more happier!
Check out our New Happy Hour Menu!
Check out our New Regular Menu!Read More →
Treat a friend, a business associate, or the whole family!
The perfect gift for the Holidays, Birthdays, Anniversaries, or Thank Yous!Read More →


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TripAdvisor Reviews Hotel-Restaurant Arcotel Mulhouse Sausheim
Travel Blogs from Sausheim
Colmar to Eguisheim and home to Schwyz
... Marc, for only 6.50€ wow!! They were in heaven. On the way home to Schwyz we got a little lost, ended up on the 419 main road thru the French countryside. Then once we passed thru the border at Basel it started to snow, and boy did it come down, we arrived home safely but there were 100's of accidents reported that afternoon-evening. Thank goodness we had our experienced driver, Werner! Four fabulous day in the ...
Drove to Colmar
... Citron sorbet with gerwitztramier marinaded berries, yum! Washed down with a kir royal crement d'alsace. Meet Charlotte at the apartment, lots of room and great facilities. We're in the front room overlooking the town square, see photo. Went exploring the town again found the markets (brought 3 fabulous cheeses Munster, strong and creamy, Bargkass and Comte of famous building and petite Venice! Back at the apt we enjoyed a beautiful crement d'alsace with our cheese and bread, See ...
Switzerland and its mountains
... Those who recall OHMSS, with George Lazenby as James Bond will recognise the Schiltorn as "Piz Gloria" as this is where the Alpine scenes where filmed. Spectacular! From the village, you have a clear view of the Eiger, the Munch, and the Jungfrau just peeps over them. Fantastic mountain scenery, and we were blessed with a wonderful clear day to enjoy it. The cable car ride down was fun, partly because ...
... on them. Similar measurements are taken in Australia but its pretty hard to find the results and they can often exceed what are considered 'safe' limits. They were all in green in Freiburg so that's good!
Another funny thing was the pay toilets, I've seen them before driving through France and Germany years ago but this one just looked funny. It was in a shopping centre by the train station and it looked like ...
Long Road to Basel
... backpack hooked to my luggage and my hand on top. He'll never be able to move the luggage. I can take him and I'm ready. Instead, he gets a beer out of the case, walks over to the counter and then runs off. We tell the lady but she says he does that often. What?? From Ulm, we take the 12:05 to Basel and arrive just after 3pm. Even though we have a free tram ride that will take us from the train station right to our hotel, our luggage prevents us from ...


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Little Drummer Boy Performed by Dogs! - Music Videos
Bride And Groom's Funny First Kiss Will Have You LOLing For Days! - @one-sweet-day
00:00:21 6450 views
Country Star Dierks Bentley Brings Daughter On Stage To Sing Heartfelt Song Together - @one-sweet-day
00:04:33 33687 views
Embed one-sweet-day 8151 views 2013-12-06T15:54:06 There's something DIFFERENT about some of the members of this band--LOL! The dogs help out on this awesome version of a Christmas classic that we think you'll love! Download Little Drummer Boy here: http://bit.ly/IepQeR
More Music Videos
- Spectacular Performance Of 'The Old Rugged Cross' Will Give Your Goosebumps Gooseb...Music Videos
- BibleStudyTools.com: What is unique about the Book of Genesis?-Byron YawnEducation Videos
- Easter Version of 'Hallelujah' Will Give You ChillsMusic Videos
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- Celine Dion Surprises The Canadian Tenors With EPIC DuetInspirational Videos
- 'Revelation Song' – Phillips, Craig And Dean And Kari Jobe's Breathtaking Performa...Music Videos
- 2 ADORABLE Toddlers Sing He Arose - It Will Melt Your Heart!Cute Videos
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- 40 Irish Dancers STUN An Entire Mall With Incredible Flash MobMusic Videos
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- Young Girl Turns Every Chair With Emotional Performance Of 'Power Of Love'Inspirational Videos
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These lime green mini gift boxes have white polka dots and are perfect for small gifts or treats for your next party. Perfect for birthdays, weddings, and showers. Cardboard. (1 dozen per set) 2" x 2" x 2". Some assembly required.
" Got my morphsuit early enough to party at my office for halloween. Everyone loved it, including my boss. "


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Shop now and get Free Value Shipping on most orders over $49 to the contiguous 48 states, DC and to all U.S. Military APO/FPO/DPO addresses.
We want to ensure that making a return is as easy and hassle-free as possible! If for any reason you decide that your purchase just isn't for you, simply return the item within 30 days of receipt and we'll cover the cost of return shipping. Learn more about our Return Policy.
If you're in the market for a Bianchi Smith & Wesson 642LS holster, you've come to the best place. Being a leading provider of Bianchi holsters, OpticsPlanet has access to the full Bianchi Smith & Wesson 642LS holster collection. You can also view our Smith & Wesson holsters page for other Smith & Wesson 642LS holsters we sell. Should there be a holster by Bianchi or any other Smith & Wesson 642LS holster you are seeking and cannot locate, contact OpticsPlanet and one of our product experts will guide you to the right solution. For a superior deal on Bianchi Smith & Wesson 642LS holsters, OpticsPlanet is always the best choice!
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Tina Dupuy: Republicans embrace hot-button social issues as a way to get their disastrous economic policies passed. It's like Three-Card Monte: while all eyes are on the two grooms – white-collar grand larceny gets decriminalized.
Progressive Media Advocates
By Tina Dupuy
Carole Bartolotto: The problem with concluding that GMOs are safe is that the argument for their safety rests solely on animal studies. These studies are offered as evidence that the debate over GMOs is over. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Margo McCall: There's increasing evidence that adopting a plant-based diet is better for human health, the planet, and of course for the more than 9 billion animals that are killed for consumption each year in the U.S alone.
Joe Mathews: Thanks to Xi Jinping, Chinese millionaires have propped up the state's sagging real estate market, universities, and companies.


text: OverviewBack to top of page Natrol - MSM 500 mg. - 200 Capsules Code#:48934 Manufacturer:Natrol Size/Form:200 Capsules Packaged Ship Weight:0.80 Servings:200 Dosage Size:1 Capsule(s) Natrol MSM 500MgNatrol MSM provides what you need for healthy joints and cartilage. MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) is the subject of research on connective tissue and joint health. MSM is a compound containing sulfur, which is important in promoting joint comfort and flexibility.MSM Is Clinically Shown To Promote Joint Comfort & FlexibilityMaintenance for Joint Cartilage


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The Moral Is
4:11 pm
Wed January 16, 2013
Commentary: New Teaching Standards Need to Include Democracy
By Jacques Benninga
New educational standards that take effect in 2014 promise to replace the much maligned approach of No Child Left Behind with a focus on comprehension and understanding. While the benchmarks have educators excited, Jacques Benninga says the focus on reading and mathematics shouldn't eclipse teaching the fundamentals of American democracy.
The views expressed on The Moral Is are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Valley Public Radio.
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Motley Crue's Tommy Lee Talks About Getting Stuck on 50-Foot Cruecifly, 'Waste of Time' Solo Projects [Video]
In a new interview with Tommy Lee, the drummer reflects on getting stuck 50 feet in the air on his Cruecifly drum kit and much more.
In a new interview with Tommy Lee, the drummer reflects on getting stuck 50 feet in the air on his Cruecifly drum kit and much more.
Motley Crue's 'Final Tour' will eventually come to an end, and drummer Tommy Lee is starting to formulate his recording plans.
Motley Crue is starting its farewell The Final Tour tonight.
The tour's first show takes place at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, right across the street from the flagship station of "The Free Beer & Hot Wings Morning Show," 97.9 WGRD.
As Motley Crue are ramping up to their "Final Tour," drummer Tommy Lee is as busy as ever.
A surprising story broke this week when it was revealed by Billy Corgan that Motley Crue's Tommy Lee would be playing drums on the Smashing Pumpkins' upcoming full-length 'Monuments to an Elegy.' This means current Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne won't be featured on the record, but Corgan has just released a statement explaining why Lee was recruited.
Congratulations to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. The iconic rocker just announced that he is engaged to German singer and dancer Sofia Toufa, who is professionally known as Sofi.
Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee is currently facing legal action as the result of an alleged incident with a Florida photographer.
Tommy Lee does not want to take a picture with you. He doesn't understand why you would want to have your picture taken with him.
I've never met Tommy Lee, but if I ever do you can rest assured I'm asking him to take a picture with me
Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee seems to have accepted the reality of today's music business and feels singles are the way to go. While there are various views about the subject, Lee believes he will not make another full album.
Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee has spoken out against SeaWorld's treatment of one of their killer whales.


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Games & Jokes
Daniella's Jokes
Joke #1:
Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
Because he had no guts!
Joke #2:
Why did the lifeguards kick the elephants out of the pool?
Because they dropped their trunks!
Thanks to Daniella for the jokes!
Anna's Joke
Why Did the dog cross the road?
To get to the barking lot.
Thanks to Anna for the joke!
Victoria's Joke
knock knock.
Hows there?
I scream.
I scream who?
I scream for ice cream!
Thanks to Victoria for the joke!
Tom's Joke
What does a cow say when something is marvales
Thanks to Tom for the joke!
Juliana's Joke
Why was the blueberry crying?
Answer: "His parents were stuck in the jam!!!"
Thanks to Juliana for the joke!


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sheet rock paper rippling
I painted over a painted wall. Two months later there is an area where the paper on the sheetrock is rippling with air bubbles. It looks like long verticle air bubbles. This is an exterior wall. The sheetrock was laid only 2 years ago. It was tapped and prepped correctly and then primed then painted. No problems until now.
It started about 1 foot from the ceiling went down 5 inches, and overnight it has now gone up the wall to the cieling. There is wallpaper border where the rippling has stopped in the middle of the wall. Does anyone know what causes this? Could it be setteling? If there was water damage, wouldn't the sheetrock be soft or the paint stained?
You may have gotten stuck with drywall from China - it's been a huge scandal, and if you got unlucky (tho' dampness could be a factor I suppose, or paint surface incompatibility of some kind) then you need to Google re Chinese drywall and find out how to get recompensed. I think there may be class action suits and who knows what going on. Or you could at least get in touch with whoever sold you the drywall.
"If there was water damage, wouldn't the sheetrock be soft or the paint stained?"
This does NOT sound like the Chinese drywall problem.
It was caused by suplphur coompounds in the drywall out-gassing.
I would suspect water damage.
Have you checked to see if the wall is soft?
Water damage might appear without making it through the paint and causing staining (especially if the water is clean).
Try pushing on a 'bubble' and see if there is anything behind it, and if the drywall is solid.


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Former Baseball Union Leader Marvin Miller Has Died
By Sports Talk Florida
News Desk
Follow @ SportsTalkFLA
News Desk
Follow @ SportsTalkFLA
Marvin Miller, the first executive director of the MLB Players Association, died this morning at the age of 95, Yahoo's Jeff Passan reports. Condolences to Miller's family and the MLBPA.
Miller led the MLBPA from its inception in 1966 until 1982. Under Miller the MLBPA worked to overturn baseball's reserve clause in a decision that led to free agency. The association also obtained many other rights for players, including the right to salary arbitration.
Read more at
For more on this story visit: Ben Nicholson-Smith, MLB Trade RumoresFormer Baseball Union Leader Marvin Miller Has Died by Sports Talk Florida
Tags: MLB


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Last year I grew catnip for my cat, and he was not impressed with it at all. I figured, "Well, some cats just aren't into it, I guess he's one of them." Then I got dried catnip from the store and he was all over that.
So, clearly the catnip plant I got from the big box store was *NOT* the correct kind of catnip for getting kitty high.
Does anyone have suggestions on where to get the proper strain of catnip for the cat?
Bingo. That is your problem. Fresh doesn't have the same appeal. Dry it first. Variety doesn't matter. Just buy seeds that would be to grow catnip intended for herbal use - I'm not sure if there are ornamental varieties of standard catnip. Ornamental varieties never are the best herbs for the essentials oils and active constituents.
Some cats do prefer dried version but I've known cats who spaz over the fresh version too.
What is your cat's age? The young cats are less interested in the catnip, but older they go, more likely they'll go crazy. If your cat wasn't young when you tried to give it fresh catnip, then yeah, it might prefer the dried version.
My cats like both fresh and dried. Were your plants in full sun? That seems to produce the stronger essential oils.
When I have to purchase dried catnip, I get the "tea" from the health food store as it is leaves and flowers without stem. The cats like it better than the powdery stuff that's packaged just for cats.
Well last year I bought 6 Catnip plants from our local nursery. My cat ended up killing each and every plant within a couple months, but yes they seem to love the dried leaves more than the fresh. If I decide to try growing the plants again I will have a wire cage around the plant. One plant did self-seed in my lawn but I pulled it up as a weed before I realized what I was pulling up so now I have no plants.
I have it growing wild in my yard. It flowers white, not purple like the catmint, which is different. My indoor cats love it fresh when I bring some inside. They roll around in it and eat some of it, too. But cats have their individual preferences, so keep trying until you find something your kitty likes. They're worth it!
Nepeta Cataria is catnip, other nepeta's are cat MINT.
Catnip is much more attractive to cats than catmint. It doesn't need to be dried, cats love it fresh in the garden.
Mine will eat half the plant, roll around in it, then fall asleep in it.
But don't just plant catnip for cats, it also makes a great tea and the bees love it.


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Tax Amnesty For Louisiana Taxpayers Begins Today
If you owe the State of Louisiana money in unpaid taxes now is the time to act. The tax amnesty program hopes to raise $200 million in revenue for state government.
If you owe the State of Louisiana money in unpaid taxes now is the time to act. The tax amnesty program hopes to raise $200 million in revenue for state government.
It's bad enough that I pay for air conditioning and cable TV so those that have wronged society can be comfortable. Now I am being told I am also on the hook for empty beds whether the bad guys check in or not.
The Lafayette City Parish Council voted to suspend the collection of the 0.94-mill Public Health Unit tax for property owners this year.
The state of Louisiana is offering consumers a sales tax holiday today and Saturday. What items are exempt from the state sales tax of 4%? We've got the answers.
Ousted acting IRS chief Steven Miller testified on Friday before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee about the scandal involving the agency, which admitted to targeting conservative, TEA Party and religious groups for audits.
With the IRS admitting to targeting conservative groups for audits, and now the subsequent stepping down of acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Steven Miller, Minden Congressman Dr. John Fleming (R) says it's now time to audit the IRS.
Now that La. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has scrapped his tax swap plan, instead leaving it up to legislators to figure out how to handle getting rid of the personal income tax, what's next?
There are still a few weeks left to file your 2012 tax return, but April 15 of this year marks another important deadline for taxpayers: it's your last chance to file for a refund on your 2009 taxes.
Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel said Thursday night that city and parish funds have been misallocated for quite some time now. In his budget proposal though, there are solutions on how to address the problem.
So what crazy ways does the government spend our money? In this tax season time of year I thought you might get a kick or want to kick someone over some of the more interesting ways our tax dollars are being used.


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More opposition to executive order. Another congressman is standing against the administration's decision to pursue a cybersecurity executive order. "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) blasted the White House on Thursday for failing to consult with him on a potential executive order to enhance cybersecurity," The Hill reports. Rogers "also charged that the White House has failed to reach out to the business community."
National Security Agency director and head of the U.S. Cyber Command Gen. Keith Alexander spoke at the same cybersecurity conference, on Oct. 4. AOL Defense reports that the general tried to find common ground with the Chamber of Commerce, which had successfully lobbied against the cybersecurity legislation that Alexander had hoped would pass. FISMA guidance out. The Office of Management and Budget on Oct. 2 released FY 2012 guidance for agencies on FISMA reporting and privacy management programs. There is little change from the previous year's guidance, though OMB does reiterated that agencies must "participate in CyberStat accountability sessions," and that "all existing Federal requirements for data protection and remote access are applicable to mobile devices."GSA advances telework. The General Service Administration is stepping up its telework efforts, the Federal Times reports, through such innovations as conducting office meetings virtually -- even among participants who actually are in the same building. The idea is to help managers prepare for "bolder changes when GSA moves into its renovated headquarters building in northwest Washington next year."DISA aids Apple's bottom line. The Defense information Systems Agency is getting new toys for its DOD Mobility Test Program. Postings on FedBizOps.gov report purchases of nearly $900,000 worth of iPhones, iPads and Samsung tablets, along with carrier access through which to use them. Private sector also feels fiscal crunch. The private sector is facing budget pressures every bit as acute as those affecting agencies, Harvard Business Review suggests a "frugal innovation agenda." Among the guidelines: Champion "good-enough" projects when perfection is impractical or unaffordable.
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Meet 100 women and men who are doing great things in federal IT.
Click here for the full list
Unisys Federal Systems' Venkatapathi Puvvada, this year's Eagle award winner for industry, stresses the importance of community.
Experts tell committee that business models, not technology, are the main obstacle to better sharing across systems.
Protests have delayed SEWP V, but industry experts say the contract vehicle offers agencies service and value that are hard to find.
The power of the individual informs FCW's coverage each and every day, but with the Federal 100, we take time to really spotlight and celebrate it. Get to know each of this year's winners.
The latest version of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act purportedly protects companies from liability and individuals from government intrusion.
Popular CIO is headed for the private sector.
The Census Bureau hasn't established a time frame for its cloud computing plans, including testing for scalability, security, and privacy protection, as well as determining a budget for cloud services.
President Obama's proposal to boost government coordination with the private sector got a warm welcome in the House Homeland Security Committee.
The spy agency wants to better integrate cybersecurity into its traditional human intelligence operations.
8609 Westwood Center Drive, Suite 500Vienna, VA 22182-2215 703-876-5100
© 1996-2013 1105 Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only.To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, visit: www.1105Reprints.com


text:
Dr. Dima Al-Ta'any, MD
- 3901 Beaubien St
Detroit, MI 48201
- 1 Location
- (313) 745-5437
Dr. Dima Al-Ta'any graduated from the Jordan Univ Sci & Tech, Fac of Med, Irbid, Jordan in 2004. She works in Detroit, MI and specializes in Pediatrics. Dr. Al-Ta'any is affiliated with Childrens Hospital Of Michigan. She speaks Chinese, English, French, German and Spanish.
Gender: Female
Languages Spoken: Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish
Medical School: Jordan Univ Sci & Tech, Fac of Med, Irbid, Jordan; Graduated 2004
3901 Beaubien St
Detroit, MI 48201
(313) 745-5437
Fax: (313) 993-0390
Practice Website: Not Available
Accepting New Patients: Yes
Medicare Accepted: No
Medicaid Accepted: Yes
Not Available


text:
Sleep Inn & Suites Harbour Pointe
6451 Bayside Lane
Midlothian, VA 23112
Phone: (804) 639-3500
Fax: (804) 639-1140
Practical Information
Alliance Business Centers
With Alliance Business Centers you can set up shop and be open for business in more than 500 locations around the world. You can select from a menu of services such as a corporate mailing address, personal telephone receptionist, and full suite or conference room facilities. No matter how big or small you are Alliance Business Centers has just what you need.
7400 Beaufont Springs Drive
Richmond, VA 23225
Earn valuable points toward free nights.


text:
"Good salary, good benefits, balanced life. "
- Comp & Benefits
- Work/Life Balance
- Senior Management
- Career Opportunities
I have been working at Montgomery College
good benefits and salary. workload is also not too much and soemwhat flexible. people are very friendly and we get a very muticultural environment.
there is sometimes too much bureoucracy and it a takes a lot of time to arrive at very small decisions/
leadership is good but we would like the management to be more open and transparent. They should use more business-like approach in taking decisions and not simply follow the rules as given in the book.
- Any Location
- Any Job Title
"Top heavy management populated by people with entirely too much time on their hands "
- Comp & Benefits
- Work/Life Balance
- Senior Management
- Career Opportunities
I have been working at Montgomery CollegePros
It's fairly collegial. (it is a college, after all.) Unless you murder someone, they won't fire you.Cons
Lots of inflated egos; too much micromanagement; much tolerance for mediocrity; decision by committee. (this is a college, after all.)Advice to ManagementAdvice
Trust that your underlings know what they are doing and let them do their jobs without micromanaging.Recommends
I have been working at Montgomery CollegePros
Very fair work environment--lots of check and balances. Great people, great benefitsCons
Can get somewhat political at timesAdvice to ManagementAdvice
Keep the communication to the employees flowing.Recommends


text:
Miller Wins GOP Nod For Agriculture Commissioner
AUSTIN (AP) — Former lawmaker Sid Miller has won the Republican nomination for Texas agriculture commissioner after a runoff boosted by a rare endorsement from Gov. Rick Perry.
Miller also played up using shock rocker Ted Nugent as his campaign treasurer. That gave his candidacy a star power that challenger Tommy Merritt couldn't match.
Miller served in the Texas House for more than a decade before losing his West Texas seat two years ago. Perry made few endorsements this GOP primary season but threw his support behind Miller earlier this month.
Despite a historic Texas drought, Miller and Merritt spent much of their campaigns touting conservative credentials on issues such as gun rights and abortion instead of addressing farming.
Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples is leaving office after losing his bid for lieutenant governor.
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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St. Cuthbert the Wonderworker, Bishop of Lindisfarne
March 20, 2013 Length: 1:51
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Can you get full, bushy Thuja plicata in full shade?
Hi folks. In the deep shady forests around here, I usually see these sparse, thin Thuja plicata, kind of like this, but usually more sparse. Occasionally I see bushy ones in the forests.
In peoples' yards, you usually see more full, bushy Thuja like this one. I figured it was the sunnier spot that was making them more full.
I've planted a few 2' or 3' tall Thuja in a pretty shady spot, and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make them bushier. Would shearing the tips of the branches help promote fuller growth? More water and more compost?
Thank you!
Don't know enough to answer your question, but from beginner experience can say that the baby thujas I've planted have done best in partial shade. They like water but not saturated 'lake' soil. Mine have also liked fertilizing with slow-release and especially wormcasting. Mine took about 2 1/2 years before they started really growing; they need to get established with frequent watering. They like to be misted frequently.
All my trees have done better in partial shade, even the eucalypti. The sun is just too scorching burning relentlessly hot here for babies.
You are lucky to get more cloud cover which also helps baby trees.
The young thujas are more scrawny than mature well-watered ones.
Some grow more finely branched, narrow crowns due to something about the local environment in some places. Along Hogan Avenue in/near Gresham, OR this behavior is apparently so extreme propagations from there have been made and dispersed as a cultivar 'Hogan'. (More recently Stanley & Sons have made other selections ('Brick' etc.) from the vicinity and put them on the market. As with at least some stock sold as 'Hogan' the variant growth is not fully maintained outside of the original environment.)
Others are genuine habit variants with a genetic basis. Those producing growth of this type appear to have been called hedging cedars in the Lower Mainland of BC. Old pseudo-species names like 'Atrovirens', 'Excelsa' and 'Virescens' are used for such, along with more recently coined ones including 'Green Sport'.
An interesting and unusual rare one is the unfortunately named 'Colvos Hybrid', a seedling selection of pure Thuja plicata with an arrowhead shape and almost monstrously thick shoots. The original seedling grew slowly and did not seem unusually bothered by the gloom produced by a Monterey pine that soon overtopped it.
Check with Colvos Creek nursery, Vashon, WA for availability.
There is a different form growing along the Coal Creek Parkway south of Bellevue that is narrower than the type. I don't know if it's genetic or cultural. Near Mutual Materials. I grew a cutting once, but had to cut it down because it was in 'the wrong place'.
Such occur in various locations. I've probably been asked about those in and near Woodinville, WA more than once (seedlings line the freeway in some sections, like a hedge). It's apparently environmental. In much of UK it appears all cypress family conifers produce the Hogan cedar habit. Perhaps the most dramatic common example is Leyland cypress, the same clones looking nearly like columnar Italian cypresses or level-branched wide-spreading Monterey cypresses depending on where they have been growing. Tags on plants often show the columnar habit, the photos used perhaps having been taken in England.