Annual Milk Research Articles

Buffaloes Production and Reproduction Efficiencies as Reviewed for Parity in Nepal

Buffalo rearing is major part of Nepalese agriculture and they are reared for milk, meat, draft power and manure. Buffaloes are the main source of milk production in Nepal producing about 65.3% of the total annual milk in the country. Different indigenous breeds such as Lime, Parkote and Gaddi as well as Indian Murrah and Nili Ravi are recorded in Nepal and they are raised in different management and production system. Different genetic and non-genetic factors cause variation in production and reproduction performance between these breeds and within these breeds also. Non genetic factors affecting the performance of these buffaloes are season of calving, parity, management practices, nutrition etc. In this paper, effect of parity on production traits such as colostrum period, lactation length, lactation yield and days to reach peak milk yield as well as reproduction traits such as calving interval, dry period and service period are reviewed. Thus, this paper after reviewing related articles from various journals, proceedings and magazines is aimed to evaluate the effect of parity on reproductive and production efficiency of buffaloes of Nepal. Though the performance of indigenous breed is generally considered low, there is high potential of these breeds under proper breeding and management programs.
 Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 8(1): 1-6.

Cutting management of alfalfa‐based mixtures in contrasting agroclimatic regions

AbstractCutting schedules affect forage yield, nutritive value, and persistence but few studies have recently assessed the effect of intensive cutting schedules on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)‐based mixtures. We determined the effects of (a) cutting at early bud vs. early bloom of alfalfa, (b) a fall cut, (c) alfalfa–grass mixture vs. pure alfalfa, (d) one vs. two grasses, and (e) tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinacea [Schreb.] Dumort.) vs. timothy (Phleum pratense L.) in an experiment over four post‐seeding years at four sites with four cutting schedules on four alfalfa‐based mixtures. Cutting alfalfa at early bud rather than early bloom reduced annual forage dry matter (DM) yield by 2.03 Mg ha−1 and alfalfa contribution to DM yield by 17 percentage units, increased forage total digestible nutrient (TDN) concentration by 44 g kg−1 DM but did not increase estimated annual milk production per hectare. A fall cut did not improve annual forage DM yield and estimated annual milk production per hectare but reduced alfalfa contribution to DM yield. Pure alfalfa resulted in 1.09 Mg DM ha−1 less annual forage DM yield than alfalfa grown with one or two grasses. Two forage grasses with alfalfa compared with just one grass had no effect on forage DM yield and estimated annual milk production per hectare. The response of forage DM yield and estimated annual milk production per hectare to timothy or tall fescue with alfalfa varied with site but forage TDN concentration and alfalfa contribution to DM yield were generally greater with timothy than tall fescue.

The Ethiopian dairy sector with focus on traditional butter: A review

Ethiopia is believed to have the largest cattle population in Africa. The total annual milk production from cattle has been estimated at 3.5 billion liters from 11.38 million dairy cows. As a result, cow’s milk is the focus of milk processing in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, the base of milk processing is fermented milk (Ergo) with no defined starter cultures used to initiate fermentation. The main reasons reported for the use of fermented milk as a base of processing are the small volume of milk produced per day, better shelflife of fermented milk, consumer preference and type of available milk processing materials. The success of dairy development to a large extent depends on market for the product combined with other dairy infrastructure and availability of small-scale processing facilities to manufacture high quality dairy products. In Ethiopia, only 6.6 % of the total milk produced in the country is marketed as liquid milk and the remaining 48.8 % and 44.6 % of produced milk is used for home consumption and processing, respectively. Out of the 44.6 % of milk allocated for household processing, 75 % and 25 % go to butter and Ethiopian cottage cheese production, respectively. Thus, the products could be easily transported to market place, and fetch better prices or returns. The microbiological information on traditional butter is not fully available in Ethiopia. However, the available previous research works conducted in Ethiopia revealed that the microbial count of butter is generally above the acceptable limits set for quality butter. The presence of bacteria in butter reduces the keeping quality of the product and certain bacteria with their associated enzymes and toxins may even survive high temperature and create public health hazards. The potential sources of butter microbial contamination are raw materials, air, water and equipment, which usually occur during processing, packaging and storage of finished product. Therefore, all precautions should be taken to avoid contamination of butter and public health hazards.

Impact of ICT Based Extension Services on Dairy Production and Household Welfare: The Case of iCow Service in Kenya

Smallholder dairy farmers have the challenges of accessing timely and reliable agricultural information, and this limits them from realizing maximum farm output. The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) as a farming extension tool by smallholder farmers has the potential to reverse the scenario and improve farmers’ outputs and incomes leading to increased welfare. This study employed the Propensity score Matching approach to evaluate the impacts of ICT-based extension services, in this case, iCow services on milk production, milk income, and household income using cross-sectional data from a survey of dairy farmers in Uasin Gishu, Nyandarua and Bomet counties of Kenya. The use of ICT-based iCow services is shown to increase Annual milk production per cow, milk income, and household income by 13%, 29%, and 22%, respectively. Partnerships between network providers and research institutes should be encouraged as part of bridging the extension gap occasioned by reduced public expenditure on extension services.

US toddler milk sales and associations with marketing practices.

Extensive marketing of 'toddler milks' (sugar-sweetened milk-based drinks for toddlers) promotes unsubstantiated product benefits and raises concerns about consumption by young children. The present study documents trends in US toddler milk sales and assesses relationships with brand and category marketing. We report annual US toddler milk and infant formula sales and marketing from 2006 to 2015. Sales response models estimate associations between marketing (television advertising spending, product price, number of retail displays) and volume sales of toddler milks by brand and category. US Nielsen retail scanner sales and advertising spending data from 2006 to 2015. Researchers analysed all Universal Product Codes (n 117·4 million) sold by seven infant formula and eight toddler milk brands from 2006 to 2015. Advertising spending on toddler milks increased fourfold during this 10-year period and volume sales increased 2·6 times. In contrast, advertising spending and volume sales of infant formulas declined. Toddler milk volume sales were positively associated with television advertising and retail displays, and negatively associated with price, at both the brand and category levels. Aggressive marketing of toddler milks has likely contributed to rapid sales increases in the USA. However, these sugar-sweetened drinks are not recommended for toddler consumption. Health-care providers, professional organizations and public health campaigns should provide clear guidance and educate parents to reduce toddler milk consumption and address misperceptions about their benefits. These findings also support the need to regulate marketing of toddler milks in countries that prohibit infant formula marketing to consumers.

The economic value of days open in Holstein cows in Japan based on simulated changes in conception rate.

Increasing herd-life length and culling parity with increasing conception rate (CR) is necessary to increase lifetime profit from dairy cow production. Economic values of days open (DO) were determined by calculating changes in fertility traits, herd-life length, and milk yield when the simulated CR were changed in increments of 1% from -5% to 5% from the basal levels, which were obtained for Hokkaido and regions other than Hokkaido separately. When CR increased, number of artificial inseminations, DO, and milking length decreased. Furthermore, culling parity, and annual milk yield increased. Herd-life length increased in Hokkaido and decreased in the other regions. The economic values of CR were 1,623.8 to 946.8 yen and of DO were 857.4 to 399.0 yen. Relative economic values of milk yield to days open per genetic standard deviation were higher in the other regions than in Hokkaido where the economic effect of selection for DO was expected to be equal to selection for 305-day milk yield and herd life. If the survival rate of multipara cows in the other regions increases, then the economic value of DO would similarly increase in Hokkaido.

Meta-analysis of the effects of on-farm management strategies on milk yields of dairy cattle on smallholder farms in the Tropics

Although East Africa is home to one of the most advanced dairy industries in Sub-Saharan Africa, regional annual milk production is insufficient to meet the demand. The challenge of increasing milk yields (MYs) among smallholder dairy cattle farmers (SDCFs) has received considerable attention and resulted in the introduction of various dairy management strategies (DMSs). Despite adoption of these DMSs, MYs remain low on-farm and there is a large discrepancy in the efficacy of DMSs across different farms. Therefore, the present study sought to: (1) identify on-farm DMSs employed by East African SDCFs to increase MYs and (2) summarize existing literature to quantify the expected MY changes associated with these identified DMSs. Data were collected through a comprehensive literature review and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 10 experts from the East African dairy sector. Meta-analysis of the literature review data was performed by deriving four multivariate regression models (i.e. models 1 to 4) that related DMSs to expected MYs. Each model differed in the weighting strategy used (e.g. number of observations and inverse of the standard errors) and the preferred model was selected based on the root estimated error variance and concordance correlation coefficient. Nine DMSs were identified, of which only adoption of improved cattle breeds and improved feeding (i.e. increasing diet quality and quantity) consistently and significantly (P < 0.05) increased daily MYs across the available studies. Improved breeds alongside adequate feeding explained ≤50% of the daily MYs observed in the metadata while improved feeding explained ≤30% of the daily MYs observed across the different models. Conversely, calf suckling significantly (P < 0.05) reduced MYs according to model 2. Other variables including days in milk, trial length and maximum ambient temperature (used as a proxy for heat stress) contributed significantly to decreasing MYs. These variables may explain some of the heterogeneity in MY responses to DMSs reported in the literature. Our results suggest that using improved cattle breeds alongside improved feeding is the most reliable strategy to increase MYs on-farm in East Africa. Nevertheless, these DMSs should not be considered as standalone solutions but as a pool of options that should be combined depending on the resources available to the farmer to achieve a balance between using dairy cattle genetics, proper husbandry and feeding to secure higher MYs.

PRODUCTIVE LONGEVITY OF BLACK-AND-WHITE COWS IN DIFFERENT ECOLOGICAL AREAS OF THE URAL ZONE

The ecological situation in a particular area has a huge impact on the growth and development of all living organisms. The paper demonstrates a comparative analysis of the productive longevity of Black-and-White cows in the Kurgan and Sverdlovsk regions. It has been established that the yield of cows aged 1-2 lactations at the enterprises of the Kurgan region is 14.8%, and in the Sverdlovsk region - by 20.3% more. The share of cows died within the period from the fifth to the sixth lactation in the Kurgan region exceeds that parameter of the Sverdlovsk region by 18.1%. The most common causes of cow death in the ecological zones are leg diseases (13.9-17.6% of cases). Among the most common reasons for animals death in the Kurgan region are metabolic diseases, low milk productivity, difficult births and complications, osteoarthritis; in the Sverdlovsk region these reasons are seen as diseases of the breast, digestive organs, deficiencies of the exterior. As a result of infectious diseases, the animals in the Kurgan region were eliminated in the amount of 3.0%, and in the Sverdlovsk region they were not eliminated. Cows grown in the Kurgan region with lifelong milk yield of up to 5 thousand kg of milk had an annual milk yield of 2205.0 kg, which is 9.8% higher than in the same group of animals in the Sverdlovsk region. The difference in this case varied from 172.0 to 2821.0 kg of milk per lactation on average.

Benefits and challenges of pastoralism system in Ethiopia

Pastoralism is an important livelihood system practice in most of the dryland areas of the globe.It is a source of income and way of livelihood for hundreds of millions of world population.This research aimed at explaining the benefits of pastoral system, identifying the main challenges the sector faced based on secondary data obtained from different official records such as FAO, CSA (Central Statistical Authority of Ethiopia) and published research article and government reports. Besides this, this research also tried to indicate the possible way outs. Economically it contributes about 10%-40% of national GDP of countries and over 1.3 billion people benefited from the livestock value chain. Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa (first in Africa, and 5th in the world) and 20 % of the national export and 90% of live animal export of the Ethiopian trade, and 80% of annual milk supply to the Ethiopian community resulted directly from the pastoralists. Yet the sectorial contribution has many bottlenecks and the most important one is lack of appropriate policy due to the misconception that the system is economically not feasible and environmentally unfriendly. In addition to this, unexpected, but short period drought and weak market chain, limited access to feed, equipment and information, market chain, animal health (veterinary) are contributing factors to the low contribution of the livestock sector. Ethiopia, with its huge livestock population and the increasing demand of global meat and milk demand, should give attention towards the sectorial development including provision of infrastructure such as milk and milk processing industries, leather and leather processing industries, and focus on Diversification of economic activities inthe pastoral areas. Besides, the government of Ethiopia should give an emphasis on developing policies and strategies to increase productivity of livestock and maintain the development of the sector. Furthermore, the government should devise mechanisms to control the illegal inter-boarder live animal export and way of measuring unaccounted (nonmarketable) values of livestock pastoral contributions.

Evaluation of some blood liver parameters in cows with subclinical and clinical ketosis

The purpose of the present study was to establish the changes in some blood liver parameters in cows in different physiological conditions with subclinical (SCK) and clinical ketosis (CK). The study was performed on 157 Holstein cows with annual milk yield of 9,000–11,000 L. The animals were divided into 3 groups: I group – pregnant cows (from day 15 to day 0 pre-calving); II group – recently calved (from day 0 to day 15 postpartum) and III group – lactating (from day 30 to 45 postpartum). Blood concentrations of β-hydroxybutyric acid (ВНВА) (mmol/L), glucose (mmol/L), total protein (g/L), albumin (g/L) and total bilirubin (μmol/L) were assayed in all cows. The animals were divided in groups with SCK and CK according to their blood BHBA levels. It was established, that the con-centrations of total bilirubin were statistically significantly elevated vs control groups, while blood glucose, total protein and albumin values decreased, reflecting the impaired liver function in cows with SCK and CK.

ШЛЯХИ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ СТАЛОГО РОЗВИТКУ ВИРОБНИЦТВА МОЛОКА В УКРАЇНІ

The starting point was the statement that providing conditions for sufficient consumption of milk and dairy products by the population of Ukraine is one of the urgent tasks of food security. The issue of overcoming the crisis of milk production, which has been observed in recent years and is manifested in a steady reduction in the volume and number of livestock remains unresolved, which determined the subject and objectives of the study. The purpose of the article is formulated as the definition of the main trends in the activities of milk production enterprises, the development measures to improve their activities efficiency. Its achievement has necessitated the allocation of structural elements of the agricultural complex. The subsectors of the dairy subcomplex, the core of which is represented by dairy cattle, are considered separately. Trends and rates of change has been researched in milk production, livestock, average annual milk yield per cow, the structure of milk production in terms of households and industrial livestock, indicators of profitability of milk production based on the analysis of statistical data. The special attention is paid to the problems of the goat's milk market given the indicators of efficiency and export attractiveness. As a result of the study, the following conclusions were obtained: the dominance of the household milk product segment is an obstacle to building an appropriate mechanism for controlling the quality of raw milk; increasing production productivity through mechanization and automation; increasing the economic potential of the dairy industry requires active state regulation through the use of tax regulation tools, tariff and non-tariff levers to increase the products competitiveness without further increase in price; a promising area of development of the dairy sub-sector is the association and cooperation of small producers. Household cooperation has the potential to improve the conditions for the economic interests realization of milk producers by increasing the influence of associations and unions in the market, given the significant price asymmetry. Key words: milk production, economic stability, dairy subcomplex, industrial cattle breeding, dairy cattle breeding.

The state of dairy cattle breeding and clustering of municipal entities of the Krasnoyarsk Territory by the level of industry development

The concept of sustainable agriculture is one of the directions of the state’s national security strategy, which is determined by economic, social, environmental and political factors. Sustainable development of the region directly affects the sustainable development of the state, and sustainable development of the region; in its turn it directly depends on the sustainable development of individual industries, among which dairy cattle breeding is the leading one. The total milk production in Russia as a whole in farms of all categories reached a record high of 31.5 million tons (+2.5% in the country and +2.6% in the Krasnoyarsk Territory). However, the annual milk consumption per capita in 2017 in the Russian Federation was 233 kg, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory it was a little less than this Russian indicator (231 kg, which is 71% lower than 325 kg which is the standard recommended by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation), which indicates a low level of milk self-sufficiency. The level of the country’s milk production development is determined by the production state in its regions, which in turn depends on their territorial location, climatic conditions, natural-historical features of the territories, etc. Since a large number of enterprises is involved in milk production in the region, production should be considered in the context of municipal districts, which makes it possible to identify the most promising clusters from the standpoint of the production potential formation of the dairy cattle breeding industry in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Effect of introducing weather parameters on the accuracy of milk production forecast models

The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of adding meteorological data to the training process of two milk production forecast models. The two models chosen were the nonlinear auto-regressive model with exogenous input (NARX) and the multiple linear regression (MLR) model. The accuracy of these models were assessed using seven different combinations of precipitation, sunshine hours and soil temperature as additional model training inputs. Lactation data (daily milk yield and days in milk) from 39 pasture-based Holstein-Friesian Irish dairy cows were selected to compare to the model outputs from a central database. The models were trained using historical milk production data from three lactation cycles and were employed to predict the total daily milk yield of a fourth lactation cycle for each individual cow over short (10-day), medium (30-day) and long-term (305-day) forecast horizons. The NARX model was found to provide a greater prediction accuracy when compared to the MLR model when predicting annual individual cow milk yield (kg), with R2 values greater than 0.7 for 95.5% and 14.7% of total predictions, respectively. The results showed that the introduction of sunshine hours, precipitation and soil temperature data improved the prediction accuracy of individual cow milk prediction for the NARX model in the short, medium and long-term forecast horizons. Sunshine hours was shown to have the largest impact on milk production with an improvement of forecast accuracy observed in 60% and 70% of all predictions (for all 39 test cows from both groups). However, the overall improvement in accuracy was small with a maximum forecast error reduction of 4.3%. Thus, the utilization of meteorological parameters in milk production forecasting did not have a substantial impact on forecast accuracy.

Projected heat stress challenges and abatement opportunities for U.S. milk production.

Cost-effective heat mitigation strategies are imperative for maintaining milk production and dairy farm profitability in the U.S. with projected climate change. This study investigated the cost-effectiveness of four heat abatement strategies, including Minimal (open barn or shading), Moderate (forced ventilation), High (fans and misting), and Intense (air conditioning). Heat stress and subsequent impacts on milk production per cow were predicted across nine climatic regions in the U.S. for early (2015 to 2034), mid (2045 to 2064) and late (2081 to 2100) 21st century, using downscaled climate projections. Heat abatements were used to adjust predicted milk production losses and illustrate the potential to reduce milk production losses due to heat stress. Economic analysis included a cost-benefit ratio calculation associated with the implementation of each heat abatement. Results showed that milk production losses were expected to accelerate across the U.S. at a mean rate of 174±7 kg/cow/decade, with the fastest rate in the Southeast region. Relative to Minimal heat abatement, Moderate, High, and Intense heat abatements increased annual milk production per cow by 3%, 4%, and 6% during early-21st century, 3%, 6%, and 11% during mid-21st century, and 3%, 8%, and 21% during late-21st century, respectively. The cost effectiveness of different heat abatement strategies generally increased with subsequently stronger heat abatements. In mid- and late-21st century, mean annual net values of High and Intense heat stress abatement implementation approached -$30 to $190 /cow and -$20 to $590 /cow, respectively, with the largest net annual benefit in late-21st century under Intense abatement. Findings from the study demonstrate the value of using downscaled climate projections to shed light on local and regional strategies to abate heat stress on cattle and mitigate potential milk production losses due to climate change.

Syndrome “Eclampsia” Mechanism of Pregnant Cows and Effectiveness of Antioxidant Preparations

800 dairy cows and heifers of highly productive Holstein- Friesian breed, black and mottled and Simmental breeds with an average annual milk production of 6700 kg participated in experiment. Each group of animals was divided into two subgroups.

Energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analysis of high temperature short time milk pasteurisation plant

India produces 19.54% of the total annual milk production of the entire world (819 MT) with yearly rise of 3.6%. The thermal and electrical energies consume 10%-20% of manufacturing cost of pasteurised milk. In the present work, energy, exergy and exergoeconomic appraisals of skim milk pasteurisation plant have been performed. The exergy gauge registered an exergy efficiency of 68.84% with 35% exergy recovery potential. The analysis revealed that relative irreversibility ratio of regeneration-3 (7.87%) was higher than regeneration-2 (4.24%) followed by regeneration-1 (1.25%), which represented their excellent sustainability characteristics. The thermoeconomic analysis has identified the immensity of exergoeconomic indices such as total operating cost rate, exergoeconomic factor and percentage relative cost difference. The exergoeconomic factor was reported to be most significant in holding coil (62.45%), heat exchanger (49.25%) and regeneration-1 (20.18%). The high and low values of exergoeconomic factor magnify the role of capital investment and thermodynamic inefficiencies respectively.

Анализ эффективности молочного скотоводства в Республике Беларусь на основе статистико-экономического метода исследований

Introduction. Dairy cattle breeding occupies a leading position among the livestock breeding sectors of Belarus, in which more than half of the fixed assets are concentrated, more than 50% of labor resources are occupied and more than 30% of feed resources are consumed, which creates conditions for its accelerated development along the intensifica-tion path. The purpose of the article is to determine the main factors and directions of increasing the efficiency of dairy cattle breeding in agricultural organizations in Belarus. Results. The redistribution of costs between supporting and productive feed in the direction of increasing the lat-ter as the most effective form of saving in animal husbandry is considered. It is proved that the further development of dairy cattle breeding should be carried out by improving breeding and tribal work to create a competitive Belarusian dairy cow. It is proved that the problem of the competitiveness of dairy products is the labor input, the main reasons for which are highlighted. An economic grouping was constructed according to the annual reporting data for 2017 for 190 agricultural organizations of the Brest region with developed dairy cattle breeding, where the profitability of milk sales was chosen as a grouping attribute. Conclusions. The analysis of the results showed that a high profitability of milk sales is achieved due to the greater density of the population, a higher average annual milk yield. The increase in the profitability of milk sales is accompanied by a decrease in feed consumption while increasing the consumption of concentrated feed per 1 centner of milk. To increase the profitability of the sold products and the productivity of cattle in the dairy sector, it is necessary to provide the animals with full and high-quality feeds of their own production, and to significantly increase the propor-tion of concentrated feeds in the diet. Efficient management of the dairy industry is only possible using intensive cattle production technology. Ways of increasing the efficiency of dairy cattle breeding are proposed. Key words: efficiency, optimization, balance, resource saving, genetic potential, newest technologies.

Effectiveness of Different Hormonal Treatment Protocols on Treatment of Postpartum Anoestrus in Cross-Bred Dairy Cows

Postpartum anoestrus (PPA) is one of the major factors causing prolonged calving interval &amp; that leading to decreased annual milk production. Hormonal treatments can be effective tools for treatment of PPA when nutritional &amp; environmental management are good. So, objective of this study was to know the comparative effectiveness of different hormonal protocols on treatment of PPA in cross-bred dairy cows. Used protocols were: single dose of GnRH, Ovsynch with TRIU-B and single dose of PGF2α injection which were used in three different groups, each containing ten animals. GnRH and Ovsynch with TRIU-B were used in postpartum true anoestrus cattle with inactive ovaries while PGF2α was used in postpartum silent oestrus condition having palpable corpus luteum and the condition were identifi ed through rectal palpation and history record. Cows treated with Ovsynch+TRIU-B showed higher oestrus expression rate within one week (80%) than cows treated with GnRH (10%) and PGF2α (50%). Ovulation rate was also comparatively higher in Ovsynch+TRIU-B group (100%) than GnRH (90%) and PGF2α (70%). But the pregnancy rate, checked after 45 days of first AI through rectal palpation, was comparatively higher in GnRH group (40%) than in Ovsynch+TRIU-B (30%) and PGF2α (20%). Among treated cows, pregnancy rate was found to be signifi cantly higher (P=0.02) in cows with ≥100 days duration of postpartum anoestrus (53.84%) than in cows with 100 days duration (0%). In conclusion, ovsynch with intravaginal progesterone (p4) releasing device was more effective at inducing oestrus and synchronizing ovulation than the single GnRH injection. However, single GnRH injection was as effective as ovsynch with intravaginal p4 releasing device for pregnancy outcomes in anoestrous crossbred dairy cows in a commercial dairy farm where formulated concentrate ration is daily fed.

Extended lactations in dairy production: Economic, productivity and climatic impact at herd, farm and sector level

The management concept “extended lactation” whereby farmers deliberately delay time of first insemination allow them to utilise the high milk yield potential of modern dairy cows for longer. The main objective of this study was to quantify the effect of different extended lactation strategies on herd productivity, farm economics and sustainability at product level with focus on greenhouse gas emission. The herd model SimHerd simulated cow state, production, replacement and herd dynamics that supported a quantification of the effect of managing either first lactation, older or all cows for calving intervals of either 15 or 17 months compared with 13 months. The initial herd was self-sufficient with replacement heifers, and the extended lactations were achieved by only changing time of first possible insemination while keeping insemination and conception rates as well as all other production and management parameters unchanged. The different extended lactation strategies reduced annual milk production and herd feed use up to 4.1 and 7.1%, respectively, which combined caused herd milk production per kg DM herd feed use to increase with up to 3.5%. Replacement rate per annual cow (per cow per year) was reduced with up to 13.6% points and the number of youngstock per annual cow with 27%. Managing only first lactation cows for extended lactations resulted in close to negligible production effects compared with baseline scenario and positively affected farm contribution margin whereas the other strategies had a negative effect on farm contribution margin per cow of up to 3.2%. The reduction in herd feed use reduced farm area for feed production, and the economic effect of using this area to either feed more cows or grow a cash crop was greater than the negative economic effect of the extended lactation strategy itself. Hence, the overall economic effect depends on the ability of the farmer to realise savings and utilise a potential freed area. Finally, the extended lactation strategies reduced greenhouse gas emissions with up to 8.1% per annual cow where less feed production and less enteric fermentation were determining factors.However, the weight ratio between milk and meat increased up to 34.7% across scenarios, which affected the allocation of emissions. Hence, emissions were reduced per cow but unchanged per kg milk. If the market requires an unchanged supply of milk and beef meat, then these extended lactation strategies caused an indirect emission from production of substitute beef meat, which can lead to an increased total emission. In conclusion, managing dairy cows for extended lactations can be an economically viable production strategy if the farmer is able to realise potential savings and gains. Emissions are reduced per cow but the sector level effect for milk and beef meat can be unchanged or even increased.

Exergy and thermo-economic analysis of ghee production plant in dairy industry

The India’s annual milk and ghee production are approximately estimated as 160 MT and 1.72 MT respectively. India has the largest production of Ghee in the dairy Industry worldwide. Ghee consumption in India is 28% annually after fluid milk i.e. 44% due to high consumer demand. The butter churner, butter melter, ghee boiler and ghee clarifier are the key subunits of ghee production plant. The dairy industry is characterised by high energy consumption for production of Ghee and Butter in the country. The thermo-economic analysis and thermodynamic derivatives calculated in this study. The value of the universal exergy efficiency and specific exergy destruction of the plant was found as 34.21% and 438.61 kJ/kg respectively. The cost rate of exergy destruction for the entire plant was calculated as 3270.68 R/H; 39% of which was contributed by boiler for ghee production (ghee boiler). The highest value of percentage relative cost difference was associated with butter melter (97.29%) followed by butter churner (96.73%). The thermo-economic factor butter churner (8.00%) and ghee boiler (1.09%) revealed that impact of capital investment was more influential in former while exergetic degradation appeared to be more noticeable in latter.