lOMoARcPSD|2392027
Lecture – Why we keep animals
Artificial selection -> Selective breeding for production -> Choosing which males and females will
reproduce based on features of interest
Ager cultura = Field growing
Reasons for keeping animals:
o Medicine
o Food (meat, milk, blood)
o Crops/Energy (ploughing, transport, fertilizer, biofuel)
o Clothes & Housing (hide, wool & fur)
o Social status
o Money (insurance)
o Culture (sport) -> also not linked to farming?
Additional reasons (not linked to farming):
o Help and support (guide dog)
o Companionship
o Entertainment (circus)
o Conservation (zoo)
o Sport & Hobby
Slaughter:
1. Stunning -> to render unconscious before slaughter
Methods: electrical, gaseous & mechanical
2. Bleeding
Slaughter in Fish:
- Most fish die from:
Suffocation (+ ice)
Suffocation + evisceration (=removal of
internal organs)
- Humane methods:
Percussive stunning
Spiking (of the brain)
Gedownload door Michou Weimar ()
, lOMoARcPSD|2392027
Milk
o Purpose of keeping animals for milk occurred later than for meat -> tame animals needed
o 83% worldwide produced by cows (2nd buffalo)
Eggs
o NL -> 188 / person/ year
48 mil. laying hens
18 bil. eggs / year (2/3 exported)
o Battery cages banned since 2012
o Beak trimming banned since 2018
Manure
o Fuel -> biogas of cakes
o Fertilize soil for crop production
o Building material (houses)
Other reasons to farm animals:
o Banking and status
o Coffee
o Decoy
o Medicine (swiftlet nests and leeches)
o Hobby
o Care farms
o Sport & culture
o Conservation grazing
Meat consumption:
Gedownload door Michou Weimar ()
, lOMoARcPSD|2392027
Lecture note - Reasons for keeping and raising animals
Domestication of animal species
Dog -> first domesticated species
Cattle were domesticated for producing meat
later on for milk
Animal species must meet 6 criteria in order to be
domesticated:
1. Flexible diet -> food sources that cannot be consumed
by humans
2. Reproduction & useable age is rapidly reached
(relative to human lifetime)
3. Reproduction possible in captivity
4. A docile (=non aggressive) character
5. Do not panic easily (e.g. deer display much flight
behavior & can run themselves to death)
6. Acceptance of humans as potential leaders/
dominant individuals
Chicken meat:
o Parental stock farm
- Farm with laying hens
- Eggs are sent to hatchery
o Hatchery
- Eggs controlled after 14 days -> infertile & broken eggs are discarded
- Eggs hatch after 20-21 days -> day-old chickens are vaccinated & transported to broiler
farm
o Broiler farm
- Day-old chickens grow to 2kg in 5-6 weeks (54 grams/day!)
- After reaching 2 kg -> chickens are transported to slaughter house
- 8 rounds/year
Gedownload door Michou Weimar ()
, lOMoARcPSD|2392027
75% of chicken meat produced in NL -> exported to Germany (Ruhr area) & Northern France
(Paris)
Pig meat:
o Pork -> produced by crossing 4 pure meat breeds
Great Yorkshire (GY) -> used for boar ♂ line for production of breeding sows
o In NL:
Sow farm
- Sow gives birth to 29,8 piglets/year
- 11,5% dies during sowing -> 26,4 piglets/year left
- Within 77 days -> piglet goes from 1,5kg to 25kg -> then brought to fattening farm
Grower-finisher farm (fattening)
- Fattened until slaughter weight = 118kg
- Growth of 780g/day (196 days)
Hypor => a new breeding sow with a part Meishan in it, produces 1 extra piglet/litter
Western Pig Meishan pig (Chinese pot-bellied pig)
- Sexually mature after 180 days + Sexually mature after 90 days
- Less fertile -> 13 pigs/litter + Very fertile -> 15-17 pigs/litter
+ Grow fast - Grow very slowly
+ Less fat meat - Very fat meat
Beef:
Maas-Rijn and Ijssel cattle (MRIJ)
- Dual purpose breed => kept for both meat and milk
- Nowadays mainly selected for milk production
- After 1980 -> bred out due to crossing with red HF (Holstein)
- Rare breed nowadays
Aberdeen Angus
- Kept for meat (British breed)
- Small & precocious breed1
Belgian Blue
- Double muscled meat breed
- Large breed with late maturity
- Used for crossing with milk breeds -> calf can be sold at higher price, risk: caesarean
section needed (Charolais)
SPECIES % OF WORLD PRODUCTION
CATTLE 83
BUFFALO 14
GOAT 2
SHEEP 1
CAMEL 0,4
Milk:
1
Precocious = vroegrijp
Gedownload door Michou Weimar ()
Lecture – Why we keep animals
Artificial selection -> Selective breeding for production -> Choosing which males and females will
reproduce based on features of interest
Ager cultura = Field growing
Reasons for keeping animals:
o Medicine
o Food (meat, milk, blood)
o Crops/Energy (ploughing, transport, fertilizer, biofuel)
o Clothes & Housing (hide, wool & fur)
o Social status
o Money (insurance)
o Culture (sport) -> also not linked to farming?
Additional reasons (not linked to farming):
o Help and support (guide dog)
o Companionship
o Entertainment (circus)
o Conservation (zoo)
o Sport & Hobby
Slaughter:
1. Stunning -> to render unconscious before slaughter
Methods: electrical, gaseous & mechanical
2. Bleeding
Slaughter in Fish:
- Most fish die from:
Suffocation (+ ice)
Suffocation + evisceration (=removal of
internal organs)
- Humane methods:
Percussive stunning
Spiking (of the brain)
Gedownload door Michou Weimar ()
, lOMoARcPSD|2392027
Milk
o Purpose of keeping animals for milk occurred later than for meat -> tame animals needed
o 83% worldwide produced by cows (2nd buffalo)
Eggs
o NL -> 188 / person/ year
48 mil. laying hens
18 bil. eggs / year (2/3 exported)
o Battery cages banned since 2012
o Beak trimming banned since 2018
Manure
o Fuel -> biogas of cakes
o Fertilize soil for crop production
o Building material (houses)
Other reasons to farm animals:
o Banking and status
o Coffee
o Decoy
o Medicine (swiftlet nests and leeches)
o Hobby
o Care farms
o Sport & culture
o Conservation grazing
Meat consumption:
Gedownload door Michou Weimar ()
, lOMoARcPSD|2392027
Lecture note - Reasons for keeping and raising animals
Domestication of animal species
Dog -> first domesticated species
Cattle were domesticated for producing meat
later on for milk
Animal species must meet 6 criteria in order to be
domesticated:
1. Flexible diet -> food sources that cannot be consumed
by humans
2. Reproduction & useable age is rapidly reached
(relative to human lifetime)
3. Reproduction possible in captivity
4. A docile (=non aggressive) character
5. Do not panic easily (e.g. deer display much flight
behavior & can run themselves to death)
6. Acceptance of humans as potential leaders/
dominant individuals
Chicken meat:
o Parental stock farm
- Farm with laying hens
- Eggs are sent to hatchery
o Hatchery
- Eggs controlled after 14 days -> infertile & broken eggs are discarded
- Eggs hatch after 20-21 days -> day-old chickens are vaccinated & transported to broiler
farm
o Broiler farm
- Day-old chickens grow to 2kg in 5-6 weeks (54 grams/day!)
- After reaching 2 kg -> chickens are transported to slaughter house
- 8 rounds/year
Gedownload door Michou Weimar ()
, lOMoARcPSD|2392027
75% of chicken meat produced in NL -> exported to Germany (Ruhr area) & Northern France
(Paris)
Pig meat:
o Pork -> produced by crossing 4 pure meat breeds
Great Yorkshire (GY) -> used for boar ♂ line for production of breeding sows
o In NL:
Sow farm
- Sow gives birth to 29,8 piglets/year
- 11,5% dies during sowing -> 26,4 piglets/year left
- Within 77 days -> piglet goes from 1,5kg to 25kg -> then brought to fattening farm
Grower-finisher farm (fattening)
- Fattened until slaughter weight = 118kg
- Growth of 780g/day (196 days)
Hypor => a new breeding sow with a part Meishan in it, produces 1 extra piglet/litter
Western Pig Meishan pig (Chinese pot-bellied pig)
- Sexually mature after 180 days + Sexually mature after 90 days
- Less fertile -> 13 pigs/litter + Very fertile -> 15-17 pigs/litter
+ Grow fast - Grow very slowly
+ Less fat meat - Very fat meat
Beef:
Maas-Rijn and Ijssel cattle (MRIJ)
- Dual purpose breed => kept for both meat and milk
- Nowadays mainly selected for milk production
- After 1980 -> bred out due to crossing with red HF (Holstein)
- Rare breed nowadays
Aberdeen Angus
- Kept for meat (British breed)
- Small & precocious breed1
Belgian Blue
- Double muscled meat breed
- Large breed with late maturity
- Used for crossing with milk breeds -> calf can be sold at higher price, risk: caesarean
section needed (Charolais)
SPECIES % OF WORLD PRODUCTION
CATTLE 83
BUFFALO 14
GOAT 2
SHEEP 1
CAMEL 0,4
Milk:
1
Precocious = vroegrijp
Gedownload door Michou Weimar ()
