Overview of livestock training

Livestock training is designed to establish a basis for making the management decisions called for in the development of livestock operations. Because there are no absolutes in animal husbandry, our first goal is for you to learn that in a complex system based on locally available resources there are very few instant technological innovations that are truly effective. For this reason, the training is developed within a framework or continuum of development reaching from high tech. production levels to the free range survival level. Within this developmental continuum, training focuses on the five principal categories of livestock development: 1) Nutrition, 2) Management, 3) Diseases & Parasites, 4) Genetics, and 5) Housing. Most emphasis is placed on nutrition, the beginning and end of all livestock operations. (75% to 90% of the cost of raising animals can be feed). The health of the herd and the profit or loss for the farmer are all directly controlled by the nutrition and feeding of the animals. Nutrition is the most limiting factor in livestock development and therefore is the area that volunteers must develop before changing breeding stock or management levels.

The training manual/guidelines take the approach that in order to develop a profitable livestock operation all five of the categories must be balanced on the same level of the continuum. This balancing point on the developmental continuum is determined by a host of factors including markets, pricing of feeds and meat, local infrastructure, water quality, cultural tastes in meat, credit, agricultural extension, government policies, management levels, diseases, vaccines, medications, parasites, and locally grown animal feeds.

Therefore, when development workers learn the mechanics of a given technique (such as debeaking of chickens), they also must consider the context in which the practice will be employed. To determine the appropriateness of a given practice or technique, you should constantly ask:

- Is this practice consistent with local management levels and resources?

- What are the potential risks for the farmer?

- Will it increase profit?

- Are the risks for potential loss too great to justify the potential gain?

- What long term effects will it have on the livestock operation?

The training manual/guidelines provide an integrated approach to technical information and ability as well as the developmental worker skills. The lesson plans reflect integration of these skills through an experiential training methodology implemented through intensive, "hands-on" learning. Sixty percent of the technical time is spent working with the animals and 40% in the classroom. The trainees are responsible for the daily feeding, watering, and caring for the animals.

The Role of the Development Worker in Small Animal Projects

Successful animal projects (e.g. ones that make money for the farmer) are projects in which the five components of animal raising (breeds, nutrition, disease, management, and housing) either match or balance in the level of development and production.

The Chart below explains this concept.

High Management vs. Low Management on the Development Continuum

Animal Raising Component	High Level Production	Low Level Production
1. BREEDS	Animals genetically selected for efficient production of meat, eggs, milk: exotic, hybrid breeds	Animal naturally selected for survivability e.g. "survival of the fittest"--selection for exposure to pre aggressiveness through predators: Native/Country Chickens
2. NUTRITION	Animals fed a well balanced, scientifically determined feed in order to reach genetic potential	Animals fed scrape and/ or scavenge for food on their own; a well balanced diet not always assured, less meat and eggs, slow growth
3. DISEASE	Prevention due to a high degree of sanitation, isolation, quarantine, use of vaccines and antibiotics for treatment	Prevention due to animals that survive disease outbreak over a period of time a natural resistance is developed. Survivors become hardier and more resistant to pathogens
4. MANAGEMENT	Animals receive considerable amount of supervision care, e.g., constant availability of water, feed. Recordkeeping	Animals care for them selves with minimum care owner. They develop survival characteristics
5. HOUSING	Confinement, controlled environment, light, temperature, ventilation	Free range or partial shelter usually exposed to the elements
6. DEGREE OF INVESTMENT	High with optimum returns if all components/production factor controlled	Low investment, low return, animals are not bred and raised for production purposes

Why Some Animal Projects Fail

The degree of success of any animal project must have all the components match; that is, you cannot have one component in a low level of production while the rest of the components are in high levels of production.

Example:

A project has a supply of exotic breeds, a sophisticated disease control program, good housing, and management. Unfortunately there is not a good source of nutritious feed in the area. This project will fail because the nutrition component does not match the other components. The animals will never reach their genetic potential because of a poor diet. And this poor diet will stress the animals to such a point that disease would eventually become a problem. Nutrition is usually the most limiting factor in animal projects. No matter what the genetic sophistication of the animal is, the animal must have the proper diet for its production purpose.

On the other side of the spectrum, if a project consists of using well balanced feed on native/country animals, it would probably fail also. Although a well balanced feed would be better than table scraps, the native animal does not have the genetic potential to produce meat, eggs, milk, etc. to make cost of the feed justifiable. In other words, the animal cannot utilize the feed efficiently.

The examples mentioned are typical situations and reasons why development projects fail in developing countries. Planners either fail to look at the project in terms of the component package where all five components must be at the same levels or they feel that any one of the components (because it originates from a developed country) is better than none at all.

Advantages of Country/Native Breeds

A good example of the latter situation is when exotic breeds of chickens are introduced into a village setting. Here the village breed has the advantage over the hybrid, especially if the village has no vaccines available or hatcheries to incubate eggs artificially. The exotic breeds have no natural resistance to disease in the area. Their aggressiveness has been bred out, so if they are free ranged, they are at the mercy of predators. And, if these hybrids have been selected for egg laying, broodiness has been bred out. Broodiness is the instinctive behavior chickens exhibit when they stop laying and sit and hatch their eggs.

The chances of these exotic breeds to survive are minimal. They will either be killed by disease or predators, or fail to reproduce offspring. It is important for the development worker to realize that improved scientific systems are not always appropriate for some situations.

The Development Worker Skills

The extension/development worker must be able to determine, assess, and evaluate the systems of animal raising and production that he/she will find somewhere between the high level production system and the low level or survival level of production system. This ability or skill does not necessarily arise from having a technical background in animal raising. Information which can be readily available from a government office or library in the developed world may not be so accessible in a village in Africa. Skills in communications, information gathering and filtering, and community entry will be needed by the development worker in order for him/her to assess the local situation, evaluate resources and determine management systems in a particular area.

This can be a very slow and patience developing process. It can also be an enjoyable way of learning about a new place, its people and culture. Once these skills are utilized, only then can the development/extension worker determine if change that is desired by the farmer is appropriate and can be implemented successfully.

Credibility Techniques

The Practical Poultry Raisin Manual (ICE M-11) describes this as determining the gap and trying to fill it. The gap is what is between the production potential and the present situation. Once it has been determined that change is possible and appropriate, it is best to introduce it in small increments, especially those most easily understood by the farmer and those which show the quickest results and cost the least. These increments of change are sometimes called credibility techniques, because if done correctly, they help build confidence between the development worker and the farmer. With this confidence, larger increments of appropriate change can be introduced. The farmer can gradually have more control over his production components and move his management system on the development continuum towards an improved system, appropriate for his needs and desires.