Animal Production Systems: From Extensive to Intensive Farming

Posted on Dec 13, 2024 in Geography

Zootecnia: First Test Summary 2006

I. – Production Systems

Animal Husbandry: zoon: animal; techne: art. “Art of animals,” as its purpose is the creation and improvement of diverse aptitudes of domestic animals, executed in a manner that is “beautiful” and useful to man.

• Domesticated animal origin (6,000-10,000 years ago)

Animal Husbandry, Animal Production: It is the integrative science of other sciences (genetics, nutrition, reproduction, etc.). After the right combination, it applies them at the farm level to optimize outcomes for the benefit of man (production, profitability, efficiency, satisfaction).

Agriculture: Human activity, primarily to produce food and fiber through the use, control, and handling of animals and plants.

• If it had control and management, it is not just agriculture but serious collection systems.

Approach Systems:

• Reductionist and expansionist
• Advantage systems approach: understanding

System: A group of components that can operate mutually to achieve a common purpose. They can react together when stimulated by external influence. The system is not affected by its own expenses and has specific limits based on all significant feedback mechanisms (Spedding, 1979).

System Characteristics:

• Interacting components.
• They have limits, which define inputs/outputs.

Farming System Components:

• Agriculture
• Livestock
• Economic
• Sociocultural

Systems and Subsystems:

• Demarcate boundaries and subsystems.
• Determine input/output systems approach.

Systemic and Non-Systemic Function:

• A system receives inputs and produces outputs.
• It is characterized using the following criteria: productivity, efficiency, and variability.

Classification of Livestock Systems:

• By animal (cattle, horses, pigs)
• By type of product (milk, meat, wool, hair)
• According to productive purpose
• As resource use (race, risk, animal origin)
• According to inputs (meadow, types of food)
• According to management (artificial insemination, feeding strategy)
• According to several factors simultaneously

Too many details lead to thousands of systems; very few details lead to a simplistic view.

• Extensive systems, semi-intensive, intensive.

Extensive Systems

• Low capital investment
• Low labor
• Poor technology infrastructure
• Low productivity
• Low efficiency
• Subsistence
• Poverty
• Use of natural grasslands, without management
• Examples: pastoral systems of various species: cattle, sheep, goats, camelids in South America
• Systems using transhumance

Intensive Systems

• High capital investment
• Using labor
• Use of specialized infrastructure
• Using technology
• High productivity
• High production efficiency
• Consumption
• Use of external confinement (high density)
• Wealth
• Examples: Swine Production Systems, Production Systems of poultry (meat and eggs), cattle production systems of milk, production systems for beef cattle, feedlot, systems of dairy goat production, sheep production systems of milk.

Chilean Agriculture From an Economic Perspective

Importance of Agriculture in Chile:

• Represents about 5% of national GDP (4.5%)
• Agriculture focuses (in terms of GDP) between regions VI to X, with 66%
• 20% to 30% of exports
• Livestock exports (around 20%): pork and poultry
• Imports: Beef cattle and milk powder. Also, feed grains
• 12 to 13% of employment.
• 4% of appropriations

Agricultural v/s Rural

The Farms in Chile:

• Agricultural Census: Last was in 1997. Quantity holdings up to 330,000
• There are lots of different sizes – from subsistence agriculture, peasant, small business, medium, to large – concentrating the bulk of resources (54% of the earth)
• Reaches 270,000 farming operations.
• Goats are a species of small producers.
• The majority of farms are concentrated in the central – south (IV – X).

Scale of Family Farms:

• Little land.
• Limitation of access to resources (financial, productive, and technological)
• They use family labor.
• A strong link between production and consumption.
• Agricultural production is aimed at the production unit and not necessarily profit maximization
• Farmers sell their work. It ensures the reproduction
• There is subordination to markets

Farm households are not the same as a family.

Services of the Ministry of Agriculture (everything except fishing):

• SAG
• INDAP (Institute of Agricultural Development)
• INIA (National Agricultural Research Institute)
• FIA (Agricultural Innovation Fund)
• CNR (National Irrigation Commission)
• FUCOA
• PASO (Office of Agricultural Studies and Policies)

National Livestock

• 13% of the national workforce is employed in agriculture.
• Forestry and agricultural exports are 20% below the country’s total exports.
• Agroforestry imports are 6% compared to the national total.
• Trade balance: exports minus corresponding imports
• The total imports are 9,000 million less than the positive balance of exports to Chile.
• Chile ranks fourth in health status in the world.
• Livestock is basically born in Chile in the fourth region; further north are subsistence farming (mainly goats IV).
• The central part is agricultural, but also because there are chickens and pigs are raised in
• Bovine Livestock is in X
• Sheep Ranching is in XII.

Grazing Lands in Chile:

• A large percentage (over 85%) are natural meadows
• Sown grasses are tremendously rare (<5%)
• Natural pastures: short duration, high variability in quality, depending on the rainfall of the year. Not everything is replaceable by a sown meadow.

National Meat Production (tons). Total: 1,200,000 tons

• Primarily poultry: broilers and turkey (550,000 tons)
• Then come pigs (400,000) and cattle (200,000)
• Sheep and goats display a small number of tonnes, with illegal sales
• Meat consumption per capita in Chile: 76.6 kg/capita

Beef Exports:

• Volume: 18,746 tons; Value ($ million) 54.4
• Main destinations: Mexico 51%, Japan 22.8%, EU: 14%

Poultry Production 2005:

• Volume (tons): 70,000, Cost U.S. $ (millions): 133
• Main destinations: Mexico 44%, Japan 8.7, EU 17.9

Foundations of Animal Production

FOOD: Pillar of animal production

• Problems: – Production was born with the problem of growth

Food Production:

• Distribution of the population is logarithmic
• Protein of animal origin
• Meat
• Milk
• Eggs

Ways to Produce Animal Protein:

Ranching:

• Livestock production system that is developed exclusively on pasture (natural).
• Ruminants generally: goats, sheep, camels, South American beef cattle.
• Little human intervention from the technical point of view

Semi-Extensive Livestock: (semi-intensive).

• Meadows and other foods (“imported”) are used, which are purchased or produced in another part of the property.
• Example: dry grass, feed concentrates (grain, bran).
• In this category fall most of the dairy farms in Chile.

Intensive:

• Use more concentrated or cultivated pastures, only concentrates
• Dairy cows selected for their high capacity
• Prairies (planted in monoculture or mixed, which are paid and well managed)
• Prairie more concentrated (grains, cereals, energy).
• Cow in peak production, it can produce 50 – 60 liters of milk a day (for a limited time only).
• Pigs and birds consume only concentrated milk, meat, pork and poultry, and eggs.
• Pisciculture

Livestock Production Depends on:

• Genetics
• Reproduction
• Pillars of Health animal production
• Food

Food: Includes everything that goes with food until they are delivered to the animals. Requires knowledge about:

• Quality of food.
• Formulation of diets and rations.
• Food Manufacturing
• Supply/Management.

Nutrition: The science that aims to know how animals make use of nutrients and therefore the nutritional requirements to cover with adequate nutrition. Food starts here. To feed animals well, you need to know about nutrition. It is used to feed.

• Diet: Mixed foods that meet certain nutritional conditions. It is assured that the animals consuming such a diet will cover their nutritional needs. Diets are rationed.
• Rations: These are amounts of food for a day.

To Formulate Diets and Rations:

1. Know nutritional requirements
2. Knowing the components of food.
3. Consider the costs, as food is the category that most affects the variable costs of production.
4. Protect the environment.

Nutrient Requirements:

Information found in international tables as:

1. Absolute amounts of nutrients per day (g, mcal). It is expressed well for ruminants and horses.
2. Characteristics that should be allowances for a particular group of animals (pigs, poultry, fish).

Food Composition:

This information is in national tables is delivered:

1. Content of nutrients in foods.
2. Energy intake for various animal species (varies depending on species)

Consideration of Costs:

Food is the main variable cost of production. Hence the need to formulate diets and rations to the minimum possible cost.

Environmental Protection:

Need to formulate diets adjusted to avoid excess waste pollutants (N, P) protein. The main need is to reuse animal waste as feed for plant material that is little used for pigs and poultry, as it is insoluble and is excreted. Solution: enzymes that break down food that brings P.

Food Animal Practice depends on:

• Model of the digestive tract
• Foods to use
• Program

I. Model of Animal Digestive Power:

• Omnivorous (poultry, pigs)
• Herbivore (simple stomach/ruminants)
• Carnivores (dogs, cats)

II. Food Use:

• Forage (pasture, crops)
• Concentrated energy
• Protein concentrations

Forages:

• Prairies
• Natural (no human interaction, very stable). Natural Irrigation
• Improved: they come from natural, are in areas that allow human action. There are some species aggregate agricultural action, without disturbing the soil or by irrigation and fertilization
• Pasture (grassland cultivation). Intensive livestock (high output)

Or fodder crops: Association of plants that are used to supplement the pasture

Method of use: Grazing depends on direct appeal: a prairie animals taken for food (rotating improved pastures)

Harvested green distribution feeders.

Holding:

• Henos (dry). 15% moisture (dehydration of fodder)
• Silage: Involves fermentation processes. Up to 70% moisture content

Concentrates:

• Cereals
• Energy byproducts
• Grams: bran
• Tubers: potatoes, turnips, beet-like composition
• Fats of origin: animal, plant, marine

Protein concentrates:

• Animal origin, milk, and vegetable byproducts
• Oilseeds (soybeans)
• Derivatives

III. Animal Program:

• The technical advisor of the farm is responsible for the proper feeding throughout the year
• Should be scheduled
• To set the power of a species and productive purposes should be considered:
• Distribution of animal categories throughout the year
• Predict food requirements
• Planning crop forage conservation or planning to purchase food

Competition Between Animals and Humans for Food:

Grades of competition:

1. Highly competitive: Poultry industry, eggs, meat, or swine industry
2. Medium competitive: Milk or semi-intensive systems (different degrees of competition by use of concentrates)
3. Uncompetitive: Beef: Cattle, sheep, and goats. In natural meadows without external food supply for livestock extension

Equal to or more supplementation of fodder produced on land not viable options for animal production (to avoid competition):

1. Use the maximum non-arable land with extensive farming and semi-extensive unproductive
2. Quality products with the features demanded by the market today.
3. Use the lowest possible competitive inputs for foodstuffs, without reducing the efficiency (in birds and pigs)
4. Fish culture

Reproduction and Reproductive Management

Pillar of livestock today

Consumers interested in demanding:

• Food Crisis
• Food Security
• Product quality, attributes
• Total Care

Benefits of Efficient Reproductive Management:

• Increased milk production
• Increased number of offspring (reproductive rate increase)
• Reduced disposal costs due to illness and non-productive days
• Decreases
• Increases genetic gain

If Reproductive Problems:

• Minor
• Minor replacement rate of genetic gain
• Slow
• Increase in population
• Reduced milk production (independent of food)

Reproductive cycle and main growing losses every year fertility declines in populations (also happens in human populations) à factor: stress. These impairments may be:

• Birth: the most critical of an individual (helpless). The perinatal mortality rate (around 72 hours of delivery and neonatal are high. Normal figures: 25%, ie 1 in 4 die). Once you spend the first week, mortality is no longer high.
• At the time of the paddock, mated 2 things can happen: natural fertilization, in which there are no problems in mounting (no problems in expressing zeal). The problem is in artificial fertilization or mounted addressed. Jealousy is a change in behavior in females and is inhibited by environmental conditions. The big problem is reproductive failure in heat detection.
• Embryonic mortality rates are very high, up to 50%. The problem is that this mortality is difficult to detect.
• Embryonic mortality if the embryo dies
• Abortion à If you miss a fetus. 2-3%. There are specific diseases that cause abortions, such as brucellosis, leptospirosis, etc.
• The moment of Part A to the mother is a stressful event, it is a period of many metabolic changes (adaptation)

Reproductive Performance Affected by:

• Genetics (no races better than others; genetic characteristics)
• Food à most important effect because it is short-term
• Climate à stressful climatic conditions: T ª. The heat is much more harmful to the species (about 25 º C). They begin to have reproductive problems. Varies depending on species.
• Health. There are specific diseases that affect reproduction. Debilitating diseases, chronic parasitism, etc.
• Management. How we do things and manage them, how animals are treated, well-being, how often they eat, the staff sees these animals, where animals are housed. The stress factor influencing reproductive performance.
• Puberty is defined as the period in which they have jealousy. It is dependent on food and nothing else. When comparing genetic differences and chinchillas without the same age, in which only food is varied, you will see there are differences in the presentation of estrous cycle

Jealousy:

• Typical poliestrous: cow and sow
• Short-day seasonal poliestrous: Sheep and goat
• Poliestrous seasonal long days: Mare
• Monoestrus: bitch
• Mares, sheep, and goats cycle at different times and have offspring in the same period.
• Estrogen: relaxed cervix, mucus production, immunity stimulation (period more prone to infections)
• Progesterone: It prepares the female for gestation. Suppresses mating behavior, stimulates the appetite, suppresses immunity, closed cervix, stimulates production of uterine glands.

Duration of Estrus and Zeal in Pets:

Volume and Total Concentration of Sperm per Ejaculate in Pets:

The boar and stallion ejaculate high volumes, but with very low sperm concentration, however, the bull ejaculates a volume of 5 ml with a sperm concentration of 1000 sperm per ml, ie a bull has 5000 million sperm in an ejaculation. The dose to leave a pregnant female is 20 million, therefore an ejaculation can leave 250 cows pregnant. If you want to have 1000 calves. It takes 1000 cows and 1 bull (4 ejaculations).

Paddock Mated (Monta):

• Monta
• Normal artificial insemination

Male:

• A little selective with your sexual partner
• Uses of artificial insemination
• Achieving offspring of males chosen
• Progress
• Maximize use of a male
• Genetic disease control (healthy male)
• Difficulty riding
• Subfertility (small populations, inbreeding, low fertility)
• Transportation of genetic material (frozen semen)
• Endangered (fertility depressed)

Genetic Applications:

• Sexed semen
• Male sex choose to fast growth (meat)
• Replacement Females (dairy)
• Heifers to have female offspring (first delivery, which are smaller)
• Cows for males (from the 2nd birth, since males are larger)
• Production of bulls
• Prediction
• Commercially available 85 – 90% accurate

Embryo Transfer:

Both the cow and the mare are inefficient from the standpoint of reproduction: one young and almost a year of pregnancy. If it achieves an ovulation rate greater than 1 (superovulation) and achieves an ovary with 30 corpora lutea (30 eggs), this is achieved by administering FSH or chorionic hormone. This female cannot gestate 10 pups. These embryos are removed and placed in female recipients. On day 7-8 the blastocyst is removed before implantation. These embryos can be manipulated and transferred to other females. In the mare, this transfer is surgical, however, the cow (the procedure is similar to that used in artificial insemination)

Gestation:

Length of Gestation and Litter Size in Domestic Animals:

Trends in Livestock Production:

• Producers most professional
• More technology consultants
• Veterinarians
• More animals per worker
• Trained
• More work makes staff
• Less farm land
• Mayor
• Herds
• Largest animal production per worker
• More animals
• Minor
• Minor individual attention
• Fertility

Goals of a Herd Health Program:

Maintaining animal health and production at a more efficient level that is compatible with the maximum return to producers. The veterinarian must stop being an expense to be a highly profitable investment.

Establish Work Teams:

• One producer/owner
• An enthusiastic, progressive, and competent veterinary
• An information system
• Competent personnel