Visit to Mediterranean dairy farming

Transcription

1 Vet Times The website for the veterinary profession Visit to Mediterranean dairy farming Author : PETER EDMONDSON Categories : Vets Date : July 14, 2008 PETER EDMONDSON discovers the different lifestyle of the Greek people and their dairy herd farming methods IT is always nice being asked to visit vets and farmers in foreign countries, so it was a pleasure to be invited to go to Greece. Greece has a big dairy industry with some 10 million milking goats, five million milking sheep and a mere 110,000 dairy cows. The reason for the differing proportions of goats and sheep is that feta cheese is made up of 70 per cent goat and 30 per cent sheep milk. Milk from dairy cows is used for liquid consumption as well as fresh yoghurt manufacturing. Greece is in the enviable position of having an under supply of milk, therefore, prices are significantly higher than in the UK. Life in a Mediterranean climate is totally different. Civil servants start work at 7am and finish at 2pm, but most companies still work from 9am to 5pm. Those working on the land take siestas when the weather gets very hot, and food and family are highly important. Coming from England it is very different getting used to going out to dinner at in the evening. One evening we left the restaurant at 2am and were not the last people there. Because it is so hot during the day, people eat and party late into the night. Greece has a population of 12 million; half of whom live in Athens and Thessaloniki, the two major cities in the country. These cities continue to expand due to the lack of opportunity in the rural community. 1/9

2 Herd investment There are still a few traditional dairy herds milked by hand, but there are more modern units where significant investment has been made. Like all other countries, those that are committed to dairy farming will invest and expand while smaller herds peter out. There are many herds of 80 to 150 cows, some with 200, and one of 800 cows. With such a small dairy industry the level of support services are limited. This makes life difficult for the professional dairy farmer. The milk price is currently 34 pence per litre but has been as high as 36 pence. Prices fl uctuate weekly according to supply and demand. Farmers will purchase replacement cows from Italy, Germany and other countries in Europe and a replacement cow costs around 2,000, plus transport to get it home. The greatest majority of dairy herds are housed all year round. Rainfall is limited in the summer months and so irrigation is required for crop production. It would be very expensive to have cows grazing and so they are kept either on dirt yards, or the more modern units are housed in cubicles. Dirt yards are cleaned out three to four times every year, but as cows are very wet creatures there can be a significant build-up of slurry. The majority of farmers want to swap from dirt yards to cubicles. This involves significant financial investment, but that can easily be covered by the high milk price. Maize is the backbone of forage and little fertiliser is used. The majority of dairy farming takes place in Macedonia, which, surprisingly, usually has snow for a couple of weeks during the winter months. Once the weather improves, the maize is planted, irrigated and grows very profusely. There is an abundant supply of water for irrigation purposes, but this is quite a timeconsuming and costly exercise. Most of the farm workers are foreign, with the majority coming from Albania. The smaller farmers, of course, will carry out all the work themselves. An abundant supply of relatively skilled labour at a competitive price is available. This means the professional dairy farmer can spend more time dealing with management issues (or golf) and have a good quality of life. Milk yield is highly variable with some herds averaging 6,000 litres, but many of the bigger, wellmanaged herds have yields of more than 9,000 litres. The majority of the cows are Holsteins and AI is used to maximise genetic improvement. Quality Milk quality is not a big issue in Greece. No company penalises any farmer with a high cell count and, despite being in the EU, many herds have cell counts at more than 400 and are still allowed to supply milk for human consumption. As the dairy industry is very small, there is no equivalent to an NMR or CIS type milk-recording service. This means that nobody has any idea about the per cent 2/9

3 of herd that has subclinical mastitis, nor who the specific offenders are within a herd. Laboratory services are also quite limited and mastitis bacteriology will only identify that the bug is a Staphylococcus or a Streptococcus. It is presumed that Staph aureus is the most common cause of high cell counts. Clinical mastitis can be a real problem, especially after wet weather or whenever cows get dirty. Again, there is no bacteriology to confirm the most likely cause. However, by talking to farmers and seeing the conditions in which cows are kept, there is no doubt that the majority of infections will be due to environmental bacteria. Lameness is a significant problem with digital dermatitis being commonplace. This will have been introduced to the herds from purchased cattle and, with a high level of slurry and lack of frequent cleaning in dirt yards, the risk of spread will be very high. Sole ulcers are also an issue in some of the cubicle systems - due to poor design and cows standing for excessive periods of time. Many herds are foot bathed on a daily basis but, as the cows are exiting to large amounts of contamination, the benefit is going to be questionable. Greek dairy farmers also have problems with diseases such as tuberculosis. Many of the herds are in close proximity to each other and there is direct cow-tocow contact. One of the herds we visited had lost 120 cows due to TB and is now only milking 80. All TB testing is carried out by government veterinary surgeons. As in the UK, vets and farmers consider wildlife to be an important factor in the spread of TB. Competition There are about 30 vets involved in dairy work. Becoming a vet in Greece is exceptionally difficult as the competition is far higher than it is in the UK. In 2007, 7,000 people competed for 140 veterinary school places, and 60 per cent of the successful students were female. Some really determined people will go to great lengths to qualify. I met one vet who had gone to Slovakia to learn the language, then spent a year studying for the entrance exams and completed his degree. He was then able to return to Greece to practise. The first thing I noticed when I was training the Greeks to become dairy vets was that they were all male - not a pretty face among them. It is virtually unheard of for a female vet to carry out farm work. Language is always a potential barrier and we had interpreters, but about half of the vets had an excellent understanding of English. It put the rest of us who could only speak one language to shame. Veterinary practice is very different to that in the UK. The majority of vets only spend time in their clinics dispensing medicines. Calls are made to sick cows, or cows having problems with calvings, but the number of visits is relatively low. Routine fertility visits would be unusual, as the majority of dairy farmers do not value input into this area. Most are single-man practices, but there are a 3/9

4 couple of four to five-man dairy practices. I had the opportunity to visit a practice that had five vets, an agronomist and two agricultural advisors. The practice was a semen distributor and had distribution rights for many feed and silage additives. The role of the agronomist and the agricultural advisors is more to sell products rather than to offer specific advice to the farmer. The majority of farmers do not have an agricultural advisor per se. The range of veterinary products is very similar to that in the UK, with the exception of antibiotics such as gentamicin being readily available. Retail prices are also very similar, with many medicines being slightly more expensive. No prescriptions are written; the farmer just comes into the clinic, takes advice and picks up his medicines. Farmers are not very good at paying and the majority pay three to four months in arrears. This is not very good for cash flow, but I m sure this is built into the price that the farmer pays. The majority of dairy farmers will use antibiotic dry cow therapy. Bovine viral diarrhoea vaccination is used on some herds, as is the rota corona vaccine, which is hardly surprising given poor environmental challenges for calves. Leptospirosis is not considered to be a problem - this is probably because cows do not go out to pasture, there are no common watercourses and no hired bulls. Problems with worms are not an issue either. There are some interesting Greek multivalent vaccines that cover the majority of diseases encountered and are very cheap. They may be hopeless, but the label seems impressive. It is interesting that the milk withdrawal periods of many products identical to the UK vary considerably. The withdrawal period of one dry cow product is 35 days in the UK, but 49 days in Greece. The withdrawal period of a milking cow product is 132 hours in the UK, but only 84 hours in Greece. So much for European harmonisation. There is no doubt that the dairy cow industry in Greece is going to continue to expand due to the increasing demand for fresh milk and yoghurt. The high milk price makes this possible and the professional management and set up of the new dairy units will increase efficiency and profitability. Hopefully, support services in the form of milk recording and laboratory facilities will emerge and farmers will be able to tackle problems with high cell counts and other diseases to develop longterm solutions. The hospitality and kindness of the Greek people is always very touching. On our travels, we unexpectedly dropped in on some farmers and were made very welcome, invited to look around and ask any questions. Time is something that is given freely, as it should be, and they have a much better work-life balance compared to the UK. 4/9

5 Selling grilled corn-on-the-cob by the harbour. Dining and socialising late into the evening is common in Thessaloniki. 5/9

6 Cattle eating a TMR (total mixed ration) diet. Note the conditions by the feed area and cows lying in the dirt yards. 6/9

7 Above: Fans spray a water and air mist over the cows in the collecting yard to keep them cool. 7/9

8 Right: Bulk tanks are often kept outside in the open. 8/9

9 A meticulous storage of medicines at one of the vet clinics. 9/9 Powered by TCPDF (