At Gaoda Ranch, the eighth-grade daughter takes up the fourth-generation mantle

The dairy farming industry is not only short of frontline workers; the problem of second-generation farm children being unwilling to take over has also become the greatest pain for older farmers. Veterinarian Gong Jianjia, who has long treated cattle at major dairy farms, said that in recent years 1 to 20 dairy farming households have one after another been unable to find anyone to take over, leaving them no choice but to sell their farms, and that some 80-year-old elders are gritting their teeth and struggling on. Chen Youzhen, the fourth generation of Gaoda Dairy Farm, stands out as unique. Born in the 80th year of the Republic of China era (1991), she resolutely decided to return home to help after graduating from university the year before last, carrying on this old brand with 70 years of history.

After personally getting her hands dirty, she learned that a single carton of milk is hard won. When she was little, her class at school once wanted to order milk, and her mother told her to cancel it and just drink what they had at home. Chen Youzhen actually threw a tantrum and said, "I don't want to! The stuff at home tastes worse." Thinking back on this, she laughs at herself, saying she really did not know how to appreciate her blessings back then.

Chen Youzhen puts what she learned in university to use. At present she mainly helps the family with bookkeeping, registering production and sales records, and assisting with loading goods, among other things. In her spare time she attends the Council of Agriculture's dairy farming courses and does hands-on work at the farm, but she constantly humbly says she is still a rookie. Even when a reporter asked whether she could be photographed working beside the dairy cows, she declined, saying that would make her seem very professional, which does not match reality. "I hope to first build a solid foundation. Raising cattle is a very difficult thing. Every link, from the environment to temperature control, is very important. It is like stacking Lego: pull out one piece and it collapses. It is definitely not that people come to farm because they did not study."

First Wave of Agricultural Foreign Workers: Dairy Farming Faces a Huge Labor Shortage Across Taiwan, China

(This article was sponsored by the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation for personnel expenses, but the foundation does not interfere at all with news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring news independence.)