How can specialized markets help drive the development of animal husbandry

On November 29, southern Xinjiang's largest livestock gathering and distribution center - the Baicheng County livestock and forage trading market built with aid from Wenzhou, Zhejiang - began trial operations. According to statistics, on the day of the trial operation, the number of traders reached more than 1,000, the livestock trading volume reached 4,000 head (animals), and the transaction amount exceeded 5 million yuan, welcoming a "good start" for the trading market!

For an experienced herder, he may be proficient in how to graze livestock, know what kind of forage is better, and know how to raise livestock more efficiently. But if the local area lacks a fair, just, well-managed and well-serviced livestock and forage trading market, then he may face the awkward situation of "having all the skills but being unable to become rich." After all, no matter how good the forage is or how much livestock there is, profits can only be obtained through market transactions. For farmers and herders in Baicheng County, Xinjiang, and the surrounding areas, this was the situation they faced in the past.

In fact, after years of development, the local animal husbandry industry had already begun to take shape, but because the construction of the trading market lagged relatively behind, herders faced too many intermediate links in transactions and excessively high transaction costs. As a result, the price of beef and mutton remained high, which in turn reduced the market competitiveness of local livestock products and led to herders "increasing production without increasing income." It can be said that the long-term existence of this problem has seriously affected the enthusiasm of local farmers and herders to expand the scale of livestock and poultry breeding, troubled the sound and healthy development of the local animal husbandry industry, and made it even less possible to make the animal husbandry industry bigger and stronger.

With the trial operation of the new livestock and forage trading market, all the drawbacks and problems mentioned above will be alleviated. Surrounding herders and merchants freely conduct transactions in livestock and forage in this trading market with a huge scale, first-class service, reasonable prices, and rich variety of livestock breeds, depicting a path to prosperity through animal husbandry full of hope. In fact, for most farmers and herders, it is not that they do not know the importance of livestock trading markets, but this is not something that can be accomplished by relying on the strength of just a few households. The completion and operation of the Baicheng County livestock and forage trading market can be said to have given local farmers and herders a great deal of help.

For animal husbandry, which has long moved beyond the "small-scale peasant economy" and embarked on the path of marketization, the livestock trading market is the concrete embodiment of the marketization of animal husbandry, from which one can glimpse the degree of marketization of the local animal husbandry industry and whether it is healthy. From this perspective, the old and new livestock trading markets in Baicheng County form a sharp contrast. The old market had simple facilities, backward management, and non-public and non-transparent transaction prices, and had already become an obstacle in the process of marketization of the local animal husbandry industry, while the new market, because of its complete facilities, adequate management, and public prices, has won unanimous welcome from farmers and herders and become an important force promoting the healthy development of the local animal husbandry industry.