One of the key elements for running a good dairy farm, is having a well productive herd, with a high life production and as less problems as possible. So while starting up a farm, the selection of dairy cattle is something one should pay special attention to. In the FDOV Indonesia project, Bles Dairies, through its consultancy company the Friesian, is working together with several partners, focussing on two Cooperatives in West Java. These Cooperatives will supply Frisian Flag Indonesia (FFI) with high quality milk which they can process into milk products. Currently, the partners are setting up a medium scale dairy farm. A dairy unit has been constructed and the finalization of the housing, the milking parlor and the cooling tank is in its final phase. Now we have come to the point of pre-selecting local dairy cattle, e.g. pregnant heifers.
Our specialist will select pregnant heifers from local and private dairy farms. Whereupon the animals will be collected and transferred to the diary farm. A first pre-selection visit has taken place and it looks promising! The final selection will take place this summer-period from July until August 2018, in cooperation with the local team of Frisian Flag Indonesia in Bandung, and the dairy cooperative in Lembang.
Most of the heifers to be selected have Holstein-Friesian genetics, although crossbred animals that meet our criteria, can be selected as well. It is important that the pregnancy stages of the heifers are between 5 – 8 months at arrival on the farm, to avoid a calving peak period at the start of the total dairy operation.
For more expertise, the farm manager in charge was trained in the Netherlands during the spring of 2017, and he will be supported by the FDOV project and by Dutch farmers, i.e. Farmer2Farmer-program of Friesland Campina.
With the selection of cattle, the projects is one step further, but still plenty of work to be done. So we look forward to the next implementation of activities!
For more information on the Development of sustainable dairy villages in Indonesia: clik here.
