Livestock Activities: Livestock Production and Livestock Activities in Mexico

It is understood by livestock activities to all productive process destined to the upbringing and exploitation of edible animals and to the management of their by-products. Livestock activities are part of the so-called primary sector of the economy; This is in charge of satisfying the needs of societies working with natural products and processes.

This sector includes fishing, livestock, agriculture, forestry and mining. In addition to agriculture, the raising of animals for food was one of the first jobs of humanity. Thus, when the first human beings left the collection and hunting, they became farmers and ranchers.

This is called the agricultural revolution; Thanks to this, we moved to a new stage of social evolution. Over the centuries, increasingly sophisticated techniques were developed for the production of animal protein. Currently, this activity requires more and more of a highly specialized workforce.

Livestock production

The livestock production involves the raising of animals that are then commercialized. Each type of animal means a specialization and the action can be divided into two types: one is based on the direct use of meat and skin (leather); the other takes advantage of the products that are extracted from the animals without taking their lives.

The main areas of livestock production are the following:

- Bovine production, which includes cows, bulls and calves. These can serve directly for your meat or for milk.

- The breeding of horses; These are the equines. They are used for work or entertainment, and recently its use as a gastronomic element has grown.

- The pig cattle (pigs). Pigs are highly appreciated for their meat and other by-products: sausages, chorizos and even pork rinds.

- Goats (goats). Goats use their flesh, but also their skin and milk. Goat's milk also produces cheese and even sweets.

- The sheep (sheep), whose utility is the extraction of their wool. That is why sheep flocks are little used for meat, because their main product allows to generate tissues.

- Poultry farming, which includes valuable birds both for their meat and for their eggs. Even their droppings are used by the industry as an ingredient for the manufacture of organic fertilizers.

- Rabbit breeding, through which meat and skin are used.

- Fish farming (fish), which is also an extended practice and allows the control of rapid production and with fewer risks than fishing in the open sea. Mainly working freshwater fish.

- Beekeeping (bees). In this activity honey is generated; from this are derived by-products such as wax, liqueurs, royal jelly and honey vinegar.

The livestock activities are conditioned by the physical characteristics: relief, water and climate. With the new technologies, special infrastructures have been developed to raise livestock in closed buildings.

Livestock activities in Mexico

Mexico is the fourteenth nation on the planet according to its territorial extension and a large part of this extension is devoted to livestock production.

More than one million people work in the sector, 87% are men and 13% are women. In addition, Mexico has 120,000 hectares just for the breeding of fish, generating 361 thousand tons of different species annually.

Labor composition

Another important fact is the labor composition of the Mexican countryside: 45% are subordinated and remunerated personnel; 37.1% work on their own; 12.6% do not receive any payment and 5.3% are employers and their families.

It is also necessary to point out that 36.6% of Mexican agricultural workers do not have complete primary education; only 29.4% finished it. As for secondary education, 25.2% have it complete.

The upper middle and university technicians make up 8.8% of the people dedicated to agriculture. These are the technicians, veterinarians, biologists and chemists in the sector.

Poultry production means 88.6% of Mexican livestock production. The cattle are 5.6%; sheep and goats, 2.8%; pigs, 2.7%; and bees represent 0.3% with two million hives. That represents 605 million animals treated per year.

Mexico ranks twelfth in the world in food production. It is the eleventh in livestock production and the sixteenth in fish production.

Producing States

If the country were divided into three parts, the central sector would be the most productive in livestock activity. There are states like Zacatecas, Aguas Calientes, Jalisco, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, Queretaro, Nayarí, Tamaulipas and Nuevo León.

It is important to point out that green alfalfa is also produced in Mexico for livestock feed, as well as 239 thousand tons of soybeans in Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí destined to be animal feed. This makes it stand in the 19th position as a global producer of soybeans.

Among the main enemies of the Mexican agri-food sector are cyclones, hailstorms, snowfalls, frosts, floods and, mainly, droughts.

Internal and external market

The livestock sector has great relevance in the production of national wealth. The cattle sector generates more and more dairy products with high internal and external demand. The same is happening with poultry, pork and goat products.

In the international market, open for the export of final goods, Mexico has projected its image as a quality producer. Likewise, the growth of livestock work has encouraged the growth of the agricultural sector.

A goal in this sense is to provide the sector with the necessary inputs for the protection and optimization of herds.

Organic support

At the same time, livestock activities related to organic sustainability have increased in recent years. For now aimed at a small market, this approach reduces the risks of infections and the consequent loss of animals.

This approach has a lot of potential to overcome problems that for centuries have been a headache for producers.

References

1. The Century of Durango (2012). Increased livestock production in Mexico in the last six years. Recovered in: elsiglodedurango.com.mx
2. Espinoza-Villavicencio, José Luis and others (2007). The organic livestock, an alternative of livestock development for some regions of Mexico: a review. Intersciousness Retrieved from: redalyc.org
3. Gélvez, Lilian Damaris (2016). Livestock world Agricultural production in Mexico. Recovered in: mundo-pecuario.com
4. Agri-Food and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP) (2016) Atlas Agroalimentario 2016. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food. Mexico. Recovered in: nube.siap.gob.mx
5. Sosa Urrutia, Manuel Ernesto and others (2017) Contribution of the livestock sector to the Mexican economy. An analysis from the Input Product Matrix. Mexican Journal of Animal Sciences. Retrieved from: redalyc.org