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Animal feed is food given to domestic animals, especially livestock, in the course of animal husbandry. There are two basic types: fodder and forage. Used alone, the word feed more often refers to fodder. Animal feed is an important input to animal agriculture, and is frequently the
Some corn-fed cattle are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations known as feed lots. In the United States, dairy cattle are often supplemented with grain to increase the efficiency of production and reduce the area needed to support the energy requirements of the herd.
Livestock produced in stalls or feedlots are landless and are typically fed by processed feed containing veterinary drugs, growth hormones, feed additives, or nutraceuticals to improve production. Similarly, livestock consume grains as the main feed or as a supplement to the forage based feed.
Fodder includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and sprouted grains and legumes (such as bean sprouts, fresh malt, or spent malt). Most animal feed is from plants, but some manufacturers add ingredients to processed feeds that are of animal origin.
In animal husbandry, a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an intensive animal feeding operation (AFO) in which over 1,000 animal units are confined for over 45 days a year. An animal unit is the equivalent of 1,000 pounds of "live" animal weight. [1]
Animal husbandry drives climate change, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss, and kills 60 billion animals annually. [80] It uses between 20 and 33% of the world's fresh water, [81] Livestock, and the production of feed for them, occupy about a third of the Earth's ice-free land. [82]