Animal and Veterinary Science

Theory, Practice and Techniques in Livestock Production

Theory, Practice and Techniques in Livestock Production

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  • About the Editor
    • This introductory level textbook covers the welfare and environmental implications of producing cattle as well as traditional subjects such as nutrition, reproduction and housing.
    • Provides background information on the agricultural livestock production industry.
    • The volumes present new, sustainable approaches to the challenges created by fundamental shifts in livestock management and production, and represent an essential resource for policy makers, industry managers, and academics.

 Although food availability has increased along with the growing human population over the last 30 years, there are still 800 million people suffering from malnutrition. This problem is not only the result of insufficient food production and inadequate distribution, but also of the financial inability of the poor to purchase food of reasonable quality in adequate quantities to satisfy their needs. The world population is expected to increase from 5.4 billion to at least 7.2 billion within the next two decades, mainly in developing countries. This increase in human population, with the resulting increase in pressure on land and changes in composition of the livestock population, will have a major effect on both available natural resources and future demand for commodities, and this will consequently determine the type of livestock feeding and production systems to be adopted. Livestock production constitutes a very important component of the agricultural economy of developing countries, a contribution that goes beyond direct food production to include multipurpose uses, such as skins, fiber, fertilizer and fuel, as well as capital accumulation. Furthermore, livestock are closely linked to the social and cultural lives of several million resource-poor farmers for whom animal ownership ensures varying degrees of sustainable farming and economic stability.
This book “Theory, Practice and Techniques in Livestock Production” textbook covers the welfare and environmental implications of producing cattle as well as traditional subjects such as nutrition, reproduction and housing. It presents the different and varying roles of livestock as they relate to the process of economic development and poverty reduction, departing from the basis that livestock production delivers a significant role in funding to the livelihoods of most of the world’s poor and in meeting the fast growing demand for livestock products in the developing countries. It is argued that investment in livestock increases farm production by spreading the area of land utilized, expanding productive activity for crop cultivators or intensifying production, and that changes from grassland-based systems to mixed farming systems and thence to landless production systems represent stages of increasing intensity.