A group of Australian dairy farmers and consultants recently travelled to Northeast China to see firsthand what Chinese farmers are doing to drive growth as consumption of Chinese dairy products have begun to soar, with production and consumption of dairy products averaging a 12.8 percent annual growth rate since 2000.

The group visited a world-class training center, the Nestlé Dairy Farming Institute (DFI) in Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang province. Opened in October 2014, the DFI welcomed more than 1,300 visitors from 24 countries in its first year of operation. The DFI keeps an emphasis on education and utilizing new technology, providing free training to approximately 1,000 farmers. Partnering with Nestlé, Alltech participates in numerous educational initiatives and assistance in establishing best practices in Chinese agribusiness, hosting nearly 40 training sessions for DFI students last year.

The Australian delegation toured the cutting-edge Alltech In Vitro Fermentation Model (IFM) laboratory. Alltech uses its proprietary diagnostic tool to simulate rumen fermentation and evaluate the nutritive value of total mixed rations. Results from the model provide Chinese dairy nutritionists and farmers evaluations for dairy rations to maximize feed efficiency and combat ever-rising feed costs. The results also obtain estimates of the amount of energy lost as methane and methane emissions per animal.

The farmers also travelled to Northeast Agricultural University, one of China’s key research universities. The team met with Professor Zhang Yonggen and some of his students for discussion about the state of the Chinese dairy industry. Professor Yonggen outlined the Chinese dairy industry and some of the challenges it is facing, and stressed that financial pressures and cost of ingredients were major factors affecting the industry. The group spoke at length about a public relations campaign that is currently underway in China to help the dairy industry win back Chinese consumers’ trust in locally-produced products.

“While China is fighting to improve consumer perception of quality in locally produced milk, the reality is that the milk sent out from this farm is probably cleaner than some Australian producers,” commented Steve Ralston, Alltech Oceania technical sales representative.

While average milk production in China is slightly lower than current Australian estimates, a focus on innovation and increased investment in new technologies is predicted to help China overtake Australian producers in the next 18 months.

“The Chinese are doing an excellent job of adapting to change before they have to. After seeing the level of innovation in the farms we visited, I believe that Australian farmers are in danger of not innovating quickly enough, making it easy for China to overtake us,” said Ralston. “We have far cheaper feed, better conditions and less extreme temperatures —we need to start thinking differently and changing.”