Welcome to the Breeds of Livestock resource presented by the Department of Animal Science at Oklahoma State University. This site is intended as an educational and informational resource on breeds of livestock throughout the world. We hope you enjoy the information provided and find it both educational and fun. We see this site as a continually growing resource. As time passes we will be expanding the educational and scientific information pertaining to breeds. We already have breeds from every inhabited continent and we have cooperative projects underway with individuals at a number of other Universities to add to our listings and to expand existing information. We would welcome additional cooperative efforts so please let us know.

What is a breed?

The classic definition of a "breed" is usually stated as a variation of this statement.

Animals that, through selection and breeding, have come to resemble one another and pass those traits uniformly to their offspring.

Unfortunately this definition leaves some unanswered questions. For example, when is a crossbred animal considered a composite breed and when do we stop thinking about them as composites? Perhaps this definition from The Genetics of Populations by Jay L. Lush helps explain why a good definition of "breed" is elusive.

A breed is a group of domestic animals, termed such by common consent of the breeders, ... a term which arose among breeders of livestock, created one might say, for their own use, and no one is warranted in assigning to this word a scientific definition and in calling the breeders wrong when they deviate from the formulated definition. It is their word and the breeders common usage is what we must accept as the correct definition.

As you can see from Dr. Lush's definition it is at least in part the perception of the breeders and the livestock industry which decides when a group of individuals constitutes a "breed".

The development of the breeds takes different routes also. In some breeds you can see the amount of change that can occur as the result of selection for a small number of traits. As an example, Holstein cattle have been selected primarily for milk production and are the highest milk producing cattle in the world. Other breeds have traits that result from natural selection pressure based upon the environment in which they were developed. An example of this might be the N'dama cattle from west Africa. These animals have, through the centuries, developed a resistance to trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness spread by the tse-tse fly, which is fatal to most other breeds of cattle.

Why are we concerned about preserving information about minor, or relatively unknown, breeds of livestock?

Is there a reason for the preservation of minor breeds of livestock? Couldn't more improvement be made if there were fewer breeds? Well, lets go back to our Holstein example again for a moment. While the Holstein clearly has an advantage over other breeds in the production of whole milk, this advantage is based on feeding high levels of cereal grains and pricing that favors low milk-solids content. A drastic change in either of these factors could result in a decrease in the advantage of the Holstein. Given these conditions perhaps a breed that is currently rare or endangered, such as the Dutch Belted, which displayed excellent milking ability in a grass-based dairy situation in trials in the early 1900's, would find itself on the forefront. In Australia, composite breeds, such as the Australian Friesian Sahiwal, have been developed which have higher milk production levels than Holsteins in the tropical regions of that country. Another example might be an increased need for natural resistance to diseases or parasites should a current antibiotic or other treatment become unavailable or ineffective. An example of this type might be the natural resistance some breeds of sheep have to internal parasites. Should anthelmintics become restricted or uneconomical then a breed such as the critically endangered Gulf Coast Native, with the parasite resistance it has developed through natural selection, could be of critical importance in the sheep industry. In many areas, genetic diversity should be maintained to help meet the potential challenge resulting from changes in production resources and market requirements. We hope that this project will serve as an information resource for the potential of some of these breeds.

Why do we have livestock at all? Don't they just eat the food that would be better utilized by being given directly to people.

Agricultural animals have always made a major contribution to the welfare of human societies by providing food, shelter, fuel, fertilizer and other products and services. They are a renewable resource, and utilize another renewable resource, plants, to produce these products and services. In addition, the manure produced by the animals helps improve soil fertility and, thus, aids the plants. In some developing countries the manure cannot be utilized as a fertilizer but is dried as a source of fuel.

Food is, by far, the most important contribution of agricultural animal, although they rank well behind plants in total quantity of food supplied. Plants supply over 80 percent of the total calories consumed in the world. Animals are a more important source of protein than they are of calories, supplying one-third of the protein consumed in the world. Meat, milk and fish are about equal sources of animal protein, supplying, respectively, 35%, 34% and 27% of the world supply of total protein.

There are many who feel that because the world population is growing at a faster rate than is the food supply, we are becoming less and less able to afford animal foods because feeding plant products to animals is an inefficient use of potential human food. It is true that it is more efficient for humans to eat plant products directly rather than to allow animals to convert them to human food. At best, animals only produce one pound or less of human food for each three pounds of plants eaten. However, this inefficiency only applies to those plants and plant products that the human can utilize. The fact is that over two-thirds of the feed fed to animals consists of substances that are either undesirable or completely unsuited for human food. Thus, by their ability to convert inedible plant materials to human food, animals not only do not compete with the humans rather they aid greatly in improving both the quantity and the quality of the diets of human societies.

Table 1.  Characteristics of Agricultural Land in Various Geographical Regions.
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                                                  % of Agricultural
                               % of Total            Land that is
Geographical     Total        Land that is       Cultivated   Permanent
Region         Land Area      Agricultural           Land      Pastures
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             (1000 sq.mi.)        (%)                 (%)         (%)

World           50,495             35                  31          67
Developed
  Countries     21,176             36                  33          66
Developing
  Countries     29,319             34                  29          69
Africa           8,994             37                  19          79
Asia            10,334             38                  45          53
Europe           1,826             49                  55          38
Oceania          3,254             61                   9          91
N. America       7,084             27                  46          53
S. America       6,771             31                  15          81
U.S.A.           3,524             47                  43          56
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Source:  FAO Production Yearbook

Table 1 presents some statistics that are ignored by those who would suggest that we can no longer afford the luxury of animal foods. Only about one-third of the land area of the world is classified as agricultural. Thus, roughly two-thirds of the land area of the world is not suited for any sort of agricultural use because it is covered by cites, mountains, deserts, swamps, snow, etc. Of the 35 percent that can be devoted to agriculture, less than one-third (or about 10% of the total land area) can be cultivated and produce plant products that the human can digest. The remaining two-thirds of the world's agricultural land is covered by grass, shrubs or other plants that only ruminant animals can digest. Thus, the inefficiency of animals is not a major concern since they represent the only way these plants can be converted to human food. As the human population of the world increases, it is likely that we will be forced to depend more and more on ruminant animals to meet the increased demands for food.

Thus far, nothing has been said about monogastric animals. It is true that swine and poultry can be competitors with the humans for food if they are produced by the intensive confinement systems widely practiced in the developed countries. In fact the highest proportion of feed grains and other concentrates, such as oilseed meals, fed to livestock in the United States are fed to swine and poultry. Current grain prices make this profitable. This obviously could change if grain prices increase in the future. However, the high reproductive rate and favorable feed efficiency of swine and poultry would keep them as important contributors to the diets of humans.

Breeds of Livestock Committee: Udaya Desilva