Journey to Careers
Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources
Animal agriculture, as we have discussed, is one of the largest industries in the United States. Nothing
has more economic importance. (do you know what it means when I say the word economy? Economy
is the system of how money is made and used within a particular country or region. A
region's economy is connected with things like how many goods and services are produced and how
much money people can spend on these things.)
Because animal agriculture is so important to the economy, It is very important that producers
understand the type of animals that are most efficient (operating or working in a way that gets results,
with little wasted effort) and most valuable in production.
So we are going to talk about the beef cattle industry today. In the beef cattle industry, there are six
different segments:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Purebred breeder
Commercial producer
Stocker or backgrounding operations
Cattle feeder
Beef packer
Retailer
The purebred breeder maintains seedstock to provide bulls and, occasionally, females to the commercial
producer. (who keeps a herd of female cows in order to produce calves -> the commercial producer
provides feeder weened calves and yearlings to the stocker -> who puts them to pasture until they reach
about 800-900 pounds then furnishes the cattle feeder -> who provides the packer with finished cattle
ready for slaughter -> The packer slaughters the cattle and provides the retailer with either dressed
carcasses or wholesale cuts from these carcasses. The profits that accrue to all segments of the beef
cattle industry depend on continued improvement in productive efficiency and carcass merit
Other factors that should be considered in bull selection include structural soundness, disposition, frame
size, muscling, breed and horn presence or absence,
https://lpb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nat08.living.gen.geneng.traits/desirable-breeding-traits-in-ca
ttle/
Cattle originally evolved over millions of years through a process of natural selection-also known as
“survival of the fittest”-which made them adaptable to a wide variety of environments, including most of
those inhabited by another highly adaptable species: humans. Once humans discovered how to
domesticate cattle about 4,000 years ago, they began to selectively, or “artificially,” breed them for
specific desired traits like meat and milk production. This resulted in animals fit less for survival in the
wild than the satisfaction of human needs, but in purely genetic terms, the arrangement has proven
highly successful for cattle. Cattle now thrive throughout the world in over800 different breeds, each
more or less successfully adapted to their environment and the needs of their human caretakers.
https://lpb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nat08.living.gen.geneng.breeds/nature-holy-cow-different-b
reeds-of-cattle/
So let’s think about how all this got started. Imagine you are a prehistoric hunter/gatherer/ nomad living
in a Savanna. (rolling grassland with very few bushes and trees.) So you are looking at the species of
animals around you: wild dogs, wild pigs, deer, and cattle. Which would be the best to domesticate as a
source of nourishment? What makes you pick cattle over the others? Here are some questions to ask to
determine the best choice:
• What is this species going to eat? Herbivores are more suited than carnivores to domestication,
because they’re not competing with humans for scarce meat resources. Some herbivores eat plants that
humans cannot, making them even more suitable.
• Will it provide meat? Almost any animal species fits this category, but larger, relatively inactive species
provide more (and better quality) meat than others.
• Will it provide milk? Milk provides sustenance for humans without requiring the slaughter of the
animal, but unless the animal’s young can be given something else to eat (i.e. “weaned”), it makes no
sense for humans to use the milk for food at the expense of the animal’s own young. Animal species also
vary in the quantity and nutritional quality of their milk.
• Can this species be herded? Especially for a nomadic people, it is important that domesticated species
can be easily controlled as a herd for open grazing and relocation. Species with a highly evolved flight
instinct (i.e. easily frightened and/or difficult to catch) cannot be herded.
• Can it do work for humans? Species with slow, docile temperaments and large, strong builds can be
harnessed to pull plows or wagons.
what else cattle have provided for humans. (Leather for clothes and shelter, bones for tools, and dung to
fuel fires. Eventually they were also harnessed as draught animals to provide agricultural labor.)
https://lpb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nat08.living.str.living.digest/nature-holy-cow-a-cows-digestiv
e-system/
this digestive system, which cows evolved to survive in grasslands, also helped make them highly suitable
for human domestication, because they can convert grass (which humans cannot digest) into meat and
milk (which we can).
So talking about how the digestive system evolved. Do yall know the difference between inherited and
acquired traits?
https://play.kahoot.it/v2/?quizId=70e94cb8-3648-4a63-81c7-e10542bc2728
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9X-w14s3tQ
Did these lambs inherit or acquire their taste preferences?
●
Why haven’t most animal species been farmed? (they don’t have a practical use to humans, they
could be impractical to farm due to space or diet requirements)
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What type of animals are best suited for farming? (large, plant-eating mammals)
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Why aren’t elephants farmed in Asia to accomplish work? (it takes too long for the animal to
reach a mature age for working and for reproduction)
●
Why is temperament important to a domesticated animal? (safety and ability to get along with
humans)
●
What inherited traits and acquired traits make an animal suitable for domestication? (a good
temperament to get along with humans, a practical use/benefit to humans such as the ability to
perform work or to provide food)
PROJECT
1. Assign each student or group of students a domestic farm animal by giving them one of the
attached Farm Animal Prompt Cards.
2. Provide students the Presentation Rubric. Ask them to create a short presentation about their
animal and to include a visual support. This may be a poster or a PowerPoint, or you may choose
to have the students use a multimedia tool like Glogster or Padlet.
3. Instruct students to include the following items in their presentation:
●
Explanation of why this animal is suited to domestication
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Name and pictures of assigned farm animal breed
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Purpose of this breed
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Examples of inherited traits that help this breed fulfill its purpose. Note: The prompt
cards give students three examples of traits for each animal. To challenge your students,
require them to find additional traits through their own research.
Resource:
https://www.agclassroom.org/teacher/matrix/lessonplan.cfm?lpid=405&author_state=0&search_term_l
p=sheep