User:Cmckean02/Agriculture

The article I have chosen is a great article, However I thought by adding a few bits of information it may help those who have never dealt with agriculture a better idea of how and why people do what they do.

Article body
Livestock production systems

Animal husbandry is the breeding and raising of animals for meat, milk, eggs, or wool, and for work and transport. Working animals, including horses, mules, oxen, water buffalo, camels, llamas, alpacas, donkeys, and dogs, have for centuries been used to help cultivate fields, harvest crops, wrangle other animals, and transport farm products to buyers.

Technologies are beneficial including as the use of hormones and feed additives, have the potential to improve animal performance considerably in these settings.

Grassland based livestock production relies upon plant material such as shrubland, rangeland, and pastures for feeding ruminant animals. Outside nutrient inputs may be used, however manure is returned directly to the grassland as a major nutrient source. This system is particularly important in areas where crop production is not feasible because of climate or soil, representing 30–40 million pastoralists. Mixed production systems use grassland, fodder crops and grain feed crops as feed for ruminant and mono-gastric (one stomach; mainly chickens and pigs) livestock. Manure is typically recycled in mixed systems as a fertilizer for crops.

One very large benefit to grazing animals is the fire hazard reduction that they provide (Benefits of Grazing Animals). When having livestock that are open grazing they take away the potential fuels that could be the start of fires (Benefits of Grazing Animals). This could prevent major damage to the farmers crop lands or even their homes or storage buildings and barns (Benefits of Grazing Animals). Another large aspect that is a benefit from grazing livestock is the benefits to plant life (Benefits of Grazing Animals). Free grazing allows for new healthy native grasses to grow instead of dead plant matter and unhealthy weeds to populate the area (Benefits of Grazing Animals). Overall, grazing livestock takes away from the use of herbicides and fires that are often used to promote "healthy" grasses and land for many farm and crop lands (Benefits of Grazing Animals).

Plant breeding

The Department of Agriculture made an Article about Plant breeding, in this article it goes on to explain plant breeding and its advantages. Some of those advantages include vegetables and fruits to be sold for cheaper prices (National Institute of Food and Agriculture). The pollution decreasing in agriculture is another reason that plant breeding is beneficial in agriculture (National Institute of Food and Agriculture). It also helps with meat and dairy products being produced from a variety of staple crops (National Institute of Food and Agriculture). Finally, plant breeding helps the development of long-term energy sources (National Institute of Food and Agriculture).

Plant breeding of course can have disadvantages as well. One of them are leading to extinction of a certain species (National Institute of Food and Agriculture). Furthermore, with the disadvantages of plant breeding, genetic mutations can still occur (National Institute of Food and Agriculture). Also, the desired traits are not guaranteed to be passed along (National Institute of Food and Agriculture).