Experts determine the production performance of Taiping chickens.
In the past two years, the fresh and unique flavor of Taiping Chicken has reappeared on the table, which has delighted some gourmet foodies and evoked memories of their taste buds more than 20 years ago. How did the Taiping Chicken, which has been silent for more than 20 years, "reappear in the rivers and lakes"? A few days ago, the reporter followed the experts of the National Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Committee to Kang County, Longnan City, Gansu Province, the origin of Taiping chicken, to find out.
Originates from the persistence of "foodies"
Taiping chicken has a long history. According to local legend, after the defeat of the Taiping Rebellion, the remnants of the army passed through the Longnan region on the way to Shaanxi and Gansu, and in order to survive, they had to hide in the Qinba Mountain Range, where the mountains were high and deep. In order to commemorate them, the descendants changed the name of the place to Taiping (present-day Yangba Town, Kang County), and the pheasant that has always lived in the local mountains was also named Taiping Chicken.
Due to the origin of the forest area surrounded by mountains, inconvenient transportation for a long time, the environment is relatively closed and isolated, after long-term natural selection, the breed of Taiping chicken has formed a local chicken breed with relatively stable genetic performance, relatively consistent body shape and appearance, and obvious characteristics, and has been passed down in Kang County.
"Because the main plumage color of the Taiping chicken is black, the local people in Kang County believe that it has the meaning of protecting the prosperity of the family business and peace and success, so when I was a child, every family here raised the Taiping chicken." Xu Weiqin, head of the Meiyuan Taiping Chicken Breeding Cooperative in Kang County, said that at the end of the 20th century, due to the introduction of other chicken breeds and other reasons, the amount of Taiping chicken breeding decreased rapidly, and the Taiping chicken breed was once facing an endangered state, and the Taiping chicken gradually left everyone's field of vision.
And why is Taiping Chicken back now? This has to make people admire the persistence of "foodies".
After graduating from university, Xu Weiqin, like most young people, chose to go to big cities, but after working in Shenzhen, she often missed home because of "eating". "When I was in Shenzhen, every time I ate chicken and drank chicken soup, I missed the taste of Taiping chicken in my hometown." Xu Weiqin recalled that the hometown of Taiping chicken in Kang County has a unique flavor, the meat is elastic and chewy, and the taste is fragrant, whether it is braised or stewed.
In 2009, after a long period of thinking, Xu Weiqin decided to return to her hometown to start a business and opened the road of Taiping chicken breeding.
After changing the family's old house into a chicken coop, Xu Weiqin and his wife were very excited and ready to do a big job, but found that because there were fewer and fewer farmers breeding Taiping chickens in recent years, it was difficult to see purebred Taiping chickens, and the original resources of Taiping chickens were very scarce.
"I'm sure there must still be people raising it, so I have to find a chicken." Speaking of the process of finding chicken breeds, Xu Weiqin has been glad of her perseverance more than once. In order to find the original species of Taiping chicken, the couple shuttled between mountains and deep ravines, inquiring and searching one household after another, and finally, they finally found more than 300 Taiping chickens.
Among the Taiping chicken groups found, the couple screened and finally selected 26 roosters for expansion breeding, and soon expanded the Taiping chicken group. Now, the number of Taiping chickens in Kang County has exceeded 100,000, and Taiping chickens have appeared on the tables of ordinary people in Kang County again.
Re-entry into the "family tree" is just around the corner
The Taiping chicken that was re-brought to the people's table was made into various dishes, which was loved by diners and gained a group of loyal fans, who surrounded Xu Weiqin every day to buy chickens, which not only made her Taiping chicken breeding business flourish, but also successfully attracted the attention of the local authorities.
After Xu Weiqin's farm inspection and investigation, the Kang County Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau believed that Taiping chicken was a unique local livestock and poultry breed in Kang County, so it introduced Professor Shi Zhaoguo, who was then the dean of the College of Animal Science and Technology of Gansu Agricultural University, to Xu Weiqin, and invited Shi Zhaoguo's team to carry out the investigation of Taiping chicken germplasm resources and seed preservation and breeding in the farm system, and listed the declaration of new varieties of Taiping chicken livestock and poultry as one of the key tasks of the bureau.
"After entering the farm, we found that due to the customs and preferences of the local people, most of the remaining Taiping chickens were black feathers and red crowns, and a few were flower feathers, hemp feathers, yellow feathers, etc. In order to identify the breed, we had to determine the uniqueness of the Taiping chicken breed, so we conducted body shape and appearance analysis and genetic analysis based on the black feather population. Zhao Shengguo, a professor at Gansu Agricultural University, said.
By comparing the body shape and appearance of eight black-feathered and red-crowned local chicken breeds, including wolf mountain chicken, Shouguang chicken and Turpan fighting chicken, it was found that the appearance of Taiping chicken was different between the control group. At the same time, the genetic identification results also showed that in addition to the genes common to all local chicken breeds in China, there were no other genes among more than 10 surrounding chicken breeds such as Taiping chicken, Jingning chicken and wolf mountain chicken and chicken breeds with similar appearance. "Therefore, we believe that the Taiping chicken is a local chicken breed that is not officially recognized." Zhao Shengguo said.
In 2021, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Gansu Province submitted an application to the National Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Commission to designate Taiping chicken as a new breed of livestock and poultry, but it was quickly rejected because it was confirmed extinct in 1983 in the 2004 book The Status of Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources in China. The facts contradict the information and require more adequate evidence.
Zhao Shengguo explained that the false alarm may have been caused by insufficient efforts in the previous two surveys of livestock and poultry genetic resources, lack of technical strength and poor transportation. "We visited some farmers and animal husbandry experts and learned that there are indeed a few Taiping chickens in Kang County, which proves that Taiping chickens are not extinct." Zhao Shengguo said.
In fact, not only Taiping chickens, but also some local livestock and poultry genetic resources such as Yantai Waste Bran Chicken, Xiangcheng Pig, Longyou Wu Pig, etc., were not recorded in the second national livestock and poultry genetic resources survey for various reasons.
In March 2021, the mainland fully launched the third national census of livestock and poultry genetic resources, and due to the comprehensive coverage, high technical level and sufficient personnel, a number of missing livestock and poultry varieties were found in various localities in the process of all-round census. Lu Jian, deputy director of the Livestock and Poultry Resources Division of the National Animal Husbandry Station, said: "In order to ensure that the varieties of livestock and poultry genetic resources are fully collected and guaranteed, the National Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Committee has studied and formulated the "Working Procedures for the Identification of Missing Livestock and Poultry Varieties (Trial)", so that these missing varieties can be re-identified, and Taiping chicken is among them. ”
Recently, there was good news that Taiping chicken passed the on-site verification of the National Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Committee, and is only one step away from being officially recognized as a local chicken breed in China.
Let the Taiping chicken "fly" out of the mountain
A dedication to eating has allowed the forgotten breed of Taiping Chicken to re-enter the public eye, and there will be a broader space for development, which surprised and delighted Xu Weiqin, and also changed her original intention of starting a business.
"In the past, I just thought that I could raise some chickens to make some money, but now that I know that Taiping chicken is an important livestock and poultry genetic resource, I must protect and use it well to prevent it from being dusted again." She said.
In the process of breeding for many years, Xu Weiqin and his wife have learned a lot of skills in seed preservation and multiplication with Zhao Shengguo, and also learned the importance of genetic diversity. In order to preserve the genetic diversity of Taiping chickens to a greater extent, the couple gave up the practice of only raising black-feathered chickens to cater to the public's preferences, and in the past two years, they gradually began to pay attention to retaining the red feathers, hemp feathers, yellow feathers and other plumage colors of the Taiping chicken, and established a family line according to the color and crown type for breeding. At present, Xu Weiqin's Taiping Chicken Breeding Center has divided into 13 families, and the core group of breeders has reached 15,000, the annual hatching capacity has reached 200,000, and the chicks have been promoted to 5 surrounding cities (counties and districts), so that Taiping chicken farmers are no longer troubled by no seedlings available.
Zhu Yinxi, head of the Kang County Lvxingyuan Farmers Professional Cooperative, purchased Taiping chicken breeders from Xu Weiqin's farm in 2016 and contracted more than 320 acres of mountain land to hatch broods and raise commercial chickens. "Taiping chickens have strong flying ability and like to rest on trees, and we have many mountains here, which can be used to raise Taiping chickens, and can also reduce some feeding management costs." He said that in recent years, with the promotion of Taiping chicken seedlings, more than 1,800 farmers in Kang County have raised Taiping chickens, as if they have returned to the time when every household raised Taiping chickens in the past, and the breeding volume has also increased significantly.
However, with the increase of breeding volume, the proportion of Taiping chicken in the local consumer market has always been only about 30%, and it is necessary to find more sales channels.
As a new farmer, Zhu Yinxi immediately thought of the huge market beyond the mountains. It is precisely because of the expansion of e-commerce platforms that he took advantage of this shareholder wind to open up the export channel of Taiping Chicken. Today, Zhu Yinxi sells more than 8,000 Taiping chickens through e-commerce platforms every year, with sales of more than 1 million yuan.
Nowadays, Xu Weiqin, Zhu Yinxi, these new farmers are closely watching the development of Taiping chicken, they are not only busy with the breeding and promotion of Taiping chicken, but also pay more attention to the scientific, large-scale, intelligent development and brand construction of Taiping chicken breeding, pondering how to extend the industrial chain and truly protect, develop and make good use of this breed of Taiping chicken.