A Simmental cow at a cattle farming and breeding base in Huichang, Jiangxi, wears an electronic ear tag, which can record and upload information such as body temperature and the number of steps they walk. [Photos by Zhang Jianxing / For chinadaily.com.cn]
Walking into a cattle farming and breeding base located in Zhoutian town, Huichang county, Central China's Jiangxi province, the sounds of cattle calls echo continuously.
Next to the rows of standardized steel-structured cattle sheds that are like "row apartments", workers are driving feeders along the troughs to distribute forage, and the well-fed and robust Simmental cattle, a breed that was introduced into China from Europe back in the early 20th century, are leisurely chewing with their heads lowered.
"Each cow wears an electronic ear tag, which can record and upload information such as body temperature and the number of steps they walk. Once the body temperature exceeds 39.5 C, which is believed to be the upper limit of normal body temperature for cattle, the system will sound an alarm, so that our workers and doctors can help reduce economic losses by taking measures immediately to treat the animal and prevent its situation from worsening," said Liu Wei, the owner of the base.
In recent years, amid the rural revitalization campaign, relying on its original industrial foundation and resources, Huichang has expanded the scale of beef cattle breeding, extended the industrial chain, and promoted the high-quality development of the beef cattle industry.
According to Wang Yun, head of the animal husbandry station in Zhoutian town, people in Huichang have kept the tradition of raising cattle thanks to the local rich resources for cattle forage.
Workers at the base feed forage to the cattle. [Photos by Zhang Jianxing / For chinadaily.com.cn]
"Because of the county's hilly terrain, most of the land in Huichang is fragmented, which might be bad news for large-scale cultivation of rice, but on the other hand, forming an advantage to the plantation of grass, which acts as a major part of cattle forage," he said.
For this reason, in the county's history, almost every peasant household raised cattle, with the cattle population in Zhoutian town alone reaching 10,000 heads at its peak, although the town only had a few hundreds of peasant households, Wang said.
"Meanwhile, Huichang was also a center for live cattle trading, with many drovers being active here, buying the animal from local farmers and selling to customers in adjacent provinces such as Guangdong and Fujian provinces, where the quality of Huichang cattle won widespread recognition," Wang said.
Over the past few years, with local government's resolution to integrating existing resources, tapping potentials and seeking high-quality development for traditional industries, the transformation from traditional cattle farming and breeding to large-scale, standardized beef cattle industry has been put on agenda and has made steady progress.
With local authorities' help, a complete industry chain supported mainly by beef cattle breeding, trading and slaughtering, as well as beef processing and sales has been basically formed in Huichang.
Attracted by Huichang's location, resources and local government's supportive policies, Liu, the base owner who used to operate a foreign trade business in Shanghai, started investments in beef cattle breeding in Zhoutian last year.
A group of Simmental cattle have forage in their sheds. [Photos by Zhang Jianxing / For chinadaily.com.cn]
"Currently, we have more than 500 heads of beef cattle at the base, and plan to increase the number to 1,000 this year, as well as 1,500 heads to become full grown and ready for slaughter", he said, adding that the business revenue is expected to reach 40 million yuan ($5.5 million) if these goals are met .
The bright prospects are also luring more business people such as Liu to engage in beef cattle industry and in return boosting the further development of the industry, Wang said.
According to local agricultural authorities, Huichang saw a total of 63,300 heads of beef cattle sold in 2023, marking a 14.2 percent increase year on year. By the end of last year, the stock of beef cattle in the county reached 86,800, up 16.8 percent from the previous year.
During the same time period, the overall output value of the entire beef cattle industry chain reached 2.5 billion yuan, making it a leading industry among the county's agriculture and a pillar industry for increasing local people's income, local officials said.
Zhang Jianxing in Huichang, Jiangxi contributed to this story.
