Dairy farming in China
Large farms on the rise, improving & leading in all aspects
As part of his work, William Smits visits China multiple times each year to support the larger farms and provide training to the DeLaval service and advisory teams. In this trip of June 2023, he visited 11 farms in Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Yinchuan, and Shandong provinces together with colleagues of DeLaval China.
To get the idea of the scale of the farms this is what they looked at in 11 farm locations
- Parallel parlors 4
- Rotary parlors 13
- VMS milking units 24
- Milking points in total 1464
- Milking cows estimate 40,000
- Daily production estimate (kg milk) 1.500.000
Many of the farms visited above have multiple parlors on each farm, and most of the farms belong to the 10 largest farming conglomerates that produce over 30% of all milk in China (see below). The oldest farm is over 15 years old, and this is one of the oldest large farms in China, 2 or 3 farms are 5 to 10 years old, and all other farms are less than 5 years old.
In around 20 years dairy farming in China has changed rapidly from smallholder farms to cooperative farms or village milking centers, to larger private farms and into large farming conglomerates.
According to the China National Bureau of Statistics, as of the end of 2022, China’s overall milk production is 39.32 million tons, up 2.49 million tons from 2021. Overall dairy cow stock is estimated at 6.4 million in 2022. (Numbers are provided by Intelligence Research Group consultancy company). The graph on the left shows the total herd and milkable cows in the largest 10 farming groups in China.
10 leading Farming groups produce 30% of the milk in China
The 10 largest farming groups own 1.8 million cows (around 30% of the HF dairy herd) and with an average annual production of over 11 tons per cows these farms produce >30% of the milk in China
More details on these top 10 farming groups in the table of the Rabobank China Dairy market outlook through 2032 that was published in Aug 2023. The graph on the left shows the production level of the top 10 farming groups and the average of all farms in China with > 100 head.
More than cow numbers
These 10 large farming groups are not only the largest in size, many of these farms also achieve a much higher productivity per cow than most other farms.The average yield of the cows in these farms exceeds 11 tons per cow per lactation, whereas the average yield of all farms with over 100 heads is around 9 ton per lactation.
But what about mastitis and milk quality?
This is a question that is often asked, and indicating a general held concern that when farms grow larger the attention for the cows gets less and that hygiene, comfort and animal health suffers. As I have visited China often over many years, the first large farms were low-cost affairs, and at that time there was minimal knowledge or attention for the needs of the cows, and in the early days (2005 to 2015) the milk quality was not comparable to the results of today. The first graph shows the average milk yield and the Somatic Cell Count (SCC) of the cows participating in the DHI program from 2018 to 2022. This program covers around 1500 of the larger farms. The bar graph shows the yield and the SCC by farm size, and it is clear that the larger farms achieve higher average production while bringing down the SCC level below 200,000.
The changes in Chinese dairy farming over the last 15 years
Most developing countries in Asia, just as China, initially start developing dairy farming to create income for the small farmers and to produce milk for improving the nutritional status of the population. In almost all countries the first type of farms is the smallholder or backyard farm, milking the cows by hand initially and carrying the milk (walking or by bicycle) to a milk collection center. As I have been visiting China since around 2010 and lived in Beijing between 2013 and 2018, I have seen the development from the few first large farms to the model of dairy farming that is in operation today.
Some of my observations:
- The start: The initial stage of dairy farm development was driven by the desire to produce milk locally. At this stage many villagers and investors build farms, small and large, without having the knowledge on the requirements of high potential dairy cows, investing the bare minimum in comfort or automation.
- Very fast developments: Over time almost all these first generation of farms have either closed, or they have relocated and re-build the farms in new locations, and with each year of construction the standards improved: the levels of cow comfort improved, the way of manure handling and processing improved, nutrition improved, and the management of the milking process improved.
Note that the farmers were not dairy farmers for many generations. The farms were built to make profit quickly and closed down as soon as regulations became stricter (environment especially) or profitability did not meet expectations.
- Setting high targets: Related to milking and milking management the knowledge initially was limited, but once few leading farms (notably AustAsia farms) showed that it is possible to achieve very high levels of production, and with few mastitis cases and with SCC levels below 100,000, this became the target for other farms, and since 2017 the number of large farms achieving production levels of over 10,000 kg milk and with SCC below 100,000 increased each year.
- Learning and sharing by social media. WeChat and the wide use of internet to train, learn and share information. Farmers, farming groups, milk processors, magazines and suppliers started using online training far before the start of Covid. Most of the large farms have a training room or meeting room with all facilities for joining and interaction during online events.
- Farming by structures, SOP’s, and protocols.
All farmers and farm managers are first generation farmers, and the farms employ large numbers of employees. To manage the large number of people each farm has a structure with employees, with supervisors for each part of the farm and each shift and the farm manager & assistant manager (and with a well sized administration and data handling team).
Large farms in China actively measure and manage milking performance
In the farms milking 2000 to 3000 cows 3 times daily there will be 3 shifts in the milking team, with around 8 people per shift, and 24 to 25 people in the milking team. Managing this number of people and with often high turnover of employees requires skilled management, continuous training, and efficient ways to monitor whether the milking routine is implemented correctly or not. Rather than watching the people milk the farms use the data of the milking automation, the milk quality data and teat end scoring to monitor performance.
The table below gives several of the KPI used and the achievable target values for different yields of the milking session. Daily yields are very high, but when milking 3 times (and sometimes 4 times) daily the yield for each milking session is not that high.
| Commonly used Milking Performance KPI and target values on large farms in China | |||
| Delpro milk flow data | Session yield 10 kg | Session yield 15 kg | |
| 1 | Peak milk flow | 4.0 kg/minute | 4.5 kg/minute |
| 2 | Yield in the first 2 minutes | 50% or 5.0 kg | 45% or 6.75 kg |
| 3 | Low flow % | < 15% | < 10% |
| 4 | Cow milking duration | < 4 minutes | < 5 minutes |
| 5 | Take off flow | >0.7 kg/minute | >0.8 kg/minute |
| Teat end condition score | |||
| 1 | Teat end condition score 1 & 2 | > 95% | > 95% |
| 2 | Teat end condition score 3 & 4 | < 5% | < 5% |
| Milk Quality targets | |||
| 1 | Average SCC | <150,000 | <150,000 |
| 2 | Average TBC | <10,000 | <10,000 |
The milk flow data shows if milking routines are followed and the cows milk as expected:
- High yield in first 2 minutes shows the cows are stimulated and the lag-time until attaching is maintained.
- The peak flow is a good indicator for the milk letdown, speed of milking and absence of pain or stress.
- The low flow % measures the percentage of time that the milk flow is below 1 kg / minute, a good indicator of over-milking
- The teat end condition is the result of correct machine settings, a correct milking routine and using a teat dip with good healing properties
- The milk quality scores ensure that the farm performance results in the highest possible milk quality premium.
The milking machine and all other equipment in these farms works hard.
The large farms are designed to make full use of the investment in the facilities. This means that the milking machine (also TMR feeding systems) are operating around the clock, and it is common that a milking system is milking 3 shifts of 5 to 6 hours each day.
One of the most common parlors used of the largest farms in China is the 80-stall rotary.
The rotary system seems to be easier to manage as the people stand in one position and focus on one task, while in other parlour the people walk a lot and do various tasks.
Some of the numbers that we expect from an 80-stall rotary:
- Milking 500 to 600 to cows per hour
- Milking 6 hours to milk 3000 cows
- Harvesting over 100,000 kg milk per day
- Using 6 operators to milk plus 1 or 2 people to bring cows to and from the parlour, and often there is someone taking care of supplies and keeping a steady flow of clean towels.
The milking routine commonly adopted on large farms in China
The farms commonly use a milking routine that ensure the cows milk fast, complete and maintain excellent teat end health. For optimal hygiene of the teats and control of mastitis pre-dipping is commonly done, and then the milking routine follow the basic rules to achieve a good milk letdown:
- Provide sufficient stimulation the first time the teats are touched (ideally 10 seconds or more)
- Maintain 60 to 90 seconds time between stimulation and attaching the milking units
In large rotary systems the people are positioned, starting from cow entrance, around the rotary as follows:
- In position 1, directly after cow entrance the cow is pre-dipped (which is at times already replace with a teat spray robot). Then there is 20-30 seconds soaking or disinfection time
- In position 4 and 5 there are 2 milkers working side by side. The first person does the pre-milking, and the second person does the teat cleaning. Ideally both persons spend 5 seconds on the activity (the rotary moves at 6.5 seconds per stall) and the cows receive close to 10 seconds of stimulation. This is proving to be sufficient for a good milk letdown and minimal numbers of cows with bi-modal milk flow
- In position 14 or 15 (at least 60 seconds later) the fourth person attaches the milking units.
- Often there is a fifth person to support the others or re-attach milking units if needed
- Then the 6th person is nearer to the cow exit area to do the post dipping.
- Operator numbers 7 & 8 work normally to ensure cows are brought to the waiting area and back to the barn.
It does not look that efficient, but 500 to 560 cows per hour with this number of people results in an operator efficiency of 70 to 80 cows per hour, sufficient time to clean teats well and providing the cows with enough stimulation for a good milk letdown.
Maintenance and frequent testing of the milking machine is critical
On the large farms the milking parlour dictates much of the other work. Once the cows leave the barn there is 15-30 minutes before the cows return, and much is to be done. Wet bedding is removed, manure is scraped out (if not automated) then bedding is cultivated or leveled, or fresh bedding is added, feed leftovers are removed, and fresh feed is delivered.
After the cows return the veterinary and insemination team have their short time to work with the cows while they are eating, and the rest of the time the cows must be left to rest, drink and eat some more. If there is down time on the milking parlour, not only the milking is delayed, when cows are waiting all other work in the barns comes to a standstill, waiting for the cows to move out of the barn.
To prevent down time on the milking machines the farms and the suppliers implement strict protocols for preventive maintenance, while also there are back up functions in the most critical parts of the machinery.Besides the maintenance the DeLaval service and advisory team perform regular visits to perform dynamic testing (wet testing) and do a thorough check of all aspects related to milking. Looking at all aspect often changes are implemented to speed up milking more and continue improving the milk quality.
What will happen in the dairy farms in China in the coming years?
In 15 years, China has built a large dairy industry that is able to provide a good part of the milk for the population and of a quality that is comparable to much of the developed world.
For the coming years we see a continued trend of building more large farms and with more focus on animal welfare, longevity and reducing the impact of the farms on the environment.
Over time also in China it becomes harder to find people to work on farms and we will see more automation in the farms to reduce the workload of milking, feeding and manure handling.
As also happens globally, the cows and the barns and the machinery contain more sensors and more and more data is generated, often creating more jobs to process and report the data. Data integration between platforms and data exchange between farms, processors and suppliers is needed to keep on improving the efficiency, milk quality and farm profitability in the future.
The first farms milking with robotics are already in operation and more will follow.
On milk quality, the standards for milk quality will continue to increase. As of today, most milk is analyzed on components, total bacteria count, somatic cell count, freezing point, antibiotics and more. More testing, on thermoduric or psychotropic bacteria and on potential contaminants, and tightening of the acceptable levels will ensure the milk quality will keep on improving.
