Тексты для дополнительного чтения по направлениям
Зооинженерный факультет
ВАРИАНТ №1
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
Agriculture provides people with food, feed and other useful products. All over the world farmers cultivate valuable plants and raise productive domesticated animals. There are two main branches in modern agriculture: crop production (or crop farming) and animal husbandry (or animal farming).
Nowadays, in many countries people are still relying on meat, milk and eggs as main sources of food. Both breeders and farmers have already bred and are still breeding highly productive agricultural animals. Animal farming is a process in which a farmer breeds, raises and cares for livestock either for commerce or private use.
The word "livestock" refers to domesticated animals such as beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats, swine (hogs), horses, donkeys and mules, buffalo, oxen, rabbits or "exotic" animals, for example, camels, emus, ostriches, or any animal which a farmer keeps and uses either for food or pleasure. Sometimes animal scientists include in this term also poultry, such as chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys, but they include neither honey bees nor fish within the term "livestock". However, poultry farming and beekeeping are important branches of agriculture as well as aquaculture1.
There are over a hundred large land mammals in the world but man has domesticated only few types into livestock. There are two main requirements for domestication of mammals: 1) the availability of feed which a farmer can easily control and provide; 2) a rapid rate of reproduction. As cattle, sheep and horses are herbivorous mammals, farmers try to keep these domestic animals on pastures. However, farmers often grow either cereals or other agricultural crops as additional feed for their animals. Such ruminant animals as cattle, sheep and goats are important for people because they convert large quantities of grasses or other types of feeds, as well as non-protein nitrogen into meat, milk and wool. Poultry also convert feed efficiently into protein.
Historically, livestock and poultry have provided the following benefits to humanity: meat, eggs, dairy products, raw materials, fertiliser, labour, management of land.
1) Meat and eggs. In many countries livestock replaced wild game as the main source of animal protein because only livestock convert various food sources into human food. Poultry provide people with white meat as well as with eggs.
2) Dairy products. People process milk of cows, sheep, goats into a variety of valuable dairy products such as yoghurt, cheese, butter, ice cream, kefir, and koumiss.
3) Raw materials. Livestock produce useful raw materials, for example, horses and cows provide leather, poultry produce feather and down, sheep and goats provide wool for textile industry.
4) Fertiliser. Livestock leave behind manure which farmers spread on fields and this increases yields of crops many times. Historically, plant and animal farming have been closely linked.
5) Labour. In modern agriculture neither cattle nor horses are the main source of mechanical energy. However, in some poor countries people are still using livestock as draft cattle.
6) Management of land. Sometimes farmers use the grazing of livestock as a way to control weeds.
When a farmer is planning to rear livestock, he usually chooses the most suitable type for the local conditions. Both climate and type of land, as well as local traditions influence a farmer's choice.
Notes:
1. aquaculture–аквакультура
2. availability–наличие (доступность)
3. a rate of reproduction–зд. скорость воспроизводства
4. the following benefits to humanity–следующие выгоды для человечества
5. management–зд. возделывание
6. wild game–дикие животные
7. feather, down–перо, пух
8. a way to control weeds–способ борьбы с сорняками
ANIMAL SCIENTISTS
Animal scientists help farmers to develop and improve agricultural industry. Different animal sciences are important for specialists who work in the field of animal farming such as: animal physiology, nutrition, breeding and genetics, ecology and ethology, livestock and poultry management.
Students of animal science are interested in processes how agricultural animals convert feeds into food and other useful things which people need. They conduct research in different fields of animal husbandry and try to improve production, yield and growth of various animals. Thus, they mainly specialise in such disciplines as nutrition, genetics and breeding, or reproductive physiology. There are special courses to train veterinary scientists who study diseases of farm animals, methods of vaccination and animal treatment.
Graduates of the faculty of animal husbandry work in veterinary and human pharmaceutical industries, in industries which provide farms with livestock and feeds as well as in educational institutes. They can work both for private research firms and federal or state experimental stations.
An animal breeder is one of the oldest world professions. Historically, there are certain sub-professions within the field of animal husbandry. They have specific names according to the animal for which a person cares, for example, a cattle breeder (or a cattleman), a pig breeder (a hogman), a sheep breeder (a sheepman), a horse breeder (a horseman), a poultry breeder (a poultryman), a beekeeper or an apiarist, a dog breeder or a cynologist.
Today, managers of commercial farms organize the work of many different specialists who raise thousands of various animals. Farms and ranches employ breeders, veterinary surgeons (or vets), feeders and milkmen who help to care for the animals. Nowadays farmers use modern techniques and achievements of different natural sciences because this helps to improve the ability of animals to convert feed into meat, milk, or fibre more efficiently and improve the quality of the final products.
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