During a recent conversation with The Observer, Dr Nicholas Ssekabunga from Kamenyamiggo satellite station of Mukono Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute said: “A dairy farmer must be meticulously clean and always ensure that even the place where he milks his animals and the containers he uses are scrupulously hygienic.
“Milk is one of the farm products that perish easily, but most of its problems are related to the amount of care the farmer takes.”
Dr Ssekabunga recommends that before milking, the farmer washes his hands with soap and that he also washes the area around the cow’s udder and the teats with clean, preferably, warm water to ensure no animal hair or bits of cow dung get into the milk. He says the containers ought to be cleaned with soap and dried.
He further recommends the application of milking salve to the teats to mitigate their cracking which, if it happens, will probably introduce blood or pus into the milk and make the animal unhealthy.
Dr Ssekabunga also warns about what the cow or goat eats a few hours before milking. “If the animal is fed on grass or sorghum leftovers after beer preparation, the milk could smell of alcohol. The farmer who keeps dairy animals must ensure that they are well-fed on the right fodder and that they drink clean water.
The animals themselves should be healthy. Milk from animals under medical treatment may carry the smell of the medication. Milking should be twice daily; once in the morning and once in the evening but farmers are advised not to mix morning milk with evening milk as the practice affects the taste of the milk and can lead to its souring.”
All milk handlers should keep a lactometer, a device used to detect water added into milk. Sometimes pouring a few drops of milk on the ground will help to detect if the milk is diluted: if it sinks quickly into the ground it is a strong indication that it has been diluted.
Dr Ssekabunga further recommends that milk should be covered immediately after milking to prevent contamination from flies. He suggests refrigeration as the most effective way of protecting milk from souring. When a farmer has no refrigeration facilities, Dr Ssekabunga recommends periodic boiling of every six hours to kill any bacteria that could cause the milk to go sour. Boiling kills the germs that could pass from the animal to the consumer.
“But milk may go sour due to other causes,” Ssekabunga said. “For example, milk from a cow that has just given birth, rapidly sours. It is always better to feed that milk to the calf, at least during the first ten or so days.”
Meanwhile, Masaka Diocesan Development Organization (MADDO) with funds from the Netherlands has in the recent past been training its agricultural field officers in milk production.
Assistant MADDO director, Father Peter Ssenkayi, said, “In the last few years, we have given out 1,502 Friesian cows to farmers across the diocese. We have got coolers, a pasteurizing machine, and we can make a variety of milk products such as yoghurt, cheese and butter but we don’t get as much milk as we should from the farmers because they are not giving the right care to the cows.
It is the reason we have been training and sending out more extension staff. We have such issues like frequent droughts which are making it difficult for the farmers to feed the cows as they should. We believe training the extension workers are getting will enable them to guide the farmers how to deal with the problems and to produce more milk.”
Currently, the diocese produces pasteurized milk and yoghurt. Pius Zzimbe, the training coordinator, attributes low milk production in the region to farmers’ poor animal husbandry practices. “We have heard many farmers complaining that often they apply acaricides to kill ticks and other blood-sucking parasites and they don’t die,” he said.
“It could be a case of fake agrichemicals but we also have cases of farmers failing to follow the manufacturers’ directions with regards to correct usage of the chemicals. So, we want all the farmers to be well informed about such things.
The field extension staff get extra sensitization about technology development and transfer, agribusiness development, services and market linkages.
Other skills include agricultural knowledge management and information, the use of the mobile phone to share knowledge, climate change mitigation as well as empowerment.