Ranching in south america is very important and helpful there are many times where it helps and harms the earth.
Ranching is the practice of raising herds of animals on large plains of land. The animals are taken care by cowboys and they are often the ones who raise these animals and give them food, water, and the items they need to survive. The animals are called livestock and they are usually live in large plains to keep them away from other animals who could hurt them and they have fresh crops to eat so that they can grow. These are the pro's and con's for ranching.
ranching is very helpful for making money in south america since they are the largest exporting continent for selling beef. For example in 2001 they made over a billion dollars for beef products because of ranching. It has really helped people who have some animals, make more animals and then make money for themselves. This is one of the benefits of ranching.
Ranching is also very helpful because the cattle helps enrich the soil by its maneuver. This helps for planting vegetables, fruits, and crops you can grow. Enriching the soil helps the farmers a lot since it lets the crops grow easier and faster. The crops are easily grown with the enriched soil since it brings out all the nutrients that are needed to grow the plants.
My last benefit of ranching is the healthy food the cattle produce for people to eat. This happens because of the fresh crops the farmers grow for the animals to eat. These crops make the animals grow and be healthy so later what they produce is also healthy for human needs. These are all the reasons why ranching is helpful in South America.
One of the drawbacks for ranching is the fact that they hot brand the animals in their herds. Hot branding is when the farmer of these animals takes a hot iron and scars all the animals in the same pattern to recognize them in his heard. The new design on their skin is now called their brand. Hot branding really hurts the animals because they are getting burned with a hot iron. The animals could be seriously injured and not happy.
Another drawback of ranching is that it is responsible for 80% of deforestation in South america's amazon rain forest. This happens because the cattle needs fresh food to be healthy so they burn down forests so they can make farms where the livestock can eat fresh crops. This will harm the earth because later there will be no more rain forests and natural habitats.
My last drawback is that the animals can be harmed when they are "rounded-up". This means the animals are confined to a small space with a large group of animals to get several testings done by veterinarians. Animals do not like this process at all and tend to become more aggressive since they aren't open to walk freely. Animals will become uncomfortable.
My solution to the problem that ranching causes is to confine certain places to ranching and ranching only. Instead of burning down forests for them to live South america can just keep all the ranching needs to up to three large spaced farms and no more. This way they can still continue ranching but they can make sure they are not harming nature or the animals. These animals can still have open space, fresh crops, and be active they just don't have to burn down more areas but instead reuse the land that's already free and open to use.
Sources: Yueng, Isabel. "The Effects of Cattle Ranching in South America." Panoramas. N.p., 15 June 2016. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. <http://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/news-and-politics/effects-cattle-ranching-south-america>.
Society, National Geographic. "Ranching." National Geographic Society. N.p., 09 Oct. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. <http://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ranching/>.
Northoff, Erwin. "Cattle Ranching Is Encroaching on Forests in Latin America." FAO Site. News Cordinator, 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. <http://www.fao.org/Newsroom/en/news/2005/102924/index.html>.
"How Cattle Farmers Help the Environment." How Cattle Farmers Help the Environment -- ExploreBeef.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. <http://www.explorebeef.org/protectingresources.aspx>.
Warnet, Jeannette E. "Cattle Ranching Offers Notable Public Benefits." ANR Blogs. N.p., 19 July 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2017. <http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=3073>.
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Created with images by antje89 - "buffalo oklahoma bison" • JefferyTurner - "Llama Herd - Leona Valley, California" • Erik Charlton - "Herding" • USDAgov - "k4328-8" • johnomason - "Alpine cows" • Peter Blanchard - "Deforested" • USFWS Mountain Prairie - "2014 Bison Roundup"