Dairy R&D in SA

There is a decline in small-scale dairy farming in rural areas of the developing world, also in South Africa. Reasons provided in the literature include shrinking fringes, access to cattle feed, limited interest of future generations, increased cost of cattle, feed and fertilizer, poor cattle health, knowledge and management, poor understanding of livestock diseases, uncertain weather conditions, power failures and high cost of electricity, lack of machinery and equipment, stock theft, quality and safety of the product, poor packaging, and lack of government support, amongst others.

Feed efficiency is highly correlated with economic sustainability on a dairy farm. Cows with higher feed-use efficiency are usually characterized by a higher feed intake per unit live weight, have lower maintenance requirements, partition more metabolizable energy to milk than body tissue, and lose less energy in waste and body weight.

With the support from Milk SA, ASSET Research developed three tools aimed at measuring the economic, social and environmental impact of dairy farming.  These are:

Aim of investigation: To determine whether seasonal stressors affect the cow trace mineral status of dairy cows in the Tsitsikamma region of the Eastern Cape.

Experimental design: Trace mineral status was evaluated with 20 cows per farm on three farms over two years in spring (defined as Oct to Des), summer (Jan to March), autumn (April to June) and winter (July to Sept). The samples were taken at the end of each season.

Because of increased awareness of environmental impacts, the dairy industry has come under scrutiny, resulting in alternative plant-based products being developed; the assumption being that these products have a lesser environmental impact. However, when consulting the literature, the environmental and nutritional attributes of these products are poorly understood.

PRJ-0336: Diagnostic investigation of sporidesmin toxicity: Histological study

Progress:

PRJ-0339: The significance of Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms and E. Coli in milk in the SA market with the aim of updating microbial specifications in R1555 of 1997 (Act 54 of 1972)

Background: Regulation 1555 is under revision and there appears to be a notion to follow international trends to specify only Enterobacteriaceae and not coliforms and E. coli. We are not convinced that this is in the best interest of the industry and therefore the aim of the project is to measure the status of these organisms in milk.

Environmental regulations and waste management in SA are governed by the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) and other related legislation. Waste management, including dairy waste, falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries (DEFF) (Government Gazette, 2013).

The practice of rearing, transport and slaughter of excess dairy calves, in particular bobby calves, is often negatively perceived by the public. From the farmers’ perspective, there is very little use for bull calves and therefore they want to dispose of them as quickly as possible. This should be done as humanely as possible and therefore the project of the Dairy Standard Agency (DSA) as cited below has the intention to improve humane handling of dairy calves over the next five years in a way that is measurable.

The following methodology is envisaged:

The purpose of milking machines is to harvest milk at an optimum speed while maintaining cow comfort and preserving teat functioning against mastitis pathogens. To achieve this, milking machine functioning should be optimal, units should be attached and detached timely, milk let-down should be proper, cows should be handled quietly, mastitis should be identified effectively and equipment cleaned efficiently in case of mastitis, units should be timely adjusted, and alignment should be proper.