Dairy R&D in SA

Introduction: The world has changed as the evidence and perceptions about climate change have surfaced and progressively became centre in the media and people’s minds. This has lead to questions of what are the reasons for the change which primarily pointed fingers to man-introduced carbon emissions and over-use of resources and waste accumulation. All sectors, including agriculture (therefore dairying), have come under scrutiny.

In a survey among dairy farmers in 2017, it was found that routine evaluation of cows, groups and/or herds for SCC was relatively low at 67% for cows and groups and 53% for whole herd testing. The majority of high SCC cows are however treated. Only 1% of dairy farmers reported to clip or flame udders. Approximately 50% of dairy farms pre-dip, lower than in some other parts of the world and approximately a third of producers either do not strip or wipe and/ or do not use gloves.

Discipline: environment; Keywords: GHG, emission reduction, net zero, carbon sequestration, systems dynamic model, dairy production systems. 

Discipline: management;

Replacement heifer rearing is often neglected on dairy farms because for farmers the cost of rearing heifers apparently outweighs the advantage of well grown-out heifers. These advantages manifest in early conception and milk yield. To investigate trends in heifer raising, weights for age as a measure of heifer feeding programs were studied in the Western Cape.

Discipline: breeding;

Discipline: environment: 

Discipline: yogurt; 

Discipline: Performance measurement/milk recording; 

Discipline: environment: 

Discipline: mastitis;