CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY
Musuan, Bukidnon

TERM PAPER
(Animal Science)

Submitted by:
ACUÑA, Davie Myrrh G.
GERMATA, Griz Jiv A.
GUATNO, Philip Robert B.
PASETES, Henrich
TORREGOSA, Rechil G.

Submitted to:
Mr. Fernando Domagsang

December 7, 2015

Introduction

Animal science is the study of animals that live alongside humans. Around the world, humans rely on animals for food, fiber, labor and companionship. Animal scientist helps people understand the importance of these animals. One of the role of animal scientist and animal science is to study the proper way of taking care of the animals and meeting there nutritional needs.

Meeting animal’s nutritional requirement is extremely important in maintaining acceptable performance of neonatal, growing, finishing and breeding animals. It is important for them to stay healthy. Keeping animals healthy can help stop diseases from infecting humans. At different times in your life, you may have slept in a cradle, a crib, a bunk bed or a cot. You may have lived in a townhouse, a cottage, a college dorm or an apartment. Where you live depended on where you were in your life.

Just like people, animals live in different places depending on their stages of life. The design of animal facilities combined with appropriate animal housing and management are essential contributors to animal well-being, the quality of animal research and production, teaching or testing programs involving animals, and the health and safety of personnel.

The caging or housing system is an important factor in the physical environment of animals. It can influence the well-being of the animals. Proper diet and stress-free, sanitary environments are some of the greatest tools in preventing the development or transmission of disease.

Animal’s health has a great impact on animal production. It may be the reason of the rise and fall of economy of the country. It also has a great effect on the buyers. That is why we should take full concern to the proper housing of animals.

Objectives

* To understand Animal Science and its importance * To know the appropriate housing for sow * To distinguish the essence of a healthy animal * To learn the effect of an unhealthy animal

I. Definition of terms

TERM | DEFINITION | Sow | A mature female pig | Gestation | Pregnancy; time from conception to birth | Animal Nutrition | Focuses on the dietary needs of domesticated animals, primarily those in agriculture and food production. | Animal Science | Concerned with the science and business of producing domestic livestock species, including but not limited to beef cattle, dairy cattle, horses, poultry, sheep, and swine. An animal scientist applies principles of the biological, physical, and social sciences to the problems associated with livestock production and management. Animal Science is also concerned with foods of animal origin: meat, dairy foods, and eggs. In addition, animal science is concerned with aspects of companion animals, including their nutrition, care, and welfare. |

II. Proper Housing for Sow during gestation

When it is time for piglets to be born, the sows are moved to farrowing crates. Farrowing crates are also known as a sow stall. It is a metal enclosure used in intensive pig farming, in which a sow may be kept during pregnancy, and in effect for most of her adult life. The enclosures measure 6.6 ft × 2.0 ft (2 m × 60 cm) and house sows that weigh up to 900 lbs (408 kg).

The floors of the crates are made of concrete, and are slated to allow waste to be collected below. A few days before giving birth, they are moved to farrowing crates, where they are able to lie down to nurse and the piglets have room on the sides to get away from the sow to sleep and play and this prevents her from accidentally laying on the piglets and crushing them.

Piglets stay with their mother for about two to four weeks. After that, they are moved to a nursery. Here, they are kept warm and given special food to help them transition from their mother’s milk to the adult pig feed they will be eating later on.

After these pigs have been in the nursery for four to eight weeks, they are moved to a finishing barn. This is where they are housed in pens and fed a diet made mostly of corn (for energy) and soybean meal (for protein). More recently, Dried Distiller’s Grain with Soluble (DDGS), a co-product of ethanol production is being used quite extensively in swine diets. When they grow to weigh around 260 pounds, they are ready to be taken to market.

Review of Related Literature

I. Different types of Housing
Sheep

The type of housing given to sheep depends on what kind of production system the farmer is using. In “farm flock” production systems, the farmer may allow his sheep access to pasture during the day and keep his sheep in a barn at night. During the winter, he may keep some sheep in the barn all day. These systems are usually found in the eastern part of the United States, where farms are smaller. In the western United States, “range flocks” are more common. These production systems often let sheep run free throughout the year, with the farmer moving with them as they graze. The sheep are less intensively managed than in farm flocks. The farmer has less control over his flock’s environment, but the sheep get more exercise and more time to graze.

The type of housing necessary for sheep also depends on what time of the year the baby sheep (lambs) are born. Because the producer has more contact with his sheep and more choice over where they are housed, this is more of an issue for farm flocks.

Usually, female sheep (ewes) are what farmers call short-day breeders, which means that it is easiest for them to get pregnant when the days are short, during fall and winter months. A ewe’s pregnancy lasts around 147 days, so lambs from ewes bred in the fall are born in the spring.

Spring lambs

Spring lambs are fairly easy to house. Weather is normally mild, so farmers only really have to worry about providing shelter from the wind, whether it is in a barn, an open shed or simply a wind-break like a stretch of fence or trees. These lambs will be fed enough solely by drinking their mother’s milk.

Sometimes, though, farmers may want to have lambs born at different times of the year. Because not a lot of people in the United States eat lamb on a regular basis, some producers like having their lambs ready for market at times of the year when demand (and price) for lamb is the highest: Christmas and Easter. Lambs born in the spring will be ready for Christmas, but will be too young to go to market by Easter. Farmers who want to sell their lambs at that time will have to breed their ewes earlier in the year. This is a difficult process and requires a lot of planning and preparation.

Depending on whether the ewes are bred in the spring or in the summer, their lambs may be born in either the fall or winter months.

Beef cattle

In the commercial beef cattle industry, there are several different stages of production. The cow/calf producer is responsible for breeding new calves to go to market and new young female cattle (heifers) to grow into new mothers for their herd.

These cows and their calves are housed in a barn and allowed access to pasture during the day, though some farmers choose to keep their cattle outside all day on pasture. When it comes time for the cow to give birth, the farmer may bring her into the barn so that he can monitor her until her calf comes.

Calves will usually stay with their mothers for seven or eight months, but the exact time of weaning depends on the condition of the cow and whether she is still making enough milk to feed the calf.

After they are weaned, calves are sent by truck or train to a feedlot. These are large farms where cattle are kept in group lots and fed until they reach market weight, usually 1,200 to 1,400 pounds.

Sometimes, though, calves can be sold as stocker cattle. These calves are usually smaller or weaned at a more difficult time of year, making them less valuable. They are bought by farmers who have room in their herds and allowed to graze until they grow big enough to be sent to a feedlot.

Dairy cattle

Unlike most other farm animals in larger production systems, dairy cows tend to stay in one place for most of their lives.

When calves are born, they are separated from their mothers to prevent the spreading of diseases from cow to calf. They are fed colostrum from their mom as quickly as possible. Colostrum is the first milk from the cow, which has special antibodies to protect the calf from diseases. Calves are then fed milk replacer for six weeks in order to preserve their mother’s milk for human consumption.

The heifers are placed in individual pens, such as hutches, or together in groups, where they are fed milk replacer, grain, water and hay. At about seven weeks, calves are weaned, taken off milk, they are moved into group housing with other dairy heifers. These heifers then grow and once they have a calf, they begin producing milk and move into a barn with other cows.

The male calves are either kept to grow into dairy bulls or sold to other farms to be raised for veal or beef.

Adult dairy cows are usually kept in large, open barns with free stalls, meaning that they have the freedom to walk around the barn at will. These stalls are bedded with straw, sand, wood shavings and other bedding materials that make it comfortable for the cow to lie down.

On some farms, dairy cows are allowed to graze periodically throughout the day and are also provided with feed and water when they return to the barn. At least twice a day, they are taken to the milking parlor, where their milk is collected and pumped into a large steel vat and held there until a milk truck takes it to be processed.

Broilers (meat-type chickens)

There are two types of domestically-kept chickens: broilers and layers. Broilers are chickens that are raised for meat. They may live in several different places before they are old enough to go to market.

On special breeding farms, fertilized eggs are laid by a breeding hen. These eggs are taken to a hatchery and stored for up to ten days before they are placed into incubators. These incubators keep the eggs at a temperature of 55–88° F before they hatch into chicks at 21 days.

After hatching, the chicks are taken to other farms where they will grow to market weight. When the chicks first arrive, farmers may choose to divide their long, ventilated chicken houses into smaller sections, as the chicks are still very small and may have trouble finding their feed and water in a large space. Farmers may use brooding rings (small, round pens) to keep the chicks close to the food, water and heaters necessary to keep them healthy and warm.

As the birds grow, the farmers will take the dividers down and let the chickens move around the entire barn. The chickens will be kept in this barn until they weigh about six pounds and are ready to go to market.

Laying hens

After they have hatched, laying hens are kept in cages until they are around 17 weeks old. They are then moved into a laying house where they begin laying eggs. On larger farms, laying houses are connected by a series of conveyor belts that transfer the eggs from each house to a central building. Here the eggs are refrigerated and either processed on the farm or transported to another facility for further processing.

In conventional layer chicken systems, farmers can keep their chickens in either a floor system or battery-style cages. The floor system is a lot like broiler chicken housing, where chickens can roam the floor of the barn. Farmers can also keep their chickens in battery-style chickens, which separate the chickens from each other to prevent them from fighting.

II. Animal Welfare

Animal welfare refers to an animal that is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express natural behaviors and is not suffering from pain, fear or stress. Good animal welfare requires disease prevention, veterinary treatment, appropriate shelter, management, and nutrition, humane handling and humane slaughter (AVMA, 2012) (OIE, 2010).

Conclusion

Livestock are important in supporting the livelihoods of poor livestock keepers, traders and laborers throughout the developing world. Diseases affecting livestock can have a devastating impact on animal productivity and production, on trade in live animals, meat and other animal products, on human health and, consequently, on the overall process of economic development.

In conclusion, we must implement the use of farrowing crates. This is a big help to those places in the Philippines where there economy depended on swine production. Therefore, we, people must take good care of our animals especially those farm animals. It is our duty and responsibility to keep them healthy for our own good.

Reference

* http://animalsmart.org/ * Copyright 2003, University of Minnesota Board of Regents * National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD, 20894 USA