Abstract:

The beef cattle industry constitutes a vital component of China's livestock sector, playing a key role in ensuring meat product supply, promoting rural revitalization, and increasing farmers' income. Indigenous Chinese beef cattle have long been bred primarily for draft purposes, resulting in inherent disadvantages such as slow growth, poor meat performance, and low feed conversion efficiency, making them unsuitable for large-scale farming and upgrading consumer demand. The introduction of superior exotic beef cattle breeds and their scientific development and utilization represent an effective approach to compensate for the shortcomings of local breeds, underpin seed industry security, and support hybrid improvement systems. At present, mainstream introduced breeds, including Simmental, Angus, and Wagyu, have achieved large-scale localized breeding and differentiated industrial layouts, while specialized breeds such as Charolais and Limousin are adapted to diverse regional production settings, forming a multi‑variety germplasm utilization pattern. Nevertheless, the industry still faces notable challenges, including inadequate targeting in breed introduction, imperfect localized selection systems, insufficient independent breeding capacity, prominent genetic degradation, and heavy reliance on imports for high‑end germplasm and core breeding technologies, all of which severely constrain the expression of desirable traits and high‑quality industrial development. To address these issues, this paper systematically reviews the historical trajectory of the development and utilization of introduced beef breeds in China, and proposes a systematic strategy encompassing precise introduction, localized cultivation, and efficient development and utilization. Specifically, we recommend region‑oriented targeted introduction and standardized introduction procedures to build a scientific germplasm introduction framework; the application of modern breeding technologies to improve localized selection mechanisms; and the establishment of an integrated extension system combining superior breeds and appropriate management practices to accelerate the industrial translation of germplasm advantages. The aim is to resolve the bottleneck of germplasm dependence, enhance the efficiency of localized utilization of introduced breeds, improve the overall breeding and farming system for beef cattle, and thereby provide theoretical support and practical reference for quality improvement and efficiency enhancement, independent control of germplasm resources, and rural industrial revitalization in China’s beef cattle sector.

Key words: Beef cattle, Introduced breeds, Development and utilization, Breed improvement, Industrial development