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УДК 59.009
СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИИ РАСТЕНИЕВОДСТВА И
ЖИВОТНОВОДСТВА
Оленцова Юлия Анатольевна
Старший преподаватель кафедры ДИЯ Красноярский государственный аграрный университет Россия, город Красноярск
Аннотация: Животноводство и растениеводство важны для населения земли и тесно связаны друг с другом. Современные технологии позволяют развивать эти отрасли. Улучшение качества продукции напрямую влияет на здоровье человека.
Ключевые слова: Животноводство, растениеводство, технологии.
MODERN TECHNOLOGIES OF CROP AND LIVESTOCK
PRODUCTION
Olentsova Y. A.
Senior lecture, department of BFL Krasnoyarsk State Agrarian University Russia, Krasnoyarsk
Abstract: Livestock and crop production are important for the population of the Earth and are closely associated with each other. Modern technologies allow developing these industries. Improvement of product quality directly affects on human health.
Keywords: livestock, crop production, technologies.
The need for efficient food production has never been greater. One in seven humans is undernourished. Urbanization and biology fuel production are reducing land availability, and climate change, water and soil degradation are decreasing harvests. Over the past decade, cereal yields per hectare have fallen in one-quarter of countries. Meanwhile, developing nations and the growing world population are demanding more animal protein.
The increasing consumption of animal protein is generally considered at odds with Earth's ability to feed its people. The 1 billion tons of wheat, barley, oats, rye, corn, sorghum and millet poured annually into livestock troughs could feed some 3.5 billion humans. But such reasoning discounts the health benefits of eating modest amounts of meat and the fact that foraging animals can consume foods that humans cannot eat.
Crop and livestock farming complements each other. Half the world's food comes from farms that raise both. Animals pull ploughs and carts, and their manure fertilizes crops, which supply post-harvest residues to livestock. But efforts to maximize yields of milk and meat can disrupt finely balanced systems. The quest for 'intensification' in livestock farming has thundered ahead with little regard for sustainability and overall efficiency (the net amount of food produced in terms of inputs such as land and water). With animal protein set to remain part of the food supply, people must pursue sustainable
intensification and figure out how to keep livestock in ways that work best for individuals, communities and the planet.
Almost all of the world's milk and much of its meat come from ruminant animals — mostly cows, goats and sheep, but also buffalo, camels, llamas, reindeer and yaks. Here scientists highlight eight strategies to cut the environmental and economic costs of keeping these animals while boosting net gains for the quantity and quality of the food they produce.
Feed animals less human food. Around 70% of the grains used by developed countries are fed by animals. Livestock consume an estimated one-third or more of the world's cereal grain, with 40% of such feed going to ruminants, mainly cattle1.
Some of this is avoidable. Ruminants graze pastures and can eat hay, silage and high-fiber crop residues that are unsuitable for human consumption. Unlike pigs, poultry and humans, ruminants have a series of fore stomachs leading to the true stomach. In the fore stomachs, the largest of which is the rumen, microbes break down fibrous plant material into usable calories and also provide high-quality microbial protein. Ruminants can graze in marginal areas, such as mountainsides or low-lying wet grasslands. This helps to reserve agricultural fields for growing human food.
Even where large quantities of cereals are consumed by ruminants, up to 60% of their diet comes from high-fiber feed that humans cannot digest. In the European Union, more than 95% of milk comes from animals fed on grass, hay and silage, supplemented with cereals. Cattle in New Zealand's exemplary dairy industry obtain 90% of their overall nutrition by grazing pasture3. China's growing dairy industry initially relied on imported grain and high-quality fiber from the Americas. Ongoing research is showing how best to use local crop residues, such as rice straw.
Raise regionally appropriate animals. The lure of high productivity has led to ill-advised schemes to import livestock to places where they are genetically unsuited. Kerala, a state in southern India, is home to the smallest breed of cattle in the world. Vechur cows stand at about 90 centimeters tall and make only around 3 liters of milk per day — a dribble compared to the 30 liters per day produced on average by Holsteins, the black-and-white dairy cows of Europe and North America.
Donors, governments and charities aiming to feed whole communities, and to provide income for poor farmers, have imported Holstein breeding stock and semen to Africa and Asia, with progeny now numbering in the millions. But the animals often disappoint. Bred for centuries for maximum milk production in temperate climates, these cows were not selected for fertility or hardiness. They lack resistance to heat, humidity, tropical diseases and parasites, and so must be kept in stalls away from ticks and other disease vectors. Rather than allowing the animals out to pasture, farmers in tropical areas must cut and carry fodder to the animals or purchase expensive, often imported, feed. Even then, the cows produce less than one-third of yields seen in temperate climates and controlled environments. For poor families, a smaller native cow is a better bet than a larger animal that costs more to keep alive and healthy.
Similarly, breeds of cattle usually farmed in the humid tropics of West Africa have developed resistance to the debilitating disease trypanosomiasis over several thousand years of exposure to the tsetse fly that carries it. In the hope of greater profits and wealth, farmers often replace these animals with larger European cattle, or with zebu breeds from areas north of the tsetse belts. The zebu breeds are less resistant to trypanosomiasis, and European cattle have no resistance. The expense of drugs to combat the disease often outweighs the increase in income.
Keep animals healthy. Sick animals can make people sick. In low- and middle-income nations, 13 livestock-related zoonoses (diseases that can infect humans and animals) cause 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths each year. Human and livestock disease are generally treated as separate problems. Animal management should include measures to contain transmissible diseases, for example, by improving hygiene, quarantining new arrivals on farms and establishing coordinated, sustained surveillance for diseases that cross the boundaries of species or countries.
Mismanagement and poor welfare render animals particularly susceptible to parasites and disease. Many young animals die of disease before they can lactate, reach slaughter weight or reproduce. This
lowers yields, increases environmental impacts and decreases farmers' ability to select the best breeding stock. With education and some financial aid, farmers could improve husbandry, and more animals would survive to become productive.
Keeping animals at high densities spreads infectious diseases far and fast. The foot-and-mouth virus costs upwards of US$5 billion each year in vaccinations and lost production worldwide. A UK epidemic in 2001 resulted in the slaughter of 6 million animals. Bovine tuberculosis has cost UK taxpayers alone £500 million (US$830 million) over the past decade — an amount projected to double in the next ten years. Market disruptions and losses are felt across industries including agriculture, transportation and tourism.
European Union law holds farmers responsible for human health and food-safety issues following the slaughter of their animals. Growing awareness of problems such as antibiotic resistance has led to approaches that rely less on anti-infective drugs and more on management practices, such as reducing overcrowding. Simple decision-support tools are emerging to help farmers to treat affected individuals rather than entire herds, and to keep animals away from risky pastures or other sources of infection. Gathering local evidence can confirm the benefits of such strategies and encourage farmers to adopt them.
Adopt smart supplements. The productivity of ruminant animals can often be boosted with supplements, some of which encourage microbes in the rumen to grow quickly and to provide better nutrition. In India, a water fern cultivated in local ponds provides extra protein to cattle and goats fed on protein-deficient elephant grass.
Other plant extracts can alter the rumen microbial population to use nitrogen and energy more efficiently. This means producing more meat and milk with proportionally less by-product greenhouse gas and ammonia. Governments and policy-makers should support research efforts to identify the most beneficial microbes and most limiting nutrients, as well as low-cost ways to deliver them.
Bibliography:
1. Lebedko E. Cow in private households M .: Education, 2009
2. Nechaev V.I., Artemow E.I. Problems of innovative development of animal husbandry M .: Education 2009
3. Rodina N.D. Environmental selection in animal husbandry - 2006
4. http://www.anthra.org/focus_livestock_agriculture.php (the date of circulation: 11.12.2012).
