Animals

Animal production

Animal production systems sit on a line from extensive, where the animal harvests the veld, to intensive, where the farmer brings the feed.

CAPS

Grade 12 · Agricultural Sciences · Animals

Agricultural Sciences splits animals from plants, soil and management.

The papers
Paper 1 is animal nutrition, animal production, reproduction and protection. Paper 2 is soil science, plant studies, and agricultural management. Each paper is 150 marks.
How to write it
Use the farming term, then the reason: a deficient mineral, a symptom, a management practice, and why it changes the yield or the health of the animal. A list with no cause does not explain.
How a marker reads it
A common mix-up is to call any farm with a fence intensive, or to run feedlot numbers on veld.

Data-response questions want you to read the table first. A general paragraph about farming that ignores the numbers scores as if you did not see them.

Diagram

Worked theory

Worked theory. One group of weaners stays on veld. Another enters a feedlot for a short, high-energy finish. The feedlot animals gain faster and reach the abattoir sooner, and the feed bill is the main cost. The veld animals gain slowly, cost less per day, and take longer. If the feed price jumps, the feedlot margin disappears first. If the veld is bare, the extensive group stops gaining. Neither system is “kinder” by definition. Both fail when the feed, whether grass or ration, does not match the number of animals.

More worked examples

Weaners, two gates
Twenty weaners stay on veld and gain about 0.4 kg a day at a low daily cost. Twenty go to a feedlot and gain about 1.5 kg a day, and the feed bill is most of the cost. A jump in maize price wipes the feedlot margin first. A bare camp wipes the veld group first. The breed is the same. The system is the feed, the land and the bill, not the fence.
Five thousand broilers, forty cattle
Five thousand broilers in one house gain fast on bought feed, and one disease can move through the house in days. Forty cattle on 200 hectares gain slower, and the land, not a feed bill, is the main cost. The house uses little land and a lot of capital and risk. The herd uses land and time. Calling both “livestock farming” is true and useless until the feed, the disease and the hectares are in the sentence.

In ordinary words

Extensive beef and wool on large veld need land, a low stocking rate and less daily handling. Intensive systems, such as a feedlot, a dairy parlour or a broiler house, crowd animals, buy feed, and control temperature and disease closely. Intensive production is faster and uses less land per kilogram, and it costs more in feed, housing and health. Extensive production protects cash when feed prices spike, and it fails if the veld is overstocked. The animal’s gut still has to match the system.

In South Africa

A feedlot next to a veld camp, same breed, different feed, is the comparison.

Part 1 / 4

What it is

Animal production systems sit on a line from extensive, where the animal harvests the veld, to intensive, where the farmer brings the feed.

Intensive and extensive animal production — Diagram

More worked examples

Board walkthroughs on this topic. Open one, copy the working, then try the next.

Example 1 / 20

A dairy cow produces 25 ℓ of milk per day for a 305-day lactation. Calculate total yield.

How we got there

Read this like a teacher at the board. We go slowly, name every number, and say why we take each step.

Explain in another language · 11

1. What is the question asking?

Read the question twice. Circle the unknown. Underline every number and unit. The paper is asking: A dairy cow produces 25 ℓ of milk per day for a 305-day lactation. Calculate total yield.

Before any working — hunt first

Given

Numbers and units already in the sentence: 25 · 305. Copy each one into a column. A name without a number is not given.

Missing

After you copy the given, the letter that still has no number is missing. The paper is pointing at: total yield. Circle that word — that is the missing variable.

Find

We are required to find: total yield. Write that as a symbol on the left, with a question mark, before you touch a formula.

Calculate

What we need to calculate: Multiply. Then substitute the given, one line at a time, to get total yield.

In other words — as if you have never seen this before

If you have never seen this before: Multiply. We will name a method in words, write the formula with no numbers, then substitute one line at a time.

2. What do we already know?

25 ℓ × 305 days.

3. Which method — and why this one?

Multiply.

4. Step-by-step working

01 / 08
Step A — Read the question twice
Slow down. Circle the word that names the unknown. Underline every number and its unit. Do not grab a formula yet — first decide what the paper is actually asking.
Why this step: If you can say the method in a sentence, you will pick the right formula. First-timers skip this and grab the first equation they remember.
02 / 08
Step A2 — Hunt: Given, Missing, Find, Calculate
Given: Numbers and units already in the sentence: 25 · 305. Copy each one into a column. A name without a number is not given. Missing: After you copy the given, the letter that still has no number is missing. The paper is pointing at: total yield. Circle that word — that is the missing variable. Find: We are required to find: total yield. Write that as a symbol on the left, with a question mark, before you touch a formula. Calculate: What we need to calculate: Multiply. Then substitute the given, one line at a time, to get total yield.
Why this step: Do not name the letters yet. First hunt: what already has a number (Given), what has no number (Missing), the word the paper wants (Find), and which formula still contains the missing letter (Calculate).
03 / 08
Step B — Write the given in a column
25 ℓ × 305 days.
Why this step: A column with units stops you mixing cm with m, or minutes with seconds. Markers can also see you started correctly.
04 / 08
Step C — Name the method in words
Multiply.
Why this step: If you can say the method in a sentence, you will pick the right formula. First-timers skip this and grab the first equation they remember.
05 / 08
Multiply
25×305=7 625 ℓ.
Why this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.
06 / 08
Step G — Sense-check the size
Ask: is this the kind of number a Grade 10–12 paper would want? A speed of 3 000 ms for a learner walking, or a probability bigger than 1, means a unit or algebra slip. Estimate first: round the numbers and do the sum in your head.
Why this step: Markers write ‘unrealistic’ in the margin when the method is right but the size is wild. A 10-second head check often finds a missing 10² or a unit that never changed.
07 / 08
Step F — Box the answer with its unit
7 625 ℓ per lactation.
Why this step: A number without a unit is half a mark on a Physics paper, and a marker can miss a Maths answer that is buried in working.
08 / 08
Step H — What the marker is looking for
On an NSC memo you usually earn: (1) a method mark for naming the right formula or idea in words, (2) an accuracy mark for substituting the given numbers with units, (3) an accuracy mark for the boxed answer with its unit. Write those three lines even if you are unsure of the arithmetic — blank pages score zero.
Why this step: First-timers chase the final number and leave the method blank. The memo still pays out for the idea and the substitution even when the last line is wrong.

5. The answer

7 625 ℓ per lactation.

Copy onto your answer sheet — in this order

Answer: 7 625 ℓ per lactation.

6. Check it like a marker

Holsteins often exceed 8 000 ℓ.

7. A trap first-timers fall into

First-timers often grab the first formula they remember, mix units (cm with m, minutes with seconds), or drop a minus sign. Write the formula in words first: “this equals that, because…”

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Plant reproduction and protection

Agricultural Sciences

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