Why do farmers produce new breeds of animals?
Activities Explain to pupils that modern farm animals have been bred by humans to have characteristics that are desirable for stock management, or in the food produced. Ask pupils to suggest what particular features may have been desirable in breeding, eg dairy cattle, pigs, beef cattle, sheep, poultry. Remind pupils, eg by showing some examples of pupils’ work, how to make precise links between ideas when they are putting together an explanation or argument, and about skimming texts to see whether they are useful or not. Provide secondary sources of information for pupils to use to find out more about breeds of domestic and farm animals. They could be asked to focus on specific issues, eg how ‘desirable’ features have changed through the ages the origins of domesticated farm animals how desirable features may be very local depending on the environment, such as short-legged sheep for upland hills how some breeds are now no longer used on farms but are still protected to ensure that use
