Starting our first day in Hohot with a nice cool morning and clear blue skies was a welcome sight after the dust storm in Xi'an! We boarded the bus with our tour guides Michelle and Sandra along with Dr. Keith Erlandson of CP and his colleague Mr. Tiger.  We quickly realized that Mongolian roads feature speed bumps instead of stop signs at intersections, making for a bumpy ride. However, our visit to the CP Group's Modern Agriculture and Green Development Project was definitely worth it. CP is a global conglomerate that deals with many different industries including: poultry, dairy, aquaculture, swine production, crop production, pet foods, restaurants, automotive, manufacturing, and telecommunications. The CP Group's scale of operation is approximately four times larger than Cargill. We attended a presentation outlaying their project to create a fully integrated vertical system combining everything from the farm to the fork. Their goal is to drive agricultural industrialization by producing all their own feed to feed their pigs and then slaughtering and processing those animals to retail the products in CP Group stores. CP Group is also looking to produce fruits, vegetables, and many other products.  We also led a discussion on the CP Group's management practices in their sow farms and finisher operations. Then we had lunch and tried out Mongolian mutton and local potatoes which were a big hit with our group! 

After lunch, we toured the Mengniu Dairy Headquarters where their administrative staff manages the 58 facilities in China and more than 40,000 employees. The company was established in 1999 and established this facility in 2008. We also learned that before 2002, their warehouse was used to store missiles for the Chinese military! The Mengniu Dairy headquarters also contains a fully automated dairy processing and packaging facility along with a fully automated warehouse. The facility produces mostly liquid-milk products and can handle up to 608 metric tons of milk per day. At the end of our tour, we got to try out some of the Mengniu Dairy ice cream products and satisfy our chocolate craving. 

Next our group toured the Fuyuan International Dairy group. This company operates 14 facilities across China. The dairy that we toured could hold up to 10,000 head but only held 6,000 cows and operated a 72-stall rotary milking parlor. Currently, 2,500 of the cows were lactating and are milked three times per day.  

Our next stop was supper where we tried out the local special called hot-pots. Each of us had a pot with one of four broths and we cooked all manner of tasty items like shrimp, crab, fish, squid, vegetables, beef, mutton, sausage, eggs, dumplings, noodles and so much more! It’s safe to say that our first dinner in Mongolia was a very memorable experience.

 

 CP entry

 

 Dairy plant

 

 Farm ground

 

 Hot pot line

 

 Hot pot

 

 Ice cream bars

 

 Ice cream

 

Large dairy