China's experience: New Zealand farmer visited Shengmu dairy production

Gavin Fisher, who has managed a certified organic dairy farm near Te Aroha for 27 years, joined a group study tour organized by Buy Pure New Zealand and IFOAM Asia. The participants visited the Shengmu complex in Inner Mongolia on the edge of the Ulan Buh Desert (Gobi Desert region), as well as a trade exhibition and supermarkets.

The Shengmu enterprise was established in 2013 and supplies a third of China's demand for organic dairy products, mainly infant formula and UHT milk. In addition to the organic herd, the farm houses 47,000 non-organic dairy cows and about 3,500 beef cattle in full indoor feedlotting. Commercial crops such as pumpkin and licorice are also grown on site.

During the trip, the group visited one of the organic dairy units of the farm. It houses 8,500 Holstein-Friesian cows with Australian genetics. The livestock are milked three times a day in two adjacent 90-bail rotary parlors under a single roof, with the milking units operating around the clock. The yield is about 43 liters of milk per cow per day.

The dairy cows are kept indoors year-round, and the diet consists of alfalfa and corn, which are mown and delivered to the feeding areas. The farm employs full-time veterinarians and nutritionists, and the barns maintain a controlled temperature to protect against winter frosts down to -20°C and summer heat up to 40°C.

The enterprise has implemented an advanced waste processing system: manure is turned into compost for soil restoration and liquid fertilizer for crop irrigation through solid-liquid separation. Methane from waste and solar infrastructure are used for energy supply, and machinery is transitioning to electrification. Irrigation is carried out mainly using water from the Yellow River, and billions of trees and grasses have been planted for protection against the sands.

In the future, the owners plan to double the scale of the enterprise. According to Fisher, all Chinese dairy products are sold on the domestic market, but New Zealand retains a competitive advantage thanks to its climate, outdoor pasture-based production, and genetic modification-free status. At home in Elstow, Fisher and his wife Sheryn run the 74 ha family organic farm Mountain View Organics with 165 cows, and also develop their own brand, Off the Planet Organics.