Better Farming Series 09 - Animal Husbandry: Animal Diseases; How Animals Reproduce (FAO - INADES, 1976, 33 p.): Selling animals: Young animals are sold for fattening.

Better Farming Series 09 - Animal Husbandry: Animal Diseases; How Animals Reproduce (FAO - INADES, 1976, 33 p.)

Selling animals

		(introduction...)
		Animals are sold for their meat.
		Animals are sold for breeding.
		Young animals are sold for fattening.
		The yield of a herd
		Farmers' groups

Young animals are sold for fattening.

They can be sold at a higher price because they will earn money for whoever raises them.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE
A good breeder does not keep his animals too long.
He sells his lambs at about 6 months.
He sells his pigs at between 8 and 12 months.
He sells his bullocks at 4 years.
It is useless to keep animals too long; they do not get any bigger.
All the feed that you give them is not changed into meat.
Sell your animals as soon as they are big enough. A breeding animal that is too old has less good' offspring.
Then you will have enough food to raise younger ones.
The yield of your herd will be better (see page 29).

THE MEAT YIELD OF AN ANIMAL
All the animals of the same kind do not yield the same amount of meat.
For example:
Two cows each weigh 250 kilogrammes.
They are slaughtered.
The blood, skin, hoofs, head and everything in the belly are removed.
What remains is called the carcass, that is, the meat with the bones.
Now let us weigh the carcass of each cow.
One weighs 115 kg; the other weighs 134 kg.
So the carcass of one cow weighs 19 kg more than that of the other: the yield in meat of the two cows is different.
All cows do not give the same amount of meat.
The meat yield of an animal is the relation of the carcass weight to the weight of the live animal.
If a cow weighs 250 kg and if the carcass weighs 115 kg, the yield is: 115x100/250 = 46%
If a cow weighs 250 kg and if the carcass weighs 134 kg, the yield is: 134x100/250 = 54 %
If a sheep weighs 25 kg and if the carcass weighs 11 kg, the yield is 11x100/25 = 44%
If a pig weighs 40 kg and if the carcass weighs 26 kg, the yield is: 26x100/40 = 65%
All animals do not give the same quality of meat.
The meat of an old, thin animal does not fetch such a high price as the meat of a young animal, because it is not of good quality.
The meat of a fine, young animal is of very good quality.
So all animals are not worth the same price.
The price changes with the amount of meat and with the quality of meat.
For example, in some places, a thin, sterile cow is worth about 7 500 francs, but a fat, sterile cow of the same age is worth about 15 000 francs.
It is better to make 30 000 francs with two animals of 15 000 francs each, than 22 500 francs with three animals at 7 500 francs each.
You can earn more by selling fewer animals, if each animal is sold at a very high price.