Prior to the semester break, I had my last farm practical of the semester.
It ended on the practical discussing beef cattle which was pretty insightful as a future vet or scientist.
When it comes to creating your own cattle herd (took me a while to find the right word for it!) there is quite a bit of consideration that comes into play.
1) what kind of cattle are you trying to breed - the desirable characteristics of the breed which you would like to have
2) looking at your environment, what are the kinds of breeds that would be most suitable for it
3) Genetics of the breed - you would need cows and bulls, these days if you were to go out to the market to buy a bull, there would be an evaluated value for each of its characteristics for each breed.
The farm in the school is pretty big with little calves running around.
There were large Brahmin bulls who were kept in pens away from the rest (they were actual used for testing of chemical insemination) and very pretty Charolais cows with their calves and we had a large black bull (whose breed I cannot remember!)
It was a bit of a revision for me since we did visit this same farm earlier in the year for the first semester but with all our farm practicals, classes on farm and animal management, it also drives home the message that farms are essentially a business, if the cows or bulls do not make the targeted weight or birthing seasons, it is in the interest of the farm to sell them.
- more posts to come once I've cleared off my quizzes :)
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