Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Overview — Agriculture (Part 3)
Section 3 Animal Husbandry. Xiangxi has abundant pasture resources: 10.5 million mu of grassy hills and slopes, 44.6% of its land area and 14.03% of Hunan's pastureland, nearly 5 mu per capita. There are 37 contiguous pastures of over 10,000 mu, covering 9.6 million mu. Animal husbandry has a long history. Before 1949, owing to rearing...
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section 3 Animal Husbandry
The Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture is rich in pasture resources, with 10.5 million mu of grassy hills and slopes across the prefecture, accounting for 44.6% of the land area and 14.03% of Hunan Province's grassland area, nearly 5 mu per capita. There are 37 contiguous grassland areas of over 10,000 mu, covering 9.6 million mu. Animal husbandry has a long history. Before 1949, due to backward feeding and management techniques and prevalent livestock epidemics, the mortality rate of livestock and poultry was high, and the development of animal husbandry was slow. In 1949, there were 191,600 head of farm cattle, 436,000 head of pigs, 14,700 goats, and 993,900 poultry.
In 1952, the Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region and the people's governments of its counties successively established poultry care and epidemic prevention agencies, organizing and training folk veterinarians to carry out livestock and poultry immunization injections, effectively controlling infectious diseases that endangered the development of animal husbandry. In the late 1950s, improved breeds of livestock and poultry were introduced, livestock and poultry breeding bases were established, pig and chicken farms and animal husbandry research institutes were built, breed improvement was carried out, scientific feeding and management techniques were promoted, and a disease prevention system with "three guarantees" (guaranteed vaccination, guaranteed treatment, guaranteed compensation) as its main content was established and improved, reducing livestock mortality and promoting the development of the livestock and aquatic industries. In 1959, farm cattle raising increased by 39.7% over 1949, pigs by 50.74%, goats by 3.53 times, and poultry by 1.05 times. In the early 1960s, due to consecutive natural disasters, major livestock such as farm cattle and pigs dropped to the level of the founding of New China. Although recovery measures were subsequently taken and animal husbandry recovered somewhat, the increase was not large and was unstable. From the 1980s onward, governments at all levels, in accordance with market economy principles, treated the development of animal husbandry as a pillar industry for rural prosperity, encouraged and supported the development of livestock production, and mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for raising livestock and poultry, enabling sustained development of animal husbandry. In 1995, the prefecture raised 447,900 head of farm cattle, 2.141 million head of pigs, 588,700 goats, and 7.2015 million poultry. After 1996, the prefecture's livestock production closely centered on the "Eight-Seven" poverty alleviation campaign, adhering to market orientation, relying on resources, taking science and education as the guide, and aiming to increase farmers' income. It made full use of resource advantages, actively adjusted the industrial structure, and while vigorously developing pig, poultry, and dairy production, highlighted the development of the cattle and sheep pillar industry. In 2000, the total raising of pigs, cattle, sheep, and poultry increased by 3.1%, 15.5%, 63.67%, and 42.79% respectively over 1995; the number sent to slaughter (cages) increased by 17%, 72.97%, 118.46%, and 43.98% respectively; total meat output increased by 22.91%; egg production increased by 32.69%; and total animal husbandry output value increased by 18.2%. After 2001, the prefecture firmly grasped the historical opportunity of western development, and centering on the goals of increasing the efficiency of animal husbandry, increasing farmers' income, maintaining rural stability, and responding to WTO accession, it intensified its efforts and adopted new measures, bringing the prefecture's livestock production to a new level. In 2005, pig raising was 2.4 million head, with 1,296,900 sent to slaughter; cattle raising was 527,300 head, with 78,100 sent to slaughter; goat raising was 1.009 million, with 468,600 sent to slaughter; poultry raising reached 9.2637 million, with 5,444,400 sent to market; total meat output was 108,700 tons, eggs 9,191 tons, milk 874 tons, and total output value of the breeding industry was 1.372 billion yuan (including 125 million yuan from fisheries), accounting for 30.9% of total agricultural output value. That year, total agricultural output value increased by 170 million yuan over the previous year, of which the breeding industry contributed 60 million yuan, a contribution rate of 35%.
I. Structural Adjustment
The CPC Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Committee and the Prefecture People's Government attached great importance to the development of animal husbandry, especially the development of goats, and treated the goat-raising industry as a pillar industry for adjusting the rural industrial structure, developing high-quality and efficient animal husbandry, and steadily increasing farmers' income. During the "Ninth Five-Year Plan" period, a leadership team was established, the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Goat Development Co., Ltd. was formed, and the goat-raising industry development plan formulated by the Prefecture Livestock and Aquatic Products Bureau was approved and forwarded, increasing investment in the goat-raising industry. From 1996 to 1997, the prefecture, counties, and cities invested more than 30 million yuan, focusing on building 50 large-scale townships and more than 150 large-scale villages, one national-level and one provincial-level demonstration county for straw ammoniation and grass-planting livestock raising, forming commodity bases with an annual output of 245,300 goats sent to slaughter, accounting for 61.46% of the prefecture's total goats sent to slaughter. Base construction kept the goat-raising industry above 1 million head for four consecutive years, driving large-scale farming by households. In 2005, the prefecture's beef and mutton output accounted for 22.3% of total meat output, 7 percentage points higher than the provincial average; the prefecture's grass-fed animal husbandry output value accounted for 33% of the total breeding industry output value, 8 percentage points higher than the provincial average.
II. Seedling Project
After years of effort, by 2005, the prefecture had gradually established and improved the "three groups and one network" for livestock (core group, multiplication group, production group, and artificial insemination network points), that is, the prefecture gradually formed a goat breeding system with original seed farms at the prefecture level, multiplication farms at the county level, and improved breed breeding households at the township level.
At the end of 1998, the Prefecture Livestock and Aquatic Products Bureau and Australia-China Trading Company jointly established the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Boer Goat Breeding Base, built breeding sheep pens, and introduced Boer goat embryos from South Africa for transplantation into recipient ewes. In 2002, the Prefecture Livestock and Aquatic Products Bureau invested to introduce Boer goat original breeds from Guangzhou and Guizhou respectively, established the Prefecture Boer Goat Original Seed Farm, and purchased local ewes for crossbreeding improvement experiments and demonstrations. The birth weight and daily weight gain of crossbred goats were more than double those of local goats, reaching about 40 kilograms after one year of raising and sent to slaughter that same year, shortening the fattening time by one year compared with local goats, with very obvious hybrid vigor. In 2002, the Prefecture Boer Goat Original Seed Farm introduced and bred 200 Boer goats and more than 1,000 Nanjiang Yellow goats. Luxi County established the Maxikou Breeding Goat Farm, and Longshan County and Huayuan County established Nanjiang Yellow goat breeding bases, providing large numbers of improved goat breeds both within and outside the prefecture, achieving good economic benefits and greatly promoting the scale-oriented, specialized, and regionalized construction of goat production in the prefecture.
In 1980, the Prefecture Frozen Semen Station was completed. Its duties were to carry out breed selection and crossbreeding improvement of Xiangxi yellow cattle. By 1988, the prefecture had performed frozen artificial insemination breeding for 47,662 head of farm cattle and produced 22,820 crossbred cattle. In the autumn of 1998, Xiangxi yellow cattle breed improvement points expanded from 18 to 96. Under the arrangement and guidance of the Prefecture Frozen Semen Station, 41.7% of townships in the prefecture carried out cattle breed improvement. In 2005, the prefecture set up 59 cattle frozen semen breeding points, with 16,000 frozen semen breeding services, a conception rate of 75%, and in cattle breed improvement, the birth weight of first-generation crossbred yellow cattle and buffalo increased by 117% and 80% respectively over local cattle, while high-generation crossbred cattle gained more than 1 kilogram, leading Hunan Province. In 2002, the Jishou City Livestock and Aquatic Products Bureau established the Jishou City Improved Dairy Cattle Demonstration Base in Shetangpo, developing it according to the "company + base + breeding community" model, introducing purebred Holstein dairy cattle from Australia, with each cow producing an average of 26 kilograms of fresh milk per day, 20 times higher than the annual fresh milk production of domestic black-and-white dairy cattle.
The prefecture, counties, and cities all established breeding pig farms and pig breed improvement points, and established breeding core pig herds mainly based on Large Yorkshire, improving the litter rate, lean meat rate, and slaughter rate of pig quality. The coverage rate of improved pig breeds reached over 90%. By 2005, the rural population of the prefecture sent an average of 0.6 pigs to slaughter per person, with each pig earning 80 to 150 yuan, and pig production alone increased farmers' per capita income by 60 yuan.
In 1987, one breeding chicken farm was established within the chicken farm of the original breeding livestock farm, and for many years it provided high-quality breeds such as Hysex chickens, Changsha Yellow chickens, Guangxi Luhua chickens, and Guangdong Xinxing Yellow chickens within the prefecture. By 2005, the prefecture supported the development of 5 large hatching households, subsidized 30% of the purchase price of incubators for large hatching households according to agricultural machinery subsidies, and provided 3-year interest discounts on loans for large hatching households. Among them, Jishou City officially put its operation into production in August 2005, hatching a total of 180,000 chicken and duck seedlings for the year.
III. Grass Planting and Pen Raising
In July 2001, the State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture issued a notice on the "Investment Plan for the High-Quality Forage Seed Base Construction Project in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province." The total project investment was 15 million yuan to build an 18,000-mu high-quality forage seed base, accelerating the pace of internal structural adjustment of animal husbandry in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, and using the prefecture's high-quality forage seed base as a leader to drive the rise of grass planting and livestock raising throughout the prefecture. In November of the same year, construction broke ground and investment began. In 2002, it was fully launched, and using good farmland and good soil to plant grass became common practice in Fenghuang, Baojing, Yongshun, Guzhang, Huayuan, and other counties. According to statistics, from 2002 to 2003, the prefecture transferred in 110,000 kilograms of high-quality grass seed and newly planted more than 10 kinds of fine forage grasses, including king grass, dwarf elephant grass, hemarthria, and ryegrass, reaching 120,000 mu, and a number of large households planting more than 300 mu of grass emerged. By 2005, the prefecture had introduced 28 varieties for trials, with good introduction results, and determined 25 demonstrations. Among them, introduced protein forages such as alfalfa and pigeon pea filled the gap in protein forage in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, greatly improving the prefecture's goat pen-raising technology and solving the problem of cattle and sheep overwintering. At the same time, a 500-mu original seed base for high-quality forage in the prefecture and a total of 18,000 mu of multiplication bases in Longshan, Yongshun, Baojing, Huayuan, Fenghuang, and other 5 counties were built. In October 2003, they passed acceptance by provincial experts. After the grass seed base was completed, it produced 5,000 tons of various forage seeds annually, meeting the prefecture's demand for forage seeds. Grass planting and pen raising is of great significance: first, it adapts to the situation of ecological construction under the national western development strategy, changes the traditional grazing and conditioning method for grass-fed livestock, and helps protect the ecological environment; second, it lays a good foundation for scientifically and rationally adjusting the agricultural economic structure and the internal structure of animal husbandry and vigorously developing grain-saving grass-fed animal husbandry; third, it plays an important promoting role in carrying out intensive and large-scale breeding of grass-fed livestock, developing the rural economy of poor areas in the west, increasing farmers' income, achieving rural stability, and accelerating the process of rural poverty alleviation and prosperity. By 2005, the prefecture had completed 583,000 mu of artificial grass planting, with a total of 4,853 large cattle and sheep breeding households, including 1,014 specialized cattle-raising households and 3,839 specialized goat-raising households. Ning Xuewen, a large goat-raising household in Yaqiao Township, Huayuan County, founded "Genesis Grass-Fed Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd.," planting 200 mu of grass and raising more than 1,000 goats. Driven by this company, enthusiasm for goat breeding soared in Yaqiao Township and Paiwu Township of the county. Among them, Yaqiao Township built 13 specialized goat-raising villages and Paiwu Township built 7, with each village developing 50 goat-raising households, each household raising 20 foundation ewes on average, with an annual raising scale of more than 50 head. Longshan County carried out demonstrations of grass planting and goat raising in 16 townships, 67 villages, and 150 households, including Pojiao, Dianfang, Jiaba, and Zaguo, investing 4.5 million yuan with good results. Grass planting and pen raising has become an emerging industry for increasing farmers' income in rural areas of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture.
IV. Returning Farmland to Grass
Returning farmland to grass is a necessary component of returning farmland to forest; without the implementation of returning farmland to grass, returning farmland to forest would lose its guarantee. At the same time, returning farmland to grass is one of the important measures to promote the development of animal husbandry. In 2003, during the upsurge of returning farmland to forest in the prefecture, Yongshun County, under the guidance of the provincial and prefecture livestock and aquatic products bureaus, completed 9,276 mu of artificial grass planting for the year, adding 2,140 yellow cattle and 3,560 goats. The returning farmland to grass project covered 35 townships, 82 administrative villages, and 308 farming households throughout the county. Baojing County, from 2002 to 2004, fenced and improved 38,000 mu of natural grassland, built 20,000 mu of new artificial forage bases, and one grassland monitoring and management center. At the end of October 2004, it passed acceptance smoothly by the provincial acceptance team. This was the natural grassland restoration and construction project assigned by the province. After the project was completed, the economic income of 38 villages and 2 farms in the project area reached 60.844 million yuan, a net increase of 25.46% over before construction; grain output was 967.49 tons, a net increase of 14.94% over before construction; per capita net income was 983.25 yuan, a net increase of 376.98 yuan over before construction, an increase of 62.18%; per capita grain was 377.8 kilograms, a net increase of 43.8 kilograms over before construction, an increase of 14.9%; cattle raising was 6,421 head, an increase of 23.96% over before construction; pig raising was 21,770 head, an increase of 239.53% over before construction; 163 households raised more than 5 cattle, totaling 1,263 head, increases of 10.13% and 25.8% respectively over before construction; 888 households raised more than 20 goats, totaling 58,609 goats, increases of 1.82 times and 3.07 times respectively over before construction. In 2004, Guzhang County also began implementing the natural grassland restoration and construction project, with a total investment of 53.02 million yuan, completing 30,000 mu of natural grassland improvement, 24,000 mu of natural grassland fencing protection, 20,000 mu of artificial grass planting, and building one grassland supervision station. The driving force of the natural grassland restoration and construction project was very obvious, gradually transitioning the traditional free-range nomadic method to a grass-planting pen-raising model, and significantly increasing the scientific and technological content of breeding.
V. Breeding Communities
With the further development of the market economy, farmers' economic concepts have further changed. They organize and develop production according to the laws of the market economy, rationally allocate resources, and livestock and poultry raising has developed from small-scale and self-sufficient to relatively concentrated operations, initially achieving a regionalized and scientific layout of livestock production. Huayuan and Baojing raise more than 300,000 pigs each, while Longshan and Yongshun raise more than 400,000 pigs each; Baojing County leads the entire prefecture in goat raising, with more than 200,000 goats; Luxi, Guzhang, and Huayuan focus on goat raising; Yongshun and Fenghuang focus on beef cattle, and Jishou focuses on dairy cattle. Such a livestock production pattern has already taken shape. To consolidate and develop these achievements, the entire prefecture has vigorously promoted the development of breeding communities and breeding associations. By 2005, the prefecture had established 20 breeding communities and developed 38 breeding associations. Breeding communities have become the pillar and model for livestock development within the prefecture, while breeding associations can achieve the "five unifications" in management and operations, namely unified loans, unified seedlings, unified feed, unified epidemic prevention, and unified sales, playing a bridging and linking role in production, supply, and marketing. For example, Shuiyin Township in Baojing County, based on its local natural conditions of abundant mountains and scarce farmland, rich forage resources, and a strong foundation in goat raising, took the development of goat raising as an important measure for adjusting the agricultural industrial structure, organized and established a goat raising association, increased support for goat-raising households, and enabled the township's goat raising to develop toward large-scale operations, becoming one of the prefecture and county breeding bases. With strong support from the county Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Bureau, it implemented the strategy of invigorating animal husbandry through science and technology. In 2005, the area of artificially planted forage reached more than 6,000 mu, and by year-end there were 24,000 goats on hand. All large-scale breeding households achieved either confined goat raising or a combination of grazing and barn feeding. Through breed improvement, the coverage rate of improved goat breeds in the township reached over 95%. The Shuiyin Township goat raising community, centered on Shuiyin Village, Dongping Village, and Angdong Village, has begun to take shape. Within the community, scenes of one pen on every hilltop and every pen full of goats can be seen everywhere. Goat raising has become a pillar industry for increasing farmers' income and helping them become prosperous in the township.
VI. Business Models
Industrialized livestock operations in various forms have begun to emerge, and new business models have continued to appear. In 2005, the prefecture had a total of 1,433 specialized pig-raising households, with an average of 150 pigs per household; 1,014 specialized cattle-raising households, with an average of 16 cattle per household; 3,839 specialized goat-raising households, with an average of 76 goats per household; and 1,648 specialized poultry-raising households, with an average of more than 2,000 birds per household. On this basis, new models have emerged, including the company + base + farmer industrialized operation model for Xiangxi yellow cattle led by the Wuling Animal Husbandry Group; the joint company + base + farmer industrialized operation model for Xiangxi goats formed by the state-owned Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Goat Company and the company of private large goat marketing operator Ning Xuewen; the rural cooperative economic organization of the Baojing County Shuiyin Township Goat Raising Association + farmers; and the dairy cattle industry operation model of the joint-stock Jinniu Company in Jishou City + dairy cattle demonstration base + farmers. These business organizations guide farmers to participate in the large market and fierce competition, maximize profits, and at the same time constitute the diversity of industrialized livestock development in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, promoting the upgrading of the prefecture's livestock industry.
VII. Animal Epidemic Prevention
Since the reform and opening up, the prefecture and county/city animal husbandry and fisheries bureaus have established animal husbandry sections (stations), fisheries sections (stations), livestock disease prevention and inspection stations, breeding stock farms, and fry and fingerling farms, while townships have established veterinary stations. In 2004, all townships in the prefecture established township animal epidemic prevention stations and were equipped with 651 full-time animal epidemic prevention workers, belonging to fully funded public institutions. The prefecture established and improved a four-level epidemic information network at the prefecture, county, township, and village levels, designating 8 county-level epidemic information officers and 2,392 village-level animal epidemic observation and reporting officers. In 2005, the People's Government of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture for the first time included funding for the prevention and control of major animal epidemics in the fiscal budget. In accordance with the overall requirements of "the government ensures density, departments ensure quality," all levels throughout the prefecture earnestly implemented various prevention and control measures. Through carrying out concentrated immunization in spring and autumn, strengthening epidemic monitoring, strengthening origin quarantine and market supervision, and carrying out disinfection and source elimination, phased victories were achieved in the prevention and control of major animal epidemics, realizing the goal of "no spread of the epidemic and no infection of personnel." The construction of the animal epidemic prevention system has effectively improved immunization quality, enhanced livestock disease resistance, greatly reduced livestock and poultry morbidity and mortality, and safeguarded the sustained and healthy development of livestock production. Each year it can reduce direct economic losses for farmers by more than 100 million yuan.