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What is good for the calves,
good for their mothers and good for our dairies ?
Soy !
From February to May the dairy plants of the National Union of Mini-dairies have difficulties in getting sufficient supplies of milk. Following the training seminar led by Georges Cothenet, doctor of veterinary medicine, we were able to publish two newsletters on the subject of animal feed (n° 375 and n° 376) with recommendations on how to improve fodder for dairy cows. However, given that cows are generally milked only after their calves have had their share, Dr Cothenet proposed a recipe that enables the calf to do without some of the milk, leaving a larger quantity for the dairy !
The idea is to have the calf take other nourishment than milk from its mother and to have it completely weanedà at 3 months at the latest.
To do this, once the calf has had its intake of colostrum (the first week’s milk, rich in anti-bodies, which provide some protection against infectious disease), and when it is just 15 days old, it is possible to try a surrogate of boiled soy grains mashed into pap. It's soy pap. How to make it Measure up8 - 10 litres of water and bring it to boil. At this point pour in 2 kg of soy grain meal and stir, while letting boil for a couple of minutes. Add 100 gram of sugar and put away to cool. Once cooled add 20 – 30 gram of a multivitamin supplement, such as BIACALCIUM, available from veterinary drug stores. As soon as the calf takes its soy pap regularly, the mother’s suckling time can be reduced. . At the same time the calf can be given some solid food, such as green grass containing little fibre, a handful of feed supplement or hay of good quality. All participants at the seminar found the soy feed highly interesting and Mr Modeste Ouédraogo, for his part, did not wait long to start experimenting the following:
- 5 calves aged 4 months (having reached the age for weaning) are fed 1 litre of soy pap twice a day (morning and evening) as a replacement for 1.5 litre milk;
- 2 calves aged 2 ½ months are fed 1.5 litre soy pap, as substitute for 1.5 litre of milk;
- 1 calf: 45 days old calf is given 2 litres of soy pap per meal, instead of 2 litres of milk.
This means that Mr Ouédraogo has to prepare 10 litres of soy pap in the morning and 10 litres in the evening. Thus every day he is able to sell an additional 20 litres of milk. He has added up his cost for 1 litre of soy pap to 95 francs and he sells the milk for 350 francs/litre. His profit is therefore around 5 000 francs/day or 150 000/month. He is very pleased with the result and encourages other dairy farmers to follow his example. To do this he shares his experience and reports that for the first days the calves refused the soy pap.He had to feed them one by one himself from a plastic bottle, but as of the fourth day they started to become accustomed to their new diet and took to it spontaneously. I can even confirm that as I went to see Modeste Ouédraogo at his farm this Tuesday 1st of June, the calves were hustling to be the first in the queue. At the end of his 3 page report Mr Oédraogo concludes: « Even though the experiment has not gone on longer than 3 weeks yet, I can say that soy is an alternative solution: not only enhancing the producer’s profits, but also ensuring increased supply to the processing units (our dairy plants). Let us hope that dairy farmers start feeding soy to their cows also, and not only to calves. Is this not a better option for stock breeders than the cotton oil cakes and an opportunity for farmers to diversify ? » Koudougou, June 6th, 2010
Maurice Oudet
Director, SEDELAN
Photos : Photo: Pawel Hulecki (student trainee). |
