World’s largest dairy farm project from foreign experts' perspective

Ten years ago, a team of hundreds of leading experts in the field of agriculture, livestock technology and management science came to Nghia Dan district, Nghe An province (Vietnam) from Israel, New Zealand, Germany and India at the invitation of TH true Milk to start the construction of a concentrated dairy cow complex which was recognized as the world's largest dairy farm in 2020.

Many experts have still been attached to the windy and sunny land in Central Vietnam, dedicated to ensuring the quality of TH milk.

From the very start, Mrs. Thai Huong, the founder of TH Group had a good business mindset that was combining Vietnam's natural resources and intelligence with technological advances. "I dreamt of producing a glass of fresh milk meeting the international standards right in Vietnam's grassland. Who could help me do that when my knowledge of dairy industry was zero at that time? We needed to invite the best teachers."

A team of experts from Israel, New Zealand and India were invited to help Thai Huong carry out TH true MILK project. In the first phase, there were 40 foreign experts operating the farm and factories. They were all in charge of the key executive and managerial positions.

After five years of working as instructors and trainers these foreign experts have transferred many of useful technologies to Vietnamese team. Currently, TH Group's high-tech, concentrated dairy cow farming complex in Nghe An has seven experts holding key management positions in terms of breeding, veterinary medicine and quality management.

Many positions such as Manager of Feed Center, Financial Manager that were previously held by German and Israeli experts are now successfully taken over by the Vietnam team.

"Going to Vietnam because of the attraction of a giant project"

Tal Cohen is one of the first experts of Israel-based Afimilk Company participating in the TH Group's dairy farm project. He is now General Director of TH Milk Food Joint Stock Company that is in charge of operating TH farms.

Sharing about the reason why he took part in TH's dairy farm project ten years ago, the Israeli expert said "At that time I received an invitation to participate in a hi-tech dairy cow farm project described as "the world's largest dairy farm project" in Vietnam. I nodded my head yes with a thought: "with such a large-scale farm it's worth experiencing no matter where it is"

Tal said "The world's average cow farm size was only 500-1,000 heads at the time. I used to work in a farm of 1,000 cows in Nigeria and in a farm of 5,000 cows in India that was then left unfinished. So when hearing about a project with an initial scale of 45,000 cows I immediately felt attractive. The number was so big."

Tal Cohen, an expert used to travel and share the knowledge of hi-tech dairy cow breeding across the continents arrived in Vietnam on a day of February 2011 together with dozens of Israeli experts and skilled farmers. They were part of TH Group's plan of initiating the construction of the world's largest high-tech, concentrated dairy cow complex.

Talking about the start of the project Tal- a strict but close expert - said "At the beginning, I just worked with Israeli team. There were more than 20 Israeli managers at that time.

Our tasks were to ensure everything would be as good as it should be right from the very start.  We lined out the operation process, developing quality standards and working regulations. The criteria set out for the farm in Vietnam were the same as what we applied for Afimilk in Israel as well as for other farms in the world. Next, we started to think of training Vietnamese workers."

Having worked in many countries such as Russia, Nigeria, India Tal found that Vietnamese engineers and workers worked better in terms of producing, farming and breeding.

"Vietnamese people are hard-working and skillful. Most importantly, they were trained to strictly comply with very high requirements we set out," said Tal.

In 2015, TH Group finished the first phase of the project with 45,000 dairy cows. TH Group's project has so far continued to be expanded and completed. Many dairy cow farms have been built across Vietnam in Ha Giang, Phu Yen, Kon Tum, Thanh Hoa, Cao Bang and An Giang and overseas (in Russia for exmaple). Genetic quality of the herds has always been improved to be better and better even though it is of the best in the world.

Having been working with TH Group for a decade, the Israeli expert said he will continue to participate in the development process of TH Group because he himself feels there is so much work to do here.

"I want to make TH Farm greener and more environmentally-friendly. We still need to train more skilled human resources for dairy farms so that they can become core force leading the development of TH Farm in many localities across Vietnam or in other countries in the world.

Thereby the standards of quality and professional process applied here can be widely used anywhere. It’s not easy but we can do because it’s the TH Group’s mission that is preserving what’s considered as TH Group’s brand.

Tal shared when the Covid-19 pandemic is under control he will go to Russia and work as an expert of TH Group. He will train Russian employees working in the project on hi-tech dairy cow breeding that TH Group is executing in Russia.

In his story, Tal Cohen often mentioned Mrs. Thai Huong, the founder of TH Group. According to Tal, the project has still been on its way thanks to  the vision of the leader and it's the most important thing. Thai Huong is not a normal woman. Her vision is unique.

"Impressed by the thought of the sustainability in farming and breeding”

Like Tal Cohen, veterinary expert Craig Tanner is one of the first experts of Totally Vets (New Zealand) coming and working at TH Farm.

“I arrived in Nghia Dan on a day of January 2010 before TH Farm imported dairy cows. At that time, Farm No.3 was under construction and I couldn’t image how big the project would be .Even so I found this land to be inspired,” Craig remembered.

Attending the first veterinary classes at TH Farm, his students who had just graduated from universities and colleges were eager to acquire knowledge although they maybe not fully understand their role and responsibility in operating the farm that was recognized as the world’s largest hi-tech and concentrated dairy cow complex by World Records Union in December 2020.

Like other veterinary experts from Totally Vets Craig was strongly confident that they would make a difference here.

 “This large-scale dairy project with its infrastructure and the state-of-the-art technology is beyond the expectation of Nghia Dan residents. However seeing how they were learning something new and considered it as a new direction to have a better life, for me it’s the most obvious evidence of the proud change in this land,” he shared.

More than 20 New Zealand experts of Totally Vets have worked in Nghia Dan. Under the leadership of Thai Huong – TH Group's founder combined with the outstanding human resources policies, experts like Craig have dedicated their knowledge, their experiences, their time and their energy for TH's dairy cow farm project. Thanks to their dedication TH Farm is now having a team of Vietnamese veterinary experts who are skilled, well-trained and equipped with professional knowledge of dairy industry.

Craig said what has impressed him most about TH Group and Mrs.Thai Huong is the thought of sustainable development in agriculture including raising people’s awareness of the importance of animal welfare. TH Group under her leadership has now built six pillars for sustainable development including animal welfare.

With the leader’s strategic vision and orientation, TH Group recruited “multi-national” talents to work and to develop a standardized, methodical and professional dairy cow farming complex. TH Group’s project has so far developed sustainably, actively contributing to the growth of livestock industry and dairy market in Vietnam where there were not many choices in the fresh milk segment and consumers mainly used reconstituted milk before TH true MILK was introduced to the market.

There are now 80 dairy products made up from TH fresh milk that have contributed to the healthy development of Vietnam’s young generations. In December 2020, Mrs. Thai Huong, the founder of TH Group was awarded the title of Labor Hero in the renovation period thanks to her outstanding achievements as well as her contribution to the development of hi-tech agriculture, livestock and dairy industry in Vietnam.