Lezhi Black Goat

Lezhi Black Goat

　　The Lezhi Black Goat is a local breed. The *Lezhi County Annals* from the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty recorded: “Only the black goat is entirely black, delicious, and free of gamey odor.” It is a meat-and-leather dual-purpose local goat breed, developed through long-term natural selection and artificial breeding. It boasts excellent traits such as strong adaptability, large build, rapid growth and development, and superior reproductive and meat production capabilities.

Currently, the county has a total of 410,000 goats, including 310,000 black goats — a 4.5-fold increase compared to 1993. A total of 650,000 commercial meat goats were sold, of which 485,000 were black goats, marking a 15-fold increase since 1993. High-quality female goats totaling 16,000 have been supplied to 19 counties (cities) both within and outside the province.

Lezhi County leads the province in the growth rate of both goat inventory and sales. At present, the county’s goat farming industry generates an output value of 100 million yuan. The produced commercial meat goats are exported to cities along the southeast coast. Since 1996, Lezhi County has been designated successively as a provincial demonstration county for high-quality meat goat industrialization, a provincial project county for comprehensive technology promotion in high-quality meat goat production, and a national straw-feeding goat demonstration county. The goat farming industry has become a signature sector of Lezhi County.