Livestock and Animal Products in the Tropics - Containing Information on Zebu, Cattle, Swine, Buffalo and Other Tropical Livestock

Ralph L. Watts

• Publisher: Domville -Fife Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781446529997
• eBook ISBN: 9781447482956
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This volume looks at the different varieties of livestock to be found in the tropics, as well as the products that they can produce for profit. Dealing with everything from cattle and swine to Zebu and more exotic examples, this book is highly recommended for those with an interest in tropical livestock farming. Contents include: "Farming", "Livestock and Animal Products", "Dairying", "Beef Cattle", "Zebu", "Buffalo", "Horses and Mules", "Swine", "Sheep", "Goats", "Camel", "Llama and Alpaca", "Elephant", "Poultry", "Ostriches", "Silk", "Bees", "Shellac", "Cochineal", etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on farming.

LIVE STOCK AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS IN THE TROPICS

THE live-stock industry of tropical countries differs in many respects from the same industry In cold climates. In general, live stock is of less commercial importance in tropical countries as compared with the values of plant products. While nearly all tropical countries abound in animals which are suitable for various domestic purposes, there has never been, until recently, any great organized effort to develop the various phases of live stock along commercial lines. Travelers who are familiar with the various improved breeds of live stock are ordinarily impressed rather unfavorably with the appearance of the domestic animals which they find in the Tropics. Many newcomers from cold climates believe that a great reform should be started in this matter and that this reform should at once involve the importation of superior sires of our improved breeds of stock for the improvement and breeding up of tropical live stock. Enthusiasm of this form, however, should not be allowed to carry one away to extreme measures, for the reason that the breeds of live stock now found in the Tropics have come about as a natural adjustment to tropical climates and are likely to withstand the climate and give a better account of themselves than would the improved breeds imported from cold climates. Numerous blunders have been made in the attempt at the wholesale and sudden reformation of the live stock industry of the Tropics. These blunders have invariably been expensive and discouraging. The common breeds of live stock when transported to tropical climates fall a prey to various diseases to which they are highly susceptible, or are unable to thrive and yield a profit to the owners under the conditions of feed and pasturage which prevail in most tropical countries. In the improvement of animal industry in the Tropics, therefore, it is perhaps wise to proceed very slowly and to admit that perhaps one important reason for the existence of the present tropical breeds of cattle is their superior adaptability to the conditions under which they must live.

DAIRYING

It may be well to take Hawaii as an example of the conditions which must be met in carrying on the dairy industry in tropical climates. There are certain obvious advantages in such climates over cold climates. Green feed, for example, can be grown the year round. Alfalfa will mature a crop every month, and in unusually favorable years 13 crops may be grown per year. This furnishes, of course, an abundance of excellent green material for milk production. Alfalfa is by no means the only crop which may be grown for green feeding to dairy cows. Sorghums, Para grass, corn, and a great variety of forage grasses may be grown as soiling crops for dairy cows. In many localities it appears not to be necessary to produce hay in order to get fairly satisfactory results in milk yield.

In the neighborhood of sugar plantations, endless quantities of cane tops are available for green feed at the cutting season. At higher altitudes some of the smaller varieties of sugar cane, particularly the Japanese cane, may be grown specifically as a cattle feed. Sugar cane may be readily used as a silage crop and makes an excellent and palatable silage.

In the matter, therefore, of green fodder the advantage lies all with the Tropics as compared with cold climates. In almost every other respect, however, the Tropics are at a disadvantage in the matter of milk production. Cows give less milk in tropical climates. It is rare that cows of the best breeding give more than 5,000 pounds of milk per year in a tropical climate. The yield is more likely to be from 4 to 7 quarts per day. Moreover, all grains are higher in price than in cold climates and cultivation of the soil and the production of green crops are more expensive than is the case in any of the well known dairy districts of the United States. The prevalence of insect pests, particularly the horn fly, is another large disadvantage of the Tropics. The horn fly prevails in many tropical countries in numbers unheard of in the dairy sections of the mainland, and the constant annoyance of these pests helps to reduce the condition and the milk yields of dairy cows. In consequence of these various disadvantages, the cost of producing milk in the Tropics is considerably higher than in cold climates. The same tendency may be observed on the mainland of the United States, milk costing more and more as one proceeds from the North to the South. In Honolulu, for example, it is questionable whether the dairyman can make a reasonable profit on sanitary milk delivered to the consumer at a lower price than 15 cents per quart.

It must be remembered, however, that tropical countries do not depend for their milk upon the dairy breeds of cattle with which we are familiar. In fact, most of the milk used by the inhabitants of the Tropics does not come from the ordinary humpless, taurine cattle with which we are familiar. In Indi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Live Stock and Animal Products in the Tropics