Livestock

Livestock are domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such us food, fibre and labour. Livestock are generally raised for profit. It has been practised in many cultures since the transition to farming from hunter gather lifestyles. Some animals might be: cattle/dairy cows, chickens, goat, hogs/pigs, sheep, horses. There are other kinds of livestock that you might not think about. These are: donkeys, mules and rabbits.

Livestock can be mated in three ways:

a) Randomly - putting a few males and a few females of one species in a pen and allowing them to mate with which ever one they want.

b) Inbreeding - by mating animals that are closely related. They pick two that are related and have really good genes so that the baby will have them too.

c) Crossbreeding - by mating unrelated animals. Sometimes these animals are of different breeds.

Different types of Livestock

1) Domestic animals - these are animals that depend on a human for food, water and shelter. These include farm animals such as cattle, horses, sheep, chickens, goats, dogs, and cats.

2) Semi-domestic animals - these are wild animals in which its living conditions and its breeding are controlled by humans.

3) Captive wild animals - these are wild animals that live under human care.

Importance of Livestock

• Livestock gives us our milk, eggs and meat. 
• Livestock also provide skins (leather) and hair for blankets, clothing, shoes and brushes. 
• Some livestock’s organs are used for medicines like insulin's. 
• Hoofs and horns of some livestock are used for buttons, combs, glue and knives. 
• Manure from these animals will be used to make plants grow better. 

LIVESTOCK IN THE PHILIPPINES

1.) Hog Raising

Swine Raising

It is one of the most lucrative home businesses that you can easily start with, especially if you are living in a home with a wide backyard. Hogs can be used for various purposes: they can be sold in as pork meat in the market, or processed into cold cuts, or traded live for those who are into the roasting business.

2) Cattle Fattening

Cattle Fattening

It has gained prominence as an important business project of the livestock industry in the Philippines. It gives the farmer year-round work and provides him extra income. He can make use of cheap, plentiful farm products such us corn stove's, rice straw, copra meal, rice bran and sugarcane tops, which ordinarily go to waste. Most importantly it helps meet the urgent demand for high-protein foods in the Filipino diet.

3.) Goat Raising

Goat Raising

It is simply the process of breeding mature doe’s and raising (feeding and caring for) the offspring to produce either milk or meat. Raising goats can help you achieve a sustainable lifestyle, You can milk them or eat their meat, use their fibre and their skin for making clothing and even use their dung for fuel.

LIVESTOCK IN BULAN, BICOL, PHILIPPINES

Livestock raising, especially hog raising is a common type of livelihood in the Philippines. It is one source of living for many Filipinos. 

At Brgy. J.P. Laurel, Bulan, Sorsogon, we interview a couple who owned a Boar-for-hire Business. They are Mr. Victor Coprade, 40 years old, and Mrs. Aquila Coprade, 33 years old. They already have 6 children. The main source of their income is their boar and sow. They are managing the said business for approximately 10 years. 

They started it by buying a boar and building a pigpen.

Kuya Victor and Ate Aquila were both BEED graduate but they choose the said business rather than taking the LET, for it their hobby and passion. “Madali din itong gawin at madaling kumita”, said Ate Aquila. 

Except of Boar-for-hire Business, they still have other businesses like buying and selling piglets, coconut vinegar making, selling boarand its meat and poultry raising. Kuya Victor is an animal technician and he is also attending seminars about hog raising.

Artificial Insemination

Kuya Victor is also doing artificial insemination. The materials used are squeezed bottle with semen and caterer. The advantage of this over the natural way is that the sow is not stressed and it will not get any diseases. 

But, it also has disadvantages. During the process of inseminating, the sow should not move because the semen will melt. If this happens, you will wait for 18 days before doing again the process. “It is time consuming and effort wasting”, said Kuya Victor.

Vitamins

They are taking care of their hogs by feeding them everyday and cleaning their
pigpens. They are using different kinds of feeds base on the types of their hogs. For boar and sow, they use Pregsow while for piglets, they use Pre starter, Hog starter, Hog grower and Finisher. 

They use clean water and broomstick for cleaning the pigpens. They are also giving their hogs proper vitamins like V-complex, minerals and irons.

Top-Down Vehicle

They are also using a top-down vehicle for the delivery of their boar to other places mostly to the adjacent barangays. 

Common Breeds

Doroc

Land Race

Large White

Piglets

The couple have different kinds of hogs. The first one is the Doroc. It is brown in color. Its ears are facing in front. It is aggressive but not really a good breeder.

Another kind is Land Race. It is white in color. Its ears are small. It is tame not like the Doroc. It gives good quality of meat and it is a good breeder. 

It is a cross breed of Doroc and Land Race. The last one is the Large white.
They also have some piglets that they sell for a low price. 

Having a hog raising business is not that simple. They also experienced some problems. According to them, “Dahil pabago-bago ang klima at dahil sa global warming, kadalasan nagkakasakit and mga baboy. Naistress dito ito na nagiging dahilan ng kanilang pagkamatay.” One of the common disease id hog cholera. But they usually solve these problems by giving sugar and electrolite as a form of medicine. They also bring outside the boar if th weather is not too hot like early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Hog raising has four foundations namely: shelter, nutrition (feeding), breeding and health. This kind of business needs passion, patience and effort in order to succeed. It is simple but requires dedication while doing it.

Sources:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock

http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312380/livestock.htm

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_domestic_animals

http://www.smallbusinessidear.com/hog-raising-101-the-quick-start-guide-to-raising-hogs-at-home/