Scientists help drive China sheep venture

Professors Paul Kenyon, Hugh Blair and Steve Morris have visited China often over the past ten years, establishing strong collaborative relationships with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shihezi University. 

Last year they connected there with a company called XinBao, now setting up a huge in-door sheep farming, Blair says. 

“Their objective in the immediate future is to have 500,000 ewes lambing indoors all year round with intensive feeding systems to cope with at least one million lambs which they will slaughter. The longer term objective is one million ewes, then two million – all under cover. They say to house two million ewes the sheds will stretch for 10km – huge by anyone’s standards.”

Blair says this scale of operation will have many challenges, not least the control of disease which in that type of operation can spread quickly. He says to counter that the Chinese will create ‘biosecurity breaks’ within the farm.

He says the farming venture is to produce lamb for meat and to process by-products, “including the blood they can collect at their slaughter premises and process into human pharmaceuticals”. 

“The waste generated from the shed will be digested and turned into methane and all the sheds will be covered in solar panels…. They say when they hit 500,000 ewes their net profit from electricity will be around $20 million so they are feeding directly into the national grid,” he says.

Blair and his colleagues are to bring their expertise, that of Massey University and other NZers and NZ companies into the project. Massey cannot do it all, he says. At National Fieldays they spoke to people and companies that could benefit involvement -- companies with expertise in eartags, weighing equipment and feeding.

All three scientists are world leaders in their respective science fields and have practical farming experience: all are from farms. Blair is an expert in genetics, Kenyon in grazing management and hogget mating and Morris in grazing agriculture and beef cattle. The latter two have completed a world leading study on year-round lambing.

Blair says the practical scientific approach NZers bring complements what the Chinese scientists offer. “We probably have the largest sheep research group in the world now, especially groups operating at farm level. 

“When the Chinese take us into a shed we’re able to answer questions about the animal. Some of their people are bench scientists –  they do biochemistry and molecular genetics but they don’t necessarily know what an animal needs to be fed during pregnancy or lactation.”

Blair says he has no qualms about engaging in collaborative work of this nature with China. He says farmers sometimes accuse him and others of “selling off the crown jewels” and giving away trade secrets.

“If we want to do business in China we need to show partnership and collaboration. That’s just perfect for science because virtually all our science around the world is done in a collaborate fashion. My reaction to the criticism is that most of what we do in NZ we have ourselves brought in from somewhere else and we have modified it. The Chinese are going to do the same and whatever we do here is in no way going to be directly applicable in their system.”

Why wouldn’t you house them?

According to Professor Hugh Blair being involved in a major sheep indoor housing farm could have spin-off benefits for NZ. He says as NZ sheep are forced onto some of the tougher country, the option of housing sheep – especially to quickly finish lambs – has potential.

“Sheep milking would be an obvious one. Interestingly in China they never drink sheep milk. They drink yak milk, camel milk and horse milk but they never drink sheep milk and to us that seemed strange,” Blair says.

“But in NZ why wouldn’t you house milking sheep and feed them high quality feed or rocket fuel if you like. You’d certainly improve milk production. I don’t know the answer but let’s try it and if it works, great. The Chinese are so keen. They say they’ll send people down to help us.”

Blair says the Chinese are developing effluent disposal systems which would be of interest to NZ given the emphasis now on environmental sustainability. But he says working with China goes beyond science and contributes to the overall trade and political relationship between the two countries.

“Having a comfortable relationship with China is important for trade. We will get benefit out of our research collaboration, even if it is just to show their intensive system won’t work in NZ. Put simply, I think there is great opportunity for NZ to show that we want to communicate and collaborate and engage with China,” he says.

Meanwhile the Massey Scientists are working on seven research projects, the first of which is worth $400,000 on the XinBao sheep venture, one that is likely to yield more opportunities in future and lead to others as the word gets around about the expertise NZ has to offer.