Rare in Vietnam: A town with 600 billionaires, where people drive around in their cars to visit their cows.

In Moc Chau Dairy Farm town, there are about 600 households raising cattle, and all 600 of them are now millionaires. Thanks to dairy farming alone, the average income of these households is 35-40 million VND per month, with those raising a lot earning up to 200 million VND per month.

Profits up to 200 million/month

In stark contrast to the image of poverty and hardship in other mountainous communes, the town of Moc Chau – a district in the mountainous province of Son La – is filled with tall buildings. The townspeople no longer ride horses or bicycles, but have switched to motorbikes and own cars.

Leading us on a tour of his family's dairy farm, Mr. Duong Van Noi in Moc Chau Farm Town proudly said: "My farm covers about 2.4 hectares and currently raises 76 dairy cows of various breeds, worth approximately 8 billion VND."

In Moc Chau Farm Town, there are currently about 600 households raising dairy cows.

My grandfather shared that life used to be very hard; there was a time when he had to work as a hired hand for other cattle farm owners. His income was extremely unstable, sometimes he went hungry, sometimes he had enough to eat. However, since raising dairy cows, his family has started to have some savings. Meanwhile, the work has become simpler thanks to the help of machinery, such as grass cutters, milkers, etc. Only cleaning the barns and transporting the milk for sale is done manually.

Patting the rumps of the cows with their udders full of milk, Grandpa continued: "Currently, this herd has 30 cows producing milk, yielding 800 kg of milk per day, which the company buys entirely. After deducting all expenses, I regularly make a profit of several million dong."

Also among the households that transformed their lives, escaping poverty and becoming millionaires at Moc Chau Farm, Mr. Phan Doan Hiep from Unit 26/7 said that his farm currently has 120 cows, over 50 of which are producing milk. "After deducting all expenses, my family pockets about 200 million VND in profit each month," Mr. Hiep boasted.

According to Mr. Hiep, it's true that such an income level is quite high currently, but the entire farming process must always adhere to proper procedures to ensure the milk meets standards and guarantees food safety and hygiene.

For example, dairy cows need to consume a certain amount of green grass, alfalfa imported from the US, fermented feed, and starch each day. Cow farmers must be persistent and hardworking, enduring sun and rain, with no days off for holidays, as feeding, cleaning the barn, milking, etc., must be done regularly.

If cows aren't milked on time, they become just as restless and irritable as humans, even going so far as to break out of their barns. Therefore, the milking machine must be brought out at the scheduled time, without exception, Mr. Hiep explained.

Lives transformed by dairy farming, every family now owns a car.

Sitting and admiring his property, Mr. Duong Van Noi shared that in this town of Nong Truong, many other families have also transformed their lives thanks to dairy cows and the fairly strong linkage model between farmers and dairy businesses in Moc Chau.

Thanks to dairy farming, the lives of the local households have been transformed, turning them into millionaires with an average income of 35-40 million VND per household per month.

Specifically, the company has guaranteed product purchase, livestock insurance, and milk price support, subsidized the price of concentrated feed and American grass, provided loans covering 50-70% of the investment capital for production expansion, and supported agricultural extension services. The company also offers a bonus of 500-800 VND/kg of milk if the farm achieves high milk production and good quality. Meanwhile, livestock insurance premiums are quite high, at 400,000-600,000 VND/animal/year, but if a cow dies and is culled, the fund will compensate an amount ten times higher.

In addition, Mr. Noi and other dairy farmers in Moc Chau Farm Town also purchase milk price insurance by contributing 50 VND/kg of milk to the fund each time they sell to the company. If the milk price drops by 30%, the insurance fund will support farmers with 60% of the reduced milk price.

"Thanks to this, dairy farmers in Moc Chau Farm never suffer losses when milk prices fall," Mr. Noi said.

Currently, Moc Chau Dairy Farm town has about 600 households raising dairy cows, with some households raising as few as 20-30 cows and others as many as 200. On average, each household raises about 35 cows.

"Most of the cattle farmers here are millionaires, because the number of cows, if converted into money, would amount to billions of dong," acknowledged Mr. Pham Hai Nam, Deputy General Director of Mocchaumilk Dairy Cattle Breeding Joint Stock Company.

The Chairman of the People's Committee of Moc Chau district, Mr. Pham Duc Chinh, also stated that many households here earn 40-50 million VND/month, and there are even quite a few households earning over 100 million VND/month or more," Mr. Chinh revealed.

“In 1991, when I went to Thailand, I saw that every household had a motorbike to transport milk for sale. I only wished that the dairy farmers in Moc Chau could have a motorbike. By 2007, all households here had motorbikes. After that, I wished they could have a car, and now there are hundreds of cars,” said Mr. Tran Cong Chien, Chairman and CEO of Mocchaumilk, speaking about the success story of the dairy farming model in Moc Chau.

According to Vietnamnet