Animal Science

What is Animal Science?

Animal science is a very broad term. When people think of animal science, usually the first idea that comes to them is veterinarian. Although veterinarians play a very important role in society, there are many other areas within animal science. Some of these areas include meat evaluation, animal husbandry, business, and communications. No matter the area of animal science, each and every area is important in providing for the growing population.

Veterinary

Veterinary can be broken down into two categories including large animal and small animal. Large animal veterinarians deal mainly with farm animals such as cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, whereas small animal veterinarians deal with house pets such as dogs, cats, hamsters, birds, and rabbits. No matter the area of expertise, their main goal is to provide physical health and wellbeing to the animal.

Meat Science

The main purpose of a meat scientist is to evaluate the live animal and the animal carcass. The meat scientist is involved with the research on the animal to determine its intake and how their intake affects the meat quality. Meat scientists typically evaluate livestock such as horse, cattle, sheep, and swine, as those are the most commonly consumed type of meat. Their main goal is to provide the best meat possible by adjusting amount of feed intake and type of feed to produce the best possible  meat for the consumer.

Husbandry

Animal husbandry deals with the growth and development of animals mainly on a mother/baby operation. This includes the breeding, birthing and raising of livestock. Their job is to evaluate and analyze each animal to determine whether or not their genetics are worthwhile and will be productive in years to come. Animal Husbandry is a difficult area of study, because these people ultimately decide in which direction the animal science industry will go.

Business

The business area of animal science deals mainly with the buying and selling of livestock for profit. These people are able to analyze an animal and determine whether or not this animal will be productive enough to make a profit when the animal is ready for slaughter.  This person also is able to buy and sell crops in the market for use in the feeding of animals. When farmers want to sell their crops at the end of the season, these business men and women are buying these crops to sell to other farmers and grain elevators for the feeding of livestock.

Communication

The communication area of animal science is basically the front line of the industry. They are the people that promote the work of animal scientists and support their findings by writing articles in magazines, blogs, and newspapers. They also have the tough job of combatting any false or misleading information throughout the media, especially lately with the recent post by yahoo about agriculture degrees.  http://education.yahoo.net/articles/most_useless_degrees.htm

Why is Animal Science Important?

Animal scientists have a very important job.  What their job comes down to is providing food for this starving world. At this point in time, farmers are expected to produce more food for the world than ever before. They do this by analyzing production methods and finding more efficient ways to produce animals when there is room for improvement. Because of this, farmers and animal scientists work together to find new ways of producing food using fewer, more productive animals with less space, allowing for population growth as well as enough food to support the numbers. 

Without animal scientists, could this starving world survive?