Farmers milk profits with aid of 'cow nannies'

BEIJING－At a dairy farm in northern Beijing's Yanqing district, loudspeakers pump out soothing music, and dozens of large electric fans rotate to keep the animals cool during the sweltering summer.

Some cows stand up, some lie down and others walk toward a railing installed with a sprinkler system. The system can be automatically triggered to spray water on the cows. The calming environment helps increase the cows' food intake and milk output, said 52-year-old Geng Tiehuan, owner of the farm in Mengguantun village.

The farm is home to around 1,100 dairy cows and can produce around 16,000 liters of fresh milk each day.

Geng's business has also helped increase incomes for 50 rural households. Business today is a far cry from 14 years ago when Geng began raising cows. Using traditional methods, the revenue from her cooperative only managed to keep it running, but it was not enough to withstand financial challenges triggered by sick cows or milk price fluctuations.

As the profit margins shrank, Geng's partners quit, which put more pressure on her.

Luckily, she heard about a program called Caring Action for Dairy Cows. The program offers assistance from "cow nannies", recognized experts in dairy production, who offer free technical advice to farmers like Geng.

Launched in 2012, the program was led by Lu Yongqiang, deputy head of Beijing's General Station of Animal Husbandry. Lu's team, together with universities, research institutes and enterprises, uses technology to solve practical problems for dairy farmers. "As cow nannies, we take care of cows like looking after babies to bring farmers tangible benefits," Lu said.

A few years ago, cows in Geng's dairy farm were not mating. All of her attempts to solve the problem failed, and she decided to turn to the cow nannies for help.

A total of 12 experts from different fields traveled to Geng's farm to collect samples for lab tests. They found the problem was caused by the ratio of animal feed. After adjusting the animal feed, the cows mated successfully.

Geng's cows produce several metric tons of dung each day, which is costly to clean up and is a potential breeding ground for bacteria and parasites. She followed the advice of the cow nannies, and put a layer of sawdust with fermented bacteria in the cowsheds. The feces decomposed and the living conditions of the cows improved.

The Caring Action for Dairy Cows program has trained more than 70,000 technical and managerial staff since it was launched, Lu said.

A total of 455 new technologies and products have been promoted by the cow nannies.

Since 2009, Beijing has cultivated innovation teams, hoping to apply more advanced technologies in the agricultural sector. So far, 10 such teams have been established in various industries, including vegetable and edible fungi planting and dairy cow and hog raising.

Thanks to cow nannies, Geng's barely profitable dairy farm has been transformed. "I plan to turn my farm into a tourist attraction where visitors can see how organic milk is produced," Geng said.

Xinhua