In every newsletter we provide you more insight in one of our business activities and/or projects. In this edition, we will explain more about one of our major consultancy projects; a 5-year dairy development program in Vietnam.
In Vietnam the demand for fresh and high quality dairy products grows rapidly. The increasing demand leads to shortages and pushes up milk prices. For this reason, milk products are unaffordable for a large part of the Vietnamese population. The Dutch Government formulated a development program to develop domestic smallholders in the four key dairy districts in Ha Nam Province (Northern Vietnam). Within this Dutch Government/RVO funded project, our consultancy division The Friesian is engaged as partner. Our input includes providing training and technical assistance to 150 dairy farmers on a quarterly basis.
The provincial government formulated a provincial dairy development plan in which they aim to increase the cattle numbers and milk production tenfold. Dairy farmers who currently have 1-5 cows will be supported to develop to professional and sustainable farms with 20-75 cows. Based on a detailed training needs assessment, a 3-year development program was formulated.
The training program consists of different parts and focus areas. A team of experts and trainers will dedicate its efforts on training the existing extension workers, AI technicians and veterinarians, comprising a team of 30 local experts. With the obtained knowledge and skills, extension workers try to support their farmers to produce more and better milk. Key attention points are nutrition and access to feed and forage, milk handling, youngstock management, herd administration, animal health and AI.
To illustrate one of these focus areas, average insemination/pregnancy rate is currently >5 and to improve this ratio, the whole AI chain i.e. from semen collection to heat detection and insemination will be analysed and supported. Another important focus area is animal health. Veterinarians are trained and coached to improve their practical diagnostic skills. More specifically, they are taught to identify cattle health problems related to mastitis treatment and prevention. This also applies for hoof problems, hoof trimming and treatment as well as infertility problems and reproductive diseases.
In addition to the provision of hands-on training (skills) to the farmers and extension workers, on the job coaching is also provided through farm visits. In addition, the farmers’ results are monitored. A special feature of the project is the introduction of a stand-alone application of a farm management system for smartphones which will provide the farmers and the extension services up-to-date information and analysis.
Our consultancy company The Friesian organizes trainings as part of their consultancy activities. More frequently we organize trainings via Dairy Training Centre (DTC). We represent this practical training centre in a lot of countries world wide. DTC formerly known as PTC+ Oenkerk, conducts international training programs, alongside the implementation of training projects all over the world. Many students from all over the world have already been trained, on and off site. For further information visit: www.dairytrainingcentre.com.
