This Year, the 'Hanwoo and Dairy Cattle Competition' Will Also Be Held Online

Gyeonggi-do, Transition to On-site Inspection by Farm

Reference photo (Gyeonggi-do Hanwoo and Dairy Cattle Competition) [Provided by Gyeonggi-do]

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-cheol] Gyeonggi Province will hold the nation's first non-face-to-face 'Hanwoo and Dairy Cattle Competition' this year, considering the COVID-19 quarantine situation.

The province announced on the 8th, "This year's competition will be conducted not by the traditional 'group judging method,' where livestock are gathered at the competition venue for comparison and evaluation, but by the 'individual on-site judging method,' where professional evaluators visit each farm directly to conduct the assessment."

To this end, applications for competition livestock will be accepted through local livestock cooperatives or the Korea Animal Improvement Association until the 18th, and full-scale on-site judging at each farm will begin from mid-month.

The competition will be divided into five categories for Hanwoo and seven categories for dairy cattle, based on age and months. The best livestock in each category will be selected and awarded grand prize, excellence prize, and encouragement prize. Winning livestock will be showcased at the (tentatively named) Gyeonggi Province Livestock Expo to be held in September.

Also, since the event is held non-face-to-face, to prevent fairness controversies due to the inability to conduct comparative judging, the non-face-to-face judging manual prepared by the Korea Animal Improvement Association, the existing judging institution, will be applied as the standard, and the association will oversee the judging process.

Kim Young-soo, Director of the Livestock Policy Division of the province, said, "We hope this competition will serve as an opportunity to boost the morale of livestock farmers who have been struggling due to recent livestock epidemics and COVID-19, and to present a long-term vision for the livestock industry in the post-COVID era."

Meanwhile, due to the cancellation of the competition for two consecutive years caused by the African Swine Fever in 2019 and COVID-19 in 2020, concerns about the continuity of the event were raised. This year, the event is revived after three years by adopting a non-face-to-face method.

So far, the province has provided a festival venue where livestock farmers and residents come together for the development of the livestock industry, starting with the 'Gyeonggi Province Livestock Exhibition' in 1966 and continuing through the 'Livestock Promotion Competition' in 2018.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.