I already embarked upon this subject a few months ago (abc Burkina 270). The communications given at  the celebration of World Milk Day in Ouagadougou bring me to return to this theme. Once again we repeatedly heard speakers refer to the low performance rates of local breeds, without the slightest qualification of such statements. It was said that a local cow would produce 110 litres of milk during her lactation period, or that she would produce less than 3 litres a day. These are average figures, which do not have any great significance.

Why keep repeating that a local milch-cow yields 110  litres of milk per lactation period, when the vast majority of cattle in Burkina Faso are kept for meat production? Why quote an average based on the full range of local breeds, when some are much more productive than others? Have a look at our bulletin abc Burkina n° 270.  You will see that certain Azawak zebu or Goudalis zebu will give up to 1 800 litres per year and some will produce 8 litres per day during their lactation period. These figures may be set against the words of a farmer in Brittany, France who went into retirement in May last year: “When I started working on the farm in the 1950’ies, my milch-cows produced 1 400 litres per year”.

Or we may go back to the historians. In Histoire de la France Rurale 5History of Rural France) in four bands, published under the supervision of Georges Duby and Armand Wallon between 1975 and 1976, we find that a milch-cow in Auvergne would render 3 to 4 litres  a day during lactation, but that the yearly average amounted to 1 litre per day.

Along the same lines in “Histoires des paysans de France” (Stories of French farmers) by Claude Michelet,  there is an account on page 254 of the situation at the end of the 19th century: “On cows for example. He remembered a few scrawny animals kept by some of the neighbours (in the south of France), where the cowsheds were not a small as that of his father, who had never been able to keep one single cow. But  the neighbours’ cows never produced more than three to four litres a day during the five, six months of lactation. But up here (referring to the Seine-et-Marne district in the North) it was unbelievable! The sturdy Norman cows gorged themselves with beetroot, sainfoin and lucern and could yield up to 8 litres a day! Eight litres! During at least nine months. Then of course, with such abundance of milk,  there was  never any shortage of butter or Brie cheese !”

It is interesting to note that the zebu cows kept by Fulani herdsmen achieve milk levels comparable to the cows mentioned at the beginning of this story and that the Azawak zebu cows come close to the performance of the Norman cows, that the man in the story found so spectacular, when he moved up north from southern France at the end of the 19^th century.

What should we retain from this? That the Azawak and Goudali zebu cows achieve quite good performance rates, on top of the fact that they adjust well to the climate and local feed. It is possible to rely on them,  when starting to build up a milk trade worthy of its name. It will, obviously, be necessary to improve fodder regimens based on local resources (soy has been grown in Burkina for over thirty years and is therefore part and parcel of locally produced feed) and there is also a long term effort to be made together with all stock-keepers on selection techniques to produce  high performance animals.

Koudougou, August 10^th 2008

Maurice Oudet

Director, SEDELAN