One of The Friesian specialists visited Greece last week in the context of one of our leading projects. This project, commissioned by a major milk processor in Greece, aims to optimize the farmers results and to increase the milk flow to the factory. This interesting project now entered his fourth year; during the last years The Friesian has supported milk zone management in Greece in various ways, ranging from training, economic monitoring of farms up to feed support.
Our specialist visited in one week all the major suppliers (19) and focusses in this visit on efficiency and reducing feed costs because of the decreased milk price. He describes some of his findings:
“In the past, Greek milk zone specialists and hoof trimmers were trained to support the farmers. Because of the dropping milk price, farmers are having a hard time to survive, let alone to develop. The milk processors try to maintain their Greek suppliers, wherefore they are eager to support the farmers. We see the processing companies offering good support to the farms on technical subjects. On the other hand they have the most strict rules for the milk quality so advice on that is part of the deal as well.”
June implies the switch to summer and this season obviously brings his own kind of issues. Greek summers are hot and the cows suffer in summer a lot from the heat. To protect them from the sun, they are usually housed under iron shadow roofs, especially in the south. Because of the high mediterranean humidity there, misters do not have sufficient effect and are also seldom installed. Our specialist considers these kind of issues together with the farmers and provides next to nutritional consultations, also advise on all sort of practical matters.
