Recently, the National Animal Husbandry Services announced the results of the 2024 on-site review of Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) laboratories, with only three newly assessed ones nationwide passing the review. Among them, the DHI Testing Center of Zhejiang Zhongxing Animal Husbandry Technology Co., Ltd. located in Taishun County was on the list, ranking first in the country with a score of 83.7.

DHI is a technology for measuring milk production performance and milk composition. It has been applied in China for 30 years and served as an essential means for precision management in dairy cattle farming. Currently, there are 41 DHI testing centers nationwide. According to Zhou Fuzhen, the Director of the DHI Testing Center at Zhejiang Zhongxing Animal Husbandry Technology Co., Ltd., this upgrade signifies that the laboratory has now acquired capabilities in dairy cattle breed registration, DHI, progeny testing, genetic evaluation, and standardized management of ranch information. In the future, it will continue to focus on the modernization of dairy cattle breeding technology system, providing scientific support to enhance ranch production management efficiency, improve the accuracy and efficiency of genetic evaluation, and promote genetic improvement and innovation.

Taishun County is home to the only key laboratory for dairy cattle genetic improvement in Zhejiang Province. Relying on the Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Dairy Cattle Genetic Improvement and Milk Quality Research, Zhejiang Zhongxing Animal Husbandry Technology Co., Ltd. leads the Southern China in this field. By virtue of its existing farms and scientific research facilities, it actively explores embryo breeding technology, aiming to cultivate new disease-resistant and high-quality dairy cattle with characteristics of southern China, enhancing the core competitiveness of the dairy cattle breeding industry and breaking the dilemma of China's reliance on imported dairy cattle. At the same time, in cooperation with the chief scientist of China's dairy industry and universities such as China Agricultural University, Zhejiang University, and the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, it constructs a cross-field, multi-level industry-academia-research cooperation platform focusing on dairy genetic breeding and milk quality and actively expands the scope and range of services.

Behind this successful national-level accreditation is a vivid example of the joint efforts of the government and enterprises in research and development. A person in charge of the Taishun County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau introduced that, in order to upgrade automated and digital testing systems, the laboratory has invested 6 million yuan, achieving a testing capacity of 500 samples per hour. It successfully passed the formal acceptance of the National Animal Husbandry Services, becoming a registered laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the PRC, filling the gap of national DHI laboratories in Zhejiang Province and obtaining the qualification for DHI.