cattle raising

We explain what livestock is, its characteristics, environmental impact and types. In addition, livestock in Mexico and Colombia.

Livestock is the raising of various types of animals for economic purposes.

What is livestock?

Livestock is one of the oldest economic activities in the humanity. It consists of the management and breeding of animals, for the exploitation of their meat and their products (milk, eggs, hides, etc.). Usually it is domesticable animals.

This category includes the rearing of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and poultry, as well as beekeeping, rabbit farming and fish farming, even if it is not cattle.

Livestock appeared in the existence human together with the farming, with which it is closely related, to the point that farming farms are usually also breeding places.

The transition from hunting, fishing and gathering to livestock and agriculture is a fundamental milestone in the emergence of a sedentary civilization, something key to the emergence of the cities and from social contract. This occurred sometime in the Neolithic (about 10,000 years ago) and was a fundamental revolution in the history of humanity.

Livestock required a more or less long domestication process, during which the animals became accustomed to the human presence and to trust the food that it supplied them, instead of obtaining it by savage means. Today, these animals are dependent on the human being, and cohabit with us in establishments designated for it.

Characteristics of livestock

Livestock uses products derived from animals, such as dairy products.

The livestock sector's ultimate goal is the production of goods of animal origin. They may be intended for the consumption human food (meat, dairy, eggs, honey, etc.) or as raw material from industries and artisans (hides, wool, hooves, etc.).

Consequently, it is part of the primary sector (productive) of the society. Its weight within the economy it tends to be higher in less industrialized countries.

Livestock development is always questioned by the properties of the land where it is carried out, since livestock usually require extensive plains in which to graze.

On the other hand, there are also livestock models for small spaces, as we will see later. That is why countries like Russia, the United States, Argentina and Brazil, territorial giants, have strong meat industries with a lot of exports.

The main types of livestock are cattle (oxen, bulls and cows), sheep (sheep), pigs (pigs), goats (goats) and equine (horses, mules and donkeys). In a separate area, there are poultry farming (poultry farming), fish farming (fish farming), beekeeping (poultry farming), bees) and rabbit breeding (rabbit breeding).

Importance of livestock

Livestock was an extremely important activity in the developing of humanity and continues to occupy a prominent place among the primary activities of the world economy.

It provides food products that are part of people's daily diet, such as different types of meats and other derived products (dairy, for example). The population The world can grow in part thanks to the expansion of the livestock industry as well, which in turn has an impact on other areas of existence.

Intensive livestock and extensive livestock

In intensive farming, animals tend to be overcrowded.

In principle, we can differentiate two types of livestock:

  • Extensive This is the traditional ranching, in the open air, which takes advantage of the means of environment, through cattle grazing. This means that the investment of resources by the rancher is lower, but at the same time large tracts of land are required.
  • Intensive This is the farming of confined spaces, such as in pens, stables and establishments in which animals usually live, although not always in the best living conditions: without the possibility of moving at will, they are often overcrowded and infected with diseases, which which forces the frequent and massive supply of antibiotics. It is the industrial response to the enormous demand for meat products, since they produce constantly, continuously and quickly, even if it is food of much lower quality.

Environmental impact of livestock

The environment is, in one way or another, always affected by the livestock industry, in the following ways:

  • Deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Since livestock requires spaces for grazing, it is common for them to be cut down woods to take advantage of the space, and in those cases it contributes to the logging and destruction of ecosystems. In addition, grazing livestock can eat the shoots of young trees and delay reforestation, which destroys the habitat natural of thousands of species.
  • Greenhouse gas production. Although it sounds implausible, the huge herds of grazing cattle managed by ranchers produce enormous amounts of methane in the form of intestinal gases. This organic gas accumulates in the atmosphere, where it contributes with the greenhouse effect and the planetary warming.
  • Reduction of effectiveness of antibiotics. Intensive livestock farming is forced, given the poor living conditions of its offspring, to the constant and massive supply of antibiotics to avoid infections and contagious diseases, which after the weather leads to the generation of bacteria resistant to antibiotics, capable of causing pandemics in the human population.

Livestock in Mexico

In Mexico, poultry is produced for its meat, eggs and feathers.

In rural Mexico, livestock is a lucrative and diverse activity, ranging from traditional grazing methods, carried out in many cases by indigenous communities, to massive and industrialized procedures, typical of a modern productive sector.

This activity was introduced by the European conquerors in Mesoamerican Mexico, and consisted of the rearing of the turkey, the cochineal of grana and other local species, such as the xoloitzcuintle. Instead, today the sector focuses on cattle and poultry, thus making Mexico the world's seventh largest exporter of protein animal.

Livestock in Colombia

Using climate diversity and soils of the region, cattle ranching in Colombia has always been a traditional activity. More than 500,000 families work in this activity, spread throughout the country.

Livestock generates higher income for Colombia than other activities that are also highly valued abroad, such as the cultivation of coffee and flowers. It is estimated that the Colombian herd consists of 26 million animals, the fifth in size in all America, which makes it the eleventh producer of milk in the world and the twelfth of meat.

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