Massey benefits from expertise

Paul Kenyon (second from left) and Hugh Blair (right) inside the XinBao sheep facility.

Massey University animal scientists have been appointed as expert consultants to the XinBao farm, Urumqi, China.

Professors Hugh Blair, Steve Morris and Paul Kenyon, of the International Sheep Research Centre, have been visiting China during the past 10 years to establish relationships with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shihezi University staff and, more recently, XinBao chief executive officer Harry Gao.

Their most recent visit involved visiting the XinBao sheep farming operation on Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp's property. The immediate goals of this farm are to produce one million lambs annually from 500,000 ewes with year-round lambing, and to capitalise on co-products like methane from animal waste and electricity from shed-mounted solar panels.

During the visit, the scientists designed a $400,000 research project to collect baseline data, which will allow the assessment of productivity and profitability of any proposed changes to the farming system. Seven research projects are being developed over the next three to six months, for which XinBao will contract Massey University's expertise in sheep production and education.

Professor Blair says the rate of progress has been "incredible" and this comes down to sharing knowledge between the two countries.

"We are occasionally challenged by New Zealanders who think we are giving away the country's knowledge in sheep farming, however, we believe the opportunities for New Zealand to collaborate in Chinese tertiary education and on-farm research provide major opportunities for New Zealand to learn, improve and share."

He said the benefits flowed both ways. "We are discovering things about indoor sheep farming systems that might have a place in environmentally sensitive parts of New Zealand."

Professor Blair says there is huge economic opportunity for New Zealand. "China is a significant trading partner for New Zealand and anything we can do to improve our relationship is beneficial."

"China will shortly be the powerhouse of science discovery - current projections have China overtaking the US in the next five to 10 years (depending on what criteria you use). Massey wants to be part of that knowledge generation, just as we have been part of the euro-centric knowledge generation for the last 150 years."

In April 2015, XinBao was granted $2 billion of funding from the Chinese Government to help achieve the vision of increased sheep meat supply as part of the authorities drive to substantially increase red meat production.