April 27, 2007

Cattle heads in Japan on the rise

The number of cattle in Japan as of March 31 this year has increased 2 percent as against the same period in 2006, to 4.36 million head, data from the Kachiku Kairyo Center (National Livestock Breeding Centre of Japan) show.

The increase this year was largely due to the recent rise on cattle and carcass prices in the market.

The native Wagyu ("Kuroge Washu") has increased by 5 percent to 1.63 million head (37 percent of the total herd) and crossbred cattle also jumped by 5 percent to 612, 801 head (14 percent of the total herd). The number of dairy cattle, however, posted a slight drop of 2 percent to 2.02 million head (46 percent of total).