Last week, Bles Dairies expert Anne Terpstra was in Nigeria, visiting various dairy farms that are part of the FDOV Nigeria project. He checked the recently arrived heifers for pregnancy with a scanner that he brought with him. A number of people will have to check the heifers in the near future themselves, before they are brought to the Master Farms. These are farms that will play an exemplary role to improve the Nigerian dairy sector.
Unfortunately, too many heifers appeared to be not pregnant, which caused for disappointment amongst the farmers. With this training, that certainly needs a follow-up; we hope to prevent any future disappointment.
Overall, Anne has travelled a lot on bad roads and he had to convey a lot of basic knowledge. There is still a long way to go, but we are on the right track.
Bles Dairies Consultancy, in cooperation with IFDC and Wageningen University and Research is carrying out a Dairy Development Project (DDP) in Nigeria for FrieslandCampina. Dairy farming in Nigeria is challenging due to poorly developed infrastructure, a lack of knowledge, no access to finance, a nomadic way of farming and a focus on meat production. The aim of this DDP is improving the local dairy sector by establishing settled farming. This is accomplished through the implementation of the Dairy Zone model, i.e. a cluster of farmers, including master farms for capacity building, infrastructure and access to finance, feed and extension services. Better infrastructure, water & feed and more services will be available for the farmers through settled farming and this will enable them to improve the quantity and quality of dairy production.