page_title: Jeju Black
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Jeju Black / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Jeju black cattle on the snow graze
context_page_description: Jeju Black Cattle are one of the indigenous cattle breeds found in the Korean peninsula. Since the prehistoric age, this breed has survived in the subtropical environment of Jeju Island. Evidences found in the ancient documents about existence of Jeju Black Cattle described that beef of this indigenous cattle was served to the king or used as ritual offerings.
  Although a prehistoric existence, a substantial shrink in its population size in Jeju Island has categorized the breed as endangered until 1980s. In the last few decades, South Korean government policies in agricultural industry focused on automation and increased agriproduct outputs which had also driven most industrial interest to breeding of the major local beef source known as Hanwoo cattle than other indigenous breeds such as Jeju Black Cattle. For years, as a consequence, this indigenous breed has lost its economic importance to cattle farmers, presumably because of their impaired growth performances in absence of systematic breeding schemes.
context_section_description: The first historic painting of Jeju Black Cattle was found on a mural of an ancient tomb named Anak Tomb No. 3 during the Goguryeo Dynasty in 357 AD. There also exist ancient documents, the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and several others that described the shapes of cattle breeds. History of breeding of Jeju Black Cattle in Jeju Island dated back to 1702 AD, during the 28th year reign of King Sookjong. The administrator of Jeju-mok regional office at that period, known as Yi Hyeong-sang, surveyed around whole island, and those records were collected in Tamna Sullyeokdo. According to his report,  a total of 703 black cattle were raised at that time in the island. Also, recent scientific evidence (based on DNA analysis of bones recovered from Gonae-ri and Gwakji-ri in Aewaleup, Jeju City) was provided by a professor in Jeju National University (Oh et al., 2005) that ancestors of the present Jeju Black Cattle had been raised by humans since prehistory.
  However, Jeju Black Cattle became endangered especially during the Japanese colonial period in 1920s. Most of the Jeju Black Cattles were forcefully dispossessed and shipped to Japan. Since 1992, scientists in Jeju Stockbreeding Promotion Institute have collected Jeju Black Cattle which were scattered at private farms in Jeju Island and managed as a group of genetic resource. They are also carrying out preservation/proliferation projects. As per their project goals expectations, if successful, over 600 of these black cattle will exist in Jeju area in near future. Jeju SPI also developed a breed discrimination tool using genetic markers. This tool has been applied to retain the uniqueness of the Jeju Black Cattle breed. In 2013, Republic of Korean government acknowledged the historical and cultural values of Jeju Black Cattle and assigned it Natural Monument No. 546 of National Cultural Property to prevent extinction and preserve the breed. The Korea Animal Improvement Association, which mainly functions for management of individual identification and pedigree information of seedstock animal owned either by institutions or private breeders, also manages breeding herd information of Jeju Black Cattle in their registration database system, which is open to public.
caption: Jeju Black Cattle on a snowy field
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