Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The broad aim of this book, as in earlier editions, is to provide an introduction to the management and welfare of farm animals through the practice of good husbandry within the context of an efficient, sustainable agriculture. Successive chapters outline these principles and practices for the major farmed species within a range of production systems, both intensive and extensive. This chapter opens with a description of concepts in animal welfare that may be applied to any sentient farm animal, then progresses to general principles that may be applied to their management. These general principles are illustrated by specific examples relating to animal species and production systems (e.g. broiler chickens, dairy cows). For those of you who are new to the study of animal management and animal welfare, some of these examples may only make sense when you have read the chapter on the species to which they refer. I also suggest that, when you have read, learned and inwardly digested a chapter on a particular species, you might refer back to this opening chapter and consider how well (or not) current management practices for that species meet the general criteria for good husbandry and welfare within the categories outlined here. The purpose of farming is to use the resources of the land to provide the people with food and other goods. For most of the history of agriculture and, even now, throughout most of the world, the role of the farmer has been straightforward: to produce food to meet the needs of the people. If they could produce it, we would buy it. Today, in developed, affluent, urbanized society, consumers have much greater freedom in their choice of food and their decisions will range beyond the direct elements of price and nutritive value to include issues such as provenance, animal welfare and environmental cost. An increasing number, ovo-lacto-vegetarians, reject meat. Vegans will not eat or wear anything of animal origin. To succeed, modern farmers must combine a knowledge and understanding of how to care for the life of their land with a shrewd awareness of the needs and wants of their consumers to obtain the best possible value from what they have to sell. Successful livestock farmers are those who also have the best understanding of the needs and wants of their animals"-- Provided by publisher.