Livestock Geography and Pastoralism

The global distribution of livestock reflects a mix of climate, land availability, market demand, and cultural or religious practice as much as raw agronomic potential. Brazil holds the world's largest commercial cattle herd, numbering more than 220 million head according to Brazilian government agricultural statistics, grazed extensively across the savanna grasslands of the Cerrado and, more controversially, on land cleared from Amazonian rainforest for pasture. India, by contrast, has long held one of the world's largest total cattle populations, yet produces relatively little beef for domestic consumption because cows hold sacred status in Hinduism and their slaughter is legally restricted in most Indian states; instead, India's cattle and buffalo herds are overwhelmingly oriented toward milk production, and dairy cooperatives organized under the "Operation Flood" program, launched in 1970 under the leadership of the agricultural engineer Verghese Kurien, made India the world's largest milk producer by volume by the late 1990s, surpassing the United States.