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Origin and Domestication of Goat

Goat is a cloven-hoofed, hollow-horned ruminant which is comparatively smaller in size and belongs to class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Bovidae and genus either Capra (2N=60) or Hemitragus/tahrs (2N=48). The distinction between these two genera was previously based on horn structure but the distinction has been confirmed genetically. The domestic goat (Capra hircus/Capra aegagrus hircus) belongs to the genus Capra and has possibly developed from five wild ancestors. On the basis of available information, it is most likely that bezoar is the main ancestor of most domestic goats. However, there is slight likelihood that Markhor has been involved in the parentage of some of the Indian goat breeds.

Evolutionary biology indicates that domestication of goats started during Neolithic age and it was perhaps the first ruminant and first animal after dog to be domesticated by the man around 9000-7000 BC. Domestication was associated with three of the oldest civilizations namely- (i) the Nile in northeast Africa, (ii) the Tigris-Euphrates in west Asia, and (iii) the Indus in the Indian subcontinent. Archaeologists indicate that the goat was first domesticated in the “Fertile Crescent” (landmass which extends between the Black and Caspian seas along the coast of Palestine and forms arc like a quarter moon towards the Persian Gulf) of the eastern Mediterranean. Since their domestication, goats remained associated with variety of functions in various aspects of human life including food, employment, economics, folklore and religion.

Origin & Distribution of Cattle

All types of domestic cattle belongs to class Mammalia, subclass Ungulata, order Artiodactyla, suborder Ruminantia, family Bovidae, subfamily Bovinae, tribe Bovini, which includes genus Bos. The aurochs or urus (Bos primigenius) is the probable ancestor of most of the present day Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle. The humped Bos primigenius namadicus were the forerunner of today’s zebu cattle while humpless Bos primigenius primigenius gave rise to modern European cattle. Both category of cattle possess the same number of chromosomes (2N=60). Other related animals in the Bovini tribe include the gaur cattle (Bos gaurus), banteng (Bos banteng), kouprey (Bos sauveli) of South and East Asia, bison (Bison bison) of North America, European bison (Bison bonasus) and the yak (Poephagus mutus) of central Asia. According to Payne & Hodges (1997), domestication of aurochs (Bos primigenius ) took place first probably on the lower mountain slopes in the region of western Asia known as the ‘fertile crescent’. They suggested that the first domestic cattle were humpless (Bos taurus) Hamitic Longhorn type and were domesticated around possibly 9000 BP (years before the present i.e. 1950). About 2000 years later the humpless (Bos taurus) shorthorn type evolved or was developed in the region and these two types of humpless cattle are believed to the ancestor of Bos taurus. Humped (Bos indicus) zebu cattle were domesticated in the northwest arid areas of the Fertile Crescent around c. 5000 BP.

Functions of Livestock Housing

The most important purpose of livestock production is to increase the conversion efficiency of feed energy into the livestock products like milk, eggs, meat, wool, hair, hides and skins, draught power and manure (fertilizer). Scientific housing of livestock is necessary in order to get higher productivity from them. A proper housing design/structure should alter/modify the micro-climate inside the house so that animals are least exposed to the extremes of climatic conditions. Moreover, it should also provide better control of diseases & parasites, desirable working conditions for farm staff & better living conditions for the animals, better integration of various routine farm practices, opportunity for higher labour efficiency at farm, protection from predators & thieves, opportunity to express species specific natural behavior patterns and it must not compromise the welfare of the animals. Some of these functions are discussed in subsequent sub-headings.

Livestock farming is an integral part of Indian agriculture system and vital source of livelihood particularly in the rural areas of the country. This sector has been the primary source of energy for agricultural operations (for land preparation, sowing, pulling bullock carts etc.) and major source of animal protein (mutton, chevon, chicken, pork, beef, eggs etc.) for majority of population. India has been habitate of major draught, milch and dual-purpose breeds of cattle as well as buffaloes. Besides their potential our indigenous as well as crossbred animals are unable to produce maximum output due to unavailability of adequate and nutritious feed and fodder throughout the year. The quantity and quality of forage production is directly proportional to the livestock health, production and productivity. There is colossal gap between demand and supply of good quality nutritious fodder. Besides, the availability of lesser area under cultivated fodder crops, the grazing lands also becoming smaller due to the degradation of the land, urbanization, industrial development and increased area under food production to fulfil the demand of increasing human population. To meet the nutritional requirement of such a huge population of indigenous, crossbreds as well as genetically upgraded animals, proper management and conservation of fodder and grasslands is necessary.

Animal Genetic Resources

Agricultural biodiversity is the product of thousand years of activity during which humans have sought to meet their needs in a wide range of climatic and ecological conditions. Well adapted livestock have been an essential element of agricultural production systems. For livestock keepers, animal genetic diversity is a resource to be drawn upon to select stocks and develop new breeds. More broadly, genetically diverse livestock populations provide society with a greater range of options to meet future demands, so the wise management of the world’s agricultural biodiversity is becoming an ever greater challenge for the international community. The livestock sector in particular is undergoing dramatic changes as large-scale production expands in response to surging demand for meat, milk and eggs (FAO, 2008).

Animal genetic resources (AnGR) include all animal species, breeds and strains that are of economic, scientific and cultural interest to humankind in terms of food and agricultural production for the present or the future. Domesticated animals are considered to be those species that are bred in captivity and modified from their wild ancestors to make them more useful to humans, who control their reproduction (breeding), care (shelter, protection against predators) and food supply (Diamond, 2002; Mignon-Grasteau, 2005). Only about 40 animal species have been domesticated since the Pleistocene. Common species include cattle, sheep, goat, chicken, duck, pig, horse, buffalo, rabbit, camel, donkey, elephants, various poultry species, reindeer, etc. All these AnGR are vital to the economic development of the majority of countries in the world playing an important role in the subsistence of many communities. Although only a subset of the diversity present in the ancestral species survived in the domestic counterparts, domestic livestock diversity has been continuously evolving.

Body Parts of Farm Animals

It is important to know about the various terms used to indicate different body parts of the animals so that whenever a description of the animal/body part is presented, one could specifically understand it. Some of the terms used to point out different body points of common livestock species have been shown in Figure 2.1.1-2.1.5. Terms which are more frequently used for different livestock species have been depicted in Table 2.1.1.

Taxonomic Classification of Common Livestock Species

A series of terms (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species etc) is used to denote the member of a kingdom and each division of the hierarchy contains one or more groups from the next lower division like subphyla, subclasses, suborders, subfamilies, or subgenera etc if required. Further, species may be subdivided into varieties, breeds, or strains. Domestic farm animals belong to either class Mammalia or Aves. The scientific name of an animal comprise of its genus and species names. The first letter of genus name is written in capital letter but not the species name. While writing the scientific name of an animal the genus and species names are underlined when handwritten and always italicized when printed. General characteristics and taxonomic arrangements of common domestic animals have been given below.

Kingdom : Animalia

Members of kingdom Animalia are multicellular, eukaryotic heterotrophs. Adult animals develop from embryos. Most animals ingest and digest their food in some kind of internal cavity.

Administration

Term Administration is derived from a Latin word Administaire which means to serve. The word administration is also derived from the English word administracioun, which is in turn is derived from the French word administration, which itself has its root from the Latin word administratio, which means ad (to) and ministratio (give service). The term administration is a more general and comprehensive connotation and may be defined as the universal process of organizing people and resources efficiently so as to direct activities toward common goals and objectives. Administration is a distinct skill and directed towards the guidance, leadership and control of the efforts of a group of individuals towards some common goal.

Administration is the art of guiding, coordinating and integrating policies established for any organizational unit to effectively and efficiently achieve the purpose of the organization.

Nearly 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, it is not possible that food production be adequate for their needs. In some areas of food production surplus, it must be brought to the deficit places where peoples live and work and made available at prices they can afford, otherwise many will remain hungry. This is why marketing is a crucial part of any campaign to relieve hunger. Marketing is the means by which food is brought from the place where it is produced to the people who want to eat it.

Marketing can be a very simple process and it can also be very complex. This depends on what must be done to the farmer’s product to get it from the field to the consumer in good conditions, in an acceptable form and to have it ready when the consumer wants.

Marketing is relatively simple in a village community which produces most of what it needs. Here the producer can sell directly to the consumers coming to his house, or he can attract them by displaying his produce in some central open space in the village which then becomes known as ‘the market’. The total volume of the livestock products sold in this way is still very large, especially in the less commercially developed countries. Direct marketing within the villages is sometimes praised because of its low cost, and also because it does not involve any ‘middleman’ between producer and consumer. But, if farmers sell their produce only to the local consumers, and if their land could produce more than they need, there is no way by which they can take advantage of these excess production potentialities. Similarly, if the consumers are only able to eat what is produced locally, which may confine them to a diet that is monotonous, unsatisfying and very expensive too. This is true of many people’s living in isolated areas, which requires much home processing and still has little nutritional value; and of the many others for whom most meals consist of hand-pounded cereals. Hence, this undernourishment on one side and excess production on the other side leads to the development of marketing concept.

Farming system is an integrated set of activities that farmers perform in their farms with available resources and circumstances to maximize the productivity and net farm income on a sustainable basis. The farming system conceptually is a set of elements or components, i.e., soil, water, crops, livestock, labour, capital, energy and other resources that are interrelated and interact among themselves. At the centre of the interaction lies the farmer exercising control and choice regarding the types of results of interaction. The income of cropping alone from small and marginal farm is insufficient now to sustain the farmers family. A judicious mix of any one or more of these enterprises should complement the farm income and help in recycling the farm residues / wastes. The selection of enterprises must be based on the cardinal principles of minimizing the competition and maximizing the complementary between the enterprises. Of late, the researchers on multidisciplinary approach greatly realized and started developing the various farming systems models in accordance with the agro-eco systems zones.

Farming System thus may be defined as a complex interrelated matrix of soil, plants, animals, implements, power, labour, capital and other inputs controlled in part by farming families and influenced to varying degrees by political, economic, institutional and social forces that operate at many levels. The farming system therefore, refers to the farm as an entity of inter-dependent farming enterprises carried out on the farm. The farm is viewed in a holistic manner and the farmers are subjected to many socio-economic, biophysical, institutional, administrative and technological constraints.

Rural development programmes are created and maintained for influencing people to make changes in their way of living and of making a living. The existence of such programmes implies that the present situation of the rural people is not what it should and could be, that something different should prevail, and that it is possible through appropriate action to attain a more desirable status for them.

Changes that are important to people are those that help them to meet their needs for biological, economic, social, aesthetic and moral well being. Basically, all programmes for rural development exist to help people to meet their needs. If programmes do this people have their free choices in societies and will not participate for long periods in them. The element of people’s needs, therefore, becomes a central concern of planner for rural development. Hence, the entire process of planning for rural development implies a need for change. But now the question arises that change from what, to what, by whom, where and by what methods?

The society has to find ways to adjust itself so that people meet their needs for an improved economic status, for being more useful citizens and for enjoying a higher degree of social stratification, it must identify these conditions and plan realistically to achieve them. It is the prime concern to identify that what needs do people have ? How can needs be identified? What plan of priority should be set up for meeting people’s needs? What resources are necessary to meet people’s needs? How should resources be organized and directed to help people’s meet their needs? These questions give the key orientation and justification for rural programme planning.

One of the major constraints in the efforts to modernize and efficient restructuring of the animal husbandry practices is the delay in taking the results of research to the farming community and in persuading them to adopt new, profitable and locally relevant technologies. The very need of the extension work is to bridge the gap between what is known to the scientists in the laboratories and what is actually being practiced by the farmers in the field. In other words, the major goal of extension machinery is to accelerate the processes of communication and to motivate rural people or livestock owners for adoption of new and profitable technologies. Hence, it is very important to understand these processes of how the farmers get such technologies and how they adopt them.

Communication

The term communication is originated from the Latin word ‘Communis’, meaning common or establishing commoness. When we communicate, we attempt to establish ‘commonality’ with someone through the message.

Communication is the process by which two or more people exchange ideas, facts, feelings or impressions in ways that each gains a common understanding of the meaning, intent and use of the message (Paul Leagens, 1961).

The basic aim of extension system is to bring about a change in the behaviour of the people with whom the work is done. Change in behaviour pertains to change in knowledge, skills, attitude, understanding, etc about a particular technology which we want to diffuse. For this purpose, the extension workers essentially function as teachers to bring about adoption of new technologies by making regular contact with livestock owners through various means. He visualizes the problems of rural community in proper perspective and organizes the meaningful learning situation for effective learning. It calls for appropriate use of different extension teaching techniques. The desirable changes in the behaviour of learners depend upon the skill of the extension worker as teacher in choosing the various extension teaching techniques which are found to be most effective in the relevant situations.

The main job of the extension worker is to bring about behavioural changes in the rural people. A number of extension methods are required to perform such behavioural changes among the rural people which form the tools of the extension workers. These tools are called extension teaching methods. Extension teaching methods may be defined as the devices used to create situations in which communication can take place between the extension worker and learner. The effectiveness of various teaching methods depends on the combination of the same. Similarly, the adoption of innovation is positively related to the combination of different extension teaching methods, at different stages of the learning process.

Audio-visual aids may be defined as any device used to aid in the communication of an idea. An audiovisual product is any audiovisual item such as still photography, motion picture, audio or video tape, slide or film strip, that is prepared singly or in combination to communicate information or to elicit a desired audience response. Even though early aids such as maps and drawings are still in use, advances in the audiovisual field have opened up new methods of presenting these aids, such as videotapes and other equipments which allow more professional and entertaining presentations to be presented.

Such aids assist the teacher in communicating information among the learners leading to change in skills, attitudes, knowledge, understanding and appreciation. These aids stimulates the sensory organs like ears, eyes, etc and facilitates quick understanding of the message by the audience. The effective use of these aids depends upon the skillful and imaginative approach of the teacher. Hence, it is necessary that extension worker should know what type of aids will be more suitable for a particular teaching objective. These aids may be used for both literate as well as illiterate people.

The instructional devices through which the messages can only be heard are known as Audio Aids. The instructional devices through which the message can only be seen are known as Visual Aids. The instructional devices through which the message can both be heard and seen simultaneously are known as audio-visual aids.

Cooperative

A cooperative is a duly registered association of persons, with a common bond of interest that have voluntarily joined together to achieve a lawful common social or economic end, and making equitable contributions to the capital required and accepting a fair share of the risks and benefits of the undertaking in accordance with universally accepted cooperative principles.

Cooperative may be defined as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. It is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit.

A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned & controlled equally by the people who use its services or who work at it.

The basic objective of every cooperative is to provide goods and services to its members and thus enable them to attain increased income and savings, investments, productivity and purchasing power and promote among them equitable distribution of net surplus through maximum utilization of economies of scale, cost-sharing and risk-sharing without however, conducting the affairs of the cooperative for missionary or charitable purposes.

The livestock sector in India is experiencing fast growth in the present era and plays an important role in the Indian economy. Livestock contributes nearly 25% to the agricultural sector output and growing at an annual rate of 4.3% higher than the growth in agricultural sector as a whole (2.8%). Milk production that had been hovering around 20 million tones in 1960’s increased to 102 million tonnes in 2007-08. The egg production also increased from 0.1 billion to 1.0 billion in the last 25 years. Besides production of milk, meat, etc livestock make important contributions to crop production by supplying draught power and dung manure.

Animal husbandry in India is largely a rural activity. Rapid growth in livestock production is desirable not only to sustain agricultural growth, but also to reduce rural poverty especially when a majority of the land holdings are small. Fifty-eight percent of rural households have land holding of less than 2 ha and another thirty two percent have no access to land. Number of these households is likely to increase due to further fragmentation of land holdings. Livestock are thus an important source of income for small farmers, marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers in the rural areas of the country. Products like milk and eggs are steady source of cash income, and live animals are important natural assets for the poor, which can be easily liquidated for cash during emergency. Smallholders and landless together control 75% of the country’s livestock resources, and are capable of producing at a lower cost because of availability of sufficient labour with them. These smallholders earn nearly half of their income from livestock sector.

India has been a welfare country since Independence and the primary objective of all governmental and non-governmental endeavors has been the welfare of its millions people. The policies and programmes should be designed with the aim of alleviation of rural poverty which has been one of the primary objectives of planned development in India. It was realized from pre-independent rural development efforts, that a sustainable strategy of poverty alleviation must be based on increasing the productive employment opportunities in the process of growth itself. Elimination of poverty, ignorance, diseases and inequality of opportunities and providing a better and higher quality of life were the basic premises upon which all the plans and blue-prints of development should built.

Rural development implies both the economic betterment of people as well as greater social transformation. In order to provide the rural people with better prospects for economic development, increased participation of people in the rural development programmes, decentralization of planning, better enforcement of land reforms, greater access to credit, etc proper planning is envisaged.

Initially, main thrust for development was laid on agriculture industry, communication, education, health and allied sectors but later on it was realized that accelerated development can be achieved only if governmental efforts are adequately supplemented with direct and indirect involvement of people at the grass root level.

Introduction

Livestock sector plays a significant role in the Indian economy, particularly for the welfare of rural population of India. The importance of livestock in India's economy can be gauged from the fact that 90 million farming families rear over 90 million milch animals. Of the total household in the rural areas, about 73 percent own some form of livestock, three-quarter of which are reared by small and marginal farmers.

Today, the overall growth rate in livestock sector is steady and is around 4-5%, despite the fact that investment in this sector is not substantial. This is possible due to the egalitarian distribution of the livestock as compared to land among landless labourers, small and marginal farmers thus resulting in balanced development of the rural economy particularly in reducing the poverty especially among the weaker sections of the society. Livestock also plays an important source of employment in rural India, especially for women. The rural woman plays a significant role in most of the animal husbandry operations related to feeding, breeding, management and healthcare of the livestock.

Livestock plays an important and vital role in providing nutritive food to families both in rural and urban areas. Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has been utilizing different animal species for a variety of purposes, viz., production of milk, meat, wool, egg and leather, draught power, companionship, entertainment, research experimentation, sports, security, etc. Livestock wealth is deemed to be as the oldest wealth resource for mankind and was once a symbol of economic status in the society. This is one sector where poor contributes to the growth directly instead of getting benefit from growth generated elsewhere. The effect of livestock sector growth on poverty is anecdotal, yet scattered evidence on livestock's contribution to income indicates that growth in livestock production is pro-poor.

CONTRACEPTION DUE TO MISALLIANCE AND TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY IN BITCHES

It is obvious that breeders maintain varieties of breeds but mismating do occur within their own premises and sometimes by unwarranted stray animal.

Misalliance complicates too many other problems.

Incidence of mismating is 15 to 20 percent in canine breeding.

TRUE ANESTRUS IN A HEIFER OR POST PARTUM COW / BUFFALO

The animal has both ovaries small and inactive

No palpable structures in the ovaries

Animal does not exhibiting estrus signs