Christopher Fitzsimons (asker) Feb 16, 2010:

Thank you Thanks to everybody for their helpful suggestions

Bubo Coroman (X) Feb 12, 2010:

the farmers would set aside part of ... their food crops for the animals in a "closed system" (i.e. the farm is self-sufficient) or possibly exchange some of their food crops for animal feed, as in these economies very little money changes hands. Organic farms in the U.K. are encouraged to run as "closed systems" like this because it's more sustainable. In the Welsh mountains the animals are typically fed in winter mainly on hay grown on the farm.

Michelle Temple Feb 12, 2010:

Also see this previous question:
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/real_estate/230...

Subsistence farming refers to farms that produce enough to feed the family and maybe some surplus to put on the market. See: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/i0132e/i0132e08.pdf
Animals are not necessarily penned. Many subsistence farming operations have free range animals or animals that are kept in fenced pastures and rotated or even herded. Feed costs associated with "penned" livestock are high and subsistence farmers in Latin America are often low-income families so livestock are usually put out to graze on pastures whenever possible.

Bubo Coroman (X) Feb 12, 2010:

subsistence farming some possible features of keeping animals in a subsistence farming system:
- fencing is costly and probably prohibitive. If they let the animals roam free they would have to fence in their crops to protect them.
- likewise, if the animals were to roam free the farmers would either have to roam with them (they do this with herds of goats in Tenerife) or the mountainside or wherever they were roaming would have to be fenced. Large areas are costly to fence.
That might be the reason for the pens and as you say Noni, the animals would be chosen to be suitable for penning.
However I only have experience of sheep farming in Wales!

Christopher Fitzsimons (asker) Feb 12, 2010:

Corral Yes, most likely! That was my initial thought also, thanks! :)

Noni Gilbert Riley Feb 12, 2010:

Corral Mistake in the Spanish! My inclination is that they are talking about the kind of animals they are, rather than the method of rearing, but I'm not certain. This would be farmyard animals (British English) - ie goats, pigs, milking cows, chicken, but not cattle for meat or sheep. That selection is of course a European one!