Agriculture Business Week

In many developing countries, livestock production is a major contributor to gross domestic product. And agroforestry practices that are mainly concerned with the management of trees, forage and livestock is known as Silvopasture.

In silvopasture systems, forage crops are deliberately introduced into a timber production system, or trees are deliberately introduced into a forage production system. The interactions among timber, forage, and livestock are thus managed intensively to simultaneously produce timber, a high quality forage resource and efficient livestock production. Overall, silvopasture can provide economic returns while creating a sustainable system with many environmental benefits. These systems range from traditional silvopastoralism to very high intensity cut and carry fodder systems.

TRADITIONAL GRAZING SYSTEMS
Peace Corps volunteers throughout Central America’s degraded uplands have seen the damaging effect that livestock can have on the land. However, livestock are an essential component of farming through out the Developing World, as they provide labor, fertilizer, transport, and food. Animals are also a major investment for families and have many social implications. Therefore, we should take a closer look at how animals can fit into programs that save and restore degraded lands.

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Posted on July 27th, 2010 under Livestock, Plant. Tags: Calf, Cattle, Cow, Forage, Livestock, Silvopasture. Comments: None

Manila, Philippines – Long enslaved to the plow, the sturdy carabao has been freed from its yoke by advances in technology.

The two-wheeled hand tractor, known among farmers as “kuliglig,” has taken over its job.

Thanks to farm mechanization and the dollar remittances that gave farming families the means to buy the hand tractor, the carabao has lost its traditional job.

Like the carriage-pulling horse in the West made irrelevant by the automobile, the carabao has been replaced by the more efficient machine that can plow one hectare in one day, a job that used to take five carabaos and five farmers to accomplish.

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Posted on September 24th, 2009 under Livestock. Tags: Carabao, Cow, Dairy, Milk. Comments: None

Sacramento, California – Treat her nice, give her lovely name like Michelle or Hillary, and your cow will reward you with more fresh milk.

A study done at the Newcastle University of England indicated, however, that while there’s no scientific evidence to such claim, it says christening your cow and more affectionate caring could result in increased milk production. In the same way that when cattle for meat production are given regular body massaging, among other soothing techniques, it would result in more tender and better quality meat, according to earlier accounts from animal husbandry experts.

“A cow that is happy and calm is going to produce more milk. So, if you have cows named after people and those that are working with them understand the cows, they are going. to get more milk out of them,” the recently released study pointed out.

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Posted on July 21st, 2009 under Livestock. Tags: Cow, Dairy, Milk, Name. Comments: None

Each one of the cows in the world passes out about 100 to 200 liters of methane gas each day, more by belching (though the mouth) rather than through the other end. Multiply these figures by 1.3 billion or more, which is the estimated number of cattle populating the earth. Then imagine the huge amount of gas vented into the atmosphere from these animals. Methane is touted the most potent of the global-warming gases. It has 21 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide, the more abundant of these gases.

Other ruminants, both wild and domestic, do the same to contribute to the accumulated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. No less than-the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide; more than all the planes, trains, and automobiles on the planet!

It isn’t just the gas they pass that makes livestock troublesome. The FAO also identified livestock as one of the top contributors to the world’s most serious environmental problems including water pollution, overgrazing, and loss of other animal species. These problems have been addressed for many years by environmentalists, but it’s only recently that gases from belching cattle have been recognized as a “major” cause of greenhouse effect, and thus global warming.

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Posted on November 28th, 2008 under Climate Change, Livestock. Tags: Cow, Global Warming. Comments: None