AGFEED, China, part I: Nanchang Best Animal Husbandry Company

The Chinese economy is booming and so is its pig industry. In various locations all over the country, professional organisations are being set up with foreign investments and experience. Near the city of Nanchang, Agfeed is building up its feed and swine business to become a real integration. Pig Progress editor Vincent ter Beek had a look in the company's feed mill in Nanchang.

For more information about Agfeed, please read the article "Agfeed: Growing fast in a changing market" in Pig Progress, volume 26, No. 9, 2010. In this issue, more articles on China can also be found.

• Click here for Part II: Jiangxi Lushan Breeder Pig Farm
• Click here for Part III: Jiangxi Agfeed Breeding Company

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Nanchang is the capital of China's Jiangxi province, in the subtropical south of the country. The city, having four million inhabitants, is surrounded by fields for cotton, orange and rice production.
The company was founded in 1995 by five young enthusiastic animal nutrition experts. Dr Li Songyan, the current chairman and CEO, is still one of them. His company grew out to consist of premix feed mills, complete feed manufacturing facilities and currently over 30 swine farms with a capacity of 30,000 sows altogether and employing 1,870 staff. The integration does not have any experience in poultry. "We focus on the south of China. Around Guangzhou and Shanghai the richest areas can be found."
Agfeed owns five large feed mills, in Guangxi province, Hainan, Shandong, Shanghai – and in Nanchang. The one located in Nanchang is called Nanchang Best Animal Husbandry Company. More than 90% of its production is destined for pigs.
The employees are living on-site with their families. The feed mill was established in 2002, and acquired by Agfeed a good four years later.
Vehicles are weighed when coming in empty and moving out full.
This new milling machine, present in the mill since early 2010, allows Agfeed to premix and mix some vitamins and minerals even more accurately.
In the eventual swine premixes, Agfeed uses ingredients from various international companies, e.g. Novus, Lucta and Pancosma.
In total, five types of grower swine premixes are produced. There is baby feed for pigs of several days; a mixture for weaned pigs to which 60% corn should be added; as from pigs of 70 days of age, the feed mill produces three premixes, for small (15-30 kg), middle (30-60 kg; see picture) and larger pigs (60 kg and up) – all to be used for on-farm mixing, at 4% rations to a diet of corn, soybean and fish meal.
Apart from grower pig feed premixes, Agfeed also produces premixes for dry and milking sows, also to be mixed on-farm with a diet of soybeans, corn and fishmeal. Agfeed does not exclusively produce for its own farms – premixes are also sold to the market.