Method of animal improvement in animal husbandry
The importance of animals to human race can’t be overemphasized because they are being used by man to carry out some activities.
Donkeys, camels are some of the animals deployed by men to carry out strenuous activities such as carrying of loads and means of transportation.
The most important part of animals is the huge amount of profitable nutrients attached to their meat. Apart from serving as source of food, animal meats are rich in protein that helps in building and repairing worn-out tissues in the body.
Milk that are gotten from dairy animals (such as cows) are processed into well-packaged tin milk (as we often call it this part of the world — Nigeria)
Cheese is also gotten from milk, eggs and highly-nutritious Chicken meat are obviously gotten from fowls. There are many products and importance that can be derived from animals which we won’t be able to mention today.
Judging by the importance and financial value attached to livestock, it won’t be out of place to tell livestock farmers that there is a need to engage in Animal Improvement.
What’s Animal Improvement?
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As the name implies, Animal improvement is one or two measures put in place to enhance the productivity of animals.
You can equally define animal improvement as a practice whereby traits and features of a more productive animals are being transferred to other animals of the same species in order to boost their productivity. It involves evolving of highly productive breeds for more yield.
Traits or Features That Can Be transfereable
All impressive traits or features are transferable as long as you wish to see other animals exhibit such features.
Features like milk quantity and quality, huge muscles in meat-producing animals, big egg size and hardness of eggshell, quality wool in sheep, and massive endurance in working animals such as horses, bullocks and camels are all transferable.
Step-by-step Guide On How To Ensure Animal Improvement
You have heard that the improving the overall quality of your animals can’t be overlooked, this is why you must ensure that your livestock undergo some procedures that will enhance their productivity.
Having said that, you need to subject your animals to some processes if you want them to improve tremendously. These processes are summarized in our step-by-step guidelines below:
* Introduction:
Introduction is the first step to take if you must transfer new traits from other animals to your own. This step involves bringing foreign animals into your location or farm in order to help them get used to the new environment before any action can be carried out.
It is important you know that you must quarantine the new breeds of animals to detect whether they are suffering from any infection or not.
* Selection:
This is the second step you are required to take if you must improve the quality of your animal by transfer features from one animal to another.
This process requires you to select or separate the breed of animal that possess your desired quality and traits. Though this process is done in two ways — natural and the artificial, most farmers are engaged in the artificial selection because of its effectiveness and perfect result.
Artificial selection is that type whereby farmers separate animals based on fertility rate, growth rate, meat quality, infant mortality among other factors in order to transfer their non-inheritable characteristics to other animals using biological methods.
As for the inheritable characteristics, mating is one of the ways to transfer characters. This is because offsprings have a high tendency of exhibiting their parent’s features which will be passed to them through genes.
* Breeding:
This is the last step to take while transferring inheritable traits from parents to their offspring or next generation. However, there are three types of breeding. They include: Inbreeding, Cross-breeding, and Out-breeding
A. Inbreeding:
This is a type of breeding where animals with close ties mate to produce an offering. An example of this type of breeding include the mating that occurs between brother and sister to produce offering. The mating between parent and offering also falls under this category.
This type of breeding ensures that important traits are being transferred within the family, while unwanted characters will be eliminated after a lengthy period of continuous inbreeding.
B. Cross-breeding:
This is the mating that occurs between two animals of different breeds in order to introduce new type of breeds into your farm.
This type of breeding enhances animals growth rate and it helps to prevent unwanted characters from entering into the newly formed breed.
C. Outbreeding:
This is the type mating that involves two animals of the same breed but are they are not closely related. Just as cross-breeding, this type of breeding guarantees the formation of more desirable traits and values.
* Artificial Insemination:
Artificial insemination is another way to get the best from your animals in terms of productivity and resistance to unfavorable conditions.
It is an artificial process whereby spermatozoa is added into female genital system. The process is carried out by man-made devices under man’s supervision, which is why it is often referred to artificial procedure.
Artificial insemination is performed by well-trained expert who understands the relationship between heat period and ovulation period in female animals. It is cheap, and you can VISIT HERE to learn more about it.