Smart ranch powers dairy industry and rural prosperity in Hubei

In 2022, Nanzhang County in Xiangyang, central China's Hubei Province welcomed the Cloud Hymn dairy factory, a project with a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan ($168 million) covering 1,200 mu (80 hectares) of land.

At the Cloud Hymn smart ranch, every cow wears an intelligent collar that tracks body temperature, rumination, and fertility status in real time. Ear tag chips record age, vaccination history, feeding estimates, and genealogy, with all the data uploaded to a big-data platform for analysis. This allows for precision feeding, enabling just one worker to efficiently manage 70 cows and save over 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) annually in farming costs.

The ranch partners with local farmers to grow silage feed corn on a large scale and transform wheat and rice straw into digestible feed using exclusive fermentation technology that improves nutrient absorption. Today, locally sourced feed accounts for a growing share, while more than 3,500 households cultivate 35,000 mu (2,333 hectares) of silage crops, each earning an additional 30,000 yuan ($4,210) on average.

With a daily output of 130 tons of fresh milk, Nanzhang has risen as the largest and most advanced dairy hub in central China, boasting a fully integrated supply chain from pasture to market.