SDSU 2019 China Ag Travel

We started our first day in Beijing with some much-needed extra sleep! Our first stop of the day was a cherry farm. The farm's main product was cherries but it also had apples, goats, and bees. The bee hives were used to pollinate the trees, but are not large enough to produce honey to sell. Half the cherry trees were inside a large green house while half were outside, so the cherries would be ready at different times and the farm would have a longer season to sell them. We even got to try a few ourselves! We always thought the Washington state cherries were the best in the world, but China is a close second.

We headed to a CP Group laying operation that was home to 3 million laying hens. We were easily able to view every aspect of egg production because of the glass windows into the laying barns, conveyer system, and egg processing lines. These windows made sure we got a good view without the risk of spreading diseases to the animals, or taking any diseases home with us. The operation produces about 167,000 dozen eggs per day. According to our tour guide Michelle, who is a Beijing resident, China does not have a preference between white or brown eggs, but this CP laying unit produced all brown eggs. We found that CP Group runs all their laying operations under a cooperative business model very similar to some farm businesses in the U.S.

The highlight of this visit was the crocodile facility on the farm. This operation was different from most U.S. chicken production because the deceased chickens and pigs from other CP farm sites are fed to the crocodiles located on the same operation as the chickens. The 4,000 crocodiles were seperated in different groups by age. They were fed every other day in the afternoon. These crocodiles are later sold as meat, medicine, and crocodile leather products. This is a way for CP to be environmentally friendly in dealing with mortalities on their farms.

Our last stop before supper was the Hope Well soybean crushing plant. This plant was the headquarters of the company and one of three crushing facilities that it runs. The company produces soybean oil with a small section of soybean meal for feed, but also acts as a distributor for other types of oils like canola, peanut, and walnut oil. Some of the oils on the shelf in their showroom were several different types mixed together in one bottle. In China, some consumers think the different oils offer different nutritional value and prefer a mix. Soybean oil is the number one oil used by consumers, with palm oil and canola oil as second and third. Unlike some other feed mills we have seen in China, Hope Well sends their soybean meal out on train cars in bulk instead of in 40 kg bags. The plant we visited processes 8,000 tons of soybeans from the US and Brazil every day, and soybean oil is packaged in 1, 2.5, and 5 gallon containers for cooking.

After a quick noodle supper, we are finished with our first day in Beijing! We have really enjoyed our time so far and are looking forward to tomorrow when we climb the Great Wall.