Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group：Cultivating Modern Dairy Farmers to Constantly Improve the Quality of the Milk Source

Company Profile

As the largest dairy producer and the dairy producer with the fullest product-lines in China, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co.,Ltd has been providing healthy and nutritional dairy products for years. And Yili is the only dairy producer that has served both the Olympic Games and the World Expo in China.

In 2015, Yili’s annual revenue reached 60 billion yuan for the first time and the net profit was 4.654 billion yuan, both continued to rise and ranked No.1 in the industry. So far, Yili has invested in New Zealand, corporated with Italian dairy giant Sterilgarda Alimenti S.p.A., launched the highest standard overseas R&D Center in Netherlands and developed a broad cooperation with companies and research institutes in the USA.

Challenges 

How to realize the sustainable development of green industry chain is a big challenge for the husbandry industry in china. There are some problems restricting the sustainable development of the green industry chain of the whole dairy industry, such as the lack of professionals, high cost of pasture operations, dairy farmers’ shortage of fodder cultivation skills, low protein and fat of the milk and low-level lean management. The pastures and ranchers are particularly important in the whole industry chain of Yili. Therefore, it is significant for Yili who focuses on the quality of the milk to improve the professional competence, the sense of responsibility and the management methods.

Solutions 

Starting from the cultivation of front-end talents, Yili Cows School is founded in 2010. It provided professional training for technical staff in milk base and pasture managers through gathering the world's top experts in the industry. Cooperating with Ministry of Agriculture’s Management Institute, the Yili Cows School introduced the training mode of “field school”. It invited experts to go into the ranch and learn about the problems of farmers in the breeding process. Thus, it can specifically create new methods in fodder, breeding, nursing, management and ensiling. In this way, it not only stimulates trainees' enthusiasm and initiative but also moves the classroom to the ranch and effectively solves the problems in the process of feeding management.

In 2015, the Yili Cows School was further upgraded. It is the first school who changes its focus from pasture managers to potential pasture management successors, namely the second-generation of pasture managers, and set up the training camp for the successors. Combining the trend of industrial development with actual requirements of dairy farmers, the training camp pays attention to the comprehensive abilities such as pasture management, and makes comprehensive training plans in technologies, management and financing for trainees. Focusing on the aspects of milking, breeding, health care, feeding, device management and ranch operations, the training camp invites doctoral instructors who have worked in foreign farms for many years to impart some internationally advanced theories of pasture management and to give some world-class guidance on technologies and practices.  

In order to ensure a high level of the training, Yili sets up some checkpoints including examinations, selections and defences to constantly stimulate students' enthusiasm for learning.

Achievements

Social Benefits

Since its inception, Yili Cows School has organized more than 200 training sessions, provided over 6,000 ranch site technical guidance, and trained nearly 5,000 person-times. Because of its leading personnel training mode, the concept of green pastures and top dairy expert resources at home and abroad, the “Cows school” is known as the “Whampoa Military Academy” in the milk industry. It also cultivates a large number of high-qualified technical staff in cow breeding and potential pasture managers. After instruction and learning, the milk yields of the cows in Yili Cows School and the training camp increase 4 kilograms a day and the quality of the milk has been further improved. This really realizes a win-win situation for companies and dairy farmers, and lays a solid foundation for internalization of the dairy industry and the improvement of pasture management.

Economic Benefits

Yili ensures a stable supply of high quality raw milk, provides consumers with first-class health food and creates a lot of products which win the trust of the consumers, such as SATINE, Chang Qing, Mei Yi Tian and Pro-kido. In the first half of 2015, SATINE sales rose 20%, and sales growth rates of Chang Qing and Mei Yi Tian reached 60% and 51%. Yili spares no effort in the construction of milk source, winning the praise through the good quality. It is also the winner of “International Carbon-Value Award” for four consecutive years.

Prospects

Yili will go on taking the Cows School and the training camp as the important sites and continuously push forward the upgrading of the construction of milk sources. In the future, Yili will target to expand the enrollment of the training camp. According to the actual demands of dairy farmers and industrial development, Yili will also continue to enrich the training content, improve the overall quality of farmers, lead the modern ranch to the large-scale and intensive development direction, and achieve the sustainable development of the green industry chain, so as to promote the overall upgrading of Yili and the whole dairy industry in China.