Latest technologies stressed to increase farms efficiency

LAHORE
DR Robert Back, a senior Dutch dairy expert, has stressed the need for adopting latest technologies and management practices for increasing the efficiency of farms.
Talking to The News on Tuesday, Dr Robert Back, who is currently visiting Pakistan, shared his views on domestic dairy sector. I have visited two big dairy farms located near Lahore. These farms, having more than 500 imported and crossbred cows each, are more or less being efficiently run. These farms are well managed in terms of feeding and young stock management.
However, he said today’s dairy sector in global perspective was undergoing processes for achieving the goal of continuous improvement. Now emphasis is being laid on providing rest and peaceful environment to cows instead of continuously providing feed. Out of 24 hours a day, a dairy cow eats four hours while it needs 14 hours to have rest and ruminating, which is very important in the daily lifecycle as far as achieving better milk production is concerned.
Animals need to take rest to make milk, which is overlooked by dairy farm managers in this part of the world, Dr Robert observed. Rest for animal is also good for protecting legs from various types of infectious diseases and injuries, he added.
He said the genetic potential of local animals were limited. For meeting the requirement of commercial dairy farms, there is a need to have better milk yielding animals. He maintained that management of dairy farm and fodder also played important role in quality of milk produced. Feeding itself and the way it is being fed is very important, he observed. The best roughage is one of the most important things and it should be analysed regularly to make it better. Dr Robert Back, who works at a hub providing information about Dutch cattle, also underlined the importance of managing dry period of cows efficiently calling it vital for getting optimal production of dairy farms.