Abstract
A prominent feature of livestock breeding in Inner Mongolia is to make use of the grasslands as an endless supply of self-support fodder and to breed livestock by way of pasturage. In this paper, we collected data on the changes in livestock composition among goat, sheep and cattle breeding, and compared them with profit structure for goat, sheep and cattle. The aim of this paper is to analyze the important factors in composition change of livestock breeding. From the analysis, the following assessments were made.
(1) Gratuitous profits decrease for livestock that require an investment in commercial brands of fodder, mainly thick fodder. Analysis shows that the decrease in gratuitous profits is the highest in the case of goat, followed by sheep and then cattle.
(2) Gratuitous profits increase in livestock that depend on self-supporting fodder, mainly natural pasturage. Analysis shows that the increase of gratuitous profits is the highest in the case of goat, followed by sheep and cattle.
(3) In the profit percentage of the whole livestock capital, the sheep is the highest among the three, followed by goat and cattle.
The reason for the changes in the livestock composition is due to the differences in profit structure generated by the different kinds of livestock. However, it is problematic to simply increase dependence on self-supporting fodder for fear of causing degradation and desertification of the grasslands. It is thus important to develop a well-balanced program of selecting different kinds of livestock in order to prevent the degradation and desertification of grassland.
