Hohhot, the center of China’s dairy industry, has developed quickly over recent years.

Hohhot is now listed among the world’s major milk-producing centers, boasting advanced equipment, manufacturing techniques, and many dairy processing factories.

In recent years, Hohhot paid more attention to the building of a dairy source production system and promoting the planting of more pasture areas.

Hohhot farmers were encouraged to grow high-quality alfalfa with a subsidy of 715 yuan ($104.2) per hectare. By the end of 2016, there were 20,000 hectares of plantation fields growing alfalfa. 

Meanwhile, companies breeding cows were encouraged to increase the size of their herds. By the end of 2016, there were 560,000 dairy cows on 302 pastures. 

The Hohhot government has also promoted the standardization of management practices, with 30 percent of the pastures now using electronic management systems, and 60 percent employing professional veterinarians.

Furthermore, Hohhot has enacted several measures to improve the safety of dairy products and raise awareness among producers of their responsibility to maintain proper safety standards.

With these measures the city’s dairy industry has become one of the major ways  farmers have been able to increase their income.  Among the list of the 20 best dairy companies in the world in 2016, Yili Industrial Group Co, one of China's top dairy firms, ranked eighth, up two places from the previous year.

"Hohhot now has become a center for dairy production, and has had a major influence on the development of dairy farming in surrounding regions," said Chen Bate, deputy secretary of the Inner Mongolia Dairy Industry Association.