Planning Dairy Development Programs in Tropical Asia

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27 Proceeding of the 2nd_{International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012}

Planning Dairy Development Programs in Tropical Asia

J. B. Moran1 _{& J. W. Brouwer}2

1_{Profitable Dairy Systems, 24 Wilson St. Kyabram, Victoria 3620 Australia,}

Email: jbm95@hotmail.com

2 _{SkyGlow Enterprises, Lot 825B, Jl Subang 6, 47510 Subang Jaya, Selangor,}

Malaysia

Email: skyglow.asia@gmail.com

Abstract

There has been a history of dairy development programs in tropical Asia that have either failed or required major revisions, for a variety of reasons. There have been obvious biological factors such as overestimating the level of performance of milking stock, or underestimating the required farm inputs to achieve targets for milk production and reproduction. All too often these programs suffer because of incorrect assumptions on the impact of the tropical environment on cow comfort, animal health, feed quality or cow appetites. However the most common reason is the lack of proper planning, both long and short term. This review discusses planning requirements for three scenarios, namely regional programs, “greenfield” sites and trouble shooting problems on existing farm developments.

Keywords:_{dairy development programs, on farm dairy programs, planning}

Introducton

The last 20 years of dary research, development and extenson n many Western countres has produced qute sophstcated dary producton systems. Herd szes have grown, effcent feedng systems have evolved and many farmers routnely montor test results on ther cows for mlk producton, composton and qualty and for mastts. They then use ths nformaton for makng decsons on cullng mlkng cows and for breedng genetcally mproved stock. Hgh labour costs have led to much mechansaton, such as machne mlkng, forage conservaton and feedng stock, whle cows grazng at pasture are able harvest ther own forages more effcently than can farmers. Low populaton pressures, hence relatvely cheap land, have allowed farms n Western countres to expand n both sze and cow numbers.

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anmals wth thermo neutral (comfort) zones closer to 10°C than to 30°C. Furthermore, hgh humdtes reduce feed ntakes whch exaggerate the adverse effects of hgh fbre forages on appette. A good measure of heat stress, the Temperature Humdty Index, shows mlkng cows n the lowlands of the humd tropcs to be n the “hgh stress” and “reduced performance” zones for much of most days throughout the year. Many dary specalsts correctly argue that potentally hgh performance dary breeds, such as Fresans, may not necessarly be the best cattle genotype for tropcal regons, except n hghland areas or those wth low humdtes.

There are many soco-economc reasons why the effcency of small holder dary farmng n Asa has not greatly mproved over the last two decades. Granted, numbers of cows has greatly ncreased n most Asan countres, largely through government support for socal welfare and rural development programs. The ncreased demand for mlk (accentuated through school mlk programs) and the concept of natonal food securty are the drvng forces behnd most dary development ntatves. However n terms of feed nputs per kg of mlk produced or farm mlk outputs, mprovements have been slow. Ths s demonstrated by the nablty of vrtually all dary ndustres n SE Asan to markedly mprove ther self-suffcences n mlk over the last 10 years (Moran 2009) hence reduce ther relance on mported dary products.

In addton to the above bologcal constrants, the other major problem to achevng natonal dary development producton targets has unfortunately been a common human falng, namely an nablty to properly plan for such ntatves, n the short as well as the long term. Ths paper dscusses ths problem at three levels, frstly at a regonal dary program level, secondly a “greenfeld” or new farm development level and thrdly, trouble shootng an exstng dary farm that s not performng, even to expectatons. Many regonal dary development projects nvolve the constructon of a seres of medum to large scale dary farms (say from 200 to 1000 mlkng cows) frequently on a “greenfeld” ste or one wth lttle exstng dary nfrastructure. The thrd level occurs all too often when poor plannng has resulted n a new or exstng farm that does not acheve realstc producton and proft targets.

The mportance of long term plannng s paramount n any dary development program. We often hear the comment “Falng to plan s plannng to fal”. Unfortu-nately ths apples to much of the dary development around tropcal SE Asa.

Plannng dary programs

Regional dairy programs

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and herd management to settle nto ther new, often more hostle, envronment. Fgure 1 lsts ten steps that should be followed n any large scale regonal dary development program. It s essental to organse markets, mlk processors, physcal and socal nfrastructure before ntroducng stock. The actual cost of mlk produc-ton cannot be determned untl the stock are on ste and ther actual, rather than ther predcted, levels of performance and requred nputs can be quantfed.

An addtonal step that overrdes the success of all those n Fgure 1 s a planned and ongong supply of fnances to ensure each step actually occurs “on tme and on budget”. Ths requres a long term commtment from fnancers well before the program starts. Ths budget must ncorporate realstc levels of cow performance based on local nformaton or estmates and not those from other, generally temperate and hence less stressful, envronments. The budget obvously needs to ncorporate a cash flow as well as long term loan repayments and should not plan for any profts for several years nto the programmed development.

A “greenfield” or new farm development site

Convertng a greenfeld ste nto a proftable and sustanable dary farm also requres careful plannng. The steps to take are smlar to those n Fgure 1 except that several of them would be taken for granted. For example, one would assume that there s an exstng market and mlk processors (Steps 1 and 2) or at least one that wll defntely develop n tme to utlse the raw mlk from the new farm. En-surng a sustanable feed supply (Step 3) and sutable staff (both manageral and general farm staff, Steps 4 and 5) are essental pror to ntroducng the stock.

Step 6, tranng the staff, could be taken for granted as that would have been ascertaned pror to the project startng. The basc facltes must be constructed be-fore the stock arrve. Of greatest mportance, the assurance of suffcent and tmely supply of fnances s essental to ensure the project does not stall at any step along the way.

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namely concentrates (ether formulated or sourced as raw ngredents) also needs to be ascertaned so that long term sources can be assured early n the project.

*,(($!* Fgure 1. The ten steps to be followed n any regonal dary development program

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31 Proceeding of the 2nd_{International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012} Hitting the “white wall”

The above hghlghts a classc scenaro where “new” farmers enjoy a rapdly ncreasng cash flow when all cows calf down over a short tme frame. The farmer often then ncreases hs cash nput, sometmes nto lower prorty nvestments, neglectng the most mportant ones, such as mantanng a hgh qualty (hence hgh ntake) raton as cows approach md and late lactaton and ensurng optmum reproductve performance (usng fertle bulls rather than dependng entrely on artfcal nsemnaton and ensurng all feld staff develop sklls n heat detecton). Persstency of mlk producton (as quantfed by the average monthly declne n mlk yeld from peak) s one of the often neglected, key measures of success of a feedng program. It should be of the order of 8% rather than the all too common 12% or more (Moran 2005).

All too often herd mlk producton rapdly decrease as cows move nto ther less productve phases of ther lactaton phase, reduced cash flows follow and the farm’s net ncome declnes to such an extent that t’s long term vablty may be at rsk. Such scenaros are rarely made publc as natonal prde can be at stake, hence t s often repeated by new, nexperenced nvestors n dary development.

Trouble shooting an existing dairy farm

Ths can cause the bggest problem because errors n desgn and constructon of facltes, shortfalls n supples of feeds, partcularly forages, and nadequaces n managng the stock may have already ntroduced constrants on potental cow and farm performance. We wll dscuss ths usng a theoretcal case study based on an actual stuaton.

A 150 mlkng cow free stall barn farm was establshed usng pregnant grade Fresan hefers, all mported at the same tme, n a hot humd envronment n tropcal SE Asa. Insuffcent area was allocated to forage producton and very few staff had had much experence wth tropcal dary farmng. Wthn ts frst 5 months of operaton, mlkng stock were sufferng from severe weght loss, stock (cows and calves) were dyng, mlk yelds fell to average only 7 kg/d, cows were not cyclng post-partum and there were ncreasng new cases of mastts occurrng every month.

Over the followng 5 months the farm management, wth consultant advce, were prepared to nvest n a seres of farm mprovements whch had dramatc benefcal effects of cow and farm performance. Mlk yelds and body condton ncreased and the cows started cyclng. These farm mprovements ncluded:

• Developng more area for forage producton

• Introducng a mxer wagon to allow for blendng the ngredents and mechancal feed delvery

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• Introducng a fermentable energy and a rumen degradable proten source • Incorporatng a small amount of rce straw n the det to provde physcally

effectve fbre

• Formulatng lower cost ratons to reduce feed costs • Improvng new born calf hygene and colostrum feedng

• Routnely Calfornan Mastts Testng cows followed by antbotc treatment of subclncal mastts cases and cullng chroncally nfested cows

• Purchasng bulls for natural matng, rather than plannng to practce artfcal nsemnaton

• Installng a water sprnkler system and coolng fans for better clmate control

• Introducng recordng systems, usng both note books and computer software, to more closely montor daly management practces

• Establshng a computer system to quantfy mlk ncome less feed costs and the proporton of feed consumed by non-productve stock each day

• Sellng off bull calves and cull stock

• Intatng regular faecal and blood samplng and vaccnaton protocols for better dsease management

• Usng pregnancy dagnoss and record keepng for better reproductve management

• Importng pregnant stock wth a range of expected calvng dates • Improvng on farm bosecurty

Over a 12 week perod, followng these mproved management practces: • The number of cows dyng decreased from 5 per week to zero • Feed ntakes ncreased from 8.4 to 15.0 kg DM/cow/day • Average mlk yelds ncreased from 6.4 to 13.6 L/cow/day • Body condton scores mproved from 2.3 to 5.6 unts (out of 8) • The farm manager sgned the consultant up for a further perod • The owner was seen more often wth a smle on hs face

Importing dairy stock from overseas

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assumng they can be fed adequately, s through an actve program of mportaton. Australa and New Zealand seem to be the countres of choce, although Thaland also has an actve dary hefer export market especally to Malaysa and Vetnam.

When consderng mportatons of dary hefers, there are two major decsons to be made, namely what genotype s the most sutable and what age should they be on arrval. Unfortunately all too often, the frst s consdered a “gven” by many decson makers who plan dary development polces. That s, they must be “black and whte”! If the dary regon s n the hghlands (say above 800 to 1000 m above sea level) and or n a regon wthout extremes n temperature and humdty, ths s often the correct decson. However there seems lttle pont n requestng Fresan hefers out of dams that have produced 5000 L mlk per lactaton, because t s hghly unlkely that the mported hefers or ther progeny wll be managed well enough to acheve such mlk yelds, partcularly f they are to be run on smallholder farms. In most cases, any dary genotype mported from a developed country s lkely to be of hgher genetc mert that the typcal mlkng cow n tropcal Asa.

Jerseys or ther crosses should be serously consdered n tropcal dary systems when clmate constrants are apparent and/or when feedng and herd management s very much sub optmum. They are smaller, hence have lower mantenance requre-ments, have better clmatc tolerance (due both to lower mlk yelds and physcal characterstcs such as sweat gland densty and skn colour) and often better repro-ductve performance. In areas where premums encourage farmers to produce mlk wth hgher solds content, Jerseys also outdo Fresans. There are other dary breeds that seem to perform better than Fresans n the torrd tropcs such as Brown Swss, or synthetc breeds such as Australan Fresan Sahwals or the Grolanda (from Bra-zl), whle the purebred Sahwal (from Pakstan) justfes further consderaton.

The other decson to make s whether to mport pregnant hefers or yearlng (vrgn) hefers. Pregnant hefers are the most favoured because farmers get “two for the prce of one”, assumng the foetus s a dary genotype. In addton as the hefer s pregnant (at least dagnosed as pregnant) she does not have to be mated soon on arrval at her new home where there s no guarantee that she wll easly conceve. However wth only a few months to adapt to her new envronment, there s also no guarantee that that hefer wll become a long term member of the mlkng herd once she calves down. All too often one hears stores of very hgh numbers (up to 30 or 40%) of mported hefers beng culled and slaughtered after havng only one calf. The most lkely reason s that her poor feedng management post-calvng and her hgher genetc propensty to utlse body reserves to produce mlk, have combned to result n anoestrus for many, many months post calvng. Such anmals have become very expensve dary beef anmals. In the long run, yearlng hefers may be better economc propostons than pregnant hefers.

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have dsease management protocols. Such protocols must be strctly enforced and regularly revewed, n case of new dsease outbreaks n countres of orgn. Foot and mouth dseases and brucelloss are the two most commonly talked about but there are others to consder. In one recent example, two dseases, namely bovne vral darrhoea (BVD) and nfectous bovne rhnotrachets (IBR) were solated n vrtually every aborted foetuses arsng from one mportaton. These can have long lastng adverse mpacts on cow performance so requre addtonal survellance to ensure they do not enter the country wth the consgnment.

Conclusons

Dary farmng would have to be one of the most sophstcated forms of lve-stock producton n the world and should only be undertaken after careful and log-cal plannng, and wth expectatons of a long term nvestment before profts accrue. To be successful, such development programs must nvolve sourcng, or at least seekng support from, personnel wth proven experence n both dary farmng prac-tces and dary farm busness management. Much can be learnt from the ltany of faled dary development projects throughout tropcal Asa so these mstakes wll not be repeated, as unfortunately occurs all too often.

References

Moran, J. (2005). Tropcal Dary Farmng. Feedng management for small hold-er dary farmhold-ers n the humd tropcs. Landlnks Press, CSIRO, Melbourne. http://www.publsh.csro.au/nd/197/ssue/3363.htm

Moran, J. (2009). Busness management for tropcal dary farmers. 280 pp. Landlnks Press, CSIRO Melbourne. http://www.publsh.csro.au/nd/220/ssue/5522.htm