Most dairy farms in Indonesia are traditionally managed with a population scale of under 10 cattle. Lembah Kamuning Dairy Farm in Cigugur Kuningan in West Java seems to be the exception. This farm is located in the center of dairy farming around the foot of Mount Ciremai. The barns and the supporting facilities are arranged in such a way that facilitate the activities of raising and handling dairy cattle. The barn lane is divided and marked 1A for dairy cows in early lactation; 1B for dairy cows in peak lactation; 1C for dairy cows in the dry period (temporarily unproductive); and 1D for dairy cows approaching the dry period. For the milking process, they have already used a milking machine.
Not only that, there is an individual barn lane for newborn calf and another lane for the calf in the period before weaning. There is also an enclosure that functions like an incubator for a newborn calf in a very weak condition, and a quarantine stable for sick or newly arrived cows.
In each cage there is a recording board which indicates the identity of the dairy cows in the barn. Even for the cows born in the farm have their own names. The cows from outside the farm are not given names. In addition, there is a feed shed, a shelter for cow dung and urine with different lanes. The waste is then processed into compost and liquid fertilizer to be marketed to vegetable farmers.
According to Dairy Product Manager of Lembah Kamuning Dairy Farm Rahardian RC, such arrangement was made to facilitate the management and monitoring, especially for cows that would give birth. "We adopted this concept both from local farms and overseas farms, and it is hoped that this farm is more environmentally friendly with no waste," said the man who attended training on dairy farming in New Zealand last year to TROBOS Livestock.
On this farm, which was founded in 2007, he continued, there was a population of about 80 dairy cows. Of that figure, there were 10 cows in the dry period or in a condition approaching the time of giving birth, 40 cows in the production period, and the rest was heifers. "Approximately 50 % of the population is the result of this farm’s rearing," he said.
16 liters per cow per day is the average milk production of the dairy cows kept by this man, familiarly called Dian. "Handling the milk is done as hygenically as possible, and because we use a milking machine, the TPC (total plate count) or the number of bacteria in milk is lower, around 300 thousand," he said.
Read this article completely in TROBOS Livestock magazine 180th ed, issued on Sept 2014
