Concentrated animal feeding operation
In animal husbandry, a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an intensive animal feeding operation (AFO) in which over 1,000 animal units are confined for over 45 days a year. An animal unit is the equivalent of 1,000 pounds of "live" animal weight. A thousand animal units equates to 700 dairy cows, 1,000 meat cows, 2,500 pigs weighing more than 55 pounds (25 kg), 10,000 pigs weighing under 55 pounds, 10,000 sheep, 55,000 turkeys, 125,000 chickens, or 82,000 egg laying hens or pullets.
Smithfield Foods hog CAFO, Unionville, Missouri, 2013
Chicken farms are considered CAFOs and have their own capacity thresholds.
The anaerobic lagoon at California Polytechnic State University's dairy
Manure discharge from CAFOs like this one can negatively impact water quality.
Intensive animal farming, industrial livestock production, and macro-farms, also known as factory farming, is a type of intensive agriculture, specifically an approach to animal husbandry designed to maximize production while minimizing costs. To achieve this, agribusinesses keep livestock such as cattle, poultry, and fish at high stocking densities, at large scale, and using modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption. There are issues regarding whether intensive animal farming is sustainable in the social long-run given its costs in resources. Analysts also raise issues about its ethics.
Hens in Brazil
Pigs confined to a barn in an intensive system, Midwestern United States
Beef cattle on a feedlot in the Texas Panhandle. Such confinement creates more work for the farmer but allows the animals to grow rapidly.
Blue mussels cultivated in proximity to Atlantic salmon in the Bay of Fundy, Canada