Animal husbandry is an important part of agriculture and the main source of human animal food. The per capita possession of livestock products in industrial countries is one of the main indicators reflecting the degree of national development and measuring people's living standards. In recent years, with China's entry into WTO and the deepening of agricultural restructuring, animal husbandry has become the focus of agricultural development in China. Animal husbandry without mechanization, like a car without an internal combustion engine, can't keep up with the pace of modern economic development.

1. It is inevitable that animal husbandry will become the focus of agricultural development.

The development of agricultural economy has promoted the development of animal husbandry.

In recent years, the development of China's planting industry is increasingly restricted by cultivated land and market, and the benefit growth is weak, which weakens the motivation of farmers to increase their income. Finding new economic growth points for increasing farmers' income and agricultural development has become a very prominent problem at present. After China's entry into WTO, agriculture will be opened to the outside world in a wider scope and in a deeper degree, and the market of agricultural and sideline products will be impacted. However, the production of livestock products still has a certain price advantage because of its high labor intensity. Therefore, it has become the central task of agricultural work in China to vigorously develop animal husbandry, connect with the international market, actively promote the strategic adjustment of agricultural and rural economic structure, and strive to increase farmers' income.

1.2 The market demand of animal husbandry products shows that there is still a lot of room for the development of animal husbandry.

With the improvement of people's income and living standards, the proportion of animal food in the dietary structure of urban and rural residents has gradually increased, and the demand for leather products and down products has also increased rapidly. Although the output of livestock products in China is huge, there is still a big gap between the per capita possession and developed countries. The per capita consumption of meat in Denmark is 380kg, while that in China is only 48.2kg, that in the Netherlands is 4 1kg, and that in China is only 17kg. New Zealand's milk per capita is 2842.5kg, while China's is only 8.7kg. In industry, the export volume of products processed from animal products is also increasing year by year, such as leather and its products, down and its products.

1.3 The national policy supports the development of animal husbandry and points out the development direction.

200 1 the State Council forwarded the opinions of the Ministry of Agriculture on accelerating the development of animal husbandry, and put forward the development goals and measures of modern animal husbandry. In the future development of animal husbandry, we should further improve the scientific and technological content of animal husbandry, vigorously develop efficient animal husbandry, take the road of mechanized development, and accelerate the modernization of animal husbandry in China, so as to better adapt to the strict requirements of the international market for animal husbandry products after China's entry into WTO and improve international competitiveness.

2. Mechanization can play an important role in promoting the rapid development of animal husbandry

2. 1 The level and function of animal husbandry mechanization in developed countries.

The rapid development of animal husbandry mechanization in developed countries in Europe and America began in 1950s and 1960s, and by 1970s, the level of animal husbandry mechanization was already quite high. The main mechanized equipment for livestock and poultry are: grassland construction mechanization, forage harvesting mechanization, feed processing mechanization and livestock and poultry feeding mechanization, in which the feeding mechanization includes all kinds of livestock and poultry feeding, water supply, manure cleaning and manure treatment, livestock and poultry houses and their environmental control, and livestock and poultry product collection and primary processing. The wide application of these machines has greatly reduced the labor intensity of farmers, improved labor productivity and increased the income of animal husbandry. In forage production, the proportion of artificial grassland area to grassland area is large, generally above 10%, and in some countries with small total area, the proportion is as high as 60%. In these high-quality and high-yield artificial grasslands, the efficiency of machines can be fully exerted, and forage silage ensures the food supply of livestock all year round. In feed processing, feed processing plants in Europe and America are developing towards large-scale and production process automation. For example, the feed industry in the United States ranks ninth among the top ten industries, and the labor productivity is more than 6,000 tons per person per year. In the aspect of feeding mechanization, farms are developing to scale and specialization, and mechanized feeding is more common, which greatly improves labor productivity. Take the United States as an example From 1930s to 1970s, the labor productivity of livestock and poultry products increased, as shown in the table.

Table labor productivity of livestock and poultry products

Types of pigs (working hours/100kg meat), broilers (working hours/100kg meat), turkeys (working hours/100kg meat), cows (working hours/100kg milk) and beef (working hours//kloc)

1935- 1939 labor productivity of livestock and poultry products 7.0418.752.17.48 9.24

1970- 1974 labor productivity of livestock and poultry products 2.2 0.661.761.32 3.74

Note: Source: American Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics, 1975.

2.2 The role of animal husbandry mechanization in the development of animal husbandry in China.

At present, China's animal husbandry is still dominated by one small and medium-sized farm. Mechanization of animal husbandry can free farmers from the heavy manual labor of aquaculture, so that they have more time and energy to expand the scale of aquaculture, which not only improves labor productivity, but also promotes the level of family farming with farmers' investment, continuously improves the scientific and technological content of aquaculture, improves product quality, enhances market competitiveness and increases farmers' income. With the continuous expansion of aquaculture scale, the utilization rate of facilities and equipment is improved, and the amortization of facilities and equipment costs per unit product is reduced, thus reducing production costs. Animal husbandry will enter a virtuous circle of sustainable development.

We take milking equipment as an example to illustrate the benefits of mechanization: machine milking is a major production link in mechanized dairy farms. If it is done by hand, it takes about 12 minutes for each cow to milk, and each person can only milk 4-5 cows per working hour. The average annual milk yield per head is about 5000 kg, and milking three times a day will account for 40% of the total workload, so the hygienic quality of milking is difficult to guarantee. The machine can milk each cow for 5-7 minutes, which can save half the time. For example, in a well-designed milking workshop, 70-80 cows can be milked every working hour. At the same time, it can ensure the hygienic quality of dairy products and the health of dairy cows, reduce labor intensity, improve labor productivity and increase the output of dairy cows. Take a single barrel milking machine as an example. The price of each milking machine is 2600 yuan. According to the calculation of 10 adult cows, only the purchase cost is shared in 260 yuan. In terms of cost, each milking machine milks three times a day, with electricity consumption of 1.5 degrees and electricity expenditure of 0.75 yuan. The annual expenditure of spare parts is within 50 yuan. Because of saving labor costs and improving the quality of milk, the average head income can't be less than that of 200 yuan. If the milk yield of each cow increases by 150kg, the income can be increased by about 225 yuan, and the total income can be increased by 425 yuan. After deducting 33 yuan for mechanical depreciation and direct expenses (27 yuan for electricity and 5 yuan for spare parts), the annual net income of scalpers can increase by 36 yuan.

2.3 Vigorously develop processing equipment for animal husbandry products and actively promote the industrialized operation of animal husbandry.

China's meat production ranks first in the world, but the output value of meat processing industry is less than 63 billion yuan, accounting for only 8. 1% of the output value of food industry, and the processing volume of poultry eggs only accounts for about 1% of the total output, and the output value is less than 1 100 million yuan. Modern livestock products processing enterprises are the bridge connecting production and market, and thousands of farmers' family farming must rely on leading processing enterprises to better enter the market. At the same time, processing can also effectively promote the value-added of livestock products. For example, slaughtering slaughtered livestock in the producing area can not only reduce feed consumption, but also avoid death and fat loss caused by long-distance transportation and reduce economic losses. The initial processing of pigs can increase the value by 30%~50%, and the finishing processing can increase the value by more than 1 times; The added value of cooked chicken products can be 3-5 times or even higher than that of raw meat products. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce, develop, research and popularize the post-harvest processing equipment of animal husbandry in accordance with the standards of modernization and internationalization, so as to lay the foundation for the formation of an industrialized chain of sharing the benefits of breeding, processing and sales, promote the development of animal husbandry production links to a wider range of fields, and improve the overall economic benefits of animal husbandry.

3. Concluding remarks

Through the above analysis, we can see that there is still a lot of room for the development of animal husbandry mechanization. Our city is located in the economically developed eastern coastal area. As an old municipality directly under the central government, animal husbandry developed earlier, and it is also at the forefront of the country in technology. Cage chicken raising, small-scale pig raising and factory dairy farming are all famous in China. The development of animal husbandry for many years has also trained a large number of technical talents. This favorable climate, geographical location and humanistic environment have created favorable conditions for the rapid development of animal husbandry mechanization in our city. We should seize this favorable situation and actively promote the development of animal husbandry mechanization.