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Friday, November 21, 2008
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Guangzhou Experimental Dairy Farm
The Farm:
- Located in Guangzhou, Canton province, south China
- Annual average temperature is 21.7 degrees Celsius (71°F), Maximum temperature is 38 degrees Celsius (100°F) in July, minimum temperature is 0 degrees Celsius (32°F) in January.
- Rainfall averages 1,983 mm (78 inches) per year. April to June is the rainy season. From August to September, it is very hot and has more typhoons.
- There are 860 cows, 304 heifers and 77 calves. Currently they are milking 402 cows, with average milk production at 5000kg (11,023 lbs).
Farm Location: China
Link to a Babcock Institute Paper on Agriculture in China: http://babcock.cals.wisc.edu/downloads/dp/2002-3-color.en.pdf
Agribusiness Review- The Emerging Dairy Industry in China: http://www.agribusiness.asn.au/
Basic information about China: http://www.chinatoday.com/
Farm Management:
- This was a state-owned farm under Guangzhou Dairy Cattle Research Institute, and it was privatized by selling it to the staff in December 2002.
- There are 46 employees involved in milk production on the farm.
Nutritient Management:
The manure is cleaned by scraper system in the barn and manually cleaned in the exercise yard.
The collected manure is further processed into bio-fertilizer.
Dry manure is supplied directly to the adjacent orchard.
The sewage is purified before discharge.
Feeding/Cropping:
Feeding is done 2x per day using a TMR mixer wagon.
TMR roughage is corn silage, alfalfa hay blocks and grass hay.
The major energy source is corn and protein comes from soybean meal, peanut meal rapeseed meal and fishmeal.
The farm can store enough feedstuff reserves for about 3 months.
Milking:
Cow are milked 2x per day in a DeLaval 2X12 herringbone parlor. An Alpro system is used.
Auto-distinguish gate (sort gate) is used when necessary.
Milk is picked up once per day
Cows are misted in the holding area
Fat averages 3.8%
Young Stock and Replacements:
There are approximately 700 head of young stock.
Calves are kept in individual boxes (stalls) until 40 days old and weaned at 2 months of age. Dehorning is done at 20-30 days after birth
Age at first calving is 26 months.
Calving interval is about 410 days.
Artificial insemination is used.
Calving is concentrated in December and before May due to the climate (hot after May) and seasonal milk prices
Housing:
Cows are housed in free stall system.
Shelter barn with electrical fans and sprinkler in summer
Rubber stall mats are used.
Half of the exercise yard is soil and half is paved with brick for wet days.
Economics:
- Annual income is 1.8 million US dollars.
Community:
Received the Model Dairy Farm of Guangzhou Province award
Original Jersey Breed Farm of Guangzhou Province.
Future:
They plan to expand herd size to 1500 cows.
4 barns are under construction for calving pens and dry cows as well as calf and heifer facilities.
Another Parlor--a 2X12,DeLaval Blue Diamond with Alpro system-- is going to be installed.
It is expected that the new building will be put into operation at the end of 2004
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