Animal Hygiene and Farm Management in Dairy Production Systems in Developing Countries:
A Case Study in Sri Lanka
Hiroichi KONO, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
Ⅰ．Introduction
The livestock sector plays a vital role in the Sri Lankan economy. It significantly contributes to the economic
development via alleviating poverty and nutritional deficiency, improving regional growth and disparities in thecountry profile; and for involving a greater proportion of women in the economic development in the economic
development process.
The dairy sector can achieve sustainable production by integrating crops with livestock. The main problems
in the milk production system include the lack of profitability, absence of proper technology, inefficiency ofextension service, high cost of production are the main problems in the milk production system. The main
objectives of the study are to estimate the basic factors affecting on small scale dairy farm income and special
focusing on animal hygiene and feed management in Sri Lanka.
Ⅱ．Research Methodology
The six sample of the research study is based on the Intensive (cut and fed in a shed), Extensive (free grazing, often
no housing) and Semi-intensive rearing systems (mixed of Intensive and Semi intensive system). The regular
weekly data were collected between January 1 and December 31, 2009 on Socio-economic aspects of the dairy
farmers, Herd characteristics, Feeding practices and expenditure, Animal health and milk hygiene, Inventorychanges related to dairy, Milk production and marketing, Land utilization, Labor utilization and Veterinary andExtension services.
Ⅲ．Trends in Livestock Production in Sri Lanka
The milk production from cows and buffaloes has expanded dramatically from 179.89 (‘000 metric tones) in 1999
to 202.01(‘000 metric tones) in 2007. During the same period cow milk production has increased from 149.68(‘000 metric tones) to 169.72 (‘000 metric tones) and buffalo milk from 30.19 (‘000 metric tones) to 32.28 (‘000metric tones) mainly due to genetically modified disease resistant upgraded animals. However, the high prices on
animal feed have reduced the rate of milk production during the last few years. The demand for the local milk
production has increased and thereby reducing the imports, which is approximately one fifth of the total import billon food commodities (Figure 1).

Milk production in 1999-2007
205'000 metric tonnes

200195
190
185
180
175
170165
1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

Years
Figure 1: Milk production in 1999-2007
Source: Sri Lanka Livestock Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, 2008

Ⅳ．Results and Discussion
The lactation length of animals in the study sample depends mostly on the management objective of the farmer,
may prolong the lactation length for the sake of continues milk production or dry off the animal at early stage forthe purpose of breeding the cow.

As indicated in the table 3 the average lactation length for cows of farm A and B

were 323.7 days and 255.0 days respectively, but it was heavily depends on the individual animal performance andthe stage of the lactation of other animals. In order to maintain income throughout the years operator of farm
maintain the lactation length. Low milk producing animals dry off quickly compared to the lower performing low
milk producing animals. On contrast lower lactation length can be observed in the farm A, that is mainly due topoor health conditions of the animals. There for it is very important to understand the underlying factors forvariation in lactation length (Table 1).
Table 1: Reproductive performance indifferent management systems of six farmers
VariableABCDEF

Intensive

Intensive

Semi-intensive

Semi-intensive

Semi-intensive

Extensive

Age at first calving (months)

19.0

25.4

29.5

28.0

26.2

31.6

Days open

120.6

90.2

213.5

180.0

228.0

307.0

Number of services per conception

1.4

1.1

3.2

3.0

1.5

1.6

Calving interval(days)

395.2

337.0

488.0

450.0

455.0

547.5

Lactation length(days)

323.7

255.0

383.3

475.0

240.0

590.0

Infertility Economic loss (Rs.)

5871.36222.82

18279.20

7605.00

17564.80

20710.90

Table 2: Description of the variables used in the technical efficiency modelYTechnical efficiency (Value of the income from milk sales per farm (Rs)over cost on feed, veterinary and labor (Rs))

X1

Income from milk sales/animal/month (‘000 rupees)

X2(Cost on feeds/animal/month)2 (‘000 rupees)

X3

Coconut poonac usage/animal/month (kilograms)

X4

Management system (Intensive = 1, others =0)

X5

Season of the year (Dry season =1, wet season =0)

X6

Experience of the farmer (years)

X7

Mastitis out break (Yes=1, No=0)

X8

Average parity of the farm

X9

Coconut poonac usage and mastitis out break interaction term

We calculated regression model to estimate the factors to determine the technical efficiency (Value of theincome from milk sales per farm (Rs) over cost on feed, veterinary and labor (Rs)) (Table 2, 3). Squared value ofthe feed cost showed negative value with technical efficiency and was found highly significant. The behavior of thisvariable may due to decreasing technical efficiency attributed to feed over utilization. Similarly, the estimatedcoefficient for coconut poonac used have negative significant relationship indicated the low productivity of coconut
poonac feeding animals. Further, Technical efficiency in the intensively managed farms showed negative
coefficient it may due to heat stress in the dry zone which negatively effect on Fresian animals and intensive usageof high priced manufactured feeds by intensive farmers.
Table 3: The coefficient of the estimated technical efficiency regression model
Variables

Coefficients

Standard errorProbability level

Constant-11.422.286

0.0000*

X1

0.29

0.025

0.0000*X2-0.06

0.012

0.0000*X3-0.01

0.003

0.0056*

X4-7.271.084

0.0000*

X5

0.28

0.061

0.0000*

X6

0.29

0.032

0.0000*X7-3.770.940

0.0002*

X8

4.55

0.934

0.0000*X9-0.37

0.258

0.1537NS

Adjusted R20.88

NS – Not significant, * - Significant (P<0.01)

Sri Lanka has the potential to increase the milk production and the income level of the small scale dairy
farmer. Results of the present study revealed that some farmers operate at the low technical efficiency, by using
high costly manufactured feeds to European breeds. Hence researcher should be encouraged to develop low costhigh effective feed ration. Most of the animals are at the initial stage of the lactation during the dry season where
there are low pastures; hence farmer awareness program should be conducted to restructure the stage of the calving
and the pasture available season.