tailieunhanh - Dairy cattle husbandry - Part 1

Agrodok 14 Dairy cattle husbandry Dairy cattle are kept all over the world. Keeping a dairy cow can be very lucrative, especially close to urban areas. The dairy cow is, however, a very valuable animal and owning one entails a number of risks. The biggest risk is losing the animal. | Agrodok 14 Dairy cattle husbandry Puck Bonnier Arno Maas Jolianne Rijks Agromisa Foundation Wageningen 2004. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by print photocopy microfilm or any other means without written permission from the publisher. First edition 1996 Second edition 2004 Authors Puck Bonnier Arno Maas Jolianne Rijks Editor Peter Hofs Illustrator Dorothée Becu Design Janneke Reijnders Translation Sara van Otterloo Printed by Digigrafi Wageningen the Netherlands ISBN 90-77073-66-3 NUGI 835 Foreword Dairy cattle are kept all over the world. Keeping a dairy cow can be very lucrative especially close to urban areas. The dairy cow is however a very valuable animal and owning one entails a number of risks. The biggest risk is losing the animal. Low productivity due to bad management will also lead to losses. If farmers have no experience of livestock keeping we advise them to start with other sorts of animal such as goats or sheep. These are easier to feed and the economic risks are less a goat or sheep is not as expensive as a cow . This booklet is aimed at farmers who have experience with goats and sheep or with cattle and who want to start or improve their cattle keeping. It is especially meant for smallholders who are confronted with changing surroundings whether ecological such as in semi-arid areas or economic such as increasing demand for milk . These farmers may be wondering whether improvements or intensification in their cattle keeping will help them to improve the profitability of their farm. This booklet should help them to make decisions. This booklet is not aimed in the first place at those traditionally involved in livestock keeping such as pastoralists in arid areas of Africa. You can order booklets on related topics through Agromisa CTA. These include Small-scale preparation of dairy products and Goat keeping in the tropics . Foreword