Japanese Cattle Herd Declines

JAPAN - The Japanese cattle herd, as of October 2010, declined two per cent year-on-year to 4.29 million head, according to the National Livestock Breeding Center of Japan.
calendar icon 26 November 2010
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Meat & Livestock Australia

Broken down by breed, the Holstein herd was the largest (1.9 million head, down 0.3 per cent from last year), closely followed by the Japanese Black Wagyu (1.8 million, down 0.7 per cent), reports Meat and Livestock Australia. While the two major breeds maintained similar numbers to last year, the crossbred herd (cross between beef and dairy cattle) declined by 12.2 per cent from October 2009, to 0.5 million head. The decline was possibly due to slow beef sales in the market and the challenges associated with the crossbred - regarded as second tier quality to the Wagyu, but priced higher than domestic dairy beef.

The number of cattle properties in Japan fell by five per cent year-on-year, to 89,690 farms, continuing the gradual decline of recent years.

Japan slaughters approximately 1.2 million head of cattle per year, producing around 517,000 tonnes cwt of beef annually. Japan's beef self sufficiency rate was 43 per cent in the Japanese Fiscal Year 2009.

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