Investigation And Analysis For The Development Of The Scaled Beef Farms In Shandong Province

In recent years, the beef production of Shandong province has been developing rapidly. Shandong has become one of the major provinces in beef production in China and is a typical in the development of beef production in farming area. In order to realize the present situation and problems of beef production and so that give suggestions for the development of beef production of Shandong province, this study has investigated and analyzed the present situation of beef production of Shandong province.From investigation, it was found that there are 4666 beef farms in Shandong province in total, of which 94.38% of these have 10-99 heads of cattle. 245 beef farms have 100-499 heads while 17 beef farms have more than 500 heads. With regards to .the ownership, 93.5% of the beef farms are private farm, while 6.5% of these are shared farm. The fattening period of beef cattle varies from 60 to 360 days, and averaged 171.5 days. The average body weight for sale is 510.17 kg, of which 66.7% are 500-600 kg, 26.7% are 400-499 kg and 6.6% are 300-399 kg. With regards to the personnel on beef farm, the cattle men are 65.81%. Technicians and professionals are only 2.56%. The breeds of beef cattle on the farms are mainly cross breeds of Luxi × Limusin × Simmental and Luxi × Charolai × Limusin in west part of Shandong, while Luxi × Limusin × Piremont and Luxi × Limusin × Simmental in east part of Shandong. About 48.4% of frame cattle are from free market, 25.8% from other provinces, and 25.8% from neibour counties or cities.Results of economic analysis of 49 beef farms in 2001-2003 indicated that 85.71% had good benefits while 25.8% lost money. The economic benfits of the private farm farms were better than that of shared beef farms and that of the middle scaled beef farms better than that of small scale and large scale beef farms. The cost of cattle, feeds and workers was about 97% of the total. The cost of the private farms was mainly for cattle, while the cost of the shared farm was mainly for feeds. The major income was from selling of fatten cattle.It was concluded that the middle scale beef farms should be the major trend of Shandong province. The economic benefits of beef farms has a big potential and need to be increased. High quality beef production should be developed in the future.