Friday, March 29, 2024

Stock sought for second hub

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New Zealand young stock is destined for what will be Fonterra’s second Chinese farming hub in Ying County, Shanxi Province.
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It will be made up of five 3000-cow farms and is expected to be in production in the second half of next year. Fonterra’s director of farm operations in China, Nicola Morris, said most of the animals will be exported from NZ with the rest born in China and raised at their Yutian Hub in Hebei Province, about 500km away.

“From time to time we may source animals from Australia if they meet our strict quality criteria,” she said.

“The livestock we import will be either young, unmated heifers or mated heifers that will calve after quarantine in China. The cow numbers will build during the first year with calving spread over the year.”

The Shanxi Province hub, like the one in neighbouring Hebei Province, will provide fresh milk directly to customers, many based in and around nearby Beijing, who in turn use it to make a variety of products.

Fonterra president of Greater China and India, Kelvin Wickham, said raw milk supply growth in China had been about 2% for the past three years but demand was growing at about 6-8%.

Fonterra’s two hubs will produce up to 300 million litres of milk a year, with the co-op aiming for one billion litres of milk in China by 2020.

Morris said Fonterra’s model for farming cows in China took the best of Kiwi ingenuity and farming systems and melding it with the best of American and European confinement systems.

Cows in the free-stall barns are fed a variety of food, with Fonterra working closely with local suppliers to improve the quality and types of feed they grow.

The new hub will employ more than 500 people, about three quarters local employees.

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