China Modern Dairy is the largest dairy farming company in China, in terms of herd size, as well as the largest raw milk producer in China.
Here, vet Joep Driessen, gives an overview of one of its dairy farms and takes us inside one of the sheds, which is home to 2,400 cows.
According to Professor Li Sheng Li and Joep Driessen this is the biggest dairy farm in China, and is home to almost 40,000 cows. Milking 20,000 cows at a time, with eight rotary parlours of 80 cows. One barn is almost 4ha.
The Group has 22 dairy farms operating, and a number of other farms under construction and owns almost 200,000 cows in total.
Total sales volume for the Group amounted to 372,647t for the six months ended 31 December 2013. This represented an increase of 42.8% from 260,906t in the corresponding period of 2012.
The Group accounted for more than 70% of the milk source supply of Milk Deluxe, Mengniu Group’s premium brand of milk.
The dairy farm shown is home to eight sheds, each is 376m long and home to 2,400 cows, with cows in groups of 400. The sheds are cross ventilated and they have double rows. Dry manure is used for bedding, which are done twice a day.
The farm also has solar energy to provide energy and biogas to generate electricity. UHT milk is manufactured on the farm.
And in the distance one can see the silos and feed stations. Joep takes viewers through the dairy sheds in the video, where he points out the 400 cow groups. Inside the shed, which is so long, it’s dark and difficult to see where the shed ends.
He also points to the low percentage of cows that are standing up, with most choosing to lie down and he says this is because there is fresh bedding put down twice a day. The bedding, Joep says, is made of dried manure.
