Improving local cattle herds - A direction for sustainable livestock development
(Baonghean) -In recent years, raising buffalo and beef cattle in Nghe An has brought high economic efficiency, contributing to hunger eradication and poverty reduction for many farming households. To develop sustainable buffalo and cattle raising, our province is making efforts to improve the quality of buffalo and cattle breeding herds...
Taking advantage of the district's large area of alluvial land, favorable for grazing and growing grass for raising cows, in recent years, Hung Nguyen has strongly developed large-scale cattle breeding; especially the program to improve and enhance the quality of cattle herds by crossbreeding imported cattle. This program not only improves the size of local buffalo and cow herds, avoiding inbreeding leading to slow development, but also transfers technical advances, bringing high economic efficiency to breeders.
Mr. Bui Long in hamlet 6, Hung Nhan commune, used to raise yellow cows with a total herd of over 10 cows, but the breed was small and had low weight, so the economic efficiency was not high. After the program to improve and enhance the quality of the cow herd, and being supported with semen doses for breeding, his family carried out artificial insemination for 4 local cows.
After 2 years, Mr. Long had 4 crossbred calves, and after only 10 months, the calves were sold for 13 - 15 million VND/head. Mr. Bui Long said: "Previously, my family's "toad" cow raising was not very effective, on average each calf was only sold for 4 - 5 million VND. By 2005, when breeding large-weight laisind cows, the income value was much higher. In 2013 alone, I sold 4 3-month-old cows for nearly 50 million VND". Not only Mr. Long's family, in Hung Nhan many households have exploited the alluvial land along the Lam River, developing cattle and buffalo breeding, especially commercial laisind cows. Currently, Hung Nhan commune has 2,350 cattle and buffaloes, of which laisind cows account for nearly 80%...
Currently, in Hung Nguyen, the movement of raising Sind crossbred cattle for sale is developing strongly in all 9 communes along the Lam River, where there are more than 1,000 hectares of alluvial land. The total herd of buffalo and cattle in the district is currently over 17,000, of which 8,329 are Sind crossbred cattle, accounting for 51.64% of the total herd. Only counting the breeding of Sind crossbred cattle, each year Hung Nguyen supplies the domestic and foreign markets with more than 1,000 tons of meat, worth about 10 billion VND.
Mr. Phan Van Truong - Head of the Department of Agriculture of Hung Nguyen district said: "In recent years, the development of commercial livestock raising has increased rapidly, from 4,513 in 2011 to 8,392 in 2013. In addition to the support of the province, households along the Lam River who raise 10 or more cows will receive 10 million VND in support from the district to build barns; in the middle and outer areas, those raising 5 or more cows will receive 10 million VND in support; in difficult areas (Hung Tay commune, Hung Yen Bac, Hung Yen Nam), in addition to the 100% support for semen doses from the province, the district also provides an additional 70,000 VND/semen dose. To encourage the development of farm and household models, if raising 20 or more cows, the district will receive 20 million VND in support... With reasonable incentive policies, Hung Nguyen is setting a target that the whole district will reach 25,000 laisind cows, reaching 80% of the total herd in 2015".
Implementing the program of improving the herd towards Sindization, along with building a network of grassroots insemination specialists, each year Nghi Loc receives from the province over 1,000 doses of Sind cow semen for artificial insemination for the herd in the communes in the plains. In mountainous and remote communes with difficulties in artificial insemination, the district invests in buying breeding bulls for direct insemination. Up to now, the whole district has over 20,000 Sind crossbred cows, accounting for 70% of the total herd and double that of 2010.
The cattle herd improvement program is implemented in two directions: the communes in the plains focus on developing the Sind crossbred sow herd and raising fattening cattle on a small-scale household scale; the mountainous and semi-mountainous areas develop household raising with a scale of 5-7 cows and form large-scale buffalo and cattle farms. The difficulty in Nghi Loc in developing the Sind crossbred herd is currently the lack of insemination staff and semen preservation equipment. The amount of Sind cow semen supplied by the province each year is not enough for the insemination network to operate. People in the mountainous and remote communes have the habit of free-range farming, so buffalo and cows mate freely, leading to low quality. In addition, because people often sell crossbred calves, the rate of Sind cattle herd increases slowly.
Since the 1970s, the province has implemented a program to improve local cattle breeds, however, the development movement has not been strong, the rate of Sind crossbred cattle only stopped at 300 - 400 heads/year. By 1995, with funding from the National Target Program to implement the cattle herd improvement program, supported by the Central government with Zebu semen, breeding materials and training, techniques... Sind crossbred cattle increased to 3,000 - 5,000 heads/year.
In 1998, after the end of the National program, the province continued to implement the program of improving the cattle herd in the direction of Zebuization. The local yellow cattle herd was improved with Zebu breeds such as Red sind, Sa,... to create a high-yield Zebu crossbred cattle herd in intensive meat production. Each year the province supports about 20,000 doses of Zebu and Brahman semen, in the first 9 months of 2013 alone, the province provided 23,000 doses to localities. In addition to this project, the province also implemented the public breeding program implemented by the Central Government (from 2005 to present) with about 6,000 doses of cow semen each year; increasing the proportion of hybrid cattle from 15% in 1995 to 37.5% in 2013.
According to statistics, as of April 2013, the whole province had 672,770 buffaloes and cows, accounting for nearly 1/10 of the total herd of the whole country. Through breed improvement programs, the quality of buffalo and cow breeds has been significantly improved in terms of stature and meat weight. In particular, focusing on caring for buffalo and cow herds to develop towards commodity production is the right direction in poverty reduction in many localities.
Zebu crossbred cattle competition in Hung Nguyen.
Mr. Ngo Vinh Son - Deputy Director of Nghe An Livestock Breeding Center said: Crossbreeding between Zebu bulls and local cows will produce calves that have all the advantages of their parents, adapt well to the climate, grow quickly and have high quality meat... A bull through artificial insemination can breed 250 - 300 cows, compared to direct mating which can only breed 25 - 30 cows. Implementing Decision 09/2012/QD - UBND on creating cow breeds and improving buffalo breeds, accordingly, breeders are provided with 100% of the cost of semen for buffalo, dairy cows, and beef cows; breeding materials and support of 50,000 VND/pregnant cow.
Support 60% of the value of male buffaloes from outside the region (at least 50km away), crossbred bulls for meat (returning to the locality) to directly breed with female buffaloes in the planning area, female cows in localities that do not have conditions for artificial insemination; the norm is 30-50 breeding female buffaloes and cows are arranged with 1 breeding bull. Particularly, Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Que Phong districts support 80% of the value of male buffaloes from outside the region, crossbred bulls for meat; the norm is 25-30 breeding cows are arranged with 1 breeding bull...
To improve the effectiveness of the buffalo and cattle herd improvement program, in addition to support policies, local departments and branches need to do a good job of propaganda so that people understand the benefits of raising crossbred cattle. In the long term, it is necessary to encourage economic sectors to invest in the field of buffalo and cattle breeding; build links between processing facilities and breeders to facilitate production and consumption. Particularly for the cattle herd, the current problem is to build a herd of foreign-bred sows. If we only stop at creating F1 crossbred cattle for beef, it will cause a waste of the herd's reproductive capacity and very low meat yield. Only then will the cattle herd improvement program be highly effective and sustainable.
Ngoc Anh
