After 30 years as a country-wide extensionist for the Ministry of
Agriculture, for some time now I have been a pensioner. My first two
years in "retirement" I spent as an extension advisor on dairy farming
in Fiji (see Shalom 1994-2). Since my return I have followed from a
distance what is going on here at home in my field. Now and then I
participate in a seminar or other professional activity, host guests
from abroad and read some professional literature which comes my way.
Dr. Israel Flammenbaum, the head of the Cattle Department of our
Ministry of Agriculture, recently brought me again for several days into
the centre of professional activities and a renewed encounter with dairy
farming here in Israel. A delegation from the Ministry of Animal
Production, Agriculture and Fisheries from the District of Chao'an near
Beijing in China was coming on a visit to Israel to examine the
possibilities for cooperation in setting up a model dairy unit in their
district. I was asked to accompany them during their visit in July,
1996, and also act as interpreter (English, not Chinese). In other
words, I was to act as guide and instructor and be responsible for
keeping to the busy schedule that had been diligently planned. For
myself it was an opportunity to review the changes in dairy farming.
On the appointed day four delegates arrived, the deputy district
governor and three senior officials, headed by Mr. Ma Chon Ching, the
professional head of the centre for dairy production of Beijing, a man
of the world, who had studied for two years in the USA and had visited
other countries, and the only one who spoke English and translated for
the others. I arrived at the Kibbutz Shfayim guest house to meet the
delegates and, after official greetings, we went off.
Kibbutz Givat Chaim Ichud
has for many years been the communal farm to
visit to see a well managed dairy herd with its well planned buildings
and carousel rotating milking parlor. What has changed since previous
visits? The first rotating parlor has been changed to a new one which
floats on water and the cows are milked from behind (I have yet to
assess whether this is an improvement). The roofs of the cow sheds have
been raised and for the first time I heard that we do not speak of
square metres per cow but of cubic metres per cow in order to promote
better ventilation and allow for the dispersion of body heat.
Intermittent spraying and ventilators are already routine on many farms,
both above the feeding mangers and the pre-milking yards.
The Milk Laboratory and Herd Book Centre at Bitan Aharon
(where each and
every cow in all of Israel is registered) is in the final stage of
moving to a new site. The advanced national computer communication
network that is connected to all data information on milk recordings,
artificial insemination, herd and udder health and the management of the
herds is always impressive; the visitors from China seemed to feel it
was highly relevant. I found that many aspects which were only in their
infancy a few years ago, such as milk protein or somatic cell counts,
are now routine.
The Dairy and Feed Centre of Kibbutz Yavne
. Our visitors were brought here
to see a well planned and managed herd with a feedlot unit for meat. The
younger calves are housed in individual hutches that were once regarded as
a curiosity, and many did not believe in this system. Today it is
accepted on many farms and, even though it demands more work, the
decline in sickness and mortality proves itself. Our visitors had a hard
time believing that the bull calves are sold for meat at 10-12 months of
age at 420-450 kg LW (live weight). The commercial feed centre, managed
by a different staff from that of the dairy, sells its products to herd
owners in the district, near and far, and was very impressive in its
organization, cleanliness, hygiene and the quality of modern mechanical
equipment. The significant difference for me from "then to now" was the
silage trenches. In all herds, not only in Yavne, there is no waste.
Nowadays machinery does the work, but how hard we worked "then" to
insist that it was possible working manually with forks to make the
cutting face straight and that waste and moulds are not a must.
The Sherut Artificial Insemination Centre
. Dr. Dan Kali is well versed in
hosting VIPs from all over the world and as usual does it in the very best
style, even to the extent of a print-out explanation in Chinese (!) on
the Israeli dairy herd.
Gedera Seeds.
At our visitors' request we visited this nursery which
produces seeds for export. This private hi tech plant, busy with the
development and production of a wide range of vegetable and flower
seeds, exports to all parts of the globe. We saw large peppers growing
on miniature plants and when we entered the tomato hot house our
visitors saw the crop of 10 tons per mo (the Chinese unit of measurement
equal to two thirds of a dunam or 666 sq.m.).
Pladot Plant, Kibbutz Ein Harod Meuchad
produces equipment for
pasteurizing and processing milk for various products (yoghurt, cream,
butter, hard and soft cheese and ice cream) for small milk plants of
1,000 to 10,000 litres per day. Both here and abroad there is a large
and growing market for this equipment and it is good to see it produced
and marketed here.
Kibbutz Ein Harod Ichud, Dairy Herd
. This is one of the first herds with
which I worked as an extensionist in the 1960s. When the whole country
worked on the basis of five feeding units for maintenance per cow per
day, here they kept to the former norm of four and a half units per day.
However, they were the first to install a telephone extension. The cows
were probably a bit thinner but the bottom line was always good. It
appears that this economy approach has not changed; investments are not
conspicuous - only that which is necessary and brings positive results.
For many years the dairy managers have consulted with architect Yehuda
Shprecher and have raised the roofs of the loafing sheds and there are
ties for only a small proportion of the cows. They have built a system
for flushing the feeding areas (cleaning manure) and differentiating the
solids (for use as fertilizer) and fluids for reuse for irrigation. The
old milking parlour stands deserted and the new functional one has been
situated nearby with an upper floor for offices and services.
Tzacham
(S.A.E. Afikim - Computerized Milking Systems) and the Dairy
Herd of Kibbutz Afikim
in the Jordan Valley are also a good place to
bring visitors from abroad, and on the afternoon of a very hot summer
day we saw how the cows are milked while at the same time individual
data from each cow is received, i.e., identity, quantity of milk,
electrical resistance, number of paces since the last milking (for
estrus detection) and more by the amazing computerized technology of the
hi tech milking equipment factory, Tzacham, owned by the kibbutz. The
herd is not very different from those I visited in times past, but the
cows - difficult to believe - produce more than 10,000 litres of milk
per cow per year in this heat.
The Feed Centre at Be'er Tuvia
, the largest in the Middle East, is
always very impressive: 40,000 tons of silage is a significant quantity.
Matmor Cattle Feed Mill. We received all the necessary explanations and
saw the modern computerized equipment of this well run and well managed
mill.
Dairy Herd of Kibbutz Or HaNer
. The manager of the herd, my old friend,
received me with joy: "Have you come back to work with us?" The herd has
not changed much since the days of my visits as extensionist, only the
equipment is more modern, the milk yield has risen greatly - as in other
herds - with the desire and capability for further increases. The staff
received us warmly, explained how they run the herd with a
well-organized feed centre which buys the necessary concentrates from
Matmor from whom they receive professional advice. Without seeing the
technical and financial balance (which I used to do in times gone by) I
am sure that the herd today is not run at a loss.
At the offices of CINADCO in Tel Aviv and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in Jerusalem, we concluded our meetings with the delegation from China.
They left having experienced for themselves the depth of knowledge and
experience which our Israeli dairy branch has achieved and a hope for
the continued sharing of know how in the future.
I returned for a few days to the smell of cow dung and the fragrance of
hay, and I remembered those many days when I travelled with Benjamin
Loev (who passed away this last year) to all corners of the country,
visiting herds, arranging courses and study days, meetings and
discussions, visiting extension offices and all forms of professional
activity. We were youngsters together in the 1940s and met again in the
1960s when he was the district extension officer for dairying in the
Lachish region in the south and I was working in Bet Shean in the north.
We both were actively involved in various aspects of dairy development,
including providing training courses for participants from developing
countries in the framework of Israel's international cooperation here
and abroad in on-the-spot courses.