GENERAL VIEW OF RUMINANT PRODUCTION IN
AYDIN – TURKEY
Hüsnü Erbay Bardakçıoğlu1, Murat Yılmaz2,
Turgay Taşkın3, Orhan Karaca2
1Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine, Department of Animal Sciences,
Aydin, Turkey
2Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department
of Animal Sciences, Aydin, Turkey
3Ege University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Animal
Sciences, Izmir, Turkey
ebardakcioglu@adu.edu.tr
This study was conducted to determine the situation of
sheep, goats and cattle production in the Aydin province. Sheep and goat management systems in Turkey
evolved through thousands of years of adaptation and adjustment to the
natural resources, climate, topography and the ever-changing production
environments. There are three general systems, the sedentary, transhumant
and nomadic. Turkey
is one of the leading sheep raising countries of the world. Sheep and
goats are traditionally raised on smallholder farms in Turkey. The hair goats, sheep
and cattle population of Turkey
had been decreased by 35.4%, 35.4% and 7.6%
between in last 15 years respectively in Turkey. The small
ruminant production in Aydin is carried out by the farmers having the
flocks including sheep and goats of which the number is between 50 and
150. When comparing the average head number of the flocks in the Aydin
province is bigger than Turkey
average of 20 to 50 head. Intensive dairy cattle production is also
widely performing in the Aydin province. The numbers of hair goat and
sheep in the Aydin province are 58,109 head and 118,953 head
respectively, while cattle number is 278,163 head in 2007. The decrease
has been 49.8% and 40.6% for hair goat and sheep population respectively,
while a 21.5% increasing has been observed on the cattle population in
the Aydin province in the last 15 years. The total milk production of the
Aydin province is 350 925 tons in 2007 that consist of 1.137% sheep milk,
0.783% hair goat milk, 98.071% cattle milk and 0.007% buffalo milk. The
meat production is 2,327 tons in the Aydin province, which consists of
sheep, goat, cattle and camel percentages of 15.267%, 4.234%, 80.408% and
0.089% respectively. The total hide number of the Aydin province is
191.512, and 61.111%, 15.594%, 23.275%, and 0.018% of the hide production
consists of sheep, goat, cattle and camel respectively. All the camel
meat and camel hide production of Turkey are provided from the
Aydin province. The number of sheep and especially goats in the Aydin
province has decreased year after year in Turkey in general, but the
cattle number is raised for the last 15 years. The reasons for reduction
in the number of sheep and goats in the Aydin are due to the lack of
importance to small ruminant production as a result of agricultural
policies, the individual production without organization and decrease of
available pasture areas over the time.
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