Nestle broke ground on a Dairy Farming Institute in China which follows an MOU signed between Shuangcheng Municipal Government and Nestle to jointly develop modern dairy farming practices in the region.
The MoU was signed between Shuangcheng Municipal Government and Nestle on 11 January 2012. As part of the agreement, a total of RMB2.5 billion ($400 million) will be invested in the milk district over a period of five years through a partnership between Nestle, the local government, investors and farmers.
The Dairy Farming Institute will sprawl over an area of 600,000 square metres. It will house three training farms of different capacities aimed at different target classes. The first farm will have a cow base with 1520 cows and will be aimed at providing guidance to farmers working alone or on small farms. The training will be aimed at helping these farmers move to professionally managed farms.
A second farm with a cow base of 1200 and a mega farm with a cow base of 8000 cows will provide training for larger farm owners to help them ramp up operations or move to state-of-the-art farms.
The institute is proposed to be constructed in different phases with the first phase scheduled to end in late 2012. Nestle expects to train more than 700 attendees on various topics related to dairy cow feeding and management.