July 23, 2007

Japan's cattle farms diminishing

Domestic beef cattle herd in 2006 pegged at 2.76 million head, a drop of 5 percent from 1996. Within the ten-year period, the number of beef cattle farms declined sharply, from over 150,000 to 85,600, indicating a rapid increase in production among the small number of large scale farmers.

The average number of beef cattle per livestock farm was 32 heads in 2006, compared with 19 heads in 1996 (Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries). The 2006 average, however, may be deceptive, since 1.3 million head, or nearly half of all cattle were on 2,260 farms (2.7 percent of the total) and 84 percent of Japanese cattle farmers raised less than 30 heads.

Beef production in Japan also declined 10 percent since 1996, to 496,778 tonnes in 2006 (carcase weight), and Japan imported 461,093 tonnes of beef in 2006.