Johannes Aumann, director of BVN, visiting the company's cattle farm in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province. [Provided to China Daily]

A German-Chinese breeding project is aimed at lifting production

The amount of beef and milk that is produced in China is likely to increase, and to be of better quality, thanks to a gene that has come all the way from Germany.

The gene is part and parcel of a breeding project between the two countries.

The project, launched in Beijing on Nov 4 at the German-Chinese Center for Technology and Innovation in Animal Breeding, aims to improve the performance, quality and efficiency of milk and beef production in China.

Up to 12,000 doses of frozen cattle semen from three different German breeds will be sent to six pilot farms in China early next year in an effort to improve cattle bred in China.

The genetic project may look like a small step in improving China's cattle breeding but it is a giant leap in satisfying the growing appetite of the world's second largest economy for dairy products and beef, says Johannes Aumann, director of BVN, an animal breeding center in northern Bavaria.

Though he is a genetic specialist and runs the largest artificial insemination station in Germany, Aumann considers himself part of the food production industry.

One of his company's best sellers is the frozen semen of Fleckvieh (also known as German Simmental), a cattle breed fit for both milk and beef production.

BVN's star product helped generate 25 million euros to 30 million euros in turnover last year. The breed is highly adaptable to various conditions, and milk production per cow is 7 tons a year, compared with China's average 4.6 tons.

"When you are dealing with food production for people, China is no doubt one of the most important markets in the world," says Aumann, adding that his center will offer 4,000 doses of frozen Fleckvieh semen to two pilot farms in China through the animal breeding project.

His organization has been eyeing the Chinese market since 2006, when the ban on imports of genetic material was lifted in China, 20 years after the first mad-cow disease erupted in the Europe in 1986.

BVN has donated 30,000 doses of the frozen semen to Chinese farmers for testing use, and the positive result of crossbreeding has been bringing the center an average 100,000 doses a year since 2008. Each dose costs between five euros and 15 euros.

The number of Fleckvieh in China is relatively low, but Aumann estimates the breed will become the main one in China in the next 10 to 20 years, because of the country's surging demand for milk and beef.

On his first visit to China in 2005 Aumann was surprised by the growing popularity of Western-style restaurants in China, especially among younger people.

"In big cities in China you can find McDonald's and pizza shops almost everywhere and even cheese is becoming more and more recognized."

That augurs well for the milk and beef markets, he says. "From the experience in Europe, the consumption of beef and milk goes up with economic development."

China's sterling performance in that sphere since the late 1970s, one that has raised living standards and reduced poverty, has brought with it a shift in people's food preferences. What used to be a plant-based protein diet has evolved into one dependent on animal-based protein, fueling the soaring demand for beef and milk.

Figures from the US Department of Agriculture show that beef is becoming more popular in China. In 1980 beef accounted for just 2 percent of the country's total meat consumption; in 2008 the figure was 8 percent.

China's domestic beef consumption per capita reached a little over four kilograms (nine pounds) last year. Consumption in the United States was more than 10 times that, which indicates how big the potential is.

After rising for many years, milk consumption per capita in China reached 26.84 kilograms last year, China's Ministry of Agriculture says. It puts the world average at 95.4 kilograms.

With the growing demand for milk and beef comes the challenge of supply. Gerd Muller, Parliamentary State Secretary to the German Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, which co-launched the project with the Ministry of Agriculture in China, says that the productivity of China's cattle cannot keep up with the country's future demand, which is the main reason for having the animal-breeding project.

"Through cross-breeding and innovation we can make milk production in pilot farms in China increase 100 kilograms per cow per year from 2012 and the daily weight gain of Fleckvieh (will remain) at 25 gram per day."

Apart from higher productivity, Fleckvieh is one of the best options for China because both milk and beef can be produced by the same breed, which is suitable for China because of its limited supply of arable land and water, Aumann says.

China has a long tradition of producing milk and beef from two different kinds of cows. Ministry of Agriculture figures show that the country had about 66 million head of beef cattle and 12 million head of dairy cattle last year.

"With Fleckvieh you can do it with one breed," Aumann says. "You will need 20 percent to 30 percent (fewer) animals to produce the same amount of milk and beef, which will save a lot of feeding and require smaller farms."

Since the first generation of crossbred Fleckvieh will only start to give birth next year, it is still too early to tell how much more milk the breed can produce on Chinese soil.

"With the help of the frozen semen it takes three generations, or nine years, to make a local breed have 87.5 percent of the original Fleckvieh blood," Aumann says. However, the result of the first crossbred Fleckvieh generation in China has looked good, he says, and he has no worries about the future generations.

But in an effort to demonstrate the results sooner he is considering exporting the embryos to China early next year so the outcome will show up in the first generation.

Yao Guojun, manager of Hongfeng Seed Industry, a beef cattle company in northeastern Heilongjiang province, says his company got 40 crossbred cattle with the free samples of the frozen semen of Fleckvieh in 2009.

"They will start to have calves next year. I'm looking forward to see the outcome of the milk production. I was told that the protein and fat contained in Fleckvieh milk is much higher than (with) China's ordinary cows."