Eureka! Institutional Repository

With the term livestock we call the sector of the economy associated with the breeding and exploitation of productive animals. In particular, the livestock is considered one of the oldest human activities. According to historical data, man made and still makes huge efforts to ensure the necessary amount of food to meet his needs. In these efforts, he realized he could not just kill the animals, but catch and rear them, and kill them afterwards, when needed. In this way, man started gradually dealing with stockbreeding. Livestock also has become more known from the Neolithic era, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Ensuring good feeding of animals is a key factor in promoting and improving the livestock. The feed must be adequate in quality and quantity. When feeds are not sufficient or when they do not contain some necessary elements (salts, vitamins, etc.), then they adversely affect animal performance. For this reason, man must exploit and improve grasslands in a better way, expands cultivation of suitable forage crops, establish feed industries and better utilize feeds, educate farmers in animal feeding and import from abroad the necessary feeds that are not produced locally.