Livestock & Animals.htm

TINA'S ARK WEB DESIGN

LIVESTOCK & ANIMALS

Livestock & Animals

Livestock generally are raised for subsistence or for profit. Raising animals is an important component of modern agriculture. It has been practiced in many cultures since the transition to farming from hunter-gather lifestyles.

History

Animal-rearing has its origins in the transition of cultures to settled farming communities rather than hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Animals are ‘domesticated’ when their breeding and living conditions are controlled by humans. Over time, the collective behavior, life cycle, and physiology of livestock have changed radically. Many modern farm animals are unsuited to life in the wild. Dogs were domesticated in East Asia about 15,000 years ago, goats and sheep were domesticated around 8000 BCE in Asia.Swine or pigs were domesticated by 7000 BCE in the Middle East and China. The earliest evidence of horse domestication dates to around 4000 BCE.

Older English sources, such as the King James Version of the Bible, refer to livestock in general as "cattle", as opposed to the word "deer", which then was used for wild animals which were not owned. The world cattle is derived from Middle English chattel, which meant all kinds of movable personal property, including of course livestock which was differentiated from non-movable real-estate. In later English, sometimes smaller livestock was called "small cattle" in that sense of movable property on land, which was not automatically bought or sold with the land. Today, the modern meaning of "cattle", without a qualifier, usually refers to domesticated bovines (see Cattle).Other species of the genus Boss sometimes are called wild cattle.

Types

The term "livestock" is nebulous and may be defined narrowly or broadly. On a broader view, livestock refers to any breed or population of animal kept by humans for a useful, commercial purpose. This can mean domestic animals, semi-domestic animals, or captive wild animals. Semi-domesticated refers to animals which are only lightly domesticated or of disputed status. These populations may also be in the process of domestication. Some people may use the term livestock to refer just to domestic animals or even just to red meat animals.

Animal / Type	Domestication Status	Wild Ancestor	Time of first Captivity / Domestication	Area of first Captivity / Domestication	First Commercial Uses	Current Commercial Uses
Alpaca Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Vicuña	Between 5000 BC and 4000 BC	Andes		wool
Bison Mammal, herbivore	captive (see also Beefalo)	N/A	Late 19th Century	North America		meat, leather,
Camel Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Wild Dromedary and Bactrian camels	Between 4000 BC and 1400 BC	Asia		mount, pack animal, meat, dairy
Cattle Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Aurochs (extinct)	6000 BC	Southwest Asia, India, North Africa (?)		Meat (beef, veal, blood), dairy, leather, draught
Deer Mammal, herbivore	captive	N/A	1970	North America		Meat (venison), leather, antlers, antler velvet
Dog Mammal, omnivore	domestic	Wolf	12000 BC			pack animal, draught, hunting, herding, searching/gathering, watching/guarding meat
Donkey Mammal, herbivore	domestic	African Wild Ass	4000 BC	Egypt		mount, pack animal, draught, meat, dairy
Goat Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Bezoar goat	8000 BC	Southwest Asia		Dairy, meat, wool, leather, light draught,
Guinea pig Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Cavia tschudii	5000 BC	South America		Meat
Horse Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Wild horses of Ukraine and Southern Russia (extinct)	4000 BC	Ukraine		mount, packhorse, draught, meat, dairy
Llama Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Guanaco	3500 BC	Andes		light mount, pack animal, draught, meat, wool
Mule Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Sterile hybrid of donkey and horse				mount, pack animal, draught
Pig Mammal, omnivore	domestic	Wild boar	7000 BC	Eastern Anatolia		Meat (pork, bacon, etc.), leather
Rabbit Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Wild rabbit	between AD 400-900	France		Meat, fur
Reindeer Mammal, herbivore	semi-domestic	reindeer	3000 BC	Northern Russia		Meat, leather, antlers, dairy, draught,
Sheep Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Asiatic mouflon sheep	Between 9000 BC-11000 BC	Southwest Asia		Wool, dairy, leather, meat (mutton and lamb)
Domestic Asian Water buffalo Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Wild Asian Water buffalo, (Arni)	4000 BC	South Asia		mount, draught, meat, dairy
Yak Mammal, herbivore	domestic	Wild yak		Tibet, Nepal		Meat, dairy, wool, mount, pack animal, draught

Animal rearing

A Brown Swiss cow in the Swiss Alps

‘Livestock’ are defined, in part, by their end purpose as the production of food or fiber, or labor.

The economic value of livestock includes:

Meat; the production of a useful form of dietary protein and energy.

Dairy products;

Mammalian livestock can be used as a source of milk, which can in turn easily be processed into other dairy products such as yogurt, cheese, butter, ice cream, kefir, and kumis. Using livestock for this purpose can often yield several times the food energy of slaughtering the animal outright.

Fiber;

Livestock produce a range of fiber/textiles. For example, sheep and goats produce wool and mohair; cows, deer, and sheep can make leather; and bones, hooves and horns of livestock can be used.

Fertilizer;

Manure can be spread on fields to increase crop yields. This is an important reason why historically, plant and animal domestication have been intimately linked. Manure is also used to make plaster for walls and floors, and can be used as a fuel for fires. The blood and bone of animals are also used as fertilizer.

Labor;

Animals such as horses, donkey, and yaks can be used for mechanical energy. Prior to steam power, livestock were the only available source of non-human labor. They are still used for this purpose in many places of the world, including plowing fields, transporting goods, and military functions.

Land management;

The grazing of livestock is sometimes used as a way to control weeds and undergrowth. For example, in areas prone to wild fires, goats and sheep are set to graze on dry scrub which removes combustible material and reduces the risk of fires.

During the history of animal husbandry, many secondary products have arisen in an attempt to increase carcass utilization and reduce waste. For example, animal offal and non-edible parts may be transformed into products such as pet food and fertilizer. In the past such waste products were sometimes also fed to livestock as well. However, intra-species recycling poses a disease risk; threatening animal and even human health (see bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), scrape and prion). Due primarily to BSE (mad cow disease), feeding animal scraps to animals has been banned in many countries, at least in regards to ruminants and pigs.

LINKS

Breeder's World

American Livestock Connection