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Extension Services for Quality Milk Production
Proceedings of an International Workshop in conjunction with the East-West-Forum
of the Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry
and the "Window of German Animal Breeding" at the International Green Week
24-25 January, 1999
Activity of the Service of Dairy Quality in Latvia; Problems and Solutions
M. Cimermanis - Latvian Agricultural Advisory and Training Centre
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honoured to participate at this colloquium.
I will inform you of the work of the Latvian Agricultural Consulting
and Education Centre, as well as the problems of dairy quality improvement
and their solution in Latvia.
Let me start with the situation of the dairy economy in Latvia.
At the moment the dairy economy is one of the main branches of Latvia’s
agriculture, taking 29 % of the agricultural production value. Many private
small sized farms rose after the decay of the kolkhoze system in Latvia,
which specialized on milk production.
Unfortunately the number of milk cows sank.
In 1990 we had 535 100 milk cows, in 1997 only 267 900 milk cows.
The volume of produced milk sank from 1990 to 1996. In 1997 6,8 % more
milk was produced than in 1996. This indicates a certain stabilisation
of milk production.
Altogether 985 300 t of milk were produced in 1997, which equals 399
kg milk per person. Only 36,7 % of the total milk production was sold to
dairies.
A great part of the produced milk was sold directly on the markets
or in specialized stores.
The level of milk production differs between several regions of Latvia
concerning following objectives:
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productivity of milk cows
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costs of milk production and consumer prices
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milk quality
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volume of production.
There are specialized farms in Latvia, where the output totals 6 000 kg
and more per cow per year. These farms own modern technology, which assures
high quality milk production.
Milk production is a highly profitable production branch with further
development possibilities on these farms.
There are more than 20 000 milking dairy cows in Latvia, but the largest
part is not located on the farms that specialized on milk production. In
1997 79,2 % of all farms were small sized. The difference in cow numbers
in large and small sized farms is very high.
The profitability of production might be high on farms with small cow
numbers, but these farms have no modern technology, i.e. cooling machines
or milking machines, to improve milk quality.
The solution for an economically efficient and stable milk production
branch in Latvia is, to develop specialized dairy farms, whose size and
volume assure economical use.
Calculations indicate that milk production, combined with modern technology
on farms with 50 cows and an average milk output of 6 000 kg per cow and
year, can pay off very well.
In the next six to seven years Latvia’s farmers can increase milk production
by one million t.
This would only be sensible if export possibilities could be found.
The volume of produced milk in Latvia exceeds the demand of the market
by a quarter. A rise of the sales volume of dairy products is limited due
to following factors:
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insufficient milk quality
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high manufacturing costs
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lack of export strategy
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and seasonal production.
Now we proceed to the problems concerning milk quality improvement:
The purchased milk is divided into three quality levels, corresponding
to the federal milk classes.
In 1998 only 40 % of the milk, delivered to the dairies, was rated
highest quality. We are far below the quality level of the EU. In the past
years there has been a great effort to improve milk quality. The Latvian
Agricultural Consulting and Education Centre has contributed a lot to that.
In 1997 a project called "Improvement of the service in order to raise
milk quality in Latvia" has been launched in co-operation with the Danish
Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Consulting Centre in Denmark.
This project ended in 1998. Corresponding to the project plan, five
regional milk quality consulting centres were established all over Latvia.
Five milk quality counsellors were educated under the guidance of the Danish
experts. The consulting centres were provided with modern milking and cooling
machines.
The newly founded consulting service has proved its efficiency and
importance very well during the past two years. The project provided the
possibility to organize several demonstration farms in Latvia. On these
farms the problems concerning milk production and milk storage have been
solved and the farmers were given the necessary counselling. Farms, which
had bad milk quality were chosen on purpose.
Prior to the project only five percent of the farms produced milk of
highest quality level. Only four months after the project had been launched,
90 % of the farms produced milk of highest quality level, due to the regulation
of milking and cooling technologies. This is proof for the efficiency of
the service. Often the farmers lack knowledge on how to erase the reasons
for low milk quality. Thanks to the project we reached a close co-operation
with the milk processing firms. The counsellors are being informed on quality
changes of the milk on a regular basis. The dairy included in the project
installed an effective payment system: A premium is provided for milk of
highest quality level. This causes an interest for the farmers to produce
high quality milk.
Last year the service was perfected. The farmers were further educated
and more than 60 colloquia on "Possibilities of milk quality improvement
in agricultural businesses" were held.
According to the Danish model, 66 ha of improved pastures were constructed
in Latvia.
In co-operation with the Consulting Centre Denmark three manuals about
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the main principles of improving milk quality,
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the possibilities of raising the milk output,
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the construction of high quality pastures
were published. All the books, 40 000 copies, were given to the milk producers
for free. Milk quality counsellors attended classes on the improvement
of milk quality in Denmark. These were instructed on EU requirements.
The Latvian Consulting Centre has founded the teaching basis on improving
milk quality in co-operation with the ministry of agriculture in 1998.
For that purpose a classroom at the Consulting Centre has been extended.
Here, everybody has the possibility to participate in practical colloquia
on the improvement of milk quality. One can gain information about the
advantages of modern milking and cooling technologies. All milking machines
that can be found in Latvia and the adequate information are accessible
in this class. In 1998 the Latvian Consulting Centre produced a movie on
the production of milk quality that fits EU requirements. This movie is
shown in all consulting offices in all regions.
The Latvian ministry of agriculture will subsidize the counselling
service on milk quality in 1999. A further improvement on milk quality
could be gained through that. The services of the centre would be accessible
for every milk producer. At the moment every service is to be paid by the
farmers. This causes that smaller milk farms cannot be counselled because
they can not afford to pay the service. Also, the introduction of new technologies
in the stables will be subsidized.
This is all about the work of the Latvian Agricultural Consulting and
Education Centre on the field of milk quality improvement. We, the Latvian
experts, know that the consumer demands highest milk quality.
I hope that this colloquium will be a further international co-operation.
Thank you for your attention.
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