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Livestock

Livestock are domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. Livestock are defined as being useful animals; which implies a commercial purpose, or being reared for financial gain. However, in recent years, livestock are also raised to promote the survival of rare breeds, leading to many charities being formed around this issue.

Livestock are raised for profit or conservation of rare breeds. Raising animals (animal husbandry) is a component of modern agriculture. It has been practiced in many cultures since the transition to farming from hunter-gather lifestyles.

Etymology and Legal Definition

Livestock as a word was first used between 1650 and 1660, as a merger between the word live and stock.

Older English sources, such as the King James Version of the Bible, refer to livestock in general as "cattle", as opposed to the word "deer", which then was used for wild animals which were not owned. The word cattle is derived from Old North French catel, which meant all kinds of movable personal property, including livestock, which was differentiated from non-movable real-estate ("real property"). In later English, sometimes smaller livestock was called "small cattle" in that sense of movable property on land, which was not automatically bought or sold with the land. Today, the modern meaning of "cattle", without a modifier, usually refers to domesticated bovines (see Cattle), however, in some cases livestock can mean cattle. The modern definition of livestock is useful animals kept on a farm.