THOUGHTS ON MEAT IMPORTATION AND RACE PREFERENCES OF CATTLE BREEDERS IN I？DIR PROVINCE

This research is conducted to determine general structural characteristics and current situation of cattle breeding enterprises in Igdir province A questionnaire is applied to 162 enterprise owners in the research. Obtained data are subjected to c 2 (chi-square) analyses and presented in percentages. While 84.6% of the breeders wanted to increase the number of animals, 15.4% stated that they were sufficient. Simental is the cattle breed preferred by 21,6% of the breeders while 19,1% prefer Brown Swiss, 53,70% prefer Simental+Brown Swiss and 5,6% prefer Holstein. Opinions of 75,3% of the breeders are in favor of live cattle imports, while the remaining 24,7% are not in favor of live cattle imports. However, 97,5% of the breeders are not in favor of meat imports. As a result, it is determined that the breeders have sufficient knowledge on animal care and nutrition and adequate land for breeding. Thus, the breeders should be encouraged for the extension cattle breeding enterprises, enhancement of their capacity and establishment of modern enterprises