China's sheep industry: opportunities should not be missed

Introduction: Wen / Wu Liping, intern reporter of this journal Today, with its unique feeding method and rich nutritional value, mutton sheep has become an indispensable delicious green food on people's table While mutton is accepted by people, the demand of mutton market is gradually increasing Meanwhile, the mutton market at home and abroad has also undergone some changes in this period, all of which have brought forward the development of mutton sheep industry It provides a huge space for sheep production to grow into a gold industry, which is reflected in the following three aspects: first, the international mutton production has declined Europe is the world's leading import region of mutton Since the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK, lamb production in Europe has decreased by 110000 tons last year, down about 10% Last year, Australia and New Zealand, the world's leading mutton producers, produced about 800000 tons of mutton, down 2000 tons from 2000 The winter weather in Russia in 2000 was extremely cold, which led to the decrease of sheep stock and affected the production of mutton 2 The development of sheep industry in domestic pastoral areas is restricted The main production area of mutton in China is the northern pastoral area In recent years, because of the continuous cold disaster and dry slaughter, many sheep have frozen and starved to death According to expert analysis, it will take at least 2-3 years for these areas to resume production At present, 90% of the grassland in China is degraded to different degrees, and the area of degraded, Sandy and alkaline grassland increases at the rate of 2 million hectares every year The grassland ecological environment is severe, which limits the development of sheep industry 3 The consumption of mutton is increasing Although "dioxin", "mad cow disease", "foot-and-mouth disease" and other animal diseases have not spread to China, but domestic residents talk about "beef" discoloration, people are looking for meat food that can replace beef, so mutton is high in protein content, low in cholesterol content, and in the process of sheep breeding, it is mainly forage, generally with few concentrate and feed additives, drugs and hormone residues It has become an ideal and safe alternative due to its low retention With the development of mutton market in China, mutton industry has entered a new period of development Especially in recent years, China has started the practice of planting grass to raise livestock, breaking the bottleneck of restricting the scale of mutton sheep breeding, and providing the possibility and hope for the development of mutton sheep industry.