Naju City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Yoon Byung-tae) announced on the 11th that it will expand the foundation for producing high-quality forage to reduce feed costs for livestock farms and foster premium Korean beef.
Naju City plans to invest 2.1 billion KRW of its own budget over three years starting this year to support the compensation of forage production costs necessary for expanding the forage production base.
This is expected to help resolve domestic supply instability caused by continuous increases in grain and feed prices, reduced forage harvests due to climate change, and the phased elimination of tariffs on imported forage, as well as contribute to reducing production costs for forage-producing management entities.
As of the end of March this year, about 1,615 farms in the Naju area are raising approximately 65,000 cattle (Hanwoo, beef cattle, and dairy cows), with an annual forage requirement of about 160,000 tons.
About 41% of the total forage requirement is met with warm- and cool-season forage crops such as ryegrass and Sudan grass.
The city plans to increase the forage self-sufficiency rate from the current approximately 40% to 60% through expanding the production base and promote stable forage supply and management stabilization of livestock farms by providing differentiated production incentives according to feed quality grades.
Mayor Yoon Byung-tae said, “The forage production cost compensation support project has become a practical help by reducing production costs for local crop and livestock farms,” and added, “We will do our best to secure additional specialized complexes for high-quality forage production and improve quality.”
Naju = Kim Yuk-bong, Honam Reporting Headquarters, Asia Economy baekok@asiae.co.kr
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