Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is a branch of agriculture dealing with animals raised for meat, milk, eggs
and other products. Husbandry played an outstanding role not only in nutrition (meat, milk),
but also in providing many kinds of basic materials for clothing (wool, leather). Moreover, it
also produces manure which is a valuable nutrient on the fields. Where fodder or other crops
are grown alongside animals, manure can serve as a fertiliser, returning minerals and organic
matter to the soil. Asian countries (eg. Hongkong, Mongolia or Indonesia) are the leaders in
livestock production globally. In Europe, Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain are the top 3
producers.
Animals can be kept extensively or intensively. Extensive system are usually based on
grazing on pasture lands. Animals are out there grazing from April to October each year,
under the supervision of a shepherd. The most typical type of animals held in extensive
system are cattle, horse, sheep and goat. In the more developed parts of the world, animals are
often intensively managed.kept. Under these circumstances, dairy cows are kept in zero-
grazing conditions with all their forage brought to them. Pigs are housed in climate-controlled
buildings and never go outdoors, avoiding the infection of (African) swine fever, which is the
most dangerous disease of pigs nowadays. When it is occured, pigs are weak, have fever and
bleeding on their skin. Intensive poultry farming also happens in closed buildings, under
lighting-controlled conditions. Today there is a hazardous sickness infecting poultry, named
avian influenza. Specific symptoms of it are inappetance, decreasing liquid intake and small-
scale death.
Animal husbandry has a significant impact on the world’s environment. Both production and
consumption of animal products have increased rapidly. Over the past 50 years, meat
production has trebled, whereas the production of dairy products doubled and that of eggs
almost increased fourfold. Meanwhile, meat consumption has also nearly doubled worldwide.
Animal farming is responsible for somewhere between 20 and 33% of the fresh water usage in
the world and also contributes to deforestation and greenhouse gas production (methane). As
a result, ways of mitigating animal husbandry's environmental impact are being studied.
Strategies include using biogas from manure, genetic selection, diet modification and grazing
management to reach a more sustainable way of animal farming. Besides these, animal
welfare has an absolutely growing importance on a global scale.
 In Hungary, animal husbandry can be mentioned as the driving force of agriculture in the
1980s, with a share of 55-60% of its production value. By the end of the 1990s, this
proportion had reversed and crop production had predominated. After the chage of regime, the
loss of stable markets influences the sector negatively. Generally, there was a significant
decrease in livestock. Two decades after, in the 2010’s, a moderate growth could be seen in
cattle livestock, due tot he higher demand from abroad (Turkey and Arabic countries). By
now, unfortunately, the number of piggeries have decreased, but poultry farming and
processing could be mentioned as an important branch of Hungarian animal husbandry.
Besides these, our dairy farms are also significant, using modern, up-to-date technologies to
raise the efficiency of production.