Cattle farming

Why we raise animals

Our food does not come from crops alone. Milk, eggs, meat, fish and honey all come from animals. Animals also pull ploughs and carts, and their dung is used as manure. As the number of people grows, we need more of all these.

Animal husbandry is the scientific management of livestock, the animals that we keep for use. It has three parts: feeding, breeding and disease control. In this course we look at cattle, poultry, fish and bees.

Cattle: milch and draught animals

In India we keep two main kinds of cattle: the cow, Bos indicus, and the buffalo, Bos bubalis.

• Milch animals are the females that we keep for milk. They are also called dairy animals.
• Draught animals are the bullocks that we keep for farm work, such as ploughing, drawing water from a well and carting loads.

Milk and the lactation period

A cow gives milk only after she has a calf. The period of milk production after the birth of a calf is called the lactation period. During it the milk each day first rises, then slowly falls, and at the end the cow gives no more milk until her next calf.

The milk in one lactation is the milk of each day added up over all the days. As a rough rule:

A cow that gives $10$ litres a day for $300$ days gives $10 \times 300 = 3000$ litres. Two things raise the total: a higher yield each day, and a longer lactation.

Move the sliders. With the starting values, the cross-bred cow gives $12 \times 300 = 3600$ litres, and the local breed gives $5 \times 220 = 1100$ litres.

Better breeds

A farmer wants a cow that gives much milk for a long time and also stays healthy. No single breed does all of this well.

• Exotic breeds, such as Jersey and Brown Swiss, come from other countries. They give milk for a long lactation period.
• Local breeds, such as Red Sindhi and Sahiwal, are used to our climate and show resistance to diseases.

Breeders cross the two kinds. The calves, called cross-breeds, can combine a long lactation with resistance to disease. This is how farmers raise the milk yield of their herds.

Housing, feeding and health

The care of the herd matters as much as the breed.

• Shelter. Cattle need a clean, well ventilated shelter that protects them from rain, heat and cold. A sloping floor makes it easy to clean.
• Food. Cattle need a balanced feed. Roughage is the fibre-rich part: hay, straw and green fodder. Concentrates have little fibre and are rich in protein and other nutrients. Feed additives can add minerals and vitamins.
• Health. The animals are brushed and bathed to keep them clean. External parasites live on the skin and make cattle ill. Internal parasites, such as worms and flukes, live in the stomach, the intestine and the liver. Bacteria and viruses cause infectious diseases. Vaccination protects the cattle before a disease comes.

Try it in Python

The program finds the milk in one lactation for two breeds.

You should see $1100$ litres for the local breed and $3600$ litres for the cross-bred.

Practise with new numbers

Common mistakes

• Mixing up the two animals. The cow is Bos indicus, and the buffalo is Bos bubalis.
• Thinking draught animals give milk. Draught means work. The milch animals give the milk.
• Adding instead of multiplying. The milk in a lactation is the milk of a day times the number of days.
• Thinking an exotic breed is best in every way. It gives milk for long, but a local breed resists disease better.
• Thinking a vaccine cures a disease. It protects the animal before the disease comes.

Remember these

• Animal husbandry: feeding, breeding and disease control of livestock.
• Milch animals give milk. Draught animals do farm work.
• Lactation period: the time of milk production after a calf is born. Milk in one lactation is milk a day times days.
• Cross exotic breeds (long lactation) with local breeds (disease resistance).
• Roughage is fibre-rich. Concentrates are rich in protein.

Check yourself

Try each one on your own first. If you are stuck, open a hint. Then check with Show the answer.

1. Name the three parts of animal husbandry.

2. What is the difference between a milch animal and a draught animal?

3. What is the lactation period?

4. Why do breeders cross an exotic breed with a local breed?

5. A cow gives $8$ litres of milk a day for $150$ days. How much milk is that in one lactation?