Man and breeding
Today in the world almost two billion people depend on livestock to satisfy their basic daily needs. The connetion between man and breeding is longstanding and has always repsented a balanced relationship between man, environment and culture: in the past, infact, cattle, apart from being employed for meat production, played and still plays a series of fundamental functions. Cattle, infact, satisfies 30% of man’s needs in terms of its nutrition – production of meat, milk and derivatives – as well as support to agricultural production as workforce. In the Mediterranean area, for example, donkey is used in agriculture for its work capacity under the typical climate conditions of this area and is still present in countries as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, together with mule to farm the most steep and sloping lands. In the Tropics, instead, bovines contribute to the ploughing of about 60% of crops. Breeding farms, moreover, supply with their manure useful substances for soil fertilizing and in some countries manure is also used as domestic combustible. We shouldn’t forget even the economic relevance of cattle production that is a source of income both for rural and urban populations.
Special reports
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2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
10 February 2020
Coral turns pale!
The coral reef is one of the ecosystems with the richest biodiversity...
-
8 July 2022
Who’s coming to dinner
A shark in my hamburger Summer is finally here! As usual, we have waited for it all year long and…
8 March 2022
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
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27 February 2022
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
12 February 2022
A naturalist’s voyage around the world
Charles Darwin was just 22 years old when he set sail on board HMS Beagle...
-
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
-
10 February 2020
Coral turns pale!
The coral reef is one of the ecosystems with the richest biodiversity...
-
8 July 2022
Who’s coming to dinner
A shark in my hamburger Summer is finally here! As usual, we have waited for it all year long and…
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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Ant and fish activities
A small insect like the antilion, digs funnel shaped traps in the sandy ground when it is in the larva…
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13 May 2011
A super-milk
Some protozoa have attracted the interest of the biotechnological research world...
11 May 2011
Ant and fish activities
A small insect like the antilion, digs funnel shaped traps in the sandy ground when it is in the larva…
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13 May 2011
A super-milk
Some protozoa have attracted the interest of the biotechnological research world...
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11 May 2011
Ant and fish activities
A small insect like the antilion, digs funnel shaped traps in the sandy ground when it is in the larva…