Crop farming and livestock farming

Livestock farming consists of cattle, sheep, horse breeding, sericulture and poultry farming; it also includes beekeeping, fish farming and pig farming. Most agricultural land consists of pastures used for livestock. In deserts and steppes karakul sheep and camels are kept: karakul sheep give pelts, wool and meat, and camels are used as working animals and for wool and milk. On the pastures of mountains and foothills sheep, fine-down goats and meat-and-milk cattle are kept, and horse breeding is also developed. Cattle are kept in almost all regions for meat and milk. Horses are more numerous in Samarkand, Kashkadarya, Khorezm and Karakalpakstan; once used in field work, they are now kept for sport, private farms and meat. Sericulture is tied to cotton growing: mulberry trees are grown at field edges and along canals and roads, silkworms are raised in April–May when field work is light. Poultry farms give meat and eggs; fish are bred in Tashkent, Bukhara, Khorezm and Karakalpakstan. Livestock is linked with cotton growing through cottonseed cake and alfalfa.