In July and August, when the livestock in the prairies of Mongolia get fat and strong, the traditional Nadam Fair is held in capital Ulan Bator. Horse racing is usually the most important and popular event at the fair. The race track, festooned with colored flags, is a lively scene with the riders in their colorful belts and headbands and their decorated horses.

For five years in a row, Otbayar, a herdsman from the Selenge Aimag, has been traveling the long distance to Ulan Bator to attend the fair. The journey by bus takes an entire day. The strong and strapping Otbayar has excellent racing skills. He comes not only to participate in the races but also to visit the Chinese engineers of Lovol Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., who live in the capital. He brings with him holiday gifts of dried beef and mutton, a token of his appreciation for their help and machinery.

Otbayar with Lovol engineers

Otbayar was the first one in Mongolia to buy a Lovol tractor. With his Lovol tractor, he has reclaimed wasteland for agriculture and become a well-known farmer. “When friends come from afar to help, there’s no problem that can’t be solved,” he says.

Mongolia is mostly grassland with agriculture and animal husbandry as its pillar industries. However, most of the agricultural machinery used to be more than 30 years old, hampering development.

The concerned Mongolian government began to purchase agricultural machinery from foreign countries with the Chinese government’s concessional loans and distribute them among the local farmers and herdsmen. That was how Lovol began its cooperation with the Mongolian government.

Lovol is a large-scale industrial equipment maker with a wide variety of agricultural machines ranging from wheat and corn seeders to fertilizer distributors, balers and mowers that are perfect for the needs of Mongolia’s agricultural and animal husbandry industries.

Lovol baler machines

In the past, during the sowing season, Dolby, a farmer in Erdenet City, had to ride 60 kilometers on his bike to town to rent a tractor. In the peak season, he had to wait in a long queue because there were very few tractors for rent. Without modern machinery and equip- ment, production efficiency was very low and there were no bumper harvests. It was a struggle to better his life. He often thought how wonderful it would be to have a tractor of his own.

With the arrival of the agricultural machinery and equipment from China, his and other farmers’ wish has been fulfilled. It was an exciting time for them when the consignments arrived. The mowers especially were a great help. In the past, when it started getting cold in autumn, the herders would be worried that with their manually operated old tools, it wouldn’t be possible to harvest all the grass before winter and large quantities would have to be left on the vast grassland to freeze. But now, with Lovol’s mowers, they can harvest the grass in time and store it as reserve feed for their livestock in winter. The number of cattle and sheep that used to starve to death has been significantly lower since the arrival of the machines.

A Mongolian herder driving a Lovol tractor

Presently, 80 percent of Mongolia’s agriculture is mechanized, 30 percent more than before. Lovol products have accelerated the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, helping farmers and herdsmen prosper.

At first, when the local farmers and herdsmen were not familiar with the Lovol machines, they faced problems in operating them. When this happened, the Lovol engineers would provide prompt after-sales service. Within 24 hours of getting a distress call, they would go to see the customer and solve the problem.

Although the engineers had a lot of experience providing aftersales service around the world, the vast grassland of Mongolia was a challenge.

For example, the long distance between where they were based and the grassland where the customers were was a big problem. When Hua Dapeng, one of Lovol’s resident after-sales engineers in Mongolia, went to a customer to assemble a tractor, it was a 70-kilometer journey. A round trip entailed two hours, which was a waste of time as well as service efficiency.

To solve the problem, Hua and his fellow engineers came up with an ingenious idea. They rented two containers and turned one of them into a dormitory with bunk beds while the other became a kitchen complete with utensils and gas cylinders for cooking. The containers were transformed into a unique trailer in the prairie and the after-sales engineers began to live in this makeshift residence to provide customers prompt service.

Lovol’s“babysitting” after-sales service ensures that whenever a problem arises in their machinery, no matter how far the location or how difficult the problem, the after-sales engineers will be there to fix it at the earliest.

One day in October 2017, the harvester of Enqinleg, a farmer in Khentii Aimag, went “on strike” without any warning. He tried to fix it but the harvester refused to work. It grew almost dark. Since it was the harvest season, there was no time to lose. A frantic Enqinleg dialed the Lovol service number. The after-sales engineers responded promptly by arriving at the farm at night. In October the nights are bitterly cold but that didn’t stop them from traveling the distance and repairing the faulty harvester that very night. Enqinleg returned to work the next morning.

Mongolian grassland

With the modern machinery and the timely after-sales service, Enqinleg has become a successful farmer. The sumu or Mongolian administrative unit where he lives is now known as “Lovol sumu” and “rich sumu”.

Lovol has also built a spare parts warehouse in Ulan Bator, which stocks spare parts worth RMB2 million and provides timely replacement round the year. The after-sales engineers and local interpreters based there provide mobile and regular service and training.

Lovol’s user training sessions are very popular. The engineers demonstrate how to operate the machinery and how to troubleshoot, followed by on-site tests of the machinery. This helps customers get a full range of “babysitting” after-sales service and experience Lovol’s service philosophy of “customer first”.

“Lovol products are value for money,” said Bazar, who had taken part in a training session. “Now I know how to operate and maintain my machines.”