Projects

Technical Material

Training

Project Documents

Food Development Services

Gender and Agriculture

Experts

Photos Gallery

Jiang Xiuxiu still can’t believe what’s happened on her farm. “Compared with last year’s milk production, our cows can produce 7 kilos of milk more because they are now fed alfalfa cubes and the mineral and vitamin premix supplied by the feed demonstration program.”
		Jiang Xiuxiu and her husband have been raising dairy cows for over ten years and it’s been difficult. Their herd is large for their area of the country: 6 milking cows, 2 heifers and 5 calves. They also grow 20 mu (a little over one hectare) of corn for silage. “As an ordinary dairy farmer, we don’t have much knowledge about how to raise the dairy cattle correctly.” she says. The cows used to be fed on corn stalks and corn
flour which was produced on their own farm. For milking cows they would add some protein supplement. “We almost gave up because the price of protein supplement increased rapidly, but the price of milk remained the same, and the milk yield of our cows was low.” Jiang says.   But last year, Jiang Xiuxiu’s Guobaoying village in Horinger County became a dairy pilot site for CIDA’s Small Farmers Adapting to Global Markets Project. Her family was selected as a pilot household for the feed demonstration program. The mentoring training team – including a nutritionist, an Artificial Insemination technician, a milk quality specialist and a veterinarian – is sent to her village and provides training and services to all dairy farmers on daily basis. She and other farmers in her village have received lots of Jiang Xiuxiu and her husband talk about their farm business   training and other forms of support from the team. “Lots of experts – foreigners and Chinese -- visit my farm and give us advice. I learned from them that you need very good forage – not only concentrate - to raise dairy cows better. They taught us when to change the ration and how to increase or reduce the amount of concentrate according to the stage of lactation.” she says.     Jiang Xiuxiu really knows what she’s talking about, because she’s the one who keeps the farm production records – a new management practice promoted by the project. “The record-keeping is quite boring, but it is very useful. I know what feedstuff we feed and how much milk we get from each cow, when a cow gets sick and how we treat it. So I know how much profit we can get each day from each cow.”. She’s learned that record-keeping is as important as good feed farm production record   for her animals, if not more! “The project really teaches us a lot,” she says. “My neighbors and friends often visit my farm and ask lots of questions about how I feed the cows and keep records. They also ask us if they can join the demo program.”     Copyright © CIDA 2004/7