Livestock Breed Improvement & Feeding

• The text focuses on techniques to improve animal breeds and livestock feeding practices
• Improving breeds and feeding practices are interconnected, as the quality of feed affects breed improvement, and feeding is adjusted according to the livestock product being sought

Breed Improvement and Transformation

• Optimizing animal performance requires breed improvement, modification, or a combination of both
• Selection involves breeding the best individuals, with breed traits recorded in genealogical registers like herd-books for cattle
• Crossbreeding involves mating different breeds
• Two primary types of crossbreeding exist: absorption crossing and industrial crossing

Absorption Crossing

• Absorption crossing involves gradually replacing a local breed with an improving breed
• It involves crossing a high-performing breed bull with a local cow
• Only female offspring are kept for breeding, with successive generations bred back to the improving breed until the fourth generation

Industrial Crossing

• Industrial crossing aims to produce animals with specific qualities rather than transforming or improving a breed
• For specialized production, a dairy cow is crossed with a beef breed bull to produce calves for meat production, ensuring none are retained for breeding

Artificial Insemination

• Artificial insemination has greatly simplified selection and crossbreeding techniques application

Livestock Feeding

• Livestock feeding has been refined in tandem with breed improvement
• Traditional methods using spontaneous vegetation persist
• Spontaneous vegetation used includes trees and their products (leaves and fruits like chestnuts, acorns, argan, ash, oak), and grass
• Grass surface types include: pastures where grass is grazed and meadows for hay reserves

Pasture Types

• Pasture types include low-quality pacages (fallow land, stubble, steppes) suitable for small ruminants
• Herbages, with richer vegetation, suit large livestock
• Alpages are mountain pastures mainly for summer use

First Forage Revolution

• The first forage revolution involved introducing forage crops to farmland, replacing fallow land in Europe during the 19th century
• Key components were root crops (potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, cabbages) and artificial legume-based meadows (sainfoin, alfalfa, clover), which enrich soil with nitrogen

Second Forage Revolution

• A forage production intensification occurred after WWII
• It includes methodical grass cultivation and temporary meadow generalization combining grasses and legumes

Industrial Feed

• Agro-industry-derived feeds provide nutrition, with scientific nutrient requirement determination using the Feed Unit (UF) and complete feeds in concentrated and granulated forms

Production Systems

• Elevage (Livestock raising) is tied to environmental and socioeconomic factors like water and forage resources( rainfall dependent) and available labor (family or pastoral group)
• Based on these factors, livestock raising may be sedentary (with sufficient resources) or mobile (nomadism, transhumance)

Sedentary Livestock Raising

• To maintain sedentary raising despite reduced water or forage, farmers must build reserves in abundant periods or intensify forage production using agricultural techniques

Extensive Livestock Raising

• Extensive livestock raising relies on importing forage/water or moving animals to available resources

Nomadism

• Nomadism involves constant, organized herd movement across vast areas with entire populations
• It represents an ancient way of life contrasting sedentary farming, is imposed by arid/semi-arid conditions characterized by quickly consumed vegetation, scarce water, and the need to water livestock in hot climates

Semi-Nomadism

• Semi-nomadism balances nomadic raising and sedentary agriculture common in marginal areas where agriculture is possible but livestock raising remains dominant
• Nomadism evolves into transhumance, where herders accompany livestock during seasonal moves

Transhumance

• Transhumance means moving herds from one pasture to another, specifically seasonal movement between winter and summer pastures
• Only herders accompany the livestock

Estivage

• Estivage is a transhumance form in mountain ranges involving summer use of high-altitude pastures and winter stabling
• As distinct from classic transhumance, estivage involves short seasonal vertical movements within a mountain range

Extensive Livestock Conclusion

• Extensive livestock systems thrive in areas unsuitable for agriculture due to poor soil, harsh climate, low population and geographic isolation

Characteristics of Extensive Systems

• Characteristics of extensive systems include low density per hectare, vast farms, large herds, specialized production (beef cattle, wool sheep), minimal labor, and hardy breeds adapted to the climate

Intensive Livestock Raising

• Intensive livestock raising aims to maximizes productivity, output, and animal production, and to optimize space usage to maximize yields in small areas
• Advanced techniques like controlled feeding, genetic selection, and automation are used to meet market demands rather than natural constraints

Herbager Livestock

• Herbager livestock raising relies on well-maintained, productive pastures requiring favorable ecological conditions like temperate, humid climate and fertile soil
• This model is common in natural grassland regions and humid temperate zones

Culture-Based Livestock Raising

• The livestocker grows their own livestock feed from forage and grain crops
• Agricultural land management is important, with income derived from livestock, integrating corn, forage legumes, and cereals with cattle/swine raising to maximize feed self-sufficiency

Integrated Livestock Raising

• Livestock raising is not the main activity but complements plant production by recycling agricultural byproducts (crop residues, straw, oilseed cakes) and integrating forage crops in rotation with cereals and industrial crops
• This model optimizes soil management with natural fertilization

Off-Soil Livestock Raising

• Animals are concentrated in specialized buildings without direct access to natural resources and rely entirely on formulated rations (cereal, vegetable protein, minerals) for rapid growth and production
• It is efficient, but raises the question of animal well-being, effluent management and environmental impact