TH Group’s green-led innovations

It has been 13 years since TH Group began operating its $1.2 billion state-of-the-art dairy cow farm and fresh milk processing plant in the central province of Nghe An. The project is run under a closed production chain from all stages, including raw material area, feed factory, dairy farm, milk processing factory, and TH true MART distribution system.

The dairy farm has three clusters including nine farms, and the number of dairy cows is more than 70,000, while the meadow area covers nearly 8,100 hectares.

The farm has applied the world’s most advanced technology in dairy cow raising and management of Israel’s Afifarm Group, New Zealand’s veterinary and disease management process, the Netherlands’ clean water treatment process and equipment, and process and equipment for wastewater and waste treatment from Japan, Israel, and the Netherlands. It also deploys cooling systems imported from Italy, the United States, and Israel, and has a giant ceiling fan system installed.

With a capacity of 500,000 tonnes of fresh milk a year, this giant project in December 2020 was recognised as “The world’s largest high-tech centralised dairy farming and processing complex” by the World Records Union. The project has also received the “Enterprise with High-tech Application” certificate from Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

TH Group implements a circular production process, with green production such as installing solar power on farm roofs and TH factories providing energy clean; building an international standard clean microbiological fertiliser processing factory from dairy farm waste, and the wastewater treatment plant.

The management of cows using foot chip technology in 2009 was also very new. TH farm uses Afifarm-Israel herd management technology, including a pedometer chip. The chip is worn on the cow’s leg, collecting information about the health status such as the number of steps, body temperature, and total exercise time.

Through these indicators, it is possible to predict the disease in cows – for example, mastitis – up to four days before a necessary quarantine.

Only the healthiest cows are allowed to be milked. Thanks to this technology, the group can manage a herd of nearly 70,000 dairy cows, and TH Group’s dairy farming area in Nghe An has become the dairy capital of the country.

On the huge fields of TH farm, high technologies can be seen everywhere, such as the most modern American John Deere harvester system that can harvest fresh grass, silage, corn, and sorghum; and continuous harvesters with a record speed of two tonnes per minute and up to 3,000 tonnes per day.

TH is currently using 13 automatic pivot watering rigs as well as a smart app to measure soil moisture.

Under the leadership of Thai Huong, founder of TH Group and general director of BAC A BANK, TH Group is also implementing many other projects in many provinces nationwide such as Cao Bang, Ha Giang, Thanh Hoa, Phu Yen, Kon Tum, and An Giang. All the dairy farms are supplying a huge volume of fresh and clean milk for domestic consumption and export to China and the Southeast Asian region.

Meanwhile, since 2020, TH Group has been installing a solar battery system on the roofs of the farm cluster to create a green power source to serve its needs. Currently, in Nghe An alone, TH Group has nine solar power projects, covering all roofs of the group’s factories, with a total installed capacity of over 9MW.

The entire solar power generation battery system installed on the roofs of farms and factories of TH Group in Nghe An has been connected to the national grid.

According to calculations by specialised data analysis software PVSys, each year TH Group’s solar power system can produce 4,281MWh, meaning the group does not have to use much electricity produced from fossil energy, helping reduce over 2,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

In particular, on the roof, there is an extra layer of heat resistance from the solar panel system. This has helped create cool air and a healthy living environment for the cows inside the facilities. As a result, the cows that are not stressed, and will eat and absorb nutrients better, providing high quality fresh milk with a brand name of TH true MILK.

With the use of green energy, TH Group is continuing to work in tandem with the Vietnamese government in implementing the country’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh paid a visit to parts of TH Group’s $1.2 billion state-of-the-art dairy cow farm and fresh milk processing plant in the central province of Nghe An on July 23.

Locally-invested TH Group on September 26 debuted its set of herbal teas with filter bags, named TH true HERBAL, including many speciality products with jiaogulan, passion flower, ginger, and chrysanthemum.

TH Group is intensifying its presence in China with its high-quality milk products, contributing to enhancement of the Vietnamese brand.