Career Opportunities in Animal Husbandry and their Salaries

Check out some Career Opportunities in Animal Husbandry. Also, this article gives a brief description of these careers and their salaries.

Animal husbandry is one of the promising careers in agriculture. It is a branch of agriculture that involves the application of science and technology for the breeding, rearing, and management of animals, majorly domestic animals.

The reason behind raising or breeding animals can vary, from feeding the animals themselves or their products, to sales, raw materials, or research.

Furthermore, The field of animal husbandry is essential for humans and the practice has been in existence long enough as the days of the early men. The field became prominent in the neolithic era with advancements in technology and education causing it to improve.

We have two ways animal husbandry can be practiced which are extensive and intensive. The intensive kind of animal husbandry is practiced on a small scale and it does not require capital as much as the extensive practice of animal husbandry.

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The animals in the extensive kind of practice are many and housed in a large area of land. In addition, Extensive animal husbandry is much more on the side of commercialization rather than sustenance.

Types of Animal Husbandry

The types of animal husbandry available include the following:

Poultry Farming
Fish Farming (Aquaculture)
Bee Farming (Apiculture)
Diary Farming

Poultry Farming

This concern the rearing and breeding of livestock animals such as hens, turkeys, pigeons, ducks, peacock, guinea fowls, and peacocks for their eggs or flesh.

Fish Farming

This aspect of animal husbandry is concerned with the activities put together to tend to fish.

Bee Farming

This is an animal husbandry practice of rearing and caring for bees for their honey production and pollination.

Diary Farming

This is the practice of raising animals that produce milk. The milk can be further processed to make other products such as cheese, and yogurts.

Why is Animal Husbandry Important

Animal husbandry is essential for the following reasons.

Source of Income: Animal husbandry can be a major source of getting revenue through exports for an individual and the nation as a whole.
Food: Humans depend majorly on plants and animals and as such, that is a need that animal husbandry helps supply.
Raw Materials: The body and products from the animals are used as raw materials to process other products.
Manure: The excreta of farm animals is a good source of nutrients for plants because they can be used as manure.
Care of the Environment: Animal husbandry helps curtail some activities done in an improper way when dealing with animals such as animal waste disposal and overgrazing.

Career Opportunities in Animal Husbandry

When we discuss careers in animal husbandry, there are many to talk about. For the sake of brevity, we will look at a few of them in this post. In addition, we will explore the duties and the salaries too.

Some of the Career opportunities in Animal Husbandry are:

Animal Technician
Animal Breeder
Beekeeper
Nutritionist

Animal Technician

Most Animal technicians are responsible for the upkeep of the animals on the farm and other assigned duties. The main goal of an animal technician is to ensure that the animals are living in a good environment and properly tend to.

However, animal technicians do not work only on the farm, they also work in animal shelters and veterinary clinics.

Duties of an Animal Technician

The duties of an animal technician include the following:

Keep tabs on the health of the animals being held and report any changes to the proper authority daily
Keep an eye on the physical surroundings, paying attention to air pressure, humidity, temperature, and other elements to ensure they don’t have an impact on the animals’ living circumstances.
Change and clean cages, tools, water bottles, and food trays/racks daily
Accountable for the preventative upkeep of the hardware and supplies at the animal facility
Perform a monthly sanitization of the facility and its equipment
Maintain precise records of the animals, supplies, and equipment in your inventory.
Provide employees with level-appropriate training and instruction on animal care and room cleaning practices.
Collaborate on animal care decisions and supply purchases with the unit manager or supervisor.

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Salary

Following the reports from ZipRecruiter, the average salary of an animal husbandry technician is $40,578 per year.

Animal Breeder

Animal breeders specialize in the selective rearing of animals based on specific desirable traits.

The job of animal breeding involves helping to maintain those desirable traits and how they can be reproduced. For excellence in the field, an animal breeder must understand genetics and genetic engineering.

Duties of an Animal Breeder

Provide the animals with the nutrients they need and keep an eye on them.
Use artificial insemination to get the desired outcomes.
Keep an eye on the chosen animals to make sure they are not susceptible to illnesses and infections as the breeding process progresses.
Make post-birth observations to keep an eye on the animals’ development.
Conduct analysis to create novel breeding methods
Check the facilities to make sure they adhere to safety and hygiene requirements.
Administer immunizations and treatments to animals.
Organize breeding records, including pedigree documents and medical information.

Salary

According to the salary reports from CareerExplorer, the average salary of an animal breeder is $40,090 per year.

Beekeeper

A beekeeper deals with bees; they house bees in artificial hives where they are properly taken care of all through their life cycle.

Duties of a Beekeeper

Perform installation, relocation, and removal of beehives.
Maintain records of the inventory’s tools and supplies.
provide medications safely and effectively.
Facilitate client honey extraction
Get rid of pests and parasites near the hive.
Keep an eye on the queen bee’s activities in the hives and eliminate the queen’s dead cells.

Salary

As per Payscale’s salary survey, the average salary of a beekeeper is $41,905.

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Animal Nutritionist

An animal nutritionist evaluates dietary plans for animals to ensure they provide the necessary nutritional nourishment. Also, they assist in the formulation of feeds combining different nutritional elements

Duties of an Animal Nutritionist

Review formulas to ensure the ingredients are in a balanced ratio and provide the essential requirements. In addition, they also ensure that the feed cost is cost-effective.
Provide technical support and training for farmers and staff
Monitor the performance of the feed to verify whether they meet the standards
Stay up-to-date on new technologies.
Provide advice on nutrition to farmers, animal owners, and vets.

Salary

A survey conducted by Salary.com puts the average salary of an animal nutritionist in a year is $76,038.

Final Notes on Career Opportunities in Animal Husbandry

Animal husbandry is a branch of agriculture that involves raising and breeding animals for a variety of purposes. The aforementioned are only a few of the plethora of opportunities available in animal husbandry.

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