and cattle are kept by smallholder farmers in mixed
crop-livestock systems. Such integrated farming sys-tems are primarily practiced to generate adequate in-come, provide food security for family members as well
as manage and conserve natural resources for a sus-tainable agricultural production (Devendra & Thomas,
2002c; Na-Chiangmai, 2002; Devendra, 2000). Most of
the livestock farms are small-scale in terms of farmed
area and herd size with an average number of 4.8 buf-faloes and 6.8 beef cattle per household in 2008, respec-tively. Northeast Thailand hosts 74 % of the buffaloes
and 54 % of the beef cattle of the country (DLD, 2008).
These beef animals are mainly raised under extensive
grazing and are fed with crop residues (Saisoong, 1989).