Welcome to the Chapin Livestock Supplements webpage

We have nothing to sell!

This webpage is a gift to all people interested in increasing the efficiency of animal production in developing countries. Our goal is to supply certain specific applied technical information to livestock producers so that they can improve their standard of living and that of their fellow citizens. There is a beneficial multiplier effect that accrues to suppliers, livestock producers, processors, distributors and consumers when the efficiency of animal production is improved. In most all cases, limited resources can be allocated more efficiently so as to produce greater value - higher Gross Domestic Product (GNP) - when known techniques for modern animal production are implemented. The ultimate objective and justification for improved livestock production is to increase the availability of affordable, wholesome food while being environmentally sensitive.

The incentive that powers people to work to achieve this objective is profit. Men and women working in a democratic, capitalistic free enterprise environment will allocate resources more efficiently and will produce more value from limited resources than people working in a centrally planned economy. Economic issues are discussed in some of the papers, so with the previous statements you will know my biases.

Knowledge needs to be disseminated and applied. The idea for this webpage generates from my desire to improve the dissemination of technical information written from experiences gained while working in developing countries as either a volunteer or as a consultant on various international development programs sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). My work for USAID has been through non-governmental organizations (NGO's) such as Land O'Lakes, ACDI/VOCA, Winrock International, Mercy Corp., Chemonics (Kosovo Business Support) and CARE International. Too often this material, which is expensive to gather and laborious to record, write and translate, does not see the light of day. What better way to make it available to others than on the World Wide Web where anyone with a computer and web access can view it. We feel we are at the cutting edge of information technology (IT), taking advantage of the Internet to reach animal production people in developing countries who historically have labored without adequate knowledge resources. Hooray!

People speak different languages. While I wrote the material in the only language I know - English - , my associate, Bohdan Soltys ([email protected]), has translated the material into Russian and Ukrainan to increase the number of potential readers. Each topic is cross-linked to these three languages, so choose the one that suits you. Others in Malawi, Kosovo, Bangladesh, etc. may translate it into native tongues so that more people can read, understand and apply it. This webpage has been designed and assembled by Lyubomyr Oliynyk ([email protected]). Bohdan and Lyubomyr live in L'viv, Ukraine, which was my home for several years. We hope you will benefit from using this material. Comments are welcome. Roy Chapin ([email protected]).