ABSTRACT
About 50% of Latin America produces a kind of vegetation that can only be harvested by animals and converted into products usable by man. These are the region's rangelands, which some would classify as woodland ranges. Ranges provide nearly all of the nutrients consumed by 267 million head of cattle, 17 million sheep, 29 million goats (FAO, 1981), around 4 million alpacas and llamas (Fernandez-Baca, 1975), and an unknown number of wildlife. Cattle are by far the most numerous and about 86% of them are in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela (FAO, 1981).
