New Zealand’s Waikato Milking Systems spreads its wings into China

Summary

• New Zealand’s Waikato Milking Systems is in the process of taking its business global by installing four milking plants in an Animal Husbandry Farm in China.
• With the capacity of milking 48,000 cows a day, this could mean a lot of trade for both parties involved.
• It is being predicted through a research that by the end of 2024, China will have as many as 6.23 million dairy cows.

Yet another company from New Zealand has taken its business overseas to China. Waikato Milking systems is in the process of installing 80 bail Orbit rotary parlours that are made of concrete in New Hope Animal Husbandry located at Chengdu, China.

There will be an installation of four milking plants within three farms. After the installation of these milking plants, it would be possible to milk as many as 48,000 cows each day. The capacity and the specifications of all these plants are the same and they are so designed that they would be ready to function 21 hours a day for all 7 days of a week.

Plan of installation and commissioning of plants

Mr. David Morris, the China Manager for Waikato Milking Systems, revealed that the installation of three plants was done in the year 2020, with the first already been commissioned in the month of July 2020, while the remaining two to be commissioned in the month of March 2021. In the latter part of 2021, there is going to be another plant installed and commissioned.

It was further revealed that all four of these plants had been created and designed at the Waikato Milking Systems Manufacturing Plant, which is in Horotiu in the North of Hamilton. They were then exported for installation to China.

According to a research conducted, it has been predicted that by year 2024, China will have as many as 6.23 million cows for dairy purposes. It is already the 5^th-largest cow milk producer in the world, while New Zealand is 7^th.

Need for increasing technology

Morris further revealed that as the herd sizes continue to increase, there is the need for high-quality technology for the purpose of milking. The plants that have been exported from Waikato Milking systems to China are known to be heavy duty and appropriate for handling large animals over a long period of time.

Two among these rotary systems are installed close to each other at the New Hope Animal Husbandry’s Farm situated in Ningxia, which is estimated to be 1000kms away from Chengdu. Morris revealed that this farm boasts as many as 10,000 animals, dry cows as well as their replacements.

There are two milking herds present in the farm which can capacitate a maximum number of 3000 cows each. The output is estimated to be made from milking of 520 cows in an hour thrice a day, which may be increased to 4 times a day if required later.