How to identify large-scale breeding farms?

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "Scale Standards for Livestock and Poultry Farms" (hereinafter referred to as the "Scale Standards"), which will be implemented from September 1, 2025.
The 'Scale Standards' have established a unified national scale standard for livestock and poultry farms, which will lay a solid foundation for implementing classified management of farms, scientifically formulating support policies for livestock and poultry farms, and providing strong guarantees for the stable supply and quality safety of livestock and poultry products in China.
1. Clarify the unified national standards for large-scale breeding farms. 2. Clarify the scale standards for 28 types of livestock and poultry farms. 3. Clarify that the annual output of more than 500 pigs in the pig year is scale. 4. Clarify that the annual output of more than 50 beef cattle is scale. 5. Clarify that the annual output of more than 10000 broiler chickens and ducks is scale. 6. Clarify that the inventory of more than 2000 egg chickens and ducks is scale
The Scale Standards have the following six key points:
1. Clarify the unified national standards for large-scale breeding farms
How much is scale? Throughout the years, there have been varying standards and statistical approaches for scaling up livestock farms in different regions, which is not conducive to standardized management of farms and sometimes leads to confusion in grassroots work.
In the past, there was no unified standard for the scale of livestock and poultry farms at the national level, which was formulated by each region on its own.
To this end, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has carefully summarized local experience and practices, extensively solicited opinions from agricultural and rural departments, breeding and operation entities, and the general public in various regions, and studied and formulated a national unified "Scale Standard".
Afterwards, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will also update and adjust the "Scale Standards" in a timely manner based on the actual development of livestock and poultry scale breeding.
2. Clarify the scale standards for 28 types of livestock and poultry farms
In the past, there were always inquiries from local breeders or regulatory authorities about how many minks to raise on a large scale?
Because the scale standards for common livestock and poultry such as pigs, cows, sheep, and chickens are relatively clear in various regions, but there are few clear standards for the breeding of minks, raccoons, silver foxes, emus, and so on.
The "Scale Standards" specify the scale standards for 28 types of livestock and poultry, which basically cover the existing categories of livestock and poultry breeding.
These 28 types of livestock and poultry include: pigs, cows (beef cattle, dairy cows, yaks), sheep (sheep, goats), horses, donkeys, camels, rabbits, chickens (broiler chickens, laying hens), ducks (meat ducks, egg ducks), geese, pigeons, quails, spotted deer, red deer, reindeer, alpacas, turkeys, pearl chickens, pheasants, partridges, Muscovy ducks, mallards, ostriches, emus, minks (non edible), silver foxes (non edible), Arctic foxes (non edible), raccoons (non edible), etc.
The specific scale standards for these 28 types of livestock and poultry farms are as follows:
3. Clearly define the production of 500 or more pigs in the Year of the Pig as large-scale production
In the past, the scale standards for pig farming varied from place to place, and the requirements for national level documents were also different.
For example, in the "Notice on Strengthening the Information Management of Livestock and Poultry Farm Filing and Fecal Resource Utilization Institutions" issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2017, the scale standard for pig farming is "300 heads in stock or more than 500 heads sold annually". In the "12th Five Year Plan for Pollution Prevention and Control in Livestock and Poultry Farming" issued by the former Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2014, the scale standard for pig farming was "a slaughter quantity greater than 50 heads but less than 500 heads".
The "Scale Standards" stipulate that pig farming with an annual output of 500 or more pigs is considered large-scale.
4. Clearly define the annual slaughter of 50 or more beef cattle as large-scale production
In the past, the scale standards for beef cattle breeding varied in different regions, and the requirements for national level documents were also different.
For example, in the "Notice on Strengthening the Information Management of Livestock and Poultry Farm Filing and Fecal Resource Utilization Institutions" issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2017, the scale standard for beef cattle breeding is "100 heads in stock or more than 50 heads sold annually". In the "12th Five Year Plan for Pollution Prevention and Control in Livestock and Poultry Breeding" issued by the former Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2014, the scale standard for beef cattle breeding was "a slaughter quantity greater than 10 heads but less than 100 heads".
The "Scale Standards" stipulate that beef cattle breeding with an annual output of 50 or more heads is considered large-scale.
The "Scale Standards" also provide detailed regulations on the scale standards for cows and yaks, clarifying that dairy farming with a "stock of 100 or more" is considered large-scale, and yak farming with a "stock of 200 or more" is considered large-scale.
5. Clarify that the annual output of broiler chickens and meat ducks exceeds 10000 as large-scale production
The "Scale Standards" stipulate that broiler farming with an annual output of more than 10000 chickens is considered large-scale.
In the "Notice on Strengthening the Information Management of Livestock and Poultry Farm Filing and Fecal Resource Utilization Institutions" issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2017, the scale standard for broiler farming is "5000 in stock or 10000 or more slaughtered per year". In the "12th Five Year Plan for Pollution Prevention and Control in Livestock and Poultry Farming" issued by the former Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2014, the scale standard for broiler farming was "a slaughter quantity greater than 2000 but less than 50000".
The 'Scale Standards' also specify that duck farming with an annual output of over 10000 is considered large-scale, which is basically consistent with the standards for broiler chickens.
6. Clarify that a stock of over 2000 laying hens and ducks is considered large-scale
The 'Scale Standards' uniformly and clearly stipulate the scale standards for egg laying chicken farming, and define' having a stock of 2000 or more 'as large-scale egg laying chicken farming.
In the "Notice on Strengthening the Information Management of Livestock and Poultry Farm Filing and Fecal Resource Utilization Institutions" issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2017, the scale standard for egg chicken farming is "2000 or more in stock". In the "12th Five Year Plan for Pollution Prevention and Control in Livestock and Poultry Farming" issued by the former Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2014, the scale standard for egg chicken farming was "a stock of more than 500 but less than 10000".
The "Scale Standards" also specify that the breeding of egg ducks with a stock of "over 2000" is considered large-scale, which is basically consistent with the standards for laying hens.