Green models powering up specialty farms

An eco-friendly dairy farm has recently become a hot spot for social media enthusiasts, attracting a large number of visitors and influencers and largely boosting sales through livestreaming promotions.

"Our green farm saw over 20,000 visitors during the Spring Festival holiday due to increased followers on social media platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou," said Liu Jianwei, deputy general manager of Shengsheng Dairy, adding that he has huge confidence in the company's production prospects going forward.

Through a green cycle model involving the use of manure for fertilization and grass planting for livestock feed, the company has tackled issues of pollution related to cow dung and straw burning. From its straw utilization alone, the farm generates nearly 6 million yuan ($829,422) in revenue each year, he said.

As a key enterprise in Pingle town, Luoyang, Henan province, the company boasts a daily processing capacity of up to 350 metric tons of dairy products.

"Our operations, from lighting and sanitation to grass cutting, feeding, milking and refrigeration, as well as the green circular development model, all rely on electricity, which makes ample and stable power supplies so critical," Liu said.

As heat stress can greatly disrupt or imbalance the thermal equilibrium in cows' bodies, leading to a significant drop in milk production and increased susceptibility to diseases, the prolonged hot weather last summer posed a significant challenge to dairy production, he added.

Now, thanks to the fully electrified and automated production processes, Shengsheng Dairy has managed to mitigate such challenges. The farm has installed 130 high-power fans in the holding area to keep the livestock comfortable, thus securing stable and safe production.

"Compared to traditional feeding methods, our capacity has doubled, ensuring both production efficiency and the freshness of milk products," Liu said.

Currently, the dairy company relies on four transformers totaling 2,190 kilovolt-amperes, which are strategically distributed across the breeding and milking areas.

Similarly, at a vegetable cultivation base in Heshangyang village in Changge, Henan, growers have also witnessed satisfying harvests due to stable power supplies.

Heshangyang's soil is highly conducive to the cultivation of cash crops. Rotating between onions, carrots and potatoes, the village took the lead at the end of 2020, guiding farmers to develop more than 220 hectares of land for carrot cultivation, with annual exports of more than 30,000 tons.

With reliable power supplies and high-quality services from local power suppliers, the collective income of the village has increased by about 300,000 yuan each year. The specialty crops have also benefited neighboring villagers, providing employment opportunities for over 2,000 people in nearby villages, said Yang Jingtao, Party head of Heshangyang.

"Thanks to the reliable electricity supplies, our irrigation needs were never disrupted last year. It was another year of bountiful harvests, with yields reaching over 8,000 kilograms per mu (0.06 hectare)," said Yang Tongqi, a contract farmer in the village.

As power grids serve as vital infrastructure in rural areas, the country is ramping up efforts to upgrade grid systems in rural areas and improve power supply resources to promote rural vitalization.

By 2025, the rural power grid structure will be stronger, with power supply capacity and quality steadily improved, said a guideline issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and two other departments in July.

The country has also put forward the goal of basically forming a safe, reliable and intelligent modern rural power grid system by 2035, providing strong support for rural vitalization and agricultural modernization, the document said.