Thailand is divided into four main agro-ecological zones (Figure 2). Accordingly, the cattle industry is disaggregated into four zones by the Department of Livestock Development. The regional distribution patterns are presented in Figure 3. The changes in beef cat
Figure 2: Four main ecological-zones of Thailand.
Cattle are distributed throughout the country, with the highest concentration in the north-eastern region (accounted for around 40%), and the lowest concentration in the southern region (accounted for around 12%) (Figure 3). The southern region is dominated by the plantation of agriculture including rubber, oil palm, fruit trees and coconuts (Phommexay et al., 2011). Therefore, even though it is close to potential markets and faces less of a disease problem than other parts of the country, the cattle number is lowest.
Figure 3: Beef cattle number by regions
