LIVESTOCK ACTIVITIES: PRODUCTION AND ACTIVITIES IN MEXICO - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The livestock activities are the production processes for breeding and edible animal exploitation and management of their products. Livestock activities are part of the so-called primary sector of the economy, which is responsible for satisfying the needs of societies by working with natural products and processes.

This sector includes fishing, livestock, agriculture, forestry and mining. Besides agriculture, raising animals for food was one of the first jobs of mankind. Thus, when the first humans left gathering and hunting, they became farmers and ranchers.

This is called the agricultural revolution; Thanks to this, a new stage of social evolution was passed. Over the centuries, increasingly sophisticated techniques were developed for the production of animal protein. At present this activity requires more and more of a highly specialized workforce.

Livestock production

Livestock production involves raising animals that are then commercialized. Each type of animal signifies a specialization and the action can be divided into two types: one is based on the direct use of meat and skin (leather); the other takes advantage of the products that are extracted from animals without taking their lives.

The main areas of livestock production are the following:

- Bovine production, which includes cows, bulls and calves. These can be served directly for your meat or for milk.

- Horse breeding; these are the equines. They are used for work or entertainment, and their use as a gastronomic element has recently grown.

- Pigs (pigs). Pigs are highly appreciated both for their meat and for other by-products: sausages, sausages and even pork rinds.

- Goats (goats). Goats use their meat, but also their skin and milk. Cheese and even sweets are also produced from goat's milk.

- Sheep (sheep), whose utility is the extraction of their wool. That is why sheep herds are rarely used for meat, since their main product allows to generate tissues.

- Poultry farming, which includes valuable birds both for their meat and for their eggs. Even its excrement is used by the industry as an ingredient for the manufacture of organic fertilizers.

- Rabbits (rabbits), through which meat and skin are used.

- Fish farming (fish), which is also a widespread practice and allows the control of rapid production and with less risk than fishing in the open sea. Freshwater fish are mainly worked.

- Beekeeping (bees). In this activity honey is generated; By-products such as wax, liqueurs, royal jelly and honey vinegar are derived from this.

The livestock activities are conditioned by the physical characteristics: relief, water and climate. With new technologies, special infrastructures have been developed to raise livestock in closed buildings.

Livestock activities in Mexico

Mexico is the fourteenth nation on the planet according to its territorial extension and a large part of this extension is dedicated to livestock production.

More than a million people work in the sector, 87% are men and 13% women. In addition, Mexico has 120 thousand hectares just for fish farming, generating 361 thousand tons of various species annually.

Labor composition

Another important fact is the labor composition of the Mexican countryside: 45% are subordinate and paid personnel; 37.1% are self-employed; 12.6% do not receive any payment and 5.3% are employers and their families.

It is also necessary to point out that 36.6% of Mexican agricultural workers do not have completed primary school; only 29.4% completed it. As for secondary education, 25.2% have completed it.

Higher middle technicians and university students make up 8.8% of the people dedicated to agriculture. These are the technicians, veterinarians, biologists and chemists of the sector.

Poultry production represents 88.6% of Mexican livestock production. Bovines are 5.6%; sheep and goats, 2.8%; pigs, 2.7%; and bees represent 0.3% with two million hives. That represents 605 million animals treated per year.

Mexico ranks twelfth in the world in food production. It is the eleventh in livestock production and the sixteenth in fish production.

Producing states

If the country were divided into three parts, the central sector would be the most productive in livestock activity. There are states such as Zacatecas, Aguas Calientes, Jalisco, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Nayarí, Tamaúlipas and Nuevo León.

It is important to note that in Mexico green alfalfa is also produced for livestock feed, as well as 239 thousand tons of soybeans in Tamaúlipas and San Luis Potosí destined to be animal feed. This makes it rank 19 as a world producer of soybeans.

Among the main enemies of the Mexican agri-food sector are cyclones, hailstorms, snowfalls, frosts, floods and, mainly, droughts.

Internal and external market

The livestock sector has great relevance in the production of national wealth. The bovine sector generates more and more dairy products with high internal and external demand. The same is happening with poultry, swine and goat products.

In the international market, open to the export of final goods, Mexico has projected its image as a quality producer. Likewise, the growth of livestock work has encouraged the growth of the agricultural sector.

One goal in this sense is to provide the sector with the necessary inputs for the protection and optimization of herds.

Organic support

At the same time, in recent years livestock activities related to organic sustenance have increased. For now aimed at a small market, this approach reduces the risks of infection and the consequent loss of animals.

This approach has great potential to overcome problems that for centuries have been a headache for growers.

References

1. The Century of Durango (2012). Livestock production increased in Mexico in the last six years. Recovered at: elsiglodedurango.com.mx
2. Espinoza-Villavicencio, José Luis and others (2007). Organic livestock, an alternative for livestock development for some regions of Mexico: a review. Interciencia. Recovered at: redalyc.org
3. Gélvez, Lilian Damaris (2016). Livestock world. Agricultural production in Mexico. Recovered in: mundo-pecuario.com
4. Agrifood and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP) (2016) Atlas Agroalimentario 2016. Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food. Mexico. Recovered in: cloud.siap.gob.mx
5. Sosa Urrutia, Manuel Ernesto and others (2017) Contribution of the livestock sector to the Mexican economy. An analysis from the Product Input Matrix. Mexican Journal of Livestock Sciences. Recovered at: redalyc.org