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Animal Products and By-Products

Animal productivity can be assessed as production per animal (e.g., eggs per chicken per month), production density (quantity per unit farm land), or total production (e.g., kg of meat). Production per animal is listed at the “plot” scale. The farm scale is where production density is listed (production per land area). The total production per household is listed at the household scale. To estimate community or landscape scale production (or wider), sampling is an important issue. Moss et al. (2016) note that livestock may not be distributed evenly with households, especially in countries where livestock are concentrated in areas with low human population density, such as semi-arid regions. Transhumant and nomadic herders can be difficult to reach for surveys. Timing of data collection is also important to consider because animal production and herd size may vary seasonally, and cultural events may cause high demand in a short period of time (Moss et al., 2016).

Table 2 presents a list of common animal products and guidelines about collecting data on them.

Table 2: Guidelines for measuring animal productions (adapted from Moss 2016).

 

 

How to operationalize the metric

Method of data collection and data needed to compute the method:

To calculate the production of meat and hides in a given time period a number of specific variables will need to be measured including the current number of animals, the number born, slaughtered or sold in that time period, and the total amount of products or services provided in that time period. If efficiency is being measured as well, the total amounts of all inputs provided should be collected. 

In many countries, the Living Standard Measurement Studies (LSMS) carried out by the World Bank includes livestock production questions using recall from the past 12 months. Questions from the Tanzania National Panel Survey for 2010-2011 are illustrative of the wording and ordering of survey recall questions to estimate animal production. 

The following questions were asked about each type of animal to obtain data on numbers owned, births, deaths, sales and slaughtering:

  1. Did this household own any [ANIMAL] in the last 12 months? IF NOT INDICATED SEPERATELY, INCLUDE BABIES
  2. Number of [ANIMAL] owned 12 months ago.
  3. How many [ANIMAL] does this household currently own? (Categorized as Indigenous, Improved Beef/Meat, Improved Dairy)
  4. How many [ANIMAL] were born in the past 12 months?
  5. Have you bought any [ANIMAL] alive in the past 12 months?
  6. How many [ANIMAL] have you bought alive in the last 12 months?
  7. What was the total value of these purchases?
  8. Did you receive any [ANIMAL] as a gift in the last 12 months?
  9. How many [ANIMAL] did you receive as gifts in the last 12 months?
  10. Have you lost any [ANIMAL] to DISEASE in the past 12 months?
  11. How many [ANIMAL] have you lost to DISEASE in the past 12 months?
  12. What was the value of these [ANIMAL]s lost to disease?
  13. Have you lost any [ANIMAL] to THEFT in the past 12 months?
  14. How many [ANIMAL] have you lost to THEFT in the past 12 months?
  15. What was the value of these [ANIMAL]s lost to THEFT?
  16. Have you sold any [ANIMAL] alive in the past 12 months?
  17. How many [ANIMAL] have you sold alive in the past 12 months?
  18. What was the total value of sales?
  19. Did you slaughter any [ANIMAL] in the past 12 months?
  20. How many [ANIMAL] did you slaughter in the past 12 months?
  21. How many of the [ANIMAL] slaughtered did you sell?
  22. What was the total value of the sold slaughtered [ANIMAL]?

These questions were asked for the following animal types: bulls, cows, steers, heifers, male calves, female calves, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, donkeys, dogs, other___

Another set of questions was asked about animal by-products:

  1. Did your household produce any [PRODUCT] in the last 12 months?
  2. During the last 12 months, for how many months did your household produce any [PRODUCT]?
  3. During these months, what was the average quantity of [PRODUCT] produced per month? (unit in liters, kgs or pieces)
  4. Did you sell any of the [PRODUCT] that you produced in the last 12 months?
  5. How much of the [PRODUCT] produced did you sell in the last 12 months?
  6. What was the total value of sales of [PRODUCT] in the last 12 months?
  7. Where did you sell most [PRODUCT] that you sold?
  8. Who in your household decide what to do with these earnings? (up to 2 people)

These questions were asked for the following products: cow milk (traditional), cow milk (improved), chicken eggs (traditional), chicken eggs (improved), Ghee/Butter, Cheese/Yogurt, Honey, Skins and hides, Manure, Other____

For the exact formatting of the questionnaire and the response categories see the NPS 201-11 Agriculture Questionnaire (pages 30-34).

Unit of analysis:

The unit of analysis depends on the scale. Production can be measured per animal, per land area or per household. The unit of measure depends on the product (see Table 1 above).

Limitations regarding estimating and interpreting:

Farmer recall may have large errors if the recall period is too long.  The length of time that is reasonable depends on the livestock activity and the context. In many contexts asking for recall over the past 12 months for births, sales and slaughter of large animals (cattle, goats, pigs, sheep) may be reasonable. However, with poultry a 12-month period may have several cycles of birth and slaughter, so a monthly or quarterly recall may result in more precise information. Milk and egg production estimates may only be reliable for a week or a month. For many products, producers may not measure quantities precisely (kg of meat, liters of milk, etc.). In such cases, if precise production is needed, researchers may need to physically measure production.

Method of data collection and data needed to compute the method:

Process-based models of livestock production have been developed to enable estimating how changes in management practices will affect animal productivity. Jones et al. (2015) list some of the key dynamic livestock models as:

  • Ruminant (Herrero et al., 2013, 1996)
  • LiveSim (Rufino et al., 2009)
  • CNCPS (Ruitz et al., 2002)
  • Grazplan (Freer et al., 1997)
  • GLEAM (Gerber et al., 2014)

Unit of analysis:

The unit of analysis depends on the model and may be the individual animal, the herd or the farm.

Limitations regarding estimating and interpreting:

The validity of these models depends on both the quality of the data used to set up the model and the appropriateness of the assumptions for the given model in the particular research context.

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