About Book

Livestock management is rearing and raising of domesticated animals in an agricultural setting so that the domesticated animals could be used for production of commodities like food, fiber and labour. The health and quality of livestock is influenced by genetics, care, nutrition and environment. Moreover, the growing use of precise, robust and consistent livestock production tools has improved the monitoring, administration and movement of cattle, which has resulted in momentous productivity gains across the farming business. The quality of animal products is affected by production methods and marketing practices. Livestock production currently accounts for one third of the global crop land which is used to produce feed for animals and competes for land, water, energy and labor, and is being challenged by the vagaries of climate change and socio-economic pressures. This book outlines the processes and applications of livestock management in detail. It unfolds the innovative aspects of animal rearing and farming practices which are closely related to livestock management in an interesting manner. It deals with nutrition security, livestock manure, livestock loss factors, crop-livestock integration, fertility management, climate change, livestock operations and livestock grazing. In the book, constant effort has been made to make the understanding of the difficult concepts of this field as easy and informative as possible for the readers. Coherent flow of topics, student-friendly language and extensive use of examples make this book an invaluable source of knowledge. It is an important and an invaluable source of information for professionals and researchers in the field.

Preface............................................................................................................v

Chapter 1 Monitoring Land Suitability for Mixed Livestock Grazing Using Geographic Information System (GIS)..................................................1

1. Introduction............................................................................................1

2. Methodology..........................................................................................4

3. Results...................................................................................................15

4. Discussion.............................................................................................20

5. Conclusion............................................................................................25

Acknowledgement...............................................................................26

Chapter 2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Housing and Manure Management Systems at Confined Livestock Operations........................................31

1. Introduction..........................................................................................31

2. Emission process.................................................................................41

3. GHG measurement methods............................................................45

4. GHG scrubbing technology..............................................................46

5. Management practices to reduce GHG emissions.......................54

6. Conclusions..........................................................................................63

Chapter 3 Livestock and Climate Change: Mitigation Strategies to Reduce Methane Production.................................................................................75

1. Introduction..........................................................................................75

2. Sources of GHGs from agriculture and livestock........................77

3. Impact of global warming.................................................................77

4. Livestock and climate change...........................................................78

5. Enteric methane production..............................................................78

6. Manure methane production............................................................84

7. Mechanism of methane reduction...................................................84

8. Methane mitigation strategies..........................................................86

9. Methane mitigation strategies from livestock manure................92

10. Conclusions..........................................................................................94

11. Future scope of research...................................................................95

12. Acknowledgement..............................................................................95

Chapter 4 Nitratation Promotion Process for Reducing Nitrogen Losses by

N2O/NO Emissions in the Composting of Livestock Manure....102

1. Introduction........................................................................................102

2. Abreviations.......................................................................................104

3. N2O emission from composting.....................................................104

4. Effect of nitrite accumulation on N2O emission.........................106

5. Nitratation promotion process.......................................................107

6. Nitrogen conservation......................................................................110

7. Collaboration with struvite crystallization..................................114

8. Cattle and poultry manure composting.......................................117

9. Conclusions........................................................................................121

10. Acknowledgement............................................................................121

Chapter 5 Review of Water-Harvesting Techniques to Benefit Forage Growth

and Livestock on Arid and Semiarid Rangelands..........................127

1. Introduction........................................................................................127

2. Historical applications.....................................................................129

3. Rationale for revisiting use on rangelands..................................136

4. Methods of rangeland water harvesting......................................137

5. Discussion...........................................................................................141

6. Conclusions........................................................................................146

7. Acknowledgements...........................................................................147

Chapter 6 Small Livestock, Food Security, Nutrition Security and HIV/AIDS

Mitigation.................................................................................................152

1. Introduction ......................................................................................152

2. Advantages of small livestock over larger stock ......................154

3. The first rung on the livestock ladder ...........................................155

4. Nutrition and household income generation ............................157

5. Ownership of small livestock .......................................................160

6. Marketing ..........................................................................................161

7. HIV and AIDS and small livestock production ........................161

8. Conclusion ........................................................................................162

9. Acknowledgements .........................................................................162

Chapter 7 Promoting Sustainable Crop-Livestock Integration Through

Farmer’s Participation and Integrated Soil Fertility Management

in the Sahel of West Africa..................................................................167

1. Introduction ......................................................................................167

2. Material and methods ....................................................................169

3. Results and discussion ...................................................................174

4. Conclusions .......................................................................................187

5. Acknowledgements .........................................................................188

Chapter 8 Assessment of Livestock Loss Factors in the Western Serengeti,

Tanzania....................................................................................................194

1. Introduction........................................................................................194

2. Methods..............................................................................................196

3. Data collection ..................................................................................197

4. Statistical analyses ...........................................................................198

5. Results ................................................................................................198

6. Discussion .........................................................................................202

7. Conclusion ........................................................................................204

8. Acknowledgements .........................................................................205

Citation......................................................................................................211

Index...........................................................................................................213

About Author

Wyatt Alexandra obtained her Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from State Science University, Oklahoma. Her academic interests lie in animal health, livestock production and management. She serves as a Research Associate at Technical Institute, Manitoba. She has an experience of over 15 years in the field of livestock management. Alexandra has written several books and research papers on behavior of domestic animals, adaptation of domestic animals, and reproduction and breeding techniques for animals. She consistently shares her knowledge with the researcher fraternity by organizing lectures and conferences around the globe.