Cattle

LABORATORY EXERCISE no. 1
Breed of Ducks I. OBJECTIVES: * To be able to know the different breed of cattle and their characteristics and importance. II. MATERIALS

* Pencil * Ruler * Bond paper * Reference book * Ballpen

III. GUIDE QUESTIONS:
1. What do you think is the most profitable way of raising cattle?
Ans:
I think maybe making money in cattle comes down to either extreme of pasture.
Meaning, either you have a butt load of marginal land that you turn the herd out on and ignore for 6 months, keeping your costs way down, then you sell 'em to a feed lot. Of course, you'd have to have inherited that land.
Or, you set up an intensive grazing management system, with water in each paddock, rotate the paddocks being grazed, keep 'em clipped, etc.
If you had to start from scratch with a confinement facility, manure management, feed processing, growing or buying etc, you'd never come out ahead.
2. Name the different breeds of cattle.
Ans?

Cattle Breeds
Choice of cattle breeds depends on the intended purpose (for meat, milk, or draft). Several breeds were introduced to improve the quality of existing stock. The following are some of the breeds that are proven adaptable:

1. For meat * Ongole/Nellore. Usually colored white but its hump and neck are dark gray. Mature male weighs 730-834 kg while the female weighs 420-625 kg.

* Santa Gertrudis. Color is red to cherry red. Has loose hide with skin folds on the neck and sheath or navel flap. Hair is short and straight in warm climates. Usually horned. Male weighs 750-1000 kg and female weighs 563-670 kg.

* Bali or Banteng. Color is brown which changes to black for adult males. Body is neat, compact and deep with well-developed forequarters. The medium-sized horn curve up and slightly backward. Mature weight for males is 350-375 kg while females average about 210 kg. The udder is small with no distinct dewlap.

2. For dairy * Brahman. Color varies from gray to white, brown, red, and black with occasional spots. It has a prominent hump over the shoulders with loose, pendulous skin under the throat. It has a long face with drooping ears. The mature male weighs 726-998 kg while the female weighs 454-635 kg. It is highly tolerant to heat and resistant to insects and diseases.

* Holstein Friesian. Its color combination of black and white may vary from a spotted white to almost all black. Quiet and docile. Mature male weighs 818 kg and female weighs 568 kg.Average milk production is 22 kg/day.

* Brown Swiss. Color ranges from fawn to almost black with light-colored muzzle and a stripe along the back. Quiet and docile. Matured male weighs 909 kg while female weighs 591 kg.Average milk production is 17 kg/day. *
3. What are the advantages of raising cattle?
Ans:
Cattle can provide meat, milk, draft power, and fiber. They are also used as companions and riding animals with surprising frequency. Cattle can also be used as show animals, living lawnmowers, companions for horses, and as rodeo stock. Most are raised for profit and as a means to manage grasslands as bison once had, except that the bison population is too small to be able to be used on such native grasslands.
Raising cattle also enables a person with experience and knowledge of how cattle behave, how to feed them, breed them, etc. This experience and knowledge can be used to teach other people who want to get into the business of raising cattle, and to share methods that you have learned with other experienced cattle producers. Raising cattle enables a person to get involved in managing and learning how the natural cycles and nature works according to how the grass and seasonal cycles work, especially if you are one to be raising cattle on grass only. Raising cattle also gives you a much more in-depth sight of what it takes to care for such animals that other people, especially those who live in cities, could never understand or appreciate.

4. What do you think is the different factors in raising cattle?
Ans:
* PLAN, plan plan! Plan what kind of cattle you are looking for without looking at ANY breeds, what kind of farm or ranch you want and how you want to operate it, and write about your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, from what you are capable of doing to the cattle industry as a whole. * Start small. Start off with only a few cows or heifers, then build your herd from there once you've gotten more experience with the cattle you currently have. * Don't keep any calves from your first-calf heifers. They will be less thrifty and not as good as calves that are kept from older cows. * Avoid getting a bull as much as possible. AI has been invented for the purpose of avoiding the costs and dangers of caring for and looking after a bull. * Test your feed for nutritional value. Know the times when your cows will be at their peak nutritional needs and when they will be at their lowest. * Fences, water, and feed are priority, and should be done/bought before you buy your cattle. Use the types of waterers that are best for your area: for example, areas where winter predominates for 4 to 6 months of the year, automatic waterers with heating elements in the bowl are the best for wintering cows. * Be sure that cattle have access to water at all times. In winter, check water several times per day for icing over. * Buy more hay than what you will need. There's no such thing as having too much hay.
5. What are the ideal breeds of cattle that intended for dairy production?
Ans:
Cow
Dairy cows may be found either in herds on dairy farms where dairy farmers own, manage, care for, and collect milk from them, or on commercial farms. Herd sizes vary around the world depending on landholding culture and social structure. Dairy cow herds in the United States range in size from small farms of a dozen animals to large herds of more than 15,000.[4] The United Kingdom dairy herd overall has nearly 2 million cows, with about 100 head reported on an average farm.[5] In New Zealand, the average herd has more than 375 cows, while in Australia, there are approximately 220 cows in the average herd.[6][7]
Calf
Market calves are generally sold at two weeks of age and bull calves may fetch a premium over heifers due to their size, either current or potential. Calves may be sold for veal, or for one of several types of beef production, depending on available local crops and markets. Such bull calves may be castrated if turnout onto pastures is envisaged, in order to render the animals less aggressive. Purebred bulls from elite cows may be put into progeny testing schemes to find out whether they might become superior sires for breeding. Such animals may become extremely valuable.
Bull
A bull calf with high genetic potential may be reared for breeding purposes. It may be kept by a dairy farm as a herd bull, to provide natural breeding for the herd cows. A bull may service up to 50 or 60 cows during a breeding season. Anymore and the sperm count will decline, leading to cows "returning to service" (to be bred again). A herd bull may only stay for one season since over two years old their temperament becomes too unpredictable.

6. What do you think is the most common breed of cattle that are ideal for the Philippine climate condition?
Ans:
Popular foods in the Philippines are made from beef such as kaldereta , nilagang bulalo , corned beef, mechado , and other delicious dishes. Yet the fact remains that cattle production in the Philippines is essentially small-scale. If adequate inputs and proper source of draft power, organic fertilizer, and milk are given, small-scale cattle raising can become a very profitable livelihood activity among farm households.
Through cattle-raising, agricultural by-products and wastes can be utilized by converting these into animal feeds. Likewise, marginal and idle lands can be made productive as forage production areas.