A very early
morning here this Friday morning. We got
on the bus at 7:00 am to go to the Soybean crush plant. This is a 2-3 hour commute depending on
traffic, but we were on the road early enough that the traffic flow was quite
good.
On the road, we
had a lot of time to look out the window.
Bushes and small shrubs are between every median and larger trees on
either side of the road. This made it
somewhat difficult to see the farms on the other side. However, some breaks in the trees allowed us
to see some of the farmland.
In the area we
were traveling, there was a majority of tree farms. I'm assuming this is why China has such a
large amount of fruit available at every meal.
We also saw some corn and other small row crops growing as well. The farmland appears to be all connected and
huge because it is between growing seasons, but sometimes you will spot a
different crop being grown and you then notice that all this land is divided
into small parcels. The villages are small and appear often alongside the
road. It seems like every village has a
fish pond with three to four aerators in the pond. I'm not sure why they need aerators, but it
appears as though the fish wouldn't survive without them. We haven't seen much livestock but a few
sheep and donkeys. The city we are
traveling to is Tian Jin (30 million people).
In this city there seems to not be as much buildings for businesses, but
there are many massive apartment complexes' as far as the eye can see. It is truly a sight to see and brings into
reality the true scale of how many people are leaving the farm and coming to
the city.
Our first stop on
our Friday trip was to Jiu San Group Tian Jin Soya Science and Technology
Company which is a soybean crushing plant. This soybean facility was opened in
2004 and began production in 2005. Other
branches can be found in Hong Kong, Brazil, Chicago and other places. This soybean plant crushes 5,000 Metric Tons
of soybeans per day which produces 1,000 Metric Tons of soybean oil and 4,000
Metric Tons of Soybean Meal. This all
translates to crushing 183,000 bushels per day and runs 24/7. To put this into
prospective, this facility is twice as large as the plant in Volga, SD. All together with all branches, they can
crush 850,000 Metric Tons per year. At
this company, they have 16 storage bins each having the capacity of 5,000
Metric Tons per bin of Soybeans with 1/3 of the Soybeans being from the United
States. Also, when crushing beans and
making products, they use up to 500 Metric Tons of water per day, but they
recycle a large amount of this water and use it again. This company is very proud of their awards to
conserve water.
This facility can
create, label and package their own product on site. They have two production lines in which the
smaller production line runs 24/7 and can fill 6,000, 5 liter bottles per hour
and pack 1,500 boxes. After boxing the
product, they fill trucks, up to twenty a day, and send out to their
customers. All in all it takes 2-3 hours
for them to crush the bean, bottle it, load it, and ship it from their
facility. Other facts that we learned is
that non-GMO oil is 50% more than GMO.
After a quick and
much needed subway sandwich in the park, we drove to a John Deere engine
factory. This engine factory has only
been producing engines since 2012, but the CEO of John Deere visited China in
the 70's to look at investment opportunities, and soon began investing in China. This factory was incredibly high tech and
clean. Our tour was given by a man named
Troy Schlotman. He is originally from
Kingley, Iowa and came to China 3 years ago to be the quality manager at this
factory. The purpose of bringing
American members of the company to China is to set an example of the
expectations of the factory.
We also toured the
factory floor which is 21,000 meters sq and it was amazing. It was full of computers, tools and automated
machines that helped workers get their product built faster. At full scale assembly, they can produce 200
diesel motors in just 1-2 days but unfortunately, we were there on inventory adjustment
which means they produced to their demand so the assembly line was not running
but we still got to see it for ourselves.
It started with Automatic Guidance Vehicle (AGV), which is an automated
robot that takes the engine from the start of assembly line to the end of
shipping. They have their own path they
follow and make it a lot easier to move parts and the motor around the
factory. The first part was some
assembly followed by a TDC machine, or a Top Dead Center machine to take
measurements and make sure it runs right.
After main assembly, it gets tested in the test cell stage. After passing that, it goes into chamber that
caps holes, washes, masks, paints multiple colors if needed and at the end,
heats it to keep the paint to the metal.
All of these
engines are tier 3 engines which is a scale of how much pollutant goes into the
air. China has a tier 2 law but John
Deere is preparing themselves for when they go to tier 3. As a reference to the United States, we use a
very effeciecience clean burning Final tier 4 engine which is enforced by law
to use. The motors they make are small
motors as well. They make 75-135
horsepower motors and can build a 3, 4 and 6 cylinder motor to meet consumer
standards and needs. This facility makes
engines for drivetrains, small tractors, loaders, excavators and will soon be
making axles for 4-wheel drive loaders.
The reason John
Deer is in China is because soon, farms need to become much more productive to
feed it. To do this, the farms will need
to consolidate so there is enough land for a tractor to be an economically
viable option. As China becomes more
urbanized, more people will leave farms, leaving less people for hand labor and
a rise in mechanization.
We ended the night
by attending a hot pot supper. We had
beef, mutton, fish, shrimp and an assortment of vegetables and spices. There is a pot of water filled with spices
and food and a flame underneath it to heat it up. We then dipped the mean or vegetable inside
the pot for about a minute to cook it and then eat it. We also dipped it in a spice dip after
cooking it for added flavor. Once again
it was a lot of food, pop or water and a great time talking with the students
at the table. Also, as we rode home, we
had the opportunity to learn to count to 36 (to make sure we hadn't left
anyone) in Chinese and it was somewhat difficult but many of the students had a
general idea towards the end. It was a
great day and we are looking forward to tomorrows events.
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