🇹🇷 The cattle breeds of Turkey

Turkey keeps about 17 million cattle, roughly seven in ten of them dairy animals. Native breeds such as Anatolian Black are hardy but low yielding. Feed is the largest cost on a cattle farm and cattle produce about half of Turkey's agricultural greenhouse gases.

• Turkey had 17 million cattle in 2022, about 70% of them dairy animals.
• Anatolian Black cattle are hardy but give low yields.
• Feed takes about 80% of cattle farm spending; half the ingredients are imported.
• Around half of Turkey's farm greenhouse gases come from cattle.
• Cattle are subsidised until 2028 under the Rural Prosperity, Livestock Support Project.

Cattle in Turkey

Cattle in Turkey sit inside a mixed farming system that also runs to millions of sheep, goats and water buffalo. In 2022 the national herd was about 17 million head, and roughly seven in ten of those animals were kept for milk. Native stock, of which Anatolian Black is the type usually named, copes with hard conditions but does not give much. The bigger obstacle to profit is bought-in feed: it accounts for about four fifths of what a cattle farm spends, and half of its ingredients come from abroad. Many imported animals are young stock brought in to fatten for beef. Moving herds between summer hill pasture and winter quarters, a pattern called transhumance, was once common.

The breeds

Anatolian Black cattle are the native breed named. They are not heavy producers, but they hold up well where conditions are difficult and feed or water is short. Most of the national herd is now made up of dairy animals rather than these native types.

Regions and communities

Farming spreads over every part of the country, and cattle are grazed on high ground and in dry districts. The leading agricultural areas lie along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, in the Black Sea provinces, around Marmara and Thrace, and in Central and Eastern Anatolia, with the zones in between also producing. The Aegean region is singled out as the one most exposed to a changing climate. Citrus, olives and greenhouse crops cluster in the warmer coastal belts.

Milk, butter and beef

Turkey produces more than 20 million tonnes of milk a year, and beef from cattle outweighs meat from sheep. The meat and milk board oversees the meat market. Manure is another output the agriculture ministry wants put to use, by encouraging farmers to make biogas from cattle waste.

Festivals, fairs and faith

Eid Al Adha brings the heaviest demand of the year for sheep meat, when animals are killed as part of the festival. Cattle are among the animals offered at that time.

Today

The herd stood at 17 million in 2022. A support scheme, the Rural Prosperity, Livestock Support Project, runs until 2028. Native breeds survive mainly because they are tough rather than productive. Dairy supplies most of the animals, while beef leans on imported young stock and on feed ingredients from abroad. Foot and mouth disease remains a constraint.