While some Taiwanese gourmands rate Taiwanese beef — especially meat from Taiwanese yellow cattle — as the best, a large percentage of the yellow cattle beef sold on the market is not from pure-bred yellow cows, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said.
To address the problem, the council said it had recently transferred the technology for breeding pure-bred Taiwanese yellow cattle to a local company.
The institute keeps 237 pure-bred Taiwanese yellow cattle, out of the 430 in the nation, for breeding purposes and to ensure that the species does not become extinct.
Data from the institute shows that the nation’s total cattle population numbers about 40,000, supplying less than 6 percent of the domestic beef market, with imported meat from Japan, South Korea and the US accounting for most of the rest.
Of the 6 percent, 83.3 percent are dairy cattle, 12.9 percent are crossbreeds and 3.8 percent are water buffalo, the institute said.
Dairy cattle are foreign breeds introduced to and bred in Taiwan to acclimatize them to local weather, while crossbreed refers to a hybrid of local cattle with yellow cattle, the council said, adding that the latter numbers about 3,500 in total.
While they are commonly called Taiwan yellow cattle, they are not “pure” yellow cattle, the council said.
Water buffalo, mainly used for farming, are dwindling in numbers, with about 3,000 nationwide, the council said, adding that it has already begun efforts to preserve water buffalo in breeding farms in Hualien County.
From 2003 to 2012, locally produced beef accounted for between 5.3 percent and 7.1 percent of total supply, the institute said, with the percentage averaging less than 6 percent in recent years.
Yellow cattle were brought to Taiwan by Chinese immigrants from southern China and have been bred in Taiwan for more than four centuries, forming the backbone of the nation’s agricultural industry.
The institute began breeding cows in 1987 and “registered them as a species called Taiwan Yellow Cattle in 2010.”
The institute said its application of molecular biology has made it easier to track the purity of the breed, adding that even the Japanese, who are very protective of their cattle, can only guarantee about 70 percent purity in their breed.
The institute said it has uploaded the data on Taiwanese yellow cattle to government Web sites, so people can use QR code scanning to check whether meat is from pure-bred Taiwanese yellow cattle.
The technology involved in breeding pure Taiwanese yellow cattle was recently sold to Hong Jine Royal Cattle Co, which is licensed to sell pure-bred Taiwanese yellow cattle beef.
The company is rearing 50 yellow cattle in Yang Duo Farm in Chiayi County’s Lioujia Township (六甲), including 15 bulls for breeding, the company said.
Four cows are slaughtered each month, the company said, with the cows being raised to between 500kg and 580kg in weight before they are slaughtered, a process that takes two-and-a-half to three years.
That is 18 to 24 months longer than the average for dairy cattle, which is why the meat is priced about 30 percent higher than other meat produced domestically, it said.
The company has stores in Taipei and Chiayi City and also supplies meat to New Taipei City and Kenting Township (墾丁), Pingtung County, the company said.
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