| Dairy Club - News & Events |
This meeting was divided into three segments:
1. Introduction of Dairy Club website/link
Introduction of Dairy Club website/link was given by Mr. Rizwan Saleem, Director IT, UVAS.
The link is http://uvas.edu.pk/society-club
How and from where we can buy good genetics locally in Pakistan both for dairy and beef Discussion on “How and from where we can buy good genetics locally in Pakistan both for dairy and beef”
Dr. Japie, Nestle There are four suppliers known to me i.e., auStrix, Atlas Export, Elders and Profarm. I would prefer Elders and Atlas Export for import of animals. I had experience with different animals, but cross bred with Jersey is more resistant to heat. A rotational cross breeding with Holstein, Jersey and Brown Swiss is recommended. Now we should not only focus on the cow with higher milk production but we need to develop a “System Cow”. We have to consider the number of lactations, fertility, cow comfort in given environment, milk production, feed efficiency, etc. I recommend cross bred.
Mr. Ijaz Raheem, BT Farm I have experienced a herd of 250 cross bred animals. It is very difficult to manage a cross bred herd. Different animals showed different behavior, some of the animals were resistant to heat stress, whereas, some were very much affected. It’s better to manage pure bred herd than cross bred one. A planed cross breeding may have different impact. Use of imported semen in local animals is not so much successful. Calves mortality and morbidity is high. As a business model this is not feasible. Dr. Muhammad Ashraf, Engro Foods
First the exotic genetics was imported by Government agencies, then by Nestle. At the moment in ordinary farming conditions it is not possible to rare pure Holstein or Jersey animals. First of all we should define what we need. We need more milk, we need feed efficiency and we need the survival of the animals. A cross breeding among Holstein, Jersey and Brown Swiss can work efficiently in present situation; Holstein should be crossed with Jersey, the F1 should be crossed with Brown Swiss, F2 with Holstein and repeat it in the same pattern.
A cow point should be established by UVAS at Patoki where supplier and buyer of the animals may be facilitated. Animals should be kept for few days, so that buyer can purchase the animals after observing its actual potential. Prof. Dr. T.N. Pasha told that UVAS is already working on this idea.
Maj. Yousaf, Stock Feeds We had good experience with crosses of exotic Holstein semen with local Cholistani cattle. F1 performed very well in terms of milk production and reproduction. We used sexed semen in our model. On average sexed semen costs Rs. 50000 per animal to get a new calf.
Prof. Dr. Makhdoom Abdul Jabbar Irrespective of the breeds, the most ignorant aspect is nutrition. We couldn’t provide optimum nutrition to any type of animals. By providing good nutrition we may get better result from cross bred as well as pure bred animals.
Rick Thompson, Nestle
In the present situation, I would recommend the cross breeding model proposed earlier.
Prof. Dr. Talat Naseer Pasha We have been working on developing a nucleus herd of Sahiwal cattle and Nili Ravi buffalo. It’s very difficult to find local pure animals. We have to work on options of cross breeding. Nutrition is the key to define the actual performance potential of the animals.
Dr. Waseem Asghar, JK Dairy It is difficult to manage cross bred animals because the calf birth weight is different in different crosses. It is difficult to provided proper nutrition to the calves of different body weight. Cross bred animals having varying percentage of genetics from different breeds vary in their nutritional requirement
Boo Ali Younis, Sweetwater Dairy We had experience with crosses of local animals with exotic semen. After experience of many years we have decided to go for imported cross bred and pure bred animals
Effect of Mycotoxins on milk production and reproduction
Dr. M. Zafar Ullah Khan, Alltech provided detailed notes on: Impact of mycotoxins in ruminants Regulatory standards from different agencies of the world This information is available on www.knowmycotoxins.com Participants delivered their inputs on the same subject. Comments of some of the members are as follows: Prof. Dr. Makhdoom Abdul Jabbar had worked on a project in which collection of milk and milk products sampels from different sources of 34 districts were collected and analyzed for mycotoxins. He summarized that more than 30% of the milk samples and more than 47% of the milk products samples were found to be contaminated with M1 with a concentration higher than the EU standards. Milk samples collected from middle men were more contaminated than those collected from individual farmers.
Dr. Muhammad Ashraf told that he has been treating typical cases of mycotoxicosis in different districts by using Mycosorb from Alltech. He explained that sever cases of mycotoxins were observed in Sheikhupura, Sahiwal and other districts. Symptoms included the dryness and gangrene of tails and ear. Use of Mycosorb for 3 to 4 days fully recovered the situation. While feeding cotton seed cakes farmer should be careful about the mycotoxins.
Prof. Dr. Talat Naseer Pasha shared that we should be very careful while feeding bread, bakery wastes, cotton seed products because incidence of mycotoxins is higher in feeding these ingredients. Purchase of ingredient should be very vigilant.
Dr. M. Zafar Ullah Khan, Alltech suggested a simple method for the farmer to observe the incidence of mycotoxins in his feed. When there is sudden drop in milk production, milk fat or feed intake, use mycotoxin binder for one week to all animals. If there is increase in milk production and/or feed intake, it is indicating the presence of higher level of mycotoxins. In this situation monitor the feed ingredients and continue use of toxin binder for a month. Then discontinue use of toxin binder for one week and take the same observations.
Dr. Japie suggested use of proper techniques in silage making to avoid the fungal growth. He also recommended the use of silage inoculants to improve the silage quality.
Finally Dr. M. Zafar Ullah Khan, Alltech summarized the meeting discussion. Topic and schedule for next meeting was decided with the consent of all participants. |
