Japan's livestock industry faces many problems, including a low and unstable domestic supply of feed crops and a shortage of labor. Therefore, there are demands for a stable supply of domestic feed crops with high nutritional value, such as corn, and labor-saving production methods for beef calves that can be operated with little labor.
In order to meet these demands, the Division of Feed and Livestock Research is studying to develop 1) feed crop cultivars that will lead and stabilize domestic feed production, such as corn with improved waterlogging tolerance, 2) methods for the low-cost and stable cultivation and use of feed corn, and 3) methods for monitoring animal behavior and pasture vegetation using information and communication technology (ICT) to produce calves efficiently and stably with less labor.
Our goals for this research term are to increase corn yields by 10% by breeding waterlogging tolerant cultivars, to replace rice production in paddy fields by developing a system for producing and shipping seed corn silage mainly in the southern region of Japan (i.e., excluding Hokkaido), to provide livestock farmers with inexpensive feed to replace imported corn feed, and to realize and spread the production of beef calves with 30% labor savings (/labor hour).
