Achievements in Animal Husbandry

(1) Visible Increase in Economic Strength in Animal Husbandry Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Xinjiang’s animal husbandry industry has developed considerably. Compared with 1950, in 2012, the number of livestock on hand rose from 11.359 million to 43.3325 million, representing a 2.8-fold increase. The number of annual mature livestock rose from 1.752 million to 37.373 million,a 20.3-fold increase. The output of meat rose from 49,300 tons to 1.3383 million tons, up by 26.1 times; wool from 6,800 tons to 90,900 tons, up by 12.4 times; and milk from 21,000 to 1.322 million tons, up by 62 times.

Since the reform and opening up, the development of animal husbandry has obviously sped up, and the production efficiency has increased. For example, the rate of annual mature livestock is 15% in 1955,18.77% in 1978 and 71.95% in 2011,53.22 percent points higher than that of 1978; during 26 years from 1978 to 2004, the output of meat has increased at an average annual rate of 10.46%, but during 29 years from 1949 to 1978, the average annual rate is 2.25%.

(2) Considerable Improvement in the Production Conditions With the completion of various projects concerning the pastoral industry in Xinjiang, the production conditions in animal husbandry have improved significantly. In terms of grassland, by the end of 1998, Xin jiang had completed 846,700 hectares of artificial grassland, improved 1 million hectares of existing grassland, and fenced an area of 786,700 hectares as pasture land. Efforts to get rid of locusts and rats had been done on a total of 26.67 million hectares. The grass cut every winter exceeded over 4 billion kilograms. After 1980s, Xin jiang focused on the issue of herdsmen settlement in the light of the actual conditions in the herding area with the purpose of gradually altering the traditional nomadic living style. The transition from traditional pastoral industry to a modernized one was facilitated. By 2010, the autonomous region had 118,500 standard households of resident herdsmen, accounting for 41.3% of the total herding population. The so-called standard household means having access to roads, electricity and water, housing, livestock sheds, forage grass bases, gardens, supporting technical service systems, cultural rooms, clinics, schools(kindergartens), life service facilities, etc. Due to progress in grasslanddevelopment and herdsmen settlement, the disaster-resistant capabilities have remarkably enhanced in Xin jiang’s pastoral industry.

The development level of the fodder industry is an important criterion to tell the level of livestock farming in general. In recent years, the fodder industry in Xinjiang has progressed considerably. At present, the autonomous region has more than 300 fodder processing enterprises, with an annual capacity of over 1 million tons. In 2009,a total of 13506 million tons of various kinds of fodder was produced. The forage and coarse fodder processing industry has also advanced considerably. The entire autonomous region has over 50,000 disintegrators and forage cutters, with a yearly processing capacity of over 4 million tons. The stalk silage and ammoniation technologies have been popularized. The annual silage output is about 4 million tons, and 400,000 tons of forage grass are ammoniated. The past backward feeding methods have been fundamentally altered.

The past 50-plus years have seen a lot of work done in Xin jiang in the area of fostering, reproducing and spreading fine breeds. In 1954, the first fine-fleece sheep breed in China was successfully fostered in Xinjiang, which was Xin jiang dual-use(wool and meat) fine fleece sheep. After that,a number of fine breeds have been brought up, including lli horse.

Xinjiang brown cow, Xinjiang lambskin sheep, Xinjiang Junken fine-fleece sheep, Chinese Merino(including Xinjiang type and Xin jiang Junken type), Xin jiang white swine, and Ili white swine. Twenty big livestock breeding farms have been built, among which Hutubi Breeding Cattle Farm, Gongnas Breeding Sheep Farm, Zhaosu Stud Farm and Ziniquan Breeding Sheep Farm are national priority breeding farms. These farms have over 450,000 fine breeders, and their annual output of fine breeders is 100,000 at the moment. While building bases for fine breeders, Xin jiang has made tremendous efforts to promote fine breeds to improve existing livestock breeds. At present, Xin jiang has 10 million fine-breed and improved-breed fine-fleece sheep, over 3 million improved-breed sheep for meat,977000 fine-and improved-breed cattle, and over 2.5 million fine-breed fluffy goats. The unit output and wool quality of fine-fleece sheep in Xin jiang ranked among the top in China. In 1995, it was confirmed by experts from the Ministry of A griculture of China through on-site inspections that the Hestan cows at Hutubi Breeding Cattle Farm had an annual milk production of 8,773 kilograms, and the best ones could produce 13,577 kilograms of milk in 305 days, ranking among the first in the country. In the same farm, the average yearly milkproduction of Simentar cows was 7,019.5 kilograms, while the best ones could produce 11,740 kilograms, ranking No.1 in China and among the top when compared with cows of the same kind internationally. The complete system of fostering and promoting fine breeds of fowls and livestock has turned Xinjiang into a ma jor national base for the production of fine breeds.

(3) Preliminary Results in Social Service System

The CPC Committee and People’s Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region attach great importance to the science and technology service system for animal husbandry. In terms of professional education, an education and training system on animal husbandry combining higher learning, specialized secondary education, and occupational technical education is in place in Xin jiang, which produces over 1,000 college and secondary school graduates on stock raising, veterinary and grassland studies every year.

In terms of scientific research, Xin jiang has its Academy of Livestock Raising Sciences as well as stock raising research institutes in ma jor pastoral prefectures and areas, Xinjiang ranks among the top in China on the research of cattle and sheep breeding, embryo transplant technologies, and livestock disease prevention and control. In the area of scientific and technological services,a four-tier service network on animal husbandry, veterinary and pasture land has been completed, including the levels of the autonomous region, prefectures, counties/cities and townships. The entire staffs working with the network add up to over 10,000, among whom over 300 have senior professional titles, andover 1,600 with medium-grade professional titles. At the town/township level, there are over 8,000 technicians on animal husbandry, who work in the forefront of the pastoral industry for long and contribute significantly to the spread of science and technology and the development of stock rising.

qingquang

See author's posts