CHINA-SOY PRODUCTION.
Chinese agriculture has made great strides in recent years. Participants in the Iowa Soybean Association’s China trade mission have seen evidence of that progress first-hand.
The Iowa group visited a 100-thousand head per year hog operation near the city of Guangzhou this week. ISA president-elect Delbert Christensen of Audubon, who also raises hogs, says the facility was just as modern as ones found in Iowa .
"They take more people to work with the pigs, but the nutrient management on this farm is excellent," says Christensen. "Very little or no smell, and they are able to control the hogs very efficiently."
The facility’s managers told Christensen that, even though their profits are down, they are still making about seven to eight dollars per head.
"Their efficiency of the number of pigs they’re raising per sow, and they’re taking the pigs up to about 220 pounds and selling them, where we usually sell at a little higher weight," he says, "but their efficiency is very good here."
And the manager of that hog operation told Christensen they hope to double the size of the facility in the next three years.
The Iowa delegation is now in Taiwan on the final leg of its trade mission.