Bovine Music Preferences?

I'm always being asked -"Are you going to play music to the cows in your parlours?"

Providing a low-stress environment  and keeping cows are calm before milking is one of the keys to maintaining a successful milking routine.

 If playing music to cows during milking in the parlour increased milk production - what kind of music would you play for a Holstein versus a Jersey?

Cows are kept cool and calm in the pasture before milking.

Cows herd themselves to the milking machines.

Units are properly attached.

 A cow can either produce a hormone which stimulates the mammary glands called oxytocin - we also call this milk letdown , the cow gets ready to milk.On the other hand the same cow can produce adrenalin  -if stressed or gets too excited - which then cancels the effect of oxytocin.

 Cows are managed post-milking.

Cows are grouped.

Milking units are attached within 2 minutes of start of stimulation.

 Adjusting units for proper alignment.

Now - for a dairy such as ours in Africa - I cannot imagine any of our milkers staying awake to elevator or "easy-listening"music while milking at 5 am.

Dairy cows milk to vacuum pumps noise and other familiar sounds - they are creatures of habit - Beethoven, Mozart and BB King will have to wait until I see convincing scientific literature to the contrary.

Environmental Stewardship Team Player - Our Attorney

As we began the land clearing at Boswelatlou,Lobatse, it was vitally important for a member of our environmental stewardship team our legal counsel, Mr Thomas Sibanda of Sibanda Law Chambers, Gaborone, Botswana,  to verify the coordinates of the area being cleared. We adhere to strict
self imposed environmental guidelines as specified in our business plan and
Environmental Management Plan..

It starts with the pictorial and botanical identification and documentation of  all the trees to be removed.

To give you an idea - the dairy site is  located in the clearing to the left in the image below.

 Due to the density of the bush, Thomas and Nelson had to stand atop the dozer in order to locate the preset beacons for the dozer operator.

Nelson enjoyed this part - making Thomas run!

I joined in with the dozer operator (blue worksuit)
 
Are we on track?

Nelson points to the beacon......

........and the operator concurs.

The clearing starts

The walk back

Each cleared  field must be measured.

I walked with Thomas just in-case a something sprung out of the bushes and ate him!

Why are leopards sometimes observed eating elephant dung?
A: To wash away the taste of a lawyer they just ate!

Every centimetre was documented.

 The 50 hectare centre pivot clearing.

Note the Aloe on the right in the picture.

This is the site for the milking parlour.

The pastures will be right here - beautiful sandy loam soil.

The dozer blade did an amazing job of removing all foliage.

 We then used the ripper to remove the roots and will follow with a tandem disc for the seedbed.

It was slow but precise.

 All shrubs/trees were piled up and women from the Peleng and Woodhall townships of Lobatse were allowed to come and fetch firewood for cooking etc.

 The soil

 All I can see is a 10 tonne/hectare irrigated maize crop.

No I am not digging for mice!

We are the earths stewards, a soil test is essential to determine soil fertility levels and make good nutrient management decisions.

"Legend has it that in the dark of night about 120 years ago, an invading Boer force mistook a forest of Aloe for a group of wildly-outfitted warriors and fled ."   

After a hard day's work - this was our dinner -  The best grass fed Botswana beef oxtail!

"A man who doesn't travel, always thinks his mother's cooking is the best"

Choosing a Maize Silage Seed Variety - Part 1

To help me choose the best maize variety for silage - I tend to look at tonnes of digestible yield and tonnes of starch produced per hectare and focus on the following:-

a) High yield (tonnes of dry matter per hectare)

b) Optimal fibre digestibility (major source of energy)

c) High levels of starch (major source of energy)

d) Seed cost vs expected economic response

e) Agronomic characteristics (insect resistance, standability, stay green, drought stress tolerance, drought resistance and disease resistance)

Over the years I have looked and evaluated numerous varieties of maize both in the US corn belt and in Africa.

Nothing excites me more than a beautiful, uniform field of maize........nothing!

Does a good grain hybrid make a good silage variety?

Old school farmers always say " Tall silage hybrids with high yield grain make the best silage because animals derive most of their energy from the grain"

Well, I beg to differ!

 Most grain varieties were bred with hard stalks to enable them to avoid lodging and be planted at high plant populations. This same strength in the stalk makes it undesirable for digestibility as silage. The grain kernels are hard with a high starch density which reduces the digestibility while the hard kernels are designed to withstand the rigours of a combine harvester thrashing.

 The grain varieties kernels dry down rapidly and are bred to silk late. 

The opposite should pertain for choosing a silage variety - a high moisture soft kernel which increases digestion.

 

I prefer a  silage variety which I can plant at a low plant population, has a thinner stalk rind is leafy so that it yields a high whole-plant dry matter.

The cow can now utilise the entire plant - in a leafy variety - and the leaves especially the young ones are high in protein whilst carbohydrate content in the older leaves - high sugar contents becomes invaluable for fermentation.

At least 10 leaves above the ear is a good measure for an excellent leafy silage variety which should maintain a whole-plant moisture range of 60 to 70% , thus always giving me more flexibility and a bigger window to harvest.

With the advances in plant breeding - new dual-purpose hybrids which have been bred for grain harvest but can be harvested for silage are now available. I see the merit of these especially with aour smallholder farmers who grow maize for their own use. In one season they can grow one crop, choose the hectarge for silage and let the rest mature for grain.

And you thought agriculture was not a science.........!

http://seeds.seedco.co/maize

http://www.pannar.com/assets/countries/pannar_sa_PRODUCTCAT_eng.pdf

New Farmer - Old Practices

"What grows on its own is a forest - for a field to grow is to see a master"

 

MilkAfric has introduced the OutGrowerNet  - a revolutionary agrarian programme which is designed to include smallholder farmers into into our supply and value chain.

Most of the farmers are on ten hectares of land and will grow fodder and grain for our dairies.

A Practical Farmer

Well set mouldboard plough

Appropriate depth

Right speed

 Disclamer: No animals were harmed during this ploughing session!

  

We will have succeeded when this farmer transitions to this:-..........

The idea is for this farmer to be operating his own tractor  after this season.