Livestock And Poultry Production: Management And Planning

246 Pages·2015·2.596 MB·English

by  RAMESH N.

LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY PRODUCTION
Management and Planning
Livestock and Poultry Production
Management and Planning
Ramesh Nandan
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Livestock and Poultry Production: Management and Planning
© Reserved
First Edition, 2015
ISBN 978-81-261-6437-0
PRINTED IN INDIA
Printed at AnVi Composers, New Delhi.
Contents
Preface
1. The Sustainability of Livestock Production Systems
2. Preparedness for Upkeep of Livestock during Calamity
3. Economic Importance of Livestock in Vulnerable Zones
4. Issues and Perspectives in Livestock Production
5. Management of Livestock Production
6. Practical Technologies and Options for the Genetic Improvement of Livestock
7. Food Safety and Quality as Affected by Animal Feedstuff
8. Feedstuffs in Livestock
9. Animal Husbandry Development Programmes
10. Poultry Production Techniques
11. Alternative Poultry Production Systems and Outdoor Access
12. Poultry Farming
13. Live Bird Marketing
Bibliography
Preface
Livestock have an image problem in the developed world. They are blamed for
everything from global warming to increasing heart disease. Britain’s ‘mad cow disease’ - or
bovine spongiform encephalopathy - hasn’t helped. Livestock are seen as wasteful, growing
fat on grain that people could eat and polluting the environment with their faeces and urine
and the gases they give off. But these charges are not true of livestock in the developing
world. True, ruminants produce methane gas, one of the ‘greenhouse gases’ - but methane
from ruminants accounts for only some 2.5 percent of the total greenhouse gases. Pastures
grown to feed livestock take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, tying it up in plant
material above and below the ground, just as forests do. True, eating too many animal
products may increase the risk of heart disease - but this is a problem of the developed
world, not the developing world. People in developing countries generally eat much less
meat than those in the developed world, and the meat they eat is less fatty. Indeed, recent
studies from Kenya, Egypt and Mexico show that children who do not get enough meat and
milk in their diets may grow up physically and mentally compromised.
Livestock play a vital role in the agricultural and rural economies of the developing
world. Not only do they produce food directly, they also provide key inputs to crop
agriculture. Most farms in the developing world are too small to justify owning or using a
tractor, and the alternatives are animal power or human labour. The livestock sector provides
us with meat, dairy and eggs, as well as wool and leather. The global livestock sector is
rapidly changing in response to globalization and growing demand for animal-source foods,
driven by population growth and increasing wealth in much of the developing world. The
rapid rate of urbanization seen in many countries is not only linked to growing affluence but
also gives rise to changes in people’s food preferences; usually tending towards greater
convenience and higher standards of safety. As well as the many benefits and opportunities
associated with rapid sector transformation and growth, they are also associated with social,
environmental and public health risks. Poultry are kept in most areas of the world and
provide an acceptable form of animal protein to most people throughout the world. During the
last decade, many developing countries have adopted intensive poultry production in order to
meet the demand for this form of animal protein. Intensively kept poultry is seen as a way of
rapidly increasing animal protein supplies for rapidly increasing urban populations. Poultry
are able to adapt to most areas of the world, are relatively low priced, reproduce rapidly, and
have a high rate of productivity. Poultry in the industrial system are housed in confinement
with the aim of creating optimal conditions of temperature and lighting, and in order to
manipulate day-length to maximise production. The term broiler is applied to chicks that have
especially been bred for rapid growth. Broiler strains are based on hybrid crosses between
Cornish White, New Hampshire and White Plymouth Rock. Layers are efficient egg
producers, breeds used for egg production in the industrial production system are almost
entirely based on the White Leghorn and Rhode Island Red.
This comprehensive text covers all types of farm animals and provides detailed
information on each species.
—Author

Chapter 1 : The Sustainability of Livestock
Production Systems
Livestock are usually helpful in sustaining agricultural production. However, there are
cases where livestock development has had disastrous environmental consequences. For
example, clearing of the tropical forests in Central America and the Amazon during the last
two decades, these developments has been sharply criticized for their ecological and
sociological damage.
Most criticism has focused on
a) the destruction of irreplaceable genetic materials,
b) tendency for pasture to rapidly diminish in productivity because of loss of soil
fertility, leaving the fragile soils vulnerable to compaction and erosion,
c) the displacement of indigenous peoples and small farmers by land speculators who
have used cattle ranching as a mechanism for obtaining and controlling large tracts of
land, and
d) the threat to the environment from destruction of oxygen producing trees.
Livestock development, per se, in most of the Amazon basin is not very profitable at
current prices. Nonetheless, government incentives in Brazil have affected livestock
development and, more dramatically, Amazon settlement and deforestation (Binswanger).
Income tax credits and subsidised interest rates on loans for livestock development, along
with grants of land on favourable terms to individuals engaged in livestock development,
have given substantial private incentives for livestock development in rainforest areas.
This is one of the most dramatic examples of a case where government policy is the
primary cause of an unsustainable agricultural system. Although some rainforest destruction
would remain even if government policies were fully neutral, due to the pressure of
spontaneous colonisation by poor farmers but the areas affected would be much smaller. The
damage caused by such settlements is a more difficult problem. Achieving a sustainable
system in such situations will require development of either improved technologies or, more
likely, the exclusion of settlers.
Developed countries contribute to environmental degradation to a far greater extent than
does either Brazil or other developing countries. However, that others have and are
destroying irreplaceable assets is poor justification for continuing with equally bad policies
in the developing countries. The intent should be to make the best use possible of the
available resources, in all regions.
Overgrazing on semi-arid and arid lands, leading to range degradation, is another case of
an unsustainable livestock system. Pastoralism is a practice that utilises extensive rangelands
where rainfall is low and highly variable, making settled agriculture and/ or livestock
production extremely risky. The principal production risk for a specific area is that no rain
will fall. However, cattle can be herded to areas in which rain has fallen and pastures are
available.
The need to access a large area of land in order to ensure sufficient pasture is an
created as common lands are converted into lands with an increasing degree of private
control. However real, important and difficult these issues are, it is not an adequate
justification for retaining the current system.
Historically, pastoralist groups have fought for specific areas, thus deciding “property
rights.” In recent years, the increased value of livestock output has led to the gradual
emergence of more private land rights in countries as diverse as Somalia and Botswana.
Kenya has successfully privatized its land with beneficial results. Clarification of such land
rights is the primary factor needed to reduce overgrazing. However, that will not in itself
reduce the increasing pressures on land which are stemming from higher population and
which lead to deforestation and cultivation of marginal land. Again, the best solution seems to
require the development of improved technologies which are more productive and
sustainable combined with the education of producers to use them.
Feed availability, disease, climate, social and political forces, as well as economic
incentives all influence the pattern of livestock use which emerge in developing countries.
Thus, one of the main responsibilities of policy makers is to ensure that economic markets
work well so that livestock producers receive appropriate signals regarding resource
allocation. Similarly, the sensitivity of the mix of outputs to economic and technical factors
indicates that, when formulating livestock development strategies, it is important to have a
clear understanding both of the various production constraints and also of the demand the for
different products. There are cases where government intervention in markets is justified i.e.
the protection of domestic producers from international dumping or to initiate long term
industry development. Unfortunately, development often does not always occur even when the
government has intervened to obtain higher livestock prices.
Sometimes this is due to the intervention appears short term and the resulting uncertainty
mitigates against development which were in fact sought. More generally, the government
does not make the concerted effort through related research to develop the technologies
required to increase productivity, or the requisite political stability or land rights are not
present. As a general, though not precise, rule of thumb, livestock development in most
countries will make the greatest contribution to domestic welfare if the government
establishes free markets for livestock products and inputs and strives to develop
complementary research, infrastructure and animal health programs. Research, education, and
non-distorted market signals seem generally to be the best guarantee of achieving sustainable
livestock production.
Investment for Sustainable Livestock Development in
Developing Countries
Bank livestock lending peaked in the 6 year period 1974-79 when an annual average of
seven free standing livestock projects and 19 projects with a livestock component were
approved; costs including the cost of livestock components amounted to US$9.47 billion
(1989 US dollars) and 5.15 billion (U.S.$ current). Livestock lending declined in the period
1980-85 to a yearly average of about two free-standing projects and 17 component projects;
costs amounted to 5.77 billion (1989 US dollars). Over the five year period 1986-90 the
aggregate cost of Bank-assisted livestock projects and components amounted to US$3.54
billion (1989 US dollars). Average annual lending declined in real terms from US$1,578
important reason for the evolution of “common” range systems. In such systems, a group of
pastoralists share land, with all being able to move about with their herds in search of the
best forage. If the system is to work well, pastoralists must have a well defined membership
group with clear (albeit sometimes complex) rules of access to pasture and water. If group
membership and/or the rules of access become unclear or ineffective, particularly as when
population or economic pressures encourage greater use of the range, the system may tend
toward an “open” access system in which no limits are placed on the number of herders (and
animals) using the land. In this case, the economic value of pasture is likely to be severely
diminished or lost altogether (Jarvis 1984).
In most areas, pastoralism is probably more productive in terms of the value of total
output of beef and milk per hectare of land than is cattle ranching. The pastoralists utilise
much more labour and extract a larger number of joint products for direct use, especially
milk. Beef is produced from cull animals, both steers and cows, but accounts for a relatively
small proportion of output. Pastoralists often barter milk and beef with agriculturalists for
grain, which is a cheaper source of energy. Manure is used for fuel, and is also left on the
fields of agriculturalists during seasonal migrations into settled areas. Agriculturalists
sometimes pay herders to graze their animals overnight on their fields.
In systems in which land is communally owned, livestock ownership provides usufruct
rights to land which are otherwise lost. Mechanisms are needed in such systems to ensure that
all individuals having grazing access also have livestock. In pastoralists systems, livestock
ownership traditionally belonged to kinship groups which used force to maintain their
hegemony over a particular region. Complex societal rules and livestock exchanges existed
within such groups to ensure that individuals who lost their animals to disaster, such as
drought or disease, could reconstitute their herd. Such mechanisms have been breaking down
in recent years, largely because pastoralist populations have gradually expanded while
rangelands have been lost to the spread of sedentary agriculture. Under these conditions, the
average herd has been shrinking whilst the aggregate number of animals grazed has been
growing.
Traditional mechanisms have proved insufficient to reconstitute the herds of many
individuals following disaster. Wealthy individuals, frequently located in urban areas and
able to better diversify risks through other economic activities, are accumulating animals and
hiring others to herd them. Gradually, as a higher proportion of total herds are owned by such
individuals who seek a more marketable output, greater emphasis is being placed on beef
production. Under such pressure, there is fear that overgrazing is increasing. It appears,
nonetheless, that the main effect of overgrazing has been an increase in the periodic herd
losses suffered from drought, rather than a decrease in range quality.
The range generally seems to have substantial resiliency, recovering more rapidly than
the herd. However, such a system is truly sustainable, except perhaps at a low average and
highly variable yield. A greater problem is the lack of incentives created by the common
range system for the development of any productivity increasing technologies. Such
technologies would be privately unprofitable within a situation where animal nutrition is not
under the herder’s control. Without a shift toward greater control of land, there is little
possibility of increasing ruminant livestock output in this area.
The primary problem faced by common ranges is the inequities which are likely to be