Animal Improvement

Visão Geral

Two farms keep the same breed of chicken. One farmer's birds lay eggs at twice the rate of the other's, reach market weight weeks sooner, and shrug off diseases that keep knocking the neighbour's flock back. The difference is rarely luck or better luck with the weather. It is animal improvement: the deliberate, generation-on-generation reshaping of a population's genetic makeup so that more of its members carry the alleles that make a farm animal worth keeping.

In this lesson you will learn exactly what animal improvement means, how it differs from simply producing more animals, the five objectives every improvement programme chases, and the benefits it delivers both to the individual farmer's pocket and to a nation that must feed itself. You will also learn to reason through real breeding decisions the way a farm manager, and a WAEC examiner, expects.

Objetivos

  1. Define animal improvement
  2. State the objectives of animal improvement
  3. Explain the benefits of animal improvement to a farmer
  4. Explain the benefits of animal improvement to the nation
  5. Distinguish between animal improvement and animal production

Nota de Aula

A poultry keeper in Ogbomoso and a poultry keeper in Kaduna both start with the Niger Local chicken, the same indigenous stock their grandparents kept. Ten years on, one flock still lays about sixty eggs a bird a year and takes six months to reach a sellable weight. The other lays over one hundred and fifty and reaches the same weight in under twelve weeks. Nothing about the local climate changed; what changed was which birds were allowed to breed, generation after generation. That is animal improvement at work.

Avaliação da Lição

Parabéns por concluir a lição em Animal Improvement. Agora que você explorou o conceitos e ideias-chave, é hora de colocar seu conhecimento à prova. Esta seção oferece uma variedade de práticas perguntas destinadas a reforçar sua compreensão e ajudá-lo a avaliar sua compreensão do material.

Irá encontrar uma mistura de tipos de perguntas, incluindo perguntas de escolha múltipla, perguntas de resposta curta e perguntas de redação. Cada pergunta é cuidadosamente elaborada para avaliar diferentes aspetos do seu conhecimento e competências de pensamento crítico.

Use esta secção de avaliação como uma oportunidade para reforçar a tua compreensão do tema e identificar quaisquer áreas onde possas precisar de estudo adicional. Não te deixes desencorajar pelos desafios que encontrares; em vez disso, vê-os como oportunidades de crescimento e melhoria.

  1. Animal improvement is best described as: A. Keeping more animals on the same land B. The deliberate change of a population's genetic makeup over generations to enhance desirable traits C. Feeding animals a better ration D. Building better housing for livestock Answer: B
  2. Which of the following is NOT one of the objectives of animal improvement? A. Higher yield B. Better feed conversion C. Lower stocking density D. Disease resistance Answer: C
  3. A farmer's cost per egg falls after his flock's egg output rises while his feed and labour cost stays the same. This is chiefly an example of which benefit of animal improvement? A. Export potential B. Food security C. Lower cost per unit of output D. Adaptation to local conditions Answer: C
  4. Which of these is a national, rather than a purely individual farmer, benefit of animal improvement? A. Higher household income B. Food security C. Personal satisfaction D. Lower feed bill on one farm Answer: B
  5. How does animal improvement differ from animal production? A. They mean exactly the same thing B. Improvement is the genetic change of a population across generations; production is the general management of livestock for output C. Production only concerns crops, not livestock D. Improvement happens in a single season while production takes many years Answer: B

Perguntas Anteriores

Pergunta-se como são as perguntas anteriores sobre este tópico? Aqui estão várias perguntas sobre Animal Improvement de anos passados.

Pergunta 1 Relatório

(a) Define the term animal improvement.

 

(b) Explain briefly the following terms as used in animal improvement:

  • cross breeding;
  • out-breeding. 

 

(d) Complete the table below:

Farm animal

Name of mature female

Gestation period (days)

Sheep

  ……………………

  ……………………..

Pig

  ……………………

 ……………………..

Rabbit

   ……………………

  ……………………..