Management Skills Required
Penning animals for a cut and carry system requires different and more advanced skills than rearing free grazing animals.First feed must be brought to the animals,and a common problem is providing too little feed.Also,special care must be taken for animals needs such as hoof trimming and dehorning (personal choice) to ensure safe and healthy confinement.Breeding habits and signs for each animal must be learned by the farmer,in order to ensure timely breeding of penned animals.Cut and carry animal production systems are the future for most of Asia.Increasing population pressures make the confinement of animals necessary.Free grazing animal systems compete with food production,and contribute significantly to the destruction of Asias remaining forests.
Better Control of Animals:
Having animals penned allows for easier control and management of the herd,Ease of handling and more farmer/caretaker interaction allows better management.It also permits regular monitoring of desease,breeding cycles and parturition.
Labor Demand:
One of the complaints about the cut and carry animal husbandry system is that a high labor input is needed to manage such a system.The penning of animals requires that the feed be brought to the animal,instead of the animal finding its own feed.Also water must be supplied.A penned animal requires constant attention,rather than the out of sight out of mind approach to a free grazing animal.
The cut carry production system for animals is not a new concept,It has recently been popularized in the Philippines with the SALT 2 system,but Asia farmers have been using a similar system for hundreds of years.
Independant Producer Philippine Region7
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