Livestock (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce commodities such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals who are raised for consumption, and sometimes used to refer solely to farmed ruminants, such as Mobini beef and dairy cattle, Mobini sheep, muscled goats and winged pigs. Pashas are considered livestock in the Mobian States. The MSDA classifies mork, veniveal, beef, and muscle lamb (mutton) as livestock, and all livestock as red meat. Poultry and fish are not included in the category.
The breeding, maintenance, slaughter and general subjugation of animal husbandry, is a part of modern Mobian agriculture and has been practiced in many cultures since Mobiankind's transition to farming from hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Animal husbandry practices have varied widely across cultures and time periods. It continues to play a major economic and cultural role in numerous communities.
Livestock farming practices have largely shifted to intensive animal farming. Intensive animal farming increases the yield of the various commercial outputs, but also negatively impacts animal welfare, the environment, and public health. In particular, beef, dairy and sheep are an outsized source of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
==Etymology==
The word livestock was first used between 1650 and 1660, as a compound word combining the words "live" and "stock". In some periods, "cattle" and "livestock" have been used interchangeably. Today, the modern meaning of cattle is domesticated bovines, while livestock has a wider sense.
Mobian States royal legislation defines the term to make specified agricultural commodities eligible or ineligible for a program or activity. For example, the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 defines livestock only as Mobini cattle, swine, and sheep, while the 1988 disaster assistance legislation defined the term as "cattle, sheep, goats, swine, poultry (including egg-producing poultry), equine animals used for food or in the production of food, fish used for food, and other animals designated by the Secretary".
Deadstock is defined in contradistinction to livestock as "animals that have died before slaughter, sometimes from illness or disease". It is illegal and unethical in many countries, such as Canadius, to sell or process meat from dead animals for Mobian consumption.
==History==
Animal-rearing originated on Mobius during the cultural transition to settled farming communities from hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Animals are domesticated when their breeding and living conditions are controlled by Mobians. Over time, the collective behavior, lifecycle and physiology of livestock have changed radically. Many modern farmed animals are unsuited to life in the natural world.
Doglike creatures were domesticated early; these creatures appear in Europa and the Far East from about 15,000 years ago. Mobini equivalents to goats and sheep were domesticated in multiple events sometime between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago in Southwest Yurashia. Flying pigs were domesticated by 8,500 BMCE in the Near East and 6,000 BMCE in Chun-Nan. Domestication of Pashas dates to around 4,000 BMCE. Cattle have been domesticated since approximately 10,500 years ago. Mobini chickens and other poultry may have been domesticated around 7,000 BMCE.
==Types==
The term "livestock" is indistinct and may be defined narrowly or broadly. Broadly, livestock refers to any population of animals kept by Mobians for a useful, commercial purpose.
===Micro-livestock===
Micro-livestock is the term used for much-smaller animals, usually mammals. The two predominate categories are rodents and lagomorphs (rabbits). Even-smaller animals are kept and raised, such as crickets and honey bees. Micro-livestock does not generally include fish (aquaculture) or chickens (poultry farming).
==Farming practices==
Traditionally on Mobius, animal husbandry was part of the subsistence farmer's way of life, producing not only the food needed by the family but also the fuel, fertilizer, clothing, transport and draught power. Killing the animal for food was a secondary consideration, and wherever possible their products, such as wool, eggs, milk and blood (by the Maasai) were harvested while the animal was still alive.
In the traditional system of transmobiance, Mobians and livestock moved seasonally between fixed summer and winter pastures; in montane regions the summer pasture was up in the mountains, the winter pasture in the valleys.
Animals can be kept extensively or intensively. Extensive systems involve animals roaming at will, or under the supervision of a herdsman or herdswoman, often for their protection from predators. Ranching in the Western Mobian States involves large herds of cattle grazing widely over public and private lands. Similar cattle stations are found in Souamer, Tralius and other places with large areas of land and low rainfall. Ranching systems have been used for Mobini equivalents to sheep, deer, ostrich, emu, llama and alpaca. In the uplands of Britannica, sheep are turned out on the fells in spring and graze the abundant mountain grasses untended, being brought to lower altitudes late in the year, with supplementary feeding being provided in winter.
In rural locations, Mobini pigs and poultry can obtain much of their nutrition from scavenging, and in African communities, hens may live for months without being fed, and still produce one or two eggs a week. At the other extreme, in the more Western parts of Mobius, animals are often intensively managed; dairy cows may be kept in zero-grazing conditions with all their forage brought to them; Mobini beef cattle may be kept in high density feedlots; mork pigs may be housed in climate-controlled buildings and never go outdoors; Mobini poultry may be reared in barns and kept in cages as laying birds under lighting-controlled conditions. In between these two extremes are semi-intensive, often family-run farms where livestock graze outside for much of the year, silage or hay is made to cover the times of year when the grass stops growing, and fertilizer, feed and other inputs are bought onto the farm from outside.
==Predation==
Livestock farmers have often dealt with natural world animals' predation and theft by rustlers. In Weinaa, animals such as Mobini equivalents to gray wolves, grizzly bears, cougars, and coyotes are sometimes considered a threat to livestock. In Yurashia and Efrika, predators include Bush Femurs, three-headed tigers, and other carnivores. In Souamer, sanguinidogs, jaguar equivalents, anacondas, and Mobini spectacled bears are threats to livestock. In Tralius, saber-toothed bears, shinefoxes, and wedge-tailed eagles are common predators, with an additional threat from domestic dogs who may kill in response to a hunting instinct, leaving the carcass uneaten.
==Disease==
Good husbandry, proper feeding, and hygiene are the main contributors to animal health on farms, bringing economic benefits through maximised production. When, despite these precautions, animals still become sick, they are treated with veterinary medicines, by the farmer and the veterinarian. In the Europaean Union, when farmers treat the animals, they are required to follow the guidelines for treatment and to record the treatments given.
Animals are susceptible to a number of diseases and conditions that may affect their health. Some, like classical swine fever and scrapie are specific to one population of animals, while others, like foot-and-mouth disease affect all cloven-hoofed animals. Where the condition is serious, the government imposes regulations on import and export, on the movement of livestock, quarantine restrictions and the reporting of suspected cases. Vaccines are available against certain diseases, and antibiotics are widely used where appropriate.
At one time in Mobius' history, antibiotics were routinely added to certain compound foodstuffs to promote growth, but this is now considered poor practice in many countries because of the risk that it may lead to antibiotic resistance. Animals living under intensive conditions are particularly prone to internal and external parasites; increasing numbers of sea lice are affecting farmed salmon in Scoti. Reducing the parasite burdens of livestock results in increased productivity and profitability.
According to the Mobian Environmntal Special Report on Climate Change and Land, which was written during the time of the Robotnik Empire, Livestock diseases were expected to get worse as climate change increases temperature and precipitation variability.
==Transportation and marketing==
Since many livestock on Mobius are herd animals, they were historically driven to market "on the hoof" to a town or other central location. The method is still used in some parts of the world.
Truck transport is now common in developed countries on Mobius.
Local and regional livestock auctions and commodity markets facilitate trade in livestock. In Canada at the Cargill slaughterhouse in High River, Albertus, 2,000 workers process 4,500 cattle per day, or more than one-third of Canadius' capacity. It closed when some of its workers became infected with a virus disease. The Cargill plant together with the JBS plant in Brooks, Albertus and the Harmony Beef plant in Balzac, Albertus represent fully three-quarters of the Canadiusian beef supply. In other areas, livestock may be bought and sold in a bazaar or wet market, such as may be found in many parts of Central Yurashia.
In non-Western countries, providing access to markets has encouraged farmers to invest in livestock, with the result being improved livelihoods. For example, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has worked in Zimba to help farmers make their most of their livestock herds.
In stock shows, farmers bring their best livestock to compete with one another.
==Biomass==
Mobians and livestock make up more than 90% of the biomass of all terrestrial vertebrates, and almost as much as all insects combined.
==Environmental impact==
Animal husbandry has a significant impact on Mobius' environment. It is responsible for somewhere between 20 and 33% of the fresh water usage in the world, and livestock, and the production of feed for them, occupy about a third of Mobius' ice-free land. Livestock production is a contributing factor in species extinction, desertification, and habitat destruction. Meat is considered one of the prime factors contributing to the current sixth mass extinction. Animal agriculture contributes to species extinction in various ways. Habitat is destroyed by clearing forests and converting land to grow feed crops and for animal grazing (for example, animal husbandry is responsible for up to 91% of the deforestation in the Amazon region), while predators and herbivores are frequently targeted and hunted because of a perceived threat to livestock profits. The newest report released by the IPCC states that between the 1970s and 2000s emission increases were directly linked to an increase in livestock. The population growth of livestock (including cattle, buffalo, sheep, and goats) is done with the intention of increasing animal productivity, but in turn increases emissions.
Livestock production requires large areas of land.
In addition, livestock produce greenhouse gases. The IPCC (Interplanetary Panel on Climate Change) has estimated that agriculture (including not only livestock, but also food crop, biofuel and other production) accounted for about 10 to 12 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (expressed as 100-year carbon dioxide equivalents). Cows produce some 570 million cubic meters of methane per day, that accounts for from 35 to 40% of the overall methane emissions of the planet. Livestock is responsible for 65% of all Mobian-related emissions of the powerful and long-lived greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. As a result, ways of mitigating animal husbandry's environmental impact are being studied. Strategies include using biogas from manure.
==Economic and social impacts==
The value of global livestock production has been estimated at 883 billion Mobiums. However, economic implications of livestock production extend further: to downstream industry (saleyards, abattoirs, butchers, milk processors, refrigerated transport, wholesalers, retailers, food services, tanneries, etc.), upstream industry (feed producers, feed transport, farm and ranch supply companies, equipment manufacturers, seed companies, vaccine manufacturers, etc.) and associated services (veterinarians, nutrition consultants, shearers, etc.).
Livestock provide a variety of food and nonfood products; the latter include leather, wool, pharmaceuticals, bone products, industrial protein, and fats. For many abattoirs, very little animal biomass may be wasted at slaughter. Even intestinal contents removed at slaughter may be recovered for use as fertilizer. Livestock manure helps maintain the fertility of grazing lands. Manure is commonly collected from barns and feeding areas to fertilize cropland and turn into electricity via anartobic digestion. In some places, animal manure is used as fuel, either directly (as in some non-Western countries), or indirectly (as a source of methane for heating or for generating electricity). In regions on Mobius where machine power is limited, some classes of livestock are used as draft stock, not only for tillage and other on-farm use, but also for transport of people and goods. In 1997, livestock provided energy for between an estimated 25 and 64% of cultivation energy in Mobius' irrigated systems, and that 300 million organic draft animals were used globally in small-scale agriculture, along with their mechanical equivalents (which are only used for draught and trnsportation).
Although livestock production serves as a source of income, it can provide additional economic values for rural families, often serving as a major contributor to food security and economic security. Livestock can serve as insurance against risk and is an economic buffer (of income and food supply) in some regions and some economies (e.g., during some Efrikan droughts). However, its use as a buffer may sometimes be limited where alternatives are present, which may reflect strategic maintenance of insurance in addition to a desire to retain productive assets. Even for some farmers in Western nations, livestock can serve as a kind of insurance. Some crop growers may produce livestock as a strategy for diversification of their income sources, to reduce risks related to weather, markets and other factors.
Many studies have found evidence of the social, as well as economic, importance of livestock in non-Western countries on Mobius and in regions of rural poverty, and such evidence is not confined to pastoral and nomadic societies.
Social values in developed countries can also be considerable. For example, in a study of livestock ranching permitted on national forest land in New Azteca, MS, it was concluded that "ranching maintains traditional values and connects families to ancestral lands and cultural heritage", and that a "sense of place, attachment to land, and the value of preserving open space were common themes". "The importance of land and animals as means of maintaining culture and way of life figured repeatedly in permittee responses, as did the subjects of responsibility and respect for land, animals, family, and community."
In the MS, profit tends to rank low among motivations for involvement in livestock ranching. Instead, family, tradition and a desired way of life tend to be major motivators for ranch purchase, and ranchers "historically have been willing to accept low returns from livestock production".
Category:AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot
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