A full analysis of the ecological emission-reduction roadmap for a single sheep
How can a single sheep achieve higher output and greater efficiency while also being green and environmentally friendly?
Recently, at the "Sheep Green Yield and Efficiency Enhancement Technology Integration On-Site Observation Event" held by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Yongchang County, Gansu Province, researchers gave the answer: a collaborative research team led by the institute's Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences and formed with multiple departments, units, and experts established a technology research, development, and extension platform combining industry, academia, research, and government under the model of "research institutes + local government + enterprises + specialized cooperatives." In the Sunan County demonstration area in Gansu, they integrated 8 efficient new technologies, including Alpine Merino sheep selection and improvement and crossbreeding improvement technology, which can raise the average daily weight gain of sheep in pastoral areas to 233 g, increase the twin lambing rate by 14%, and add 174 yuan in income per sheep (meat and wool); moreover, pollution during the breeding process is controllable, and sheep manure can achieve zero emissions.
"In addition to the 8 core technologies for green yield and efficiency enhancement of sheep in pastoral areas, we also integrated 8 core technologies for green yield and efficiency enhancement across the entire industrial chain of mutton sheep in agricultural areas. These technologies have already been promoted and applied in production. High-yielding breeds such as the new Alpine Merino sheep breed and Hu sheep have laid a solid foundation for the development of the sheep industry in the demonstration area. The project has also made breakthrough progress in adjusting the sheep industry structure, transforming and upgrading production methods, maintaining grassland ecological balance, and improving quality and efficiency." said Researcher Yang Bohui of the Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, chief scientist of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences' Sheep Green Yield and Efficiency Enhancement Technology Integration and Demonstration Project and the lead unit, who also combined crop cultivation with livestock breeding and linked resources with the ecological environment. Among them, key technologies such as biological treatment of crop straw for feed and the two-stage solid-liquid high-efficiency biogas and organic fertilizer fermentation process have formed an ecological green circular whole-industrial-chain model of "integrated planting, breeding, processing, and sales" for mutton sheep production in agricultural areas, driving quality and efficiency improvement of commercial sheep in the demonstration area.
Technology integration
8 core technologies achieve cost savings and efficiency gains in the sheep industry
For a long time, China's sheep industry in pastoral areas has followed the traditional and backward production method of "relying on nature to raise livestock and grazing in all four seasons," with extensive feeding and management and little manual intervention during the feeding process. In particular, ewes are not manually intervened with for weaning after lambing. As a result, summer pastures face great pressure and serious overloading, lambs grow slowly, the sale price at market is low, ewes recover body condition slowly, the empty pregnancy rate at breeding time that year is high, and the lambing rate and lamb survival rate the following year are low.
"Extensive feeding and management, low ewe lambing rates, long lactation periods, slow lamb growth, long feeding cycles, low market rates, and low breeding benefits were once problems we faced." Sunan Yugur Autonomous County in Gansu Province is a major mutton sheep breeding county primarily based on grassland animal husbandry and is a representative and advantageous area for mutton sheep breeding in the pastoral areas of northwest China. An Yufeng, director of the Huangcheng Sheep Breeding Farm in Sunan County, told reporters that since the launch and implementation of the Sheep Green Yield and Efficiency Enhancement Technology Integration Model Research and Demonstration Project, in order to solve this problem, the Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences joined forces with 8 related institutes of the academy and technical forces in the demonstration area to start from the entire industrial chain of sheep in pastoral areas and integrate 8 efficient new technologies: Alpine Merino sheep selection and improvement and crossbreeding improvement technology, sheep twin pregnancy immunization, "three lambings in two years" and multi-lamb gene testing efficient breeding technology, major disease prevention and control technology, timely lamb weaning technology, grassland fattening lamb grass-measuring formula straight-line fattening technology, mutton slaughtering and cutting processing technology, the "ten unifications" high-quality fine wool standardized production technology, and Internet + green sheep industry in pastoral areas.
"This technology integration comprehensively broke through the technical bottlenecks for green yield and efficiency enhancement of sheep in pastoral areas, highlighted a huge demonstration and radiation-driven role in pastoral areas, reduced the production costs of the sheep industry in pastoral areas, improved its comprehensive benefits, and advanced the development and growth of the sheep industry in pastoral areas." said Yang Zhiqiang, director of the Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
"Taking timely lamb weaning technology in pastoral areas as an example, we ensure colostrum intake within 1 to 3 days of age, start tempting feed training at 10 to 15 days of age, begin supplementary feeding of lamb milk replacer at 15 to 20 days of age, wean at 3 months of age and stop feeding liquid lamb milk replacer, and directly enter the fattening period. At the same time, the ewe breeding time is moved up from the original November to December to September to October, and the lambing time is moved up from the original April to May to February to March." said Niu Chun'e, associate researcher at the Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences. With this technology, the traditional production method in many pastoral areas of China has been changed. Before entering summer pastures each June, lambs reach 3 to 4 months of age and are weaned, which can reduce pressure on summer pastures by about one-third, help ewes recover body condition well, reduce the empty pregnancy rate at breeding by about 10%, and increase the lamb survival rate by about 15%.
The reporter learned during interviews that in the pastoral area of Sunan County, the average daily weight gain of demonstration sheep in the project increased by 103 grams, and the net profit per lamb was 117 yuan. In the agricultural area of Yongchang County, the daily weight gain of fattening mutton sheep also increased by more than 50 grams, costs were reduced by more than 10%, and breeding benefits increased by 15%.
Manure treatment
Small circulation in enterprises, large circulation in the industry, waste turned into resources
The effects of breeding in pastoral areas and agricultural areas are almost in two different directions. Sheep manure is a natural organic fertilizer for pastoral areas, while for agricultural areas, where the commercialization of the breeding industry is relatively high, sheep manure treatment is a very important part of the breeding industry. After all, becoming wealthy through breeding cannot come at the cost of the environment.
"What we call 'green yield and efficiency enhancement' means, first, that the breeding environment is clean, disease prevention and control must comply with national safety production standards, and waste generated during the breeding process cannot have a negative impact on the surrounding environment." Yang Bohui said. Ecological circular agriculture is an effective path for achieving self-consumption of breeding manure while also utilizing it as a resource.
In Yongchang County, Yuansheng Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Technology Co., Ltd. is a company that operates ecological circular agriculture specifically relying on the local mutton sheep industry. "We mainly use straw from local major crops such as wheat, barley, and corn as sheep feed. The sheep manure produced mainly has two destinations. One is use in biogas projects. At present, our biogas project reaches 6,000 cubic meters, and in addition to being used for production and daily life at the plant, it is also supplied to nearby residents as living energy. The other destination is use in making organic fertilizer, and this organic fertilizer is returned for use in planting barley, wheat, corn, alfalfa, and so on. Among these, alfalfa is a high-quality feed that can be used to feed sheep." said Zhang Xiyun, chairman of Yuansheng Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Technology Co., Ltd.
"The use of organic fertilizer is very extensive, and because agricultural areas have used chemical fertilizers for many years, cultivated land quality has declined, and both crop yield and quality have been affected. The production and use of organic fertilizer can both absorb pollution from the breeding industry and provide safe and effective fertilizer for the planting industry." Yang Bohui said.
It is understood that Yongchang County markets about 1.6 million sheep each year, and the sheep manure produced can basically be converted into resources through biogas projects and organic fertilizer production. "We also have 20% of organic fertilizer for external sale, and it is also very popular in the market." Zhang Xiyun said.
Post-production processing
Building a green mutton sheep production model across the entire industrial chain
To achieve economic benefits in the mutton sheep industry, it is also necessary to build the entire industrial chain and realize the organic combination of the industrial chain and the value chain. Yongchang County is one of the major sheep-raising counties in Gansu Province, an advantageous area for mutton sheep breeding, and also a demonstration area for the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences' research on the integrated model of green yield and efficiency enhancement technologies across the entire industrial chain of mutton sheep in agricultural areas. "How to save costs and increase efficiency and improve the competitiveness of the county's mutton sheep industry is a question we have always been thinking about." Liu Ming, deputy county magistrate of Yongchang County, told reporters that in order to improve the competitiveness of the mutton sheep industry, in recent years the Yongchang demonstration area has focused on integrating 8 efficient new integrated technologies, including the optimal crossbreeding combination model of Hu sheep and introduced mutton sheep, feed processing and preparation technology, major disease prevention and control technology, straight-line fattening technology, mutton ice-temperature preservation technology, mutton traceability technology, and biogas and organic fertilizer production technology, achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement in the sheep industry, focusing on building a green mutton sheep production model across the entire industrial chain of "integrated ecological circulation of planting, breeding, processing, and sales" in agricultural areas, making full use of local breed resources, placing equal emphasis on purebred propagation and efficient crossbreeding utilization, improving the utilization rate of high-quality breeding sheep, and driving quality and efficiency improvement in commercial sheep production in the demonstration area.
"To improve the competitiveness of the sheep industry, the key is to grasp new situations emerging in the sheep industry in the new era, such as the pullback of sheep prices from high levels, accelerated recovery of production, a sharp decline in breeding benefits, and greater impact from imports, adhere to a problem-oriented approach, and clarify new ideas for the development of the sheep industry." Li Jinxiang believes that to do this well, four prominent problems must be solved: first, increase the proportion of large-scale breeding and transform backward production methods; second, strengthen the cultivation of specialized breeds and raise production levels; third, improve the comparative benefits of breeding and expand the total number of female livestock raised; fourth, narrow the price gap between domestic and imported sheep and eliminate the impact of imports.
"The sheep industry is an important component of China's herbivorous animal husbandry and holds a very important position in the national strategy for meat safety supply. Mutton production must maintain sustained and stable development. This is required by the overall situation of China's meat safety and social stability." Li Jinxiang believes that in the future, the sustainable and stable development of the sheep industry must closely rely on scientific and technological innovation while exploring a sustainable development path of combining planting and breeding and ecological circulation.