Livestock population and Demographics
The Module 1 of LIMS is about the estimation of a Livestock population in a given area or zone. It provides various ways of breaking down the national flock composition (four templates in total).
One of the options is to give the figures of the livestock population by age and sex , meaning using a "demographic" structure for a given species. This type of breakdown is often found as an input to demographic models of ruminants populations. Therefore the study aimed at guiding the APVM & GR sub committee and the EIS sub committee when using such data, i.e. pursuing their own purpose.
We shall thank a few specific Member States (Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia and Malawi) which provided examples of data and methodologies used in their respective countries, to the demographer recruited to analyse the data and make recommendations.
Other data and information sets were provided through PRINT which gathered relevant national documents during the situation analysis of countries.
Demographic modelling chart
The mission had the following general objectives:
- To improve the methodological aspects of the collection and use of LIMS demographic data collected at Dip Tank / Crush Pen level (DT/CP model) in SADC Member States and at SADC regional level;
- To enhance the capability of national livestock departments to understand the characteristics of their own animal population based on DT/CP data;
- To appraise data quality & completeness and therefore to improve the further interpretation and use of study results using similar quantitative data.
The mission focused on the ruminant livestock (cattle, sheep, goats) and the LIMS “dipping tank/crush pen” (DT/CP) data collection system.
The mission is a technical support to the SADC Sub-Committee on Animal Production Veld, Marketing & Genetic resources and to the Sub-Committee on Epidemiology and Informatics regarding their advisory role in the generation and use of quality data on livestock ruminants populations.
The recommendations of the consultant have been scrutinized with a view to identifying those that can be addressed through means available to the PRINT Livestock Project or sisters projects at SADC and those that require additional support (possibly from other donors).
- Report
The report and its annexes are here:
Report_PRINT_demography
- Toolkit for modelling an animal population (ruminants)
In that context, CIRAD (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) and ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) have recently developed DYNMOD, a simple tool (based on MS Excel) for simulating demography of tropical ruminant livestock populations.
DYNMOD was developed under Microsoft® Office Excel 2003. The tool is intended for operational or educational uses. It can be used by researchers, engineers and technicians of national services, development professionals or students dealing with demography of tropical ruminant livestock (cattle, small ruminants and camels), in various fields such as animal science, genetics, epidemiology, or economy.
The consultancy recommends all users to refer to the DYNMOD Excel modelling files and handbook (here), which details the demographic mathematical equations and the parameters used in the model and describes different simple case-studies.
The DynMOD manuals updates (as described in the report) will be also freely downloadable from the following FTP address
If you wish to use sophisticated demographic models and tools , please connect to the following address. The site provides for several tools to estimate and simulate livestock production in tropical countries.
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