Hybrid cattle help propel poverty alleviation

After 31 years’ research by agricultural scientists in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, ‘Yunling cattle’, the first species of tri-cross breed cattle, has become the new economic driver for local poverty-stricken villages and farmers.

According to Huang Bizhi, the dean of the Yunnan Provincial Academe of Grassland and Animal Science, ‘Yunling cattle’ is one of the most prominent achievement in animal husbandry under the cooperation between China and Australia since China’s opening up.

‘Yunnan Livestock and Pasture Development Project ’was launched in 1983 with the strong support of Australian and Chinese governments. The hybrid cattle has half descent from Australian Brahman, 1/4 of Murray grey cattle and another 1/4 origins from Yunnan yellow cattle. 

In early 1990s, when Yunnan scientists were amazed by the previous generation of hybrid cattle, the problems also came up that many of them were not immune to popular diseases and dead. 

There is no easy way but to persist. Huang Bizhi and his teammates have experimented thousands of times. Selecting, adjusting and improving the methods of cattle crossbreeding, they finally developed ‘Yunling cattle’ in 2014.

Each microchip in the ear of ‘Yunling cattle’ tracks the diet information and logistic paths. At present, ‘Yunling cattle’ has been promoted to 33 counties in Yunnan. It has increased the income of relevant farmers by 200 million yuan.