Development strategy of grassland animal husbandry in China

It is hardly unlikely that gross grain consumption in China will exceed 600 million ton (including increases of 40 million ton in grain ration, 31 million in feed-grain for the production of 12 million ton of pork, chicken, egg and milk) in 30 years even when the population reaches 1.5 billion. Changes in meat food production pattern, namely decreasing in pork production and inverse changes in beef and mutton production, offer potential saving of 30 billion kg grain. Furthermore, improving feed rate by 5%～6% for grazing livestock and replacing pork with excessive beef and mutton production will result in saving of 20 billion kg grain. The two combined will therefore result in saving 50 billion kg of grain. This paper analyzes the methods for developing grassland animal husbandry, saving grain consumption and guaranteeing meat supply. Milk production mode is suggested by replacing 16.7 million dairy cows with 100 million dairy goats. This mode could meet milk requirement of rural population with an equal national milk consumption level to that of the developed countries. To double the quantity of herbivores livestock in the country, crop straws, win-ter fallow in South China, sparse forestlands and intrazonal habitats of grasslands should be sufficiently exploited with improved utilization efficiencies of grassland and various resources above normal levels. Developing legume forage for improving protein lev-els in roughage and modifying livestock distribution patterns are the core practical issues of grassland animal husbandry.