Download or read book The Impact of Dairy Management Training of Small Scale Dairy Farmers on Milk Yield and Quality in Malawi written by Donald Tatha Kazanga and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In conclusion, the study findings indicate that training plays a crucial role in changing dairy famer's behavior towards good dairy management practices in Malawi. Emphasis ought to be placed on training in dairy management if milk yields and milk quality are to be enhanced.

Download or read book Evaluation of the Productivity of Crossbred Dairy Cattle on Smallholder and Government Farms in the Republic of Malawi written by and published by ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD). This book was released on with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Optimal Feeding Systems for Small Scale Dairy Herds in the North West Province of South Africa written by Nonzwakazi Patience Manzana and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The North West Province (NWP) identified dairy farming as a priority as it has the potential, not only for job creation, but also as a sustainable source of high quality protein for rural communities. With the correct type of management systems, small-scale dairy farms have the potential to be economically feasible. For the purposes of this study, a small-scale dairy farm was defined as a farm which produced less than 500 litres of milk a day irrespective of the number of cows or size of the farm. The study area was Central North West Province and the study was a longitudinal observational study conducted with 15 small-scale dairy farmers from 2002-2006. Nutrition was found to be a major constraint to the production capacity of dairy cows studied. It was found that farmers were deficient in the knowledge, skills and experience required to develop an affordable and balanced feeding system based on locally available ingredients. Dairy rations were given to prevent malnutrition or starvation, rather than to increase production. It was also shown that feeding of the cattle on the farms investigated, was influenced more by availability and affordability of locally obtained feed ingredients than by planning nutrition to increase milk production. Available statistics show that there are approximately 257 000 dairy cattle in NWP, with the greatest numbers in the Central Region (175 235) and smaller numbers in the Western (59 852) and Eastern (21 873) Regions. These cattle produced approximately 230.4 million litres of milk annually (12.5% of national production) with an estimated value of R304.1 million at R1.32/l, excluding value-added products in the form of cheese, yoghurt, milk powder, and others in 2002. The method used was a longitudinal study conducted from 2002 to 2006 in three phases. In the first phase, situational analysis using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and observation was used to outline the extent of the constraints and start to design appropriate interventions. Feeds used by the farmers for feeding dairy cows both supplements and roughage - were tested and evaluated. In the second phase, three different feeding systems were designed from the data obtained from PRA, in consultation with small-scale dairy farmers, established commercial dairy farmers, state veterinary and agriculture staff, feed manufacturers and distributors and the commodity organization (MPO) to optimize the nutrition of the dairy cows. The third phase was field testing of interventions and observations of the implementation by farmers. It was found during the PRA phase that the majority (n=9) of farmers had been in dairy farming for not more than five years, five farmers had six to ten years in dairy farming and only one farmer had 11 to 15 years in dairy farming. Dairy farming is a very highly skilled operation and farmers need to have experience and knowledge to succeed. Five years is insufficient. Therefore capacity building and training were instituted over the period 2002 to 2005. Also, 60% (n=9) of the farmers were not affiliated to any agricultural organisation, so membership of the Milk Producers Organisation was facilitated for all farmers in the study. It was also found that the cattle were not identified and neither production nor financial records were kept. Testing and evaluation of feed used showed that it was of poor quality, deficient in protein, energy and minerals and no effort was made to balance the ration. In the second phase, three feeding systems were developed form data obtained and observations during phase one. These were A: a semi-intensive farm based ration using available crops, pastures and crop residues with minimal rations purchased: B: an intensive, zero-grazing dairy system using a total mixed ration (TMR) for farmers with smallholdings of less than 5 hectares per cow and C: Traditional, extensive or dual purpose system where the calf drank from the cow until weaning and milking was done only once a day, for farmers with more than 5 ha grazing available per cow. The last was a low-input/low output system and was implemented by a majority (n=8) of the farmers. System B was chosen by two farmers and not adopted by any of the two farmers in the long run. System A was adopted by three farmers. Four farmers left dairy farming for various reasons during the study. By July 2006, the farmers had changed to commercially formulated rations or licks and the body condition score of the cows had improved. Milk production per cow did not increase, but this may have been due to the increased price of meat and the fact that a majority of the farmers were using a dual purpose system and selling calves at weaning for a very good price. It was concluded that extension officers should get extra training in dairy if there are dairy farmers in their areas as this is a very specialist type of extension. They should also work closely with veterinary services including veterinarians, animal health technicians and the health inspectors. Further research should be done to optimise the traditional model as this is relatively profitable, has a lower risk and is less labour intensive. It is probably a good way to increase food security, particularly in families when only one or two members have an income from a pension or part-time employment. The prices realised from informal sales of milk and calves can give a stable income. The community farms' should be economically evaluated in terms of each beneficiary being able to get a living wage out of the projected profits of the farm. The MPO and other stakeholders should give very specific training to new dairy farmers, based on the models that were used in this study. It is essential that framers be taught to look forward and get a pro-active attitude. They must also understand that quality, balanced rations are the key to success poor rations are expensive rations, because they result in unhealthy cows and poor production. Finally, ongoing and effective monitoring and evaluation of extension is an effective instrument for project sustainability farmers must be involved and participate in their own evaluation - extension is not all about paper work it is about measuring performance and good service delivery.

Download or read book Sustainable Small Farm Milk Production Dairy Developelopment Workshop written by and published by Bib. Orton IICA / CATIE. This book was released on with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Long term Performance and Milking Management of Dairy Farms Enrolled in and Completeing Milk Quality Teams written by Kathryn J. Hohmann and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Smallholder Dairy Farming in Malawi written by Wilfred Goodwin Lipita and published by . This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Production Problems of Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Malawi with Special Reference to the Blantyre Milk Scheme written by Victor Tom Kachoka and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Profitability and Efficiency of Smallholder Dairying in Malawi written by Ted Nyekanyeka and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Smallholder dairy farmers remain the main producers of milk supplied to the population in urban, peri-urban centres and milk industries in Malawi. However the dairy sub sector remains underdeveloped due to limited access to inputs, poor infrastructure, low value addition capacity and poor policies in promoting livestock and dairying business. This research focused on establishing the competitiveness of the farmers in the face of growing demand and competition using profit efficiency approach.

Download or read book Clean and Hygienic Milk Production in Mini Dairy Farms written by Devajani Deka and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2014-09-10 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dairy industry in Mizoram is growing in recent years and mostly in the hand of small farm holders. Numbers of dairy cooperative societies are coming up supplying the fresh milk in an organized manner to the large Dairy produce distributors in the state of Mizoram. Clean and hygienic milk is a prerequisite for quality production of dairy produce with good shelf life. The present piece of work is compiled after conducting a farmer's oriented training on "Clean and hygienic milk production in small holders' dairy farms in hilly areas."

Download or read book Setting up sustainable dairy business hubs A resource book for facilitators written by Mutinda, G., Baltenweck, I. and Omondi, I. and published by ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD). This book was released on 2015-09-30 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Achieving Sustainable Production of Milk Volume 2 written by Nico van Belzen and published by Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Safety remains a key issue for the dairy industry. This book reviews current research on understanding and managing pathogens in dairy farms. It also discusses more recent concerns about the environmental impact of dairy farming and ways it can be made more sustainable, including in developing countries.

Download or read book Agrindex written by and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Improving Milking Efficiency on Dairy Farms written by Pablo Manuel Silva Boloña and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The topic of this dissertation was to understand the dynamics of quarter milking, its interaction with other factors (e.g., quarter milk yield, milking interval) and to explore milking management practices that lead to an increase in milking efficiency in automatic and generate knowledge that can contribute to conventional milking systems, while maintaining milk yield and mammary gland health. The term milking efficiency is related to optimizing the amount of milk harvested per unit of time. This was accomplished by experimental investigation in combination with the development of a simulation model to generalize the impacts of modifying different milking management practices, at the quarter and cow level, on milking efficiency. These simulations help to develop new hypotheses and experimental designs to further improve and validate the model. The specific objectives of the dissertation were: 1) test the effects of quarter level milk flowrate switch-points (milk flowrate at which teatcups are detached) on cow milking duration, box time, milk production and SCC; 2) Explore within udder quarter milking duration differences and test the effects of quarter level milk flowrate switch-points that account for those differences, on milk production, SCC, cow milking duration and box time; 3) simulate several commonly used milk flowrate switch-points at the cow and quarter level with empirical quarter milk flowrate data and test their effect on milking duration, overmilking and strip milk; 4) develop a quarter based simulation model to estimate quarter and cow milking duration and box duration and simulate the effect of some milking management strategies (at the quarter or cow level) on quarter and cow milking duration. The results of this work showed that improvements in milking efficiency can be achieved by modifying quarter level milk flowrate switch-points without negatively impacting milk yield or udder health. We validated the results of a simulation model to estimate quarter and cow milking duration. Results from the simulations also showed that there is great potential to investigate how several grouping strategies, quarter level and cow level milking management strategies can contribute to increasing milking efficiency. This work also highlighted the need to conduct further research on the effects of incomplete milking on milk production.

Download or read book Productive inefficiency in dairy farming and cooperation between spouses Evidence from Senegal written by Hoel, Jessica B. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2017-12-29 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We examine productive inefficiencies in dairy farming in pastoralist house-holds in Northern Senegal, and using laboratory games, measure the relation-ship between spousal cooperation and productive inefficiency directly. In house-holds that behave less cooperatively in the games, cows owned by men produce10.6% more milk per day than cows owned by women, a gap that remainslarge and statistically significant after controlling for household, owner, andcow characteristics. Our results suggest that frictions between spouses mayindeed explain gender gaps in productivity, and support the use of lab-basedmeasures of household cooperation to complement survey data in explainingcollective behaviors.

Download or read book Productivity and Welfare of Cows on Smallholder Dairy Farms in Kenya written by Shauna Michelle Richards and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is limited field-based research and recommendations on the effects of nutritional, management, and welfare-based interventions on the productivity and efficiency of smallholder dairy farms in Kenya. The objectives of this research on smallholder dairy farms in Kenya were: 1) to determine the associations of feeding, management, cow, and farmer-based variables on the yearly cow-level milk sales (observational study); 2) to determine the associations of nutritional inputs (concentrate and vitamin/mineral supplements), management, cow, and farmer-based variables on cow-level milk production through a randomized controlled feeding trial; 3) to describe the cow-level incidence rate, causative organisms, and possible risk factors of mastitis; 4) to describe the calving interval of cows and its possible associations with nutritional inputs; and 5) to describe the current welfare of cows, and through the use of a controlled field trial, investigate effects of a knowledge-based intervention and re-construction of zero-grazing stalls on cow comfort and welfare parameters.Two cohorts of cows were evaluated in this thesis research. The first cohort was comprised of 111 recently calved cows from 111 smallholder farms (1 cow/farm). This cohort was used to evaluate objectives 1-4. A second cohort of 75 cows from 50 smallholder farms (1-2cows/farm) was used to evaluate objective 5.In an observational study, linear regression modelling was used to determine that volume of milk sold per cow was positively associated with feeding concentrates in the month prior to calving, feeding purchased hay during the past year, deworming cows every four or more months (as opposed to more regularly), and having dairy farming as the main source of family income. Volume of milk sold per cow was negatively associated with a household size of > 5 people, and feeding Napier grass at > 2 meters in height during the dry season. An interaction between gender of the principal farmer and reported feed shortages was noted wherein the volume of milk sold per cow was lower when female farmers experienced feed shortages, whereas milk sales from male farmers were unaffected by reported feed shortages. In a controlled trial, 111 recently calved cows (one cow/farm) were enrolled to evaluate nutritional inputs on the outcome of daily milk production, and were concurrently evaluated for incident cases of mastitis. Cows were randomly allocated to one of nine feeding interventions made up of: three levels of feeding of commercially available dairy meal and mineral, and fed for a period of two months. Through use of a mixed model accounting for repeated measures, cow-level daily milk production was positively associated with each kg/day of dairy meal fed (0.53 kg/day), feeding dairy meal in the month prior to calving (1.42 kg/day), and feeding high protein forages (0.41 kg/day). Daily milk production was negatively associated with having mastitis (- 0.30 kg/day). Cows were evaluated every two weeks for incident cases of subclinical mastitis via California Mastitis Testing and culture. The baseline incidence rate of subclinical mastitis was 0.123 cases/cow-month. The most common pathogen isolated was Staphylococcus aureus (58%).The reproductive efficiency of 111 cows was evaluated for pregnancy one and two years after the onset of the nutrition inputs trial. A Cox-proportional hazards model was used to determine the hazard of calving. Mineral feeding was found to have a close to significant effect (P = 0.052) when included as a time varying effect, with mineral feeding closer to the daily recommended intake leading to a higher hazard of calving. Farmers with college or university education and female farmers had cows with a higher hazard of calving (17.33 (3.86-77.78) and 1.95 (1.17-3.26) respectively), compared to farmers who did not finish primary school, and male farmers, respectively. A controlled trial evaluating welfare based interventions on 75 cows from 50 zero-grazing farms had farms randomly allocated to an intervention of training and low-cost stall modifications or a control group (random allocation blocked on farm). Cows were evaluated pre-intervention, and one month and one year following interventions for subjective measures such as stall base hardness and wetness, and cow hygiene and lesion (hock, knee, neck) scoring. Objective measures, such as daily milk production and lying behaviours (through the use of accelerometers), were also collected. Continuous outcomes were evaluated through the use of linear mixed models, and subjective outcomes by Chi-squared tests. Soft stalls were associated with longer lying times (45 minutes/day) in a 24 hour period (over hard stalls), as well as more lying bouts in shorter bout durations. Having softer stalls was also associated with increased daily milk production (0.76 kg/day). Dry stalls were also associated with having more lying bouts/day. Cows in the intervention group were cleaner than control cows at both one month and one year after the intervention. Strategic feeding of concentrates, forages, and minerals is beneficial to improved milk production, and reproductive efficiency in the context of smallholder dairy farms in Kenya. Additional benefits to productivity can be attained through improved cow welfare and hygiene.

Download or read book Milk Quality written by F. Harding and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-12-14 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Milk has played a major contribution to the human diet in many different countries across the world since the dawn of time. The dairy cow was domesticated over 6000 years ago, she was the object of worship in the Middle East 2000 years before Christ, and milk and milk products are mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible. Milk and dairy products have become a major part of the human diet in many countries. It is not surprising therefore, that over many years considerable attention has been paid to improving the quality of milk. We have worked to improve the yield, the compositional quality and the hygienic quality, and have striven to minimise the level of contaminants which can find access to this, perhaps our most natural, unrefined and highly nutritious foodstuff. The chain of people involved in the milk industry extends from milk production-farmers, veterinarians and farm advisors-through transport to processing-quality controllers, manufacturers-and on to retailers, legislators, nutritionists, dairy educators and consumers. All will be interested in the quality parameters of milk which are reg ularly measured for commercial reasons, for trade, for legal requirements and for reasons of nutrition.

Download or read book Farming Systems and Poverty written by John A. Dixon and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2001 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.