The government should find solutions for the issues confronted by more than 300,000 dairy farmers in the country and if the government fails to listen to the voice of the dairy farmers they would take stern action against the government states the National Center for the Protection of Dairy Farmers.
This was stated by a group of dairy farmers led by Mr Susantha Kumara Navarathna, the National Organizer of National Center for the Protection of Dairy Farmers affiliated to All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation at a press conference held at Dambulla yesterday (9th). The National Organizer of the All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation Namal Karunaratna too was present.
Mr Susantha Kumara speaking further said the more than 300,000 dairy farmers in the country despite spending large amounts for production the price paid for milk has been reduced.
He said veterinary facilities for dairy industry is lacking and warned the government they would have to take stern action if the government doesn’t take adequate action to find solutions.
The dairy farmers present at the press conference told the media they were not paid a reasonable price for the produce and sometimes they are not paid for the milk they have supplied. Due to the perverse action of the government dairy farmers have to undergo difficulties and are under constant duress.
I attach below a letter I have written to the Entrepreneur Development officer giving reasons for refusing to accept a loan to improve my Dairy Farm.
Quote
5th September 2016
Entrepreneur Development Officer,
Divisional Secretariat Warakapola,
Warakapola.
Dear Madam,
Sub. Bank Loan facility to Develop the Existing Elamaldeniya Dairy Farm.
Further to your recent telephone conversation requesting us to get in touch with the Manager of Peoples Bank Warakapola to discuss the possibility of Developing our existing Elamaldeniya Dairy Farm by obtaining a suitable Loan, whilst appreciating your kind request it is with great regret we wish to advise you of the items listed below. We emphasise that we have nothing personal against any staff member in the Livestock Development Department, however we will appreciate if you would kindly highlight the difficulties to the higher management and perhaps the concerned Minister/s too for them to take necessary action to rectify the issues the Milk Farmers have to face in this country due to the absence of a suitable infrastructure to handle high milk producing cows. Although the last government jumped the gun to bring quality cows to the country they didn’t address and install a suitable infra structure to manage these super breeds of cattle. As a result the farmers have been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
1. We have observe that the back up support and the performance we have received and seen from the Members of the Veterinary Services Offices during the last 4 years of our Dairy Farm operation do not satisfy or convince us of further development of the Farm which will only lead us to much bigger losses. (Our main objective in starting the Dairy was to produce 500 Litres of milk a day but we have not been able to even reach 10 percent of it).
2. We have observed that the services provided by the Warakapola VS Office in the way of professional competency covering prevention, diagnosis, treatment, availability of medicine and apparatus or equipment, vehicles to handle all sorts of emergencies is limited and not adequate.
3. We have had six cases of Milk Fever in the last 4 years and we have lost all the cows due to various reasons. Even now we have a full grown Jersey Cow down who was expected to deliver a calf but managed to save the male calf
4. No Post mortems for these six cases were conducted to determine the exact cause of death nor were medical reports issued covering these deaths in spite of the VIC.
5. Although we have insured our Livestock, the insurance payment for these deaths we are still to receive and the claim process is full of red tape or bureaucracy. We have therefore decided not to insure any of the cows until the scheme is in farmer’s favour and not shareholders of insurance companies. Sri Lanka Insurance company boast about their net profits running into Billions …I am afraid It has not helped the country to increase its productivity an iota to make an impact on the SL economy!
6. On average we spend approximately 15 to 20 thousand rupees per Milk Fever case by purchasing medicine privately, transportation, additional labour to look after the paralysed animal, dig a substantial hole in the ground to bury the carcass and so on plus veterinary charges. Sometimes we hire a Backhoe to dig the grave and this operation comes to 4 to 5 thousand rupees
7. The Veterinary Office has not developed Periodic examination Program for the Livestock to test blood, urine dung, progress of development of the cows, calves etc.
8. We recommend that there should be a rapid response team of fully competent and highly trained Veterinary surgeons (may be Trained abroad) to Manage and handle high milk production cows. They should be dedicated only for the cattle on a 24 hour call out basis with rapid response in fully equipped Ambulance type vehicles. Some of the minor staff or farmers also should be trained as Paramedics in the veterinary field to handle local emergencies until the arrival of the rapid response team. These veterinary Surgeons must not be involved with dogs, cats and various other pets that are brought into the VS surgery in the VS office
9. The Government should allocate sufficient money for fuel for the vehicles in each VS office based on the area coverage and number of Farms under the Veterinary Surgeons jurisdiction.
10. The government should provide or have laboratory facilities to analyse quality or contents of various cattle feeds including minerals, vitamins, medicine and tick control medicines available in the market to ascertain effectiveness and compliance to established standards.
11. District Veterinary Office should be made responsible for death of any registered cow in the VS Office and reports should be issued and recommendations implemented according to findings of the VS Office. Statistics should be available of all Births and Deaths of Dairy Farm cows
12. No effective tick control programme has been developed. We have had 3 calf deaths due to Tick infestations we believe leading to tick fever as a result of effective tick control medicine being not available in the market
13. We have had a further 3 calf deaths due to worm problems … as a result of worm treatment being inadequate
14. Preparation of Quality cattle feed in the farms … the raw materials for this purpose should be made available in the District Vet Office including beer pulp, rice products, grain, pulses, minerals, mineral licks, vitamins at subsidised rates for farmer to purchase the materials and make their own requirement without having to buy low quality substandard stuff. Also the farmers should have access to the required mills/mixing facilities to prepare their requirements.
15. We did have a case where a manufacturer (Astron) of a certain vitamin and minerals called Aminol was withdrew from our stock we had in the farm and they replaced it with fresh stuff when we advised/complained to them that all our cattle are eating certain type of earth or soil.
16. Artificial insemination … this is a very important part of the Milk industry … during the four year period our LDIs have performed may be more than 70 inseminations only with limited success. Out of the 9 calf births only 2 were female births all others were male births or nothing at all. If we were running a meat industry it would have been good! These LDI expects us to give him Rs 500.00 to help him to buy fuel for his motor cycle after every insemination.
17. We should be using Selected Sex semen for female births to further development of our milk industry … but we seem to be going in the opposite direction
18. We feel that the LDIs require further training to become more competent and efficient inseminators with a higher success rate for female calves
19. For farms keeping more than 50 heads of cattle should have their own Inseminators with government providing the necessary training and equipment
20. Items 17 and 18 above indicates why the milk industry is not progressing or stagnant
21. Dearth of manpower to work in dairy farms… Prompts the need for automation and mechanisation of all or majority of the operations of a Dairy farm such as cleaning the shed, bathing the cows, provision of food and drink, milking, environmental controls, handling of sludge and slurry etc.
22. In the absence of local manpower for the dairy farm operations provision should be made available for recruitment of foreign labour … Indians (Hindus) as they have a special affinity for cows
23. The cows and calves issued by the Livestock Development Department and government farms are not in their best health … not good specimens … we believe they are medically rejected due to various reasons or recognized as not high performers and we the farmers are having to carry the can or burden on that aspect too
24. We have come to the conclusion that Pure Jersey and Frisians cows are very difficult to bring up due to our climatic conditions. We believe cross breeds with the local varieties is less prone to diseases and easy to bring up. Although the milk yield may be a lot less but lot less headaches for the farmers
25. The current market price for our fresh milk from Milco varies from Rs 55 to 67 per Litre depending on the fat content etc. However, the retail price for the same milk is round Rs 220 to 230 per litre in the supermarkets. Under these conditions how can we change the mind-set of the producers (farmers) to increase the head of cattle and the mind-set of the consumers to change to liquid milk from powdered milk???? Is this what one calls fair trade??
26. The farmer does all the hard work without any reward, whereas the man who sells it to the consumer or the end user of milk makes over 300 % profit by pasteurising and standardising the milk. I am sorry to say that this is absolute daylight robbery, cheating or fleecing the farmers.
27. The many operations in the Dairy Farm involve electricity. For example water pumping, milking machine, chopping grass, bathing the cows, cleaning of the cow shed, mixing of the feed, environmental control of the shed, pumping sludge and slurry, CCTV systems, night lighting of the shed and the surrounding areas. The electricity bill for provision of all these comes to thousands of rupees but we are not given any assistance to cover these costs. Recommend registered farms are provided with electricity at subsidized rates.
28. A farm must have at least 5 animals for it to be recognized as a farm and to come under the area Veterinary Surgeons full Jurisdiction. All other farmers who have one or two cows should be encouraged to have a full fledge farm or join in a farm to extend the full facilities of the Area Veterinary Clinic services.
29. Fodder …. Supplying fodder in the form of fresh grass at the rate of 40 kg to high productivity cows is a real problem for all Milk Farmers. Especially, when we do not have large pasture like in other countries, where thousands of acres are available for this purpose. However, we must not get demotivated on this issue at all, since those countries where grass is there in plentiful is only available during summer months (that is a maximum of 6 months of the year). During the other six months (winter months) they are fed with Hydroponically grown fodder in indoor arrangements using pulses or grain such as wheat, corn, barley, paddy, etc. under environmentally controlled conditions along with hay. We too can adopt this procedure by reducing the fresh grass but substituting the reduced amount with highly potent hydroponically grown fodder. Since Sri Lanka is blessed with abundance of Paddy we should be able to use this excess reducing various issues the government is facing with excess paddy in the country. I believe if all milk farmers who have more than a ‘x ‘ number of high productive cows should be trained and assisted to produce hydroponically grown fodder.
If the government can give due consideration to the foregoing short falls or short comings, we can then begin to think about further development of our existing Dairy Farm facilities which we would love to do to create a healthy Nation of fresh milk drinkers, otherwise I am afraid if we go for a loan under the present circumstances we will only increase our present agony or Dukkha.
If the government does not recognize the foregoing as obstacles to the production of fresh cow’s milk, I am sure lots of us will prioritise production of cow dung as the main business to grow Organic crops or increase the carbonic content of their lands and the milk production will be a secondary business.
Once again we like to thank you for considering our Dairy Farm for providing us a Loan facility for further development and also creating the opportunity for us to highlight the short comings, the obstacles or stumbling blocks on behalf of all Dairy Farmers.
Thank you
Yours faithfully
Mal Abeygunawardena, B.Sc: (Hons.) Eng. UK
Tele:
If anyone wants to contact me with regard to any clarifications to the above comments you can phone me on 0777353480. Once again I emphasis that I have only written and submitted the above comments to make a thriving milk and dairy products industry for Sri Lanka.