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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
Session II
CEE Country Cases
Traditional small scale dairying (Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina)
New small scale dairying (Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania)
Large scale dairying (Hungary, Slovakia)
CIS Country cases: Large scale dairying (Russia, Ukraine, Belorus)
Status of efforts in dairy extension for milk quality
Report of Session II
C. Kijora - Humboldt University of Berlin
The radical political and economical changes in the Eastern European countries
have also influenced the circumstances of agricultural production.
The trend of dramatic decline in production in agriculture, also in
milk production, could already be stopped and reversed. The rise of production
throughout the last 2-3 years was accomplished by higher milk yields.
Securing the demand for milk and milk products of high quality must
gain priority. The basis for continuous quality registration and protection
are a well organized milk recording system, sufficient cooling capacities
and good transportation possibilities, a system for the education and counselling
of milk producers and, of course, healthy animals, which are given high
quality food.
The topical production circumstances have to be analyzed separately
for every country, since the extent of the changes in agricultural production
differs among the countries of Eastern Europe. Countries, in which the
production structure was maintained, i.e. traditional small farms as well
as large farms, had fewer problems in keeping up the agricultural production.
Examples are Poland, Slovenia and Hungary. In other countries, i.e. Bulgaria
and Romania, the old agricultural structure has been totally destroyed.
In Russia, the Ukraine and Belorus one tries to keep up the old large farms,
but a lack of financial flow has a negative effect on the output of the
production and the quality of the agricultural products.
It is noticeable that quality protection of the product milk is already
an important component of milk production in those countries, which have
kept their old production structure. Effective milk recording and extension
systems are being developed or are already established and a great part
of the produced milk undergoes a controlling mechanism. Payment for milk
is adjusted to quality characteristics with bonuses for milk of high quality.
Financing of the milk recording systems is not organized homogeneously
in these countries; it is paid either by the government, i.e. in Slovenia,
or by the farmers and the dairy industry, i.e. in Poland.
Where a milk recording system exists it has been adjusted to the quality
parameters of the EU.
The quality requirements for milk in Russia, Belorus and the Ukraine
have not yet reached EU standards. Control and payment is done according
to fat and protein content of the milk. The number of examinations is growing
and payment according to quality is making its way. A speciality in these
countries is the contamination with radioactive substances in the milk
produced.
Quality protection and verification is still a great problem in those
countries with a complete decay of the old production structure. Partially
pressure groups were founded, i.e. in Romania or Bulgaria, although they
cannot establish a systematic milk recording and extension system without
any financial support of the government. It seems necessary that financial
support of the government must be given during the establishing phase of
such systems. Step by step the financing could undergo changes. Financial
support from outside is sensible only, if the financing of running the
recording system in a particular country is already secured.
Extension for securing and reaching high quality milk will only be
provided in those countries that have a quality controll system. Animal
health is not yet part of the extension service. Also a qualified feeding
extension is usually not provided. Bad quality of the basic feed, lack
of hygiene and inefficient technical equipment are the primary factors
limiting performance with regard to milk quantity and quality.
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