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THE NUMBER OF SHEEP AND GOATS EXCEEDS 55 MILLION…

The number of ovine animals has exceeded 55 million…

Stating that positive results of supports given to ovine breeding have been obtained, Chairman of Sheep and Goat Breeders’ Association of Turkey (TÜDKİYEB) Nihat Çelik said, “The number of sheep and goats has exceeded 55 million.”

Emphasizing that the positive results of the supports given to sheep and goat breeding have been achieved in recent years, Nihat Çelik said, “The number of small ruminants has exceeded 55 million. We are approaching the target of one small ruminant per person step by step.”

In his written statement, Çelik evaluated animal production statistics for June released by TURKSTAT.

Citing the numbers of cattle along with sheep and goats as of the end of June, Çelik noted that the number of sheep increased from 21.7 million to 42.7 million and the number of goats from 5.1 million to 12.35 million in the period of 2009-2020.

Çelik also underlined that 39 million 56 thousand heads of sheep are native, 3 million 656 thousand heads of goats are merino, 12 million 88 thousand heads of goats consist of bristle goats, 262 thousand heads of angora goats.

In addition, he emphasized that the rise of 580 thousand heads in the number of merino sheep supplying raw materials to the wool industry is important.

Indicating that the small ruminant existence has increased at an extraordinary pace with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Çelik explained, “In the first half of 2020, the number of cattle increased by 4.2 percent, the number of buffaloes increased 2.5 percent, the rise was 10.2 percent in the number of goats and the number of sheep. We have reached double-digit numbers of 14.6 percent. We are getting closer to the target of one small ruminant per population step by step. It has been observed that the supports have not been wasted.”

Çelik pointed out that the support given was not seen to be wasted and stated that the pasture and shepherd problem of the breeder should be solved in order to continue the rapid growth in sheep farming.

Drawing attention to the fact that the young population is one of the most important factors in agriculture and animal husbandry, Çelik said that in order to keep the young population in agriculture, it is necessary to eliminate the economic and social differences between the countryside and the city and ramping up the support for the young population.

Çelik concluded that by making these, the breeders can easily carry the number of sheep and animal products to much more advanced figures, adding billions of liras to the income obtained from sheep and goat farming.

About İsmail Uğural

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