A cattle-raising boom sweeps Gejiu, Yunnan, with the industry gaining strong momentum

Correspondent Xi Zhongchao

Since last year, compared with the "turmoil" in the pig and poultry farming industries, the market for cattle and sheep in Gejiu City has been a standout, and the cattle market in particular has been truly "bullish." Since the start of this year, the beef market in the city has remained strong; live cattle and beef prices are currently around 28 yuan and 64 yuan per kg respectively, and a cow weighing over 500 kg sells for more than 15,000 yuan, with farmers making a profit of around 3,500 yuan per animal raised. The firm beef market makes cattle farmers very proud. "No worry about selling, only about raising enough" is the consensus among many cattle farmers.

Market: This year's "bull market" continues to be "bullish"

Since the start of this year, beef cattle farming in Gejiu City has continued to grow rapidly. The city's beef cattle inventory stands at 50,900 head, up 33.19% year on year; 10,400 head have been slaughtered, up 55.55% year on year; the price of live cattle has reached 28 yuan per kg, up 21.7% year on year; and the price of beef is 64 yuan per kg, up 12.3% year on year.

Surveys show that the price of beef in Gejiu City currently exceeds 60 yuan per kg, an increase of more than 20% year on year, and raising one beef cow yields a profit of around 3,500 yuan, indicating good farming returns.

Market forecast: Beef prices will continue to rise

"As the broader domestic environment changes, consumers are beginning to be willing to spend money on high-quality, higher-priced livestock products, especially grass-fed livestock products such as cattle and sheep, which has given the beef cattle industry tremendous momentum," an industry insider said. As the reputation of broiler chickens and pigs declines, consumers are turning their attention to beef and mutton, and high-quality beef products will see even greater growth. Supported by costs and driven by demand, beef prices will continue to run at a high level for some time to come.

There are three reasons: First, demand is increasing. Changes in people's consumption concepts and dietary structure have led to a marked increase in demand for beef in the market. The pattern in which the growth of beef supply cannot keep up with the growth of household consumption will continue. Second, cattle reproduce slowly and have a long growth cycle, and moreover the state has relatively few support policies for cattle, so beef cattle farming will not grow rapidly in the short term, and beef supply will not see any major breakthrough. Third, feed prices have risen, increasing farming costs, which will drive prices to keep rising. Because beef is in short supply, when returns are good farmers slaughter large numbers of beef cattle and even cows quickly to obtain high profits, leaving Gejiu's current number of breeding cows insufficient, and cattle sources will become even tighter.

Current situation: A cattle-raising boom arrives

In Gejiu, raising pigs and poultry has traditionally been the custom and the popular choice. Few realize, however, that cattle farming has quietly sprung up, and its scale has been steadily expanding without anyone noticing.

As of the first quarter of this year, Gejiu City had 50,900 head of cattle in inventory and 10,400 head of beef cattle slaughtered, 3 doublings more than 10 years ago. The city now has 27 large-scale cattle farms with more than 50 head of beef cattle in inventory, and nearly 10 large-scale cattle farms were added between last year and the first quarter of this year alone.

The project-driven approach has produced remarkable results. Since Gejiu launched the grass-planting and livestock-raising pilot demonstration project in 2001 and the state launched the project on transforming grassland livestock production methods funded by performance evaluation rewards under the grassland ecological protection subsidy and reward mechanism in 2012, some cattle farmers within the project area of Laoyin Mountain in Gejiu have received state project funding support. By developing grass planting and livestock raising, improving infrastructure, and strengthening feeding management and disease prevention and control, they have expanded their own farming scale and results while also driving the rapid development and growth of cattle farmers in the Laoyin Mountain area, playing a positive role in promoting and driving the development of the cattle industry throughout Gejiu City.

At present, the construction of beef cattle farming bases and the development of the beef ganba (dried beef) processing industry in Gejiu City have begun to show results. A number of standardized beef cattle farms and processing enterprises have been built and put into operation, and the city's annual combined output value of beef cattle farming and beef product processing reaches more than 500 million yuan.

Market demand is driving the rapid development of the cattle industry. Because beef prices have been high and returns good in recent years, and market demand is strong, the number of large-scale cattle farmers and cattle farming cooperatives in Gejiu City has continued to increase, accelerating the scale-up and standardization of beef cattle farming. Gejiu City is making every effort to build a beef cattle industry pattern of "the southern mountainous areas providing cattle sources, the northern flatlands processing products, and multiple points, areas and parties providing support," building a circular economy represented by the southern mountainous areas that grows high-quality forage grass and makes full use of crop straw to raise cattle, and a beef ganba processing industry economy represented by Shadian in the northern flatlands, vigorously developing the beef cattle industry.