Local researchers have recently found a way to use overflowing piles of unsold rice.
A new study shows that COWS that consume rice are healthier and often produce higher quality beef and milk.
Cho Sung-min with the details.
Rice is still the most common staple for South Koreans, but it's clearly lost some popularity.
A government report shows that in 2017, rice production hit the lowest level in 37 years... and the amount of rice people eat has been falling steadily since 2011.
That means there's literally tons of rice left over, which the nation is having a hard time finding ways to use.

Now, researchers from the Rural Development Administration have conducted multiple tests to see if rice is suitable to be used in livestock feed.
They said cows that were given special feed made of rice... became more healthy and produced higher quality meat and milk.

According to their study, top-grade beef from the rice-fed cows and the ordinary ones showed a quality difference of ten percentage points,... with the rice-fed cows clearly superior.
Their beef also had twice the amount of vitamin E, which functions as an antioxidant.
In the case of dairy cows, the ones that were fed rice showed a significantly higher pregnancy rate than the ones that had normal animal feed.
They also yielded more milk,... and their milk contained almost thirty percent fewer somatic cells, a type of blood cell that raises the chance of growing harmful bacteria.

With those discoveries, the researchers predicted that more farms will grow rice specifically to feed animals instead of people.

"More land will be used to cultivate special rice for animal feed since feeding rice to cows has been proven to have positive outcomes."

The RDA says it's studying ways to use rice to make specific kinds of animal feed that can enhance the overall quality of South Korea's livestock.
Cho Sung-min, Arirang News.