Croatian Farmers Launch 350 Million Kuna Cattle Breeding Program

Gathered in the association Salers Croatia, young Croatian farmers have secured assistance from eminent experts in developing a breeding program for Salers cattle, arranged support from French breeding centers, and have a secure market for the cattle they raise. Croatia has the opportunity to become a breeding center for Salers in Southeast Europe and the European part of Turkey.

Young Croatian farmers gathered in the association Salers Croatia today presented an ambitious program for breeding top-quality French Salers cattle in Croatia, aiming to create 300 breeding herds of Salers worth over 350 million kuna in sparsely populated hilly and mountainous areas over the next five years, positioning Croatia as a breeding center for Salers cattle in this part of Europe.

The program has been developed by domestic and foreign cattle breeding experts led by the Institute for Special Animal Husbandry of the Faculty of Agriculture in Zagreb. The association implementing the program has the support of French breeding centers Groupe Salers Evolution and Herd Book Salers, which gather over 5,000 breeders with more than 200,000 breeding animals, as well as leaders of the European and World Salers associations, who believe that Croatia has the ideal position to become the main exporter of Salers cattle in organic farming in the cow-calf system in this part of Europe. Due to this potential that Croatia has, the association has obtained all rights for the placement of breeding heifers and bulls for the entire Southeast European region and the European part of Turkey, thereby securing a large export market for domestic farmers in advance. This gives Croatia a unique opportunity to regain its position as an exporter in cattle breeding, which we have lost in recent decades.

The start of the program’s implementation is represented by the order of the first 400 breeding heifers for the needs of the association’s members, valued at around 3.5 million kuna, from French breeding centers. The cattle will be delivered next week to producers in the Lika region. A new order for another 400 heifers and 10 Salers bulls has already been arranged by the end of the year.

– Croatia has enormous untapped potential for the development of organic cattle breeding, which is highly valued worldwide. The Salers breed is ideal for Croatian hilly and mountainous areas as it requires minimal care and can be outdoors all year round, and due to its exceptional meatiness and meat quality, it achieves high prices in the market. To realize its full potential, Croatia should further encourage organic cattle breeding that can bring life back to beautiful but currently abandoned areas. I urge Croatian farmers to inquire about the possibilities of breeding Salers as this breed provides a decent livelihood for thousands of breeders and their families worldwide, said Ron Coomber, president of the International Salers Federation (ISF).

– In Croatia, we already have excellent experiences with the Salers breed as the first animals arrived in Lika in 2009, with co-financing from the Government of the Republic of Croatia. On that foundation, Salers breeding has been maintained, and thanks to the excellent experiences of domestic farmers, the groundwork for expanding breeding has been laid. By collaborating with the highest quality French breeding centers, we are now in a unique position to elevate cattle breeding in Croatia to a global level, said Mirko Devčić, president of the Salers Croatia association.

The Salers Croatia association emphasized that their primary goal is to establish sustainable cattle production in Croatia that will justify all investments, have a market placement, and be competitive in the market. The program is simultaneously aimed at producing fattening material for the Croatian market and producing breeding material for export markets for which the association has obtained all placement rights.