This book covers a wide range of aspects of cattle and buffalo hide collection, storage and processing in Thailand. No previous collation of information on the subject exists and, together with research presented herein, this book represents a milestone in understanding of a neglected industry with great commercial potential from improved management. The story starts with the emergence of Thailand as one of the world’s major agricultural exporters in many fields often to the neglect of useful by-products. Treating hides as a by-product of the bovine industries has held Thailand’s own leather industry back. This book explains means by which it can be advanced to both national and commercial benefit. Because of the low quality of local hides in Thailand as in other developing countries, the end users in the industrial sector have long experienced major difficulties. As hide purchasers they need to meet quality requirements for their hide products in an efficient and financially viable manner. They operate without having the ways and means to deal with the existing problems of defects that originate from different sources in other seg...

LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF PHOTOS ix Acknowledgments x What this Book is About 11 Chapter 1 – Setting the Scene 16 Chapter 2 – An Overview of Thai Bovines 27 The Cattle and Buffalo Industry in Thailand 27 Populations of Cattle and Buffalo 28 Cattle and Buffalo Production Systems 30 Story of Kamphaeng Saen Beef Cattle 33 Development of Kamphaeng Saen Beef Breed 34 Kamphaeng Saen Beef Breeders’ Association 36 Genetic Improvement of KPS Beef Cattle 38 Markets and Marketing System for Live Bovines 44 General Characteristics of Cattle and Buffalo Markets 45 Marketing Systems 47 Purchasing Techniques 50 Procedures after Purchasing & Destination of Animals 51 Payment and Money Circulation in RLM 52 Thai Hide Transaction Chains and Marketing Today 55 Transaction Chain of Hides 55 Hides at Slaughterhouses 56 Hide Collecting Businesses 60 Hides at Tanneries 61 Marketing of Hides 64 Types of Hide Traders 65 Hide Purchasing 67 Use of Hides for Continuing Businesses 73 Physical Factors Affecting Cattle Hide Quality 75 Hide Preservation and Quality 77 Investigation of Defects on Cattle Hides 79 Quality Standard for Cat...