FARM ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

Farm animal husbandry is a practice that is concerned with the management of domestic animals such as cattle, poultry, pigs etc. for optimum production. This involves the application of basic rules to help in animal production. Husbandry involves doing the right thing at the right time. It includes intensive, semi-intensive and extensive systems.

SYSTEM OF FARM ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

1. Intensive: also called "factory farming" is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density (fig.6.1). This process involves putting animals into confinement most of the time to house them; where they are provided with shelter, food, and water. It is found in animals like poultry pen (layers - egg laying; and broilers for meat production), dairy animals etc.

  

Fig.6.1: Intensive System in Poultry

Advantages of Intensive System of Animal Husbandry

i.   Require small landmass

ii. Result in high yield or product

The disadvantage of Intensive System of Animal Husbandry

i.                     It is capital intensive ii. Needs a lot of labour per unit land

ii.                   Good knowledge of operations and biology of animals necessary

2. Semi-intensive: This combines both intensive and extensive (fig.6.2). It is characterized with one or more pens in which the animals can forage on natural vegetation to supplement the feed supplied. Examples are the goat, sheep, pig etc. kept in the house but allowed to go grazing and come back to sleep.

Advantages of Semi-Intensive System of Animal Husbandry

i.   Low in cost

ii. The growth of the birds and egg production are likely to be less than with systems offering closer confinement and better feed.

The disadvantage of Semi-Intensive System of Animal Husbandry

i.   Losses may be encountered in bush ii. The   poultry   run   requires   a considerable amount of fencing.

Extensive: This involves keeping animals in the open range where they are allowed to feed on plants and any other food on the field. There is no special provision of shelter, food, and water; but the get them as they move from one place to another. Nomadic herding is an extreme example of extensive farming, where herders move their animals to use the feed from occasional rainfalls.

Advantages of Extensive System of Animal Husbandry

i.   Less labour per unit areas is required to farm large areas,

ii. Less capital per unit areas is required to farm large areas,

iii. Animal   welfare   is   generally improved because animals are not kept in stifling conditions,

iv. Lower requirements of inputs,

v. There, is less likely to be problems with exotic species,

vi. Local environment and soil are not damaged by overuse of chemicals.

Disadvantages of Extensive System

i. Yields tend to be much lower than with intensive fanning in the short term

ii. Large- land requirements limit the habitat of wild species, as is the case with intensive farming

Management Requirement in Animal Husbandry

The following are important for healthy and sustainable animal husbandry:

Housing: Good housing keeps the animal safe from predators and harsh environmental conditions like extremes of temperature, rainfall, humidity, sunlight, etc. the houses varies with the animals involved. It requires good ventilation, lighting, space among other factors.

Feeding: good nutrition is important in animal husbandry to have good yield. Diet determines the level of yield.

Hygiene and Medication: There is need for the animals to live in clean and healthy environment. Poor hygiene can cause disease and subsequently death of animals, Appropriate medication should be given to sick animals to prevent loss.

Weaning: This means depriving young animals of their mother's breast milk until they completely stop breast feeding. It has to stop for reproductive cycles to continue.

Rearing to maturity: These are stages for bringing up the young ones to adult stage. Most domesticated farm animals do have enough parental care and takes care of their young immediately after delivery. Support can be given by the farmer to further enhance production,

Marketing: There are three important elements to good marketing practice:

i.   Produce the commodity required by consumer. This means  continuous market research must be carried out to relate production to demand,

ii. Be   competitive:   Higher  price   is usually associated with good quality and/or   specialized   product. Therefore, it is necessary to relate price to quality and market demand and  to  operate  in  a  competitive manner With the opposition, iii. Reliability produce a commodity for the market and ensure that supply, price and quality are reliable.