In global agriculture, as well asthe cultivation of grain crops, livestock are almost common. At the same time, meadows and pastures occupy three times more land than land in the structure of land. Most of the livestock products come from countries located in the temperate belt. First of all, the geography of the world livestock is determined by the conditions for placing livestock. At the same time, three branches of animal husbandry play a leading role in development: cattle breeding, as well as pig and sheep breeding.
There is a big difference in the developmentlivestock in developing and developed countries. In developed countries, the volume of livestock farming prevails over farming and for it uses an intensive type of farming. In most developing countries, animal husbandry is a secondary industry and is conducted extensively. In developed countries, the improvement of food supply, industrialization and selection in animal husbandry have led to the fact that they have achieved great success in its intensity. As a result, livestock production faces the same problems as farming - overproduction occurs. Therefore, the governments of such states are forced to pursue a policy of deterrence and production cuts.
Cattle (in the world about 1.3a billion heads) gives almost all milk production and more than a third of meat production. The dairy direction is most characteristic for densely populated regions of North America and Europe, which are located in forest and steppe zones of the temperate zone. Beef and dairy cattle breeding is common not only in these zones, where there is intensive agriculture, but also in more arid regions, where there is much less labor resources. Beef cattle breeding has received its preferential development in arid regions of the subtropical and temperate zones. Such reasons for the spread of individual livestock industries are determined not only by climatic conditions, but also by the availability of food for livestock.
The most dynamically developing industrieslivestock in modern times is pig breeding. In the world now there are more than 800 million pigs. Successes in the development of pig breeding have led to the fact that the cost of pork is less than the cost of beef. It is important that pig breeding is possible not only in areas where pasture livestock is produced, but often carried out year-round in stalls using imported fodder and food industry waste. However, the grazing of pigs with sufficient land areas is not widespread due to the fact that in these areas it is much more profitable to develop such branches of animal husbandry as cattle and sheep breeding. In addition, pig farming is practically absent in Muslim countries for religious reasons.
Usually pig farming is located closer todensely populated areas and to areas where potato growing and other feed products are intensively developed. Nearly half of the total livestock of pigs in the world falls on Asian countries, primarily China. Other livestock industries, particularly sheep farming, also predominate in areas with extensive pastures. At the same time, in areas with a more arid climate, as well as on semi-desert and steppe pastures, fine-wool sheep breeding is more often conducted. In those areas where the climate is milder and they are better supplied with moisture, meat-wool sheep prevails. The largest place of sheep breeding in the world is the semi-desert and steppe regions of Australia.
