Introduction

Organic animal husbandry implies keeping animals in a natural way and promoting their welfare and health. This does not mean that animals need to be kept in an entirely natural environment, but that they are offered enough opportunities to perform their natural behaviour and way of living. All animal species have certain specialized organs, which give them special abilities and features and a distinct way of living. This distinction is intrinsic and cannot be changed, and must be respected. This means that farmers should promote species-specific features and abilities by providing favourable environments. For example, ruminants have a very special digestive system enabling them to feed on and metabolize great amounts of roughage. They get sick when they do not get enough roughage in their diet. Their limbs are as well quite specialized for long walks. These animals typically suffer if they are not given the opportunity to walk outside and exercise their legs. The same is true for horses and donkeys, whose limbs are even more specialized. Their need to walk, trot and gallop outside is even greater. Ruminants, however, do not need anything to keep them busy or to play with as pigs or dogs do. It is, therefore, very important to know the animals’ intrinsic features very well and handle them accordingly, by keeping them in the appropriate environment.

Besides respecting the basic species-specific needs, finding a good balance between the animals’ demands based on their production and their environment is very important, too. High production animals need very good feed and a favourable environment in terms of species appropriate temperature and humidity, availability of water, space, and the possibility to maintain relationships to other animals and to humans. If any of these environmental conditions is not appropriate, the susceptibility of these animals to parasite and disease infections increases. The higher the animal production is, the higher their susceptibility. Low producing animals are more robust and can better adapt to changing, unstable environments. Therefore, farmers are recommended to choose the types of animals that fit well into the environment that is available.

Traditionally, animals are kept either in small numbers under tethering, free-range systems or in large, pastoral systems. Under tethering systems, animals are confined to a location with a rope for some time where food naturally exists or is provided. This system is common with all animals including poultry. In free-range systems, for example with poultry, the animals are left to look for their own food during the day and housed only during the night. Cattle, goats and sheep are also kept under free-range grazing on confined extensive pieces of land during the day, during the night, however, they are often confined into crowded kraals.

Large pastoral extensive systems are common among pastoral communities, for example, the Maasai, Turkana, Boran, or Rendille in Kenya or the WoDaaBe and Tuareg in Niger. Although such production systems are extensive, animals are carefully bred and strategically moved across the grazing lands in order to take advantage of the unpredictably variable concentrations of fodder that are characteristic of dryland environments. As a result of selective feeding and moving patterns, the animals in pastoral systems enjoy a diet which can be significantly higher than the average nutritive value of the pastures they graze on. To further optimise utilization of available pastures, herders often keep combinations of different species, including cattle, sheep and goats, and sometimes camels. Communal land ownership helps herders to match their production strategies with the changing concentrations of fodder on the range. The animals in dryland pastoralism can withstand extreme conditions. They can lose weight during the dry season, without significant health effects and quickly gain it back during the wet season. In specialized pastoralism, productivity is higher than outsiders would expect from the rangelands. Pastoral systems are actually the most efficient and suitable way to exploit the changing environments of rangelands.

In most intensive systems, animals are kept with the main objective of achieving the highest production levels possible of different animal products. This system has the following characteristics:

• A lot of feeds are purchased, including concentrates. Fodder is also produced using high quantities of synthetic fertilizer to achieve quick growth.
• Synthetic medicines and antibiotics are routinely used to avoid animal infections.
• High efficiency breeds are mostly targeted.
• Farm nutrient cycles are often not closed; manure turns to be a waste product instead of a fertilizer.
• Large numbers at high stocking rates are kept, with limited space for exercise and exhibiting other innate behaviours.