Minister Yumaklı announced the livestock road map to be implemented for 5 years

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı announced the 10-item Livestock Road Map to be implemented in 2024-2028 at the press conference held at the General Directorate of Agricultural Enterprises (TİGEM) Social Facilities.

Yumaklı stated that the first title of the road map was “Animal Production Planning” and said, “In the new system, we have created the planning of production in line with cost, capacity and marketing opportunities and the production model of where and how much the products will be produced on a regional basis. Strategically important red meat, white meat In order to ensure the continuity of quality, sufficient and healthy production of milk and eggs, we plan the production with a system that focuses on water and protects natural resources.We do this by taking into account the production capacity of quality roughage, the most basic input of animal production, our pasture assets and structures, and marketing opportunities. “We are also expanding the contract production model,” he said.

SUPPORT WILL ALSO BE GIVEN TO VACCINATED LAMBS AND KIDS

Pointing out that they have switched to an effective support model in order to ensure that livestock enterprises have an economically strong, resilient and sustainable structure, Yumaklı said, “Here, we have divided our supports into three categories under the headings of ‘basic’, ‘guiding’ and ‘productivity’. In the current model, those who are vaccinated and registered “We were supporting every calf. In the new model, we are also providing support for every vaccinated and registered lamb and kid, as well as the calf,” he said.

Yumaklı reminded that there are certain limitations in the current supports depending on the size of the business, and stated that in the new supports, these limitations will be removed and everyone who produces will be given support as much as they produce. Yumaklı said, “For the first time, we are providing additional support to family businesses in all livestock support. In this way, family businesses will receive additional support at the same rate as the basic support, at least twice as much support.”

Emphasizing that they make positive discrimination towards women and young people in rural areas, Yumaklı said that they provided 70 percent additional support to young and female producers for the first time. Yumaklı stated that they will continue to increase productivity-enhancing supports such as artificial insemination, local semen, pedigree, and pure breeding.

SUPPORT FOR WOMEN IN RURAL LANDS INCREASED APPROXIMATELY 4-fold

Giving an example of the new support model, Yumaklı said:

“For example, let’s think of a family business owned by a woman. When it meets all the conditions, it receives 2 thousand 68 liras of support per calf in the current model, while in the new system, the family business will receive 5 thousand 200 liras with the women’s support and other productivity supports we provide additionally. That is, 2.5 times more will receive more support. If this business is a free-range business, we will provide additional support and this figure can go up to 7 thousand 900 lira per calf. Thus, the support will increase approximately 4 times. On the other hand, if a fattening family business feeds 20 calves until slaughter and this efficiency “In case of a process that meets the criteria, an additional support of up to 4,500 lira per calf will be received at the time of slaughter.”

Reminding that they expanded IPARD supports from 42 provinces to 81 provinces and increased the number of beneficiaries, Yumaklı explained that they took a joint step with Ziraat Bank regarding loans and applied additional discount rates on subsidized loans to women, youth and planned production regions. Yumaklı informed that they increased the loan upper limit from 40 million lira per enterprise in livestock farming to 60 million lira, and to 80 million lira in free-range enterprises.

Yumaklı stated that another important issue they focus on in animal husbandry is diseases and said, “We will use our support as a guiding instrument in this regard. Increasing the number of disease-free enterprises is of great importance for our animal husbandry. The two main reasons for this are to prevent economic losses and to ensure the growth of the herd in a healthy way.” “In this context, I said that we would provide additional support to disease-free enterprises. In addition, we prioritize free enterprises in the support of the Agriculture and Rural Development Support Institution (TKDK). We will ensure the production of broodstock with high genetic capacity that the country needs from disease-free enterprises,” he said.

Pointing out that they have also expanded the use of protective vaccines against infectious diseases, Yumaklı said:

“As the Ministry, we will provide the necessary vaccination support by focusing on measures to protect the health of calves, lambs and kids in family farms. In order to reduce calf losses, we will vaccinate 200 thousand pregnant cattle in the first stage. In order to reduce lamb losses, all sheep and goat pox throughout the country will be vaccinated this year. “The sheep and goat distemper vaccine will be given to all newborn sheep and goats. As the Ministry, we will cover the costs of all these vaccines I mentioned.”

VETERINARY ROAD CONTROL AND INSPECTION STATIONS WILL BE OPENED

Yumaklı stated that they will open Veterinary Road Control and Inspection Stations in order to control animal mobility and said, “Our aim here is to prevent the diseased animal from going to another region and spreading the disease. In addition, with the controls carried out at these stations, we will intervene in the disease on-site and early. These stations will be on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” “We opened the first one in Erzurum. We are opening the second one in Elazığ in the coming days. We will increase this number to 7 by the end of the year,” he said.

Stating that they established a new national vaccine production facility at the Ministry’s Pendik Veterinary Control Institute Directorate, Yumaklı continued as follows:

“Here, we will carry out high-capacity vaccine production with more modern and technological facilities. We are also establishing the Veterinary Medical Product Control Center. Here, we will test all kinds of medicines, vaccines and medical supplies. We organize trainings in every district in order to reduce the losses of calves and lambs. This year and in the future “We will carry out training and awareness activities for 100 thousand breeders within the year. We are also establishing the cold chain monitoring system in the first half of this year, from the production to the application phase of vaccines and drugs used to protect against animal diseases.”

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR FEMALE CALVES TO INCREASE THE FUTURE ANIMAL

Yumaklı pointed out that one of the important topics of the road maps is to increase the production of breeder animals and stated that breeders are planning to meet the breeder animals they need from their own enterprises.

In this context, Yumaklı pointed out that they encourage the use of gender-specific semen in disease-free enterprises and said, “We provide additional support to female calves in order to increase the number of parent animals.”

Yumaklı mentioned that their other important step is a new project that they will implement in cooperation with TİGEM and Meat and Milk Institution, and said:

“In this project, which we set out with the motto of strengthening our domestic producers, there will be TİGEM Breeding Centers. With the support of the Meat and Milk Institution, the breeders, whose numbers will increase, will be distributed to family businesses at affordable costs. Thus, we will meet the breeding needs of our domestic producers with public assurance.”

Stating that they created a reference population by genetically revealing the productivity status of approximately 22 thousand animals in the “black pied” breed, which is the most common dairy breed, Minister Yumaklı said, “We are increasing this number every year. In 2024, we started to determine the breeding value of calves born from this breed by looking at their genetic structure.” “As the ministry, we cover the testing costs of our growers who have this test done,” he said.

Yumaklı gave information that they will start to determine the breeding value of “simental”, which is the second most numerous breed in Turkey this year, with genetic tests, and said, “We offer this service to our breeders for both breeds. In order to make this test widespread, the Genomic Test Center will be opened in Ankara in June. “We will start producing high genetic capacity production bulls in January 2025 with the method of genomic selection and embryo transfer,” he said.

Emphasizing that they will share the new practices they are working on in poultry, beekeeping and some other fields over time, Yumaklı added that they will enable animal husbandry to reach a further level with these and other projects, many of which they have started and the rest will be implemented in the near future.