The question is: why does a person breed mainly herbivores?

Since ancient times people have tamed some animals and are engaged in cattle breeding. But here's the question: why does a person plant mostly herbivores? We can say that historically it happened. But in fact, there are reasons for that, rather strong.

Predators - tough meat

Why do people plant mostly herbivores? Originally, in the extreme antiquity, man domesticated some animals with the goals of eating meat as a meal. As is known, in carnivores meat is stiffer and unpleasant to taste. Preferred in this respect are herbivores and omnivores. And this is one of the reasons.

"By-Products"

In addition, from herbivores (for example, cows, goats, sheep), you can get food without killing the animal itself. We are talking about fermented milk - kefir, cheese, cottage cheese - and milk itself. Not to mention such valuable elements as wool, used for making clothes.

Food chain

Why does a person breed mostly herbivores? Just predators contain economically unprofitable. There is a food chain (the organisms of the subsequent link are eaten by the organisms of the previous link), where the carnivores are on the upper steps. And as you know, when you go through a given chain, matter and energy are lost.

For example, to feed (conditionally) one kilogram of an animal feeding on vegetation, you need to use five kilograms of corn. For predatory - in the same proportions you need five kilograms of meat, which equals 25 kilograms of corn! And this is another reason why a person breeds mainly herbivores.

Moreover, for the feeding of some species, natural pastures created by nature itself have long been used. They feed on these fauna mainly grass, hay, young foliage, therefore, their food costs a person much cheaper. And as a result - the cost of meat is reduced.

On the example of fish farming

In order to better understand the above, let us turn to fish farming on an industrial scale. Why do people give preference to herbivorous fish here? If you locate all the inhabitants of the reservoirs according to the principle of nutrition, you will get a food chain, where each link is the feed for the next one. Water vegetation - invertebrate animals - fish. Phytophagous fish will be the end product of this short food chain.

And for fish predators, for comparison, the chain lengthens: water vegetation - invertebrates - benthos (those organisms that live in the bottom ground) - small fish - predators-fish. Considering that, at the same time, the cost of energy for obtaining the final product is greatly enhanced, it becomes clear why a person breeds primarily herbivorous animals (in this case, fish). In addition, they grow faster, gain weight faster than predators.