Info About Agriculture

Livestock

Livestock is one or more different breeds of animals which are reared together in a farm and used either to produce food, fibre or labour. The animals are reared in order to produce or make profit for the farm and this has been a type of culture that has been around for thousands of years and varies all over the world.

Farming is seen as part of a farming community rather than in the sense of a hunting lifestyle as the animals have in time become domesticated due to their activities being controlled by us, meaning that a large amount of livestock wouldn't be able to live in the wild. Over time the definition of cattle and livestock has changed continuously, with it having meant in older English times non-moveable real-estate', livestock and cattle is now seen as a herd of domesticated animals made up of a variety of different species. However as always this depends on who you speak to as some people believe this is a very board definition of livestock and so into the state of domestication as some livestock can be semi-domesticated or wild animals that have be caught. Some also in short say that livestock refers to only domestic or red meat animals.

The majority of livestock as we know it are domestic animals such as the obvious:
- Goats.
- Rabbits.
- Horses.
- Pigs.
- Sheep's etc


However animals that you may think are domestic such as deer's are in fact captive wild animals and reindeers are semi-domesticated animals, although you don't see that may reindeers on your average farm!

Many people class livestock as by what they produce, whether it is as mentioned before food or labour or fibre. The most common livestock is that, that produces food or milk with farmers gaining a high profit from being able to sell on meat and milk, which they can also use to produce other products such as cheese and butter. Animals like sheep and goats can bring in money through the selling of their wool, sheep can also produce leather as can cows and deer's. However any livestock can come into use for fertilizing with manure being linked to plant domestication for years due to manure being used to help crops grow. Although they are particularly used for the purpose of mechanical energy in our country anymore animals like horses are still used to help people plough but also for transport purposes.

Some livestock are also reared purely for show purposes, this started as a way of getting the younger generation involved. When their livestock is ready they take them to local shows and fairs and spend hours grooming them ready for the event, the winning livestock gets auctioned off and the money is then places into a scholarship for the winning person.

Agriculture & Farming


    The production of food and goods through farming and forestry.

Resources



  • Lime suppliers supply industrial powders to farmers for soil stabilisation and acid neutralisation. This helps to prevent Mastitis in Livestock.

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