Introduction To Animal Agriculture Importance of Domesticated Animals

Introduction To Animal Agriculture

Importance of Domesticated Animals • Animal domestication • • Animal/human relationship • What do animals provide? • • What do humans provide? •

Importance of Domesticated Animals • Every country in the world uses domestic livestock as a source of: • Food • • by-products used for: • consumer goods and animal feeds • Draft power • Manure for fuel and fertilizer • •

Domesticated Animals

Food Selection vs Food Supply • What determines how much animal protein a population consumes? • • Animal protein availability is closely related to the economic status of the people and their agricultural technology • This is true: • When discussing countries • When discussing populations within country • Developing regions (SE Asia, Africa, etc) diets are primarily of plant origin

Food Selection vs Food Supply • Per capita calorie and protein supply • An index of food availability • Large differences exist between • developed countries • developing countries

Trends Related To Percentage of The Population Involved in Agriculture • Countries with a small percentage of their population involved in agriculture: • • Farm mechanization allows: • Increased food production • • Production of goods and services Thus increasing the standard of living in the country

U. S. Agricultural Production • Agricultural productivity doubled from 1820 to 1920 • 100 years • 1920 to 1950 it doubled again • 30 years • 1950 -1965 it doubled again • 15 years • 1965 -1975 it doubled again • 10 years • After World War II • Productivity increased 5 fold in only 30 years • Abundant production of feed grains • Increased livestock production • Lower cost of animal products for the human population

U. S. Food Expenditures • In the U. S. : • Releasing people from producing their own food has allowed them to increase their per capita income • • U. S. consumers allocate a smaller percentage of their disposable income to food than do people in other countries • Has food prices inflated at the same rate as most other goods and services? What does the mean to the US Rancher & Farmer?

Importance of Meat as a Food Source • Amino Acid pattern • Amino acids • • A, B, C analogy • Scenario 1 • 100 A, 100 B, 100 C • Scenario 2 • 100 A, 50 B, 25 C • Pattern of amino acids in meat more closely resembles that of human muscle than does the pattern in plant protein • Vitamin B 12 • •

Human/Animal Food Competition • World Agricultural land • About 2/3 is pasture or rangeland • 60% of this land is not suitable for row cropping • This pasture can be used to grow forages that can be consumed by ruminants • Convert to human usable, high quality protein • US Agricultural land • 44% of total land area used for grazing • Only supports 40% of cattle population • Where are the remainder • Could support much more if managed intensively • Ruminants make use of forages that would otherwise be useless to make high quality animal protein for human consumption

Human/Animal Food Competition • World Population Continues to Increase • Many are concerned about animal/human food competition • • More acres of cropland are required to feed each person when diets high in animal products are consumed • The debate over this issue will only increase Figure 1. 6 Past, present, and projected world population. Source: U. S. Census Bureau.

Increased Efficiency • Ability to convert input to product • What led to the increases • Research • Current trends are to decrease government spending on research

What Other Contributions Do Animals Make to Society • Products • Wool, mohair, hides, etc. • Synthetics have decreased demand • Animal waste used as fertilizers • $1 billion per year in value • Tallow • Gelatin

What Other Contributions Do Animals Make to Society • Draft Power • In developing countries, animals provide virtually all of the power for agriculture • 20% of the worlds population depend on animals to move goods • Developing countries • 52% of draft power from animals • 26% from humans

What Other Contributions Do Animals Make to Society • Recreation