Livestock production, the environment and mixed farming systems
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Mixed farming systems are the largest animal production systems in terms of animal numbers, productivity and the people they service. Moving across agro-ecosystems and phases of human socio-economic development the intensity of technology and the type of livestock-environmental interaction changes dramatically. Mixed systems have the capacity to change rapidly as markets, infrastructure and income grow. In many instances these systems serve as a bridge between the grazing and industrial systems. Mixed farming systems encompass about 2.5 billion ha land, of which 1.1 billion ha arable rainfed land, 0.2 billion ha irrigated land and 1.2 billion ha grassland. Mixed farming systems produce 92% of the worlds milk supply, all buffalo meat and approximately 70% of the sheep and goat meat (Figure 1). About half of the meat and milk produced in this system is produced in the OECD, Eastern Europe and the CIS, the remainder comes from the developing world. Over the last decade, meat producti on from this system grew at a rate of about 2 percent per year, which is greater than the one percent output growth of the grazing areas, but remains behind global growth in demand.