Livestock: Production, Management Strategies and Challenges

This book brings together and discusses information relating to animal production systems in different parts of the world. Throughout this book there are examples of systems comprised of a collection of interdependent and interactive elements that act together to accomplish a desired outcome. As indicated in the Editor’s Preface, we sought to give a broad description of existing systems of livestock production in different parts of the world. We discuss some of their important components and try to identify why and how these components have interacted with the systems being described. By editorial concept and by cross referencing between chapters this book should serve as a synthesis of several key issues. Along with the extensive bibliography (some in languages other than English) here and in each other chapter we present an approach to global livestock production that is up to date and comprehensive. The editors have commissioned writers from Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas and from Europe. The information they present helps our understanding of the complexity of the issues faced in the rapidly changing world in which we all live. What to do about burgeoning populations, rising living standards, shrinking areas of agricultural and pastoral lands, dilemmas about the morality of eating meat, competition for arable lands to grow food crops for humans or to provide fodder and grain for livestock have not yet been resolved.