Shih Jhen Dairy Breeding Farm
Lin, Shih Jhen
Tel:(04)8991068


Shih Jhen Diry Breeding Farm

By  Chen, Chih Yi TLRI HCBS

    Diligence is the keynote for breeding cattle, dairy farmers practiced with a positive attitude, hope to compose ruminant and creative the wonderful harvest ; experience is the rudder, for navigating, dairy farmers take it in mind and never got lost ; new knowledge is the sail, for leading this ship to the future bright journey ; optimism is the media, for igniting a steady stream of hidden power to the long term management. I realized more message of Taiwan Dairy framers through this interview – although under the difficult situation of those factors : dairy farm environment, production and marketing system, and the international trend, dairy farmers take the above philosophy of breeding cattle in mind, combined with constant adaptation ability to absorb new knowledge and technology to improve cattle breeding and reproduction efficiency, and purchased the hardware to enhance work efficiency to improve the cattle’s environment, with the industrial policy to increase revenue also to reduce production costs, than, to create a good business results. As an aouthor, I would like to introduce Lin, Shih Jhen from “ Shih jhen Farm “ in Shih Jhen Fangyuan Township, Changhua County to readers, and describe the business strategy of excellent dairy farmers.  I would like to appreciate dairy farmer counselor of Association of Changhua area - Mr. Zhan Qingming ‘s guidance and explication during this exclusive interview, thanks to their enthusiastic assistance to make this visit went smoothly. During our interview, it was the time for an inspection visit of excellent dairy farmers for Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam, the deputy director Yang Wenji, this visit was invited by the Republic of China Dairy Industry Association, Council of Agriculture International Cooperation Division International Agriculture Division, Livestock Research Institute, Hsinchu Branch, this visit showed that Mr. Lin’s ranch is a postive mark, and also it made me feel happy for them.

Operating is fruitful, full of overflow joy from award-winning – Lin, Shih Jhen 

    “ Shih Jhen Dairy Breeding farm “ established in 1992, starting  from 60 dairy cattle, worked with the acquisition and counseling by the Tunghai University , and then expanded year by year.  In 1998, Mr. Lin imported more than 40 dairy cows from abroad to increase herd sizes, until now, all the cattle has reached as many as 258, with an annual output of raw milk for more than 1,000 metric tons.  Mr. Lin's cattle business is outstanding, also won the Farmers Award in 1993 to become model farmers, in 1998 Mr. Lin went through the trials with great performance, he won the Outstanding Young Shen Nong Award in his glory. In 2001, he won the first prize in the Uni – President Company’s Ranching management competition, in 2002, cow No. 392 named “ Fortune “ won the high-quality cattle award for its protein rate of 3.59%, somatic cell count of 20,700 / ml and 305-2X-ME, milk output is 9664 kg of high quality milk. The interesting part is the cattle named “ Fortune “ is just the same as Mr. Lin’s eldest son, Lin Zhai Fu. They are proud of their cattle. Winning a series of award encourged Lin, Shih Jhen  couple and their two sons to redouble their efforts to improve the effectiveness of cattle, in the dairy farm competition of 2003, “  Shih Jhen  Cattle Farm “ obtained scores in all pastures evaluation were including - 38 points of raw milk quality, 18 points of operating efficiency, 19.5 points of feeding management, 10 points of the disease control and prevention, 9 points of environmental health and the image, the overall total score is up to 94.5 points, also won the Top Five Plum, same as the previous magazine (#58) I introduced “ Rich Ranch “, Mr. Lin’s ranch is one of the top glory case of the highest positive image on behalf of industry, management capacity and dairy competitiveness of business.

Always the winner for milk quality and reproduction efficiency charts -

    Lin, Shih Jhen ’s “  Shih Jhen  cattle farm “ established in 1992, starting from 60 dairy cattle, worked with the acquisition and counseling by the Tunghai University , and then expanded year by hear.  In 1998, Mr. Lin imported more than 40 dairy cows from abroad to increase herd sizes, until now, all the cattle has reached as many as 258, with an annual output of raw milk for more than 1,000 metric tons.  Mr. Lin's cattle business is outstanding, also won the Farmers Award in 1993 to become model farmers, in 1998 Mr. Lin went through the trials with great performance, he won the Outstanding Young Shen Nong Award in his glory. In 2001, he won the first prize in the Uni – President Company’s Ranching management competition, in 2002, cow No. 392 named “ Fortune “ won the  high-quality cattle award for its protein rate of 3.59%, somatic cell count of 20,700 / ml and 305-2X-ME, milk output is 9664 kg of high quality milk. The interesting part is the cattle named “ Fortune “ is just the same as Mr. Lin’s eldest son, Lin Zhe Fu. They are proud of their cattle. Winning a series of award encourged Lin, Shih Jhen  couple and their two sons to redouble their efforts to improve the effectiveness of cattle, in the dairy farm competition of 2003, “  Shih Jhen  Cattle Farm “ obtained scores in all pastures evaluation were including - 38 points of raw milk quality,  18 points of operating efficiency, 19.5 points of feeding management, 10 points of the disease control and prevention, 9 points of environmental health and the image, the overall total score is up to 94.5 points, also won the Top Five Plum, same as the previous magazine (#58) I introduced “ Rich Ranch “, Mr. Lin’s ranch is one of the top glory case of the highest positive image on behalf of industry, management capacity and dairy competitiveness of business.

    Mr. Lin made all his efforts on increasing milk quality improvement and breeding efficiency, in the milk quality area, according to DHI “ brilliant cattle list of October, 2003 “ ranking data showes that 305-2X-ME high protein average rate of May, 2003 to September, 2003, the insptected cow must have cell count of these 5 months under the average somatic cell count 300,000, the average rate of protein is above 3.2 %, Cow No. #379 of Mr. Lin’s ranch, won the 16th place of all country with its 9.58% high SNF, and in the high lactose rate ranking list, won the 17th place among 295 DHI dairy farmers with an average of lactose 4.88%, the coefficient of variation (CV) is 5. 

    In breeding efficiency area, the (chart) #1 is  Shih Jhen  cattle farm’s reproductive performance of 2003, further, according to DHI ranking list of “ the reproductive efficiency of 2003 summer and fall “ shows, PR cattle ranking in “ primiparous day of giving birth ranking list “, cow number #467 won the 26th  place of all country with 467 days, the performance is also very excellent. In the DHI of January 2004 information shows, there are total 258 cattle in Mr. Lin’s ranch, lactating cows accounted is about 45-50%, it shows the distribution of the 305-2X-ME group , the percentage is 47.9% of cattle weights between 7501 ~ 9000 kg, and heavier than 9000 is at 8.5%, for a total up to 55.5%, gradually towards to the cattle farm’s breeding goal, as the Figure #1 shows, the annual milk production per cattle maintained more than 7500 kg, and maintained 2.3 tons of milk production in summer time. The average monthly milk performance is also impressive, the average of summer milk volume of June to September of 2003 is between 20.9 to 23 kg. In Figure 2, Mr. Lin attributed to adjust the delivery time of breeding regulation, so that the winter and summer milk proportion is 30:70.  These excellent results show the real intentions of the operators.

Collection of ranch management and business strategy -

    Mr. Lin's eldest son, Lin Zhai Fu and the second son Lin Zhai Yuan, inherited the family business of Lin, Shih Jhen  since 2000, the cattle herd management is getting better, even better than before, just like a good helmsman of cattle business. "  Shih Jhen  cattle farm “ got the registration certificate in December, 2003, (Registration font: Agricultural and Animal Husbandry word No. 216 453), registered milk Bulls are 20, total dairy cows are 251. After the transition,  “  Shih Jhen  cattle farm “ is not only running for milk production business, but also increasing the cattle sale revenue, here, I would like to organize their cattle business strategy for all dariy farmers’ reference :

Management -

    1. Herd clustering : Mr. Lin said that the planning and application of barn space is very important, reducing the dense feeding to avoid diseases caused by high ammonia concentrations, also to reduce cattle’s wastage and added up cattle’s comfort environment. So he used barn space to do the clustering management, according to different stages of growth, months of age, milk, dry milk, and also created a special care area, for those cattle need an injection treatment or isolated care to reduce the cattle interference. The herd clustering not only can exact control management, also can reduce the number of cattle somatic cell, so that production can be fully developed.  In the summer heat and humidity environments, using the mechanical efficiency of the automatic sprinkler and air supply equipment to facilitate the breeding management of birth regulation strategies to improve the efficiency of cattle breeding in summer.
    2. Automatically harvest : Mr. Lin’s own land planted Pennisetum and Pangolagrass, used as a winter hay and stored after harvest to provide sources of material as a total mixed ration (TMR), therefore, it is very helpful to reduce outsourcing feed price volatility and reduce production costs, also with high efficiency clipping machine, hay balers and complete feed hybrid vehicles to make the crop harvest automation system, saving time for labor costs.

    3. Milking hygiene : “ Shizhan’s cattle farm, " not only focused on milk production, but also emphasized on milk quality control, the somatic cells of milk of pasture field an average was less than 200,000 / ml in 2003, the plate count was less than 20000, it is the real high-quality milk producers. Lin's milking equipment is 8 by two fish-bone milking room, he is quite care about milking procedures and clean, including to reduce the pressing environmental, breast examination, a small amount of water to wash the nipple and the bottom, squeeze the prodrug bath, dry nipples, quickly put the milk cup, adjust the milk cup, turn off low-pressure before taking milk cup, medicine bath nipple, milk cup disinfection, in accordance with the procedures step-by-step to reduce the cattle infected with mastitis opportunity.
    4. Computer Management : Mr. Lin used DHI report “ milk quality test report “ and “ cattle health improved performance monthly report “ to assess cattle health status, and to eliminate the cow which production is lowest under 10% year by year, also to strengthen the choice of good bull frozen semen, so that the genetic quality of cattle can be conjunction.  In addition, he also used “ the dairy farm managemnet operating system “ developed by Microsoft Visaul FoxPro 6.0 to evaluate all the cattle in Mr. Lin’s ranch , the output portion of the computer screen are including : lactating cows record, dry dairy records, empty tire cattle, herds distribution information, female cow for mating, birth records, breeding records, estrus record, automatically prompts the daily work, eliminating cattle data.  Therefore, the dairy cow lactation status, parity, and the management of the breeding, childbirth conditions, elimination and health traits are obviously, then according to the information to make decision for cattle breeding and delivery timing or balance the profits and payments, at the same time, to proceed the birth regulation to make summer and winter milk ratio of 30 : 70, in order to comply with the requirements of dairy factory.
    5. Wastewater treatment : The headache for general dairy farmers is deal with the manure problem, Mr. Lin not only established cattle manure handling equipment, but also used solid-liquid separator to make cattle manure and wastewater from solids transfering to compost, and organic water goes through anaerobic fermentation tank, aeration tank and activated sludge tank, than used their own assembled wastewater van to deliver organic water to irrigate their own Napiergrass and Pangolagrass Taishigrass No. 2 , some harvest forage to feed stud meat cattle, to open up another source of income.

    6. New knowledge skills : Mr. Lin Zhai Fu is very positive and studious, he took part in the training for artificial insemination and hoof repair in Uni – President Company testing farm, in order to improve cattle breeding ratio, and to take care of cattle’s hoof health, to prevent hoof disease caused by the depletion.
    7. Nutritional supplements : Professional is important, in 2000 Mr. Lin joined the Uni – President Company to become its satellite ranch, for all the cattle nutrition problem, he accepted Mr. Shifeng Chi’s and TMR technical team’s counseling, this team used all the computer data to analysi the suitable formula for cattle nutrition.

     8. Counseling staff : Mr. Lin is very commendable milk co-counselor Mr. Zhan Qingming, Mr. Zhan not only made the milking information accurate and clear, but also provided many professional technical guidance such as an Ox drawn login with newborn calves, and provided assistance without asking feedback, Mr. Zhan is enthusiastic and responsible, he made Mr. Lin feel so warm and happy to receive his assistance.

Keeping and breeding -

     1. breeding measures : After  Shih Jhen  Cattle Farm trasnfered to cattle farm, Mr. Lin was so aggressive for several important breeding works, first, he made the birth registration and pedigree login for newborn cattle, and login [such as ear number , uniform numbers, farm number, photo (or drawing), date of birth, pedigree (father, mother cow numbers)] those information for the milk co-counselor to do the login work. Than, making the inspection of gorwth for six months old female cattle, to detect female cow weight and body score lactating,  the evaluation of the function and body size traits for cows delivered baby after three months, than according to every cow’s body traits to choose the functional traits of the STA corrected at least 2 more frozen semen  to mate, for improving the function of body size traits of the cow, this mating is  able to alternate female cattle with superior performance potential, thus achieving cattle genetic performance improvement goals.  Finally, according to the DHI plan statement to make annual production goal in 9000 kg, year by year, eliminating the cows which production is the lowest than 10%, and sell part of dairy production cows, so that the production is on an average of top 20%, also increasing cattle genetic quality.

    2. Raising measures : the expected implementation of the fifteen-month-old of 350 kg female cattle pregnancy, female cow gets pregnant after 85 days of giving birth. The breeding strategies of cow got pregnant before June and  gave birth in next March, in order to achieve producting one tire per year and developed good quality dariy group of resistance to heat.  Further, Mr. Lin used biochip to detect mastitis pathogens, followed  “ mastitis pathogens clean field “ (MPF) as a goal, issued Mr. Lin’ ranch is a cattle farm of MPF field by relevant units. These Taiwan dairy cattle can be exported to Southeast Asian countries (such as Vietnam), to open up new sources of income.

Green environment, warm home -

     Lin, Shih Jhen  and his wife are both nature optimistic, cheerful person, they not only worked hard for running cattle business, but also cared about their house living environment, the green blankets in their front garden, the stone table for tea party, it is such a comfortable place.  Their house decoration is beautiful and full of warm feelings, their 2 sons of second generation, Lin Zhai Fu and Lin Zhai Yuan cooperated together to run this business, take cattle career as the most imporatnt issue of the work, and their two daughters, one is a dentist and the other is a nurse, they are also very outstanding.  Speaking of DHI, Mr. Lin confirmed the function and intention of “ The breeding cattle on Network “ which developed by Livestock Network, as everyone can quickly check the Livestock Information data, but for his ranch report query is relatively slow, he wants to increase the speed of the fast network query. Owing to Information network technology is a trend, the Lin brothers are also active on learning computer skills and desire to achieve an early expectations of Network cattle.