Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with the human practices of raising captive or domesticated animals for harvesting valuable animal products or to train animals to provide labour or services. It involves the day-to-day management, feeding, nutrition and health, selective breeding, assisted birth, grooming, marketing and harvest of products such as meat, milk, eggs, fibre and hide of primarily domesticated terrestrial mammals (cattle, sheep/goats, horses, pigs, etc.) and birds (i.e. poultry, mainly chicken, ducks and geese) collectively known as livestock, although the practice can be extended to various reptiles (e.g. crocodile, snake and turtle farming) and amphibians (e.g. frog farming) — collectively known as herpetoculture — and insects (e.g. beekeeping, sericulture, maggot and cockroach farming) and worms (e.g. earthworm and leech farming), as well as the cultivation of aquatic animals (aquaculture) such as fish, crustaceans (e.g. shrimps, crabs, crayfish and lobsters), molluscs (e.g. clams, oysters, abalones, geoducks and potentially coleoids) and echinoderms (primarily sea cucumbers).

Animal husbandry has a long history, and was an important part of the human evolution from nomadic hunter-gatherers to agrarian/pastoralist societies that are either sedentary or semi-nomadic. Human domestication of vertebrates first started with taming of dogs more than 17,500 years ago, preceding the Neolithic Revolution, which started around 13,000 BC with the artificial cultivation of the first crops and tame animals. In early Bronze Age civilizations like Ancient Egypt, Sumeria, Indus and China, livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were already being raised on farms as supplementary produce, while herding of grazing livestock was the dominant way of life among the nomadic pastoralist tribes and horseback confederacies of Inner Asia and northern Africa. Major changes took place in the Columbian exchange, when Old World livestock were brought to the New World, and then in the British Agricultural Revolution of the 18th century, when livestock breeds like the Dishley Longhorn cattle and Lincoln Longwool sheep were rapidly improved by agriculturalists such as Robert Bakewell, to yield more meat, milk and wool. In the contemporary era, a wide range of species, particularly those from the genera Bos , Ovis, Sus, Gallus and Anas, are raised commercially in large quantities for slaughter by the meat industry, to provide eggs as food or to harvest milk for making dairy products. Less common species such as water buffalo, deer, llama/alpaca, turkeys, quails, rabbits and guinea pigs, as well as insect farming, are raised in selective regions of the world for the food, textile/clothing and pharmaceutical industries. Nowadays, aquaculture such as freshwater and seawater fish farming (mariculture), shrimp farming, crab farming, oyster farming and aquaculture of sea cucumber, are also widespread due to non-sustainable depletion of natural aquatic stocks in wild fisheries due to overharvesting and other detrimental environmental impact of industrial fishing.

Animals are also raised and trained to provide services for human activities, with the best example being the domestication of horses. The use of equine species (horses and donkeys) and their hybrids (mules) for transportation and for military tasks had been widespread in logistics, warfare and law enforcement by both agrarian civilizations and nomadic empires. The horse industry — which includes the breeding, training, grooming and trading of horses — had remained an essential economic sector up to the early 20th century, until the transport value of horses was finally diminished by the proliferation of motor vehicles following the Second Industrial Revolution. Large cattle and domestic buffalo, collectively called oxen, were also used extensively as heavy-duty draft animals to pull wagons and ploughs that demand more strength and stamina than horses, and still remain used in this day in many underdeveloped regions whose infrastructures or terrains cannot support motorization or industrial farming. Another prominent example is dogs, which have been bred, trained and used as guard animals and as hunting companions since prehistory, and dog sleds are still a popular transport option in many regions with arctic wilderness where the expansive snowfields are too difficult and/or too costly to traverse for motor vehicles and horses. Domesticated camels are also still popular in desert regions with no existing roads.

Modern animal husbandry relies on production systems adapted to the available land. Subsistence farming is being superseded by intensive animal farming in the more developed parts of the world, where, for example, beef cattle are kept in high-density feedlots, and thousands of chickens may be raised in broiler houses or batteries. On poorer soil, such as in uplands, animals are often kept more extensively and may be allowed to roam widely, foraging for themselves. Animal agriculture at modern scale drives climate change, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss. Most livestock are herbivores, except (among the most commonly-kept species) for pigs and chickens, which are omnivores. Ruminants like cattle and sheep are adapted to feed on grass; they can forage outdoors or may be fed entirely or in part on fodders richer in energy and protein such as pelleted cereals. Pigs and poultry cannot digest the cellulose in forage and require other high-protein foods. Domesticated animals are also used to complement crops in polyculture setups such as the rice-duck and rice-fish systems.

Etymology The verb to husband, meaning "to manage carefully", derives from an older meaning of husband, which in the 14th century referred to the ownership and care of a household or farm, but today means the "control or judicious use of resources", and in agriculture, the cultivation of plants or animals. Farmers and ranchers who raise livestock are considered to practice animal husbandry.

History

Birth of husbandry

The domestication of livestock was driven by the need to have food on hand when hunting was unproductive. The desirable characteristics of a domestic animal are that it should be useful to the domesticator, should be able to thrive in their company, should breed freely, and be easy to tend. Domestication was not a single event, but a process repeated at various periods in different places. Sheep and goats were the animals that accompanied the nomads in the Middle East, while cattle and pigs were associated with more settled communities. The first wild animal to be domesticated was the dog. Half-wild dogs, perhaps starting with young individuals, may have been tolerated as scavengers and killers of vermin, and, being naturally pack hunters, were predisposed to become part of the human pack and join in the hunt. Prey animals, sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle, were progressively domesticated early in the history of agriculture. Pigs were domesticated in the Near East between 8,500 and 8000 BC, sheep and goats in or near the Fertile Crescent about 8,500 BC, and cattle from wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and Pakistan around 8,500 BC. A cow was a great advantage to a villager as she produced more milk than her calf needed, and her strength could be put to use as a working animal, pulling a plough to increase production of crops, and drawing a sledge, and later a cart, to bring the produce home from the field. Draught animals were first used about 4,000 BC in the Middle East, increasing agricultural production immeasurably.

In southern Asia, the elephant was domesticated by 6,000 BC.Gupta, Anil K. in Origin of agriculture and domestication of plants and animals linked to early Holocene climate amelioration, Current Science, Vol. 87, No. 1, 10 July 2004 59. Indian Academy of Sciences. Fossilised chicken bones dated to 5040 BC have been found in northeastern China, far from where their wild ancestors lived in the jungles of tropical Asia, but archaeologists believe that the original purpose of domestication was for the sport of cockfighting. Meanwhile, in South America, the llama and the alpaca had been domesticated, probably before 3,000 BC, as beasts of burden and for their wool. Neither was strong enough to pull a plough, which limited the development of agriculture in the New World. Horses occur naturally on the steppes of Central Asia, and their domestication began around 3,000 BC in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea region. Although horses were originally seen as a source of meat, their use as pack animals and for riding followed. Around the same time, the wild ass was being tamed in Egypt. Camels were domesticated soon after this, with the Bactrian camel in Mongolia and the Arabian camel becoming beasts of burden. By 1000 BC, caravans of Arabian camels were linking India with Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean.

Ancient civilisations

In ancient Egypt, cattle were the most important livestock, and sheep, goats, and pigs were also kept; poultry including ducks, geese, and pigeons were captured in nets and bred on farms, where they were force-fed with dough to fatten them. The Nile provided a plentiful source of fish. Honey bees were domesticated from at least the Old Kingdom, providing both honey and wax. In ancient Rome, all the livestock known in ancient Egypt were available. In addition, rabbits were domesticated for food by the first century BC. To help flush them out from their burrows, the polecat was domesticated as the ferret, its use described by Pliny the Elder.

Medieval husbandry

In northern Europe, agriculture, including animal husbandry, declined after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Some aspects, such as the herding of animals, continued throughout the period. By the 11th century, the economy had recovered, and the countryside was again productive. The Domesday Book recorded every parcel of land and every animal in England: "there was not one single hide, nor a yard of land, nay, moreover ... not even an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine was there left, that was not set down in [the king's] writ." For example, the royal manor of Earley in Berkshire, one of thousands of villages recorded in the book, had in 1086 "2 fisheries worth [paying tax of] 7s and 6d [each year] and 20 acres of meadow [for livestock]. Woodland for [feeding] 70 pigs." The improvements of animal husbandry in the medieval period in Europe went hand in hand with other developments. Improvements to the plough allowed the soil to be tilled to a greater depth. Horses took over from oxen as the main providers of traction, new ideas on crop rotation were developed, and the growing of crops for winter fodder gained ground. Peas, beans, and vetches became common; they increased soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, allowing more livestock to be kept.

Columbian exchange

The exploration and colonisation of North and South America resulted in the introduction of crops such as maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and manioc into Europe. At the same time, the principal Old World livestock – cattle, horses, sheep, and goats – were introduced into the New World for the first time along with wheat, barley, rice, and turnips.

Agricultural Revolution