Live stock and its importance

LIVESTOCK
Animals kept for our use or for product are called livestock. It includes animals such as cows, bulls, buffaloes, goats, sheep, horses, mules, camels and even elephants. These animals are great gifts of nature to man. Livestock sector is an important source of income for many people in India. Occupations like dairy farming, pisciculture, poultry farming, bee keeping and sheep rearing comes under this category.
Importance of livestock:

• Cattle is the real wealth of an Indian farmer. They help him in a number of ways. Cow, Buffalo and goat him a milk. The milk used to make butter, cheese, butter milk, ghee and many different sweets.
• The bulls or oxen help the farmer in ploughing, levelling and watering his fields. They also help him to draw carts and to separate corn from chaff.
• Even the dung of cattle is of great use. It can be used as manure. It increases the fertility of soil. Nowadays animal waste it used to produce biogas which is a cheap source of heat and energy.
• Animals serve us even after they die. Their bones and hides are used to make many things. Their hides are used to make leather for shoes, belts, bags and many other things. The bones are used to make fertilizers.
• Animal meat is source of food. Fish and eggs are good sources of protein. We get fish from lakes, rivers and seas. We get eggs from hens and ducks.
• We get wool from sheep, goats and camels. It is used to make shawls, blankets, carpets and wollen clothes.
• Some animals are used as a means of transport. The camel is used in deserts. Mules and yaks are used in hilly areas. Elephants are used in forests where they help in carrying heavy logs of wood.