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Year 2000

Chinese participants impressed with Animal & Poultry Science dairy course

The U of S Dept. of Animal and Poultry Science played host to a dozen senior dairy farm managers from China Dec. 5-19, offering an intensive, high-level course on dairy nutrition.

Vern Racz, Executive Director of the U of S company Prairie Feed Resource Centre, says the course was a team effort, led by Animal and Poultry Science professor and former head Dave Christensen.

Racz says the course was the most extensive professional program the department has mounted yet, going beyond its past offerings of smaller one- and two-day technical training programs.

He says the course stemmed from contacts Christensen had in China, and made great use of the professional expertise at the U of S and practising dairy producers in nearby rural locations.

"We visited at least three farms, including one large dairy operation on a Hutterite farm, and another dairy farm with state-of-the-art barns, leading-edge barns," Racz says.

"The level of instruction in this course was closer to the post-graduate level," and included 12 days of instruction, Racz adds.

He says the 12 course participants "represented probably as many cows as in all of Saskatchewan". For example, the Shanghai Dairy Corporation, with three course participants here, has about 20,000 cows, Racz says.

The participants’ leader, Lin Diansheng, Deputy Division Director with the Chinese Agriculture Ministry’s Bureau of State Farms, says he and his colleagues were very impressed with the "advanced knowledge" and the combination of theory and practice offered in the course.

And, "I was greatly impressed by how the dairy producers in Canada put so much emphasis on so many details. This is not practised in China," Lin says.

He says this training visit was part of a Canadian International Development Agency project operated by the CEMEX Alliance, based in Guelph, Ont., which provides training for dairy production personnel.

Dairy managers from China attending the In-Canada Nutrition Training Program pose with their U of S hosts at the conclusion of their Dec. 5-19 course. Front row, from left, are: Animal and Poultry Science researcher and interpreter Niu Zhi-Uyuan, Chinese delegation team leader Ln Diansheng, U of S lab instructor Cerah Richardson, Agriculture Dean Ernie Barber, Animal and Poultry Science Prof. Dave Christensen, and Prairie Feed Resource Centre Executive Director Vern Racz. Back row are Chinese course participants: Xiang Yonghon, Zhao Fengru, Liu Ysheng, Shi Jingming, Allen Mao, Chen Xiaodi, Zhang Xing, Cheng Yongbin, Wang Rongpin, Xiao Fugui, and Yang Xiuwen.

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