Dairy Farming in Saudi Arabia: How Nigeria can attain Self-Sufficiency in Milk Production by Kehinde S.Jimoh

Dairy farming is a class of agriculture that is concerned with the production of milk and milk products from dairy animals. Although any large ruminant animal can produce milk, commercial milk are typically from high producing dairy cattle breeds like Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Dairy Shorthorn, American Milking Devon, Ayrshire cattle etc, these dairy cattle are found in temperate regions where they are best able to express their genetic potential to produce milk.

Other conditions necessary for good milk production include availability of high quality pastures and portable water. Top milk producing countries include United States of America, India, China, Russia, Brazil, Germany, France, New Zealand, United Kingdom, etc and this is largely due to a cool climatic environment that supports dairy farming.

Saudi Arabia is a very arid country with an average high temperature of about 45°C and low annual rainfall. Only about 2 percent of the country’s enormous land mass is suitable for agriculture making it difficult to get land for growing crops and pasture. There is no permanent freshwater sources such as rivers or lakes and so the major source of water in this country is through sea water desalination. These combination of factors make Saudi Arabia an unsuitable country for commercial agriculture but interesting this country has a developed world-class dairy industry.

Saudi Arabia has numerous indigenous dairy companies such as Al-Marai Dairy., Al-Safi-Danone, Al-Nada Dairy,  Al-Bandariah Dairy, Saudia Dairy & Foodstuff Company (SADAFCO), National Agricultural Development Co (NADEC), United National Dairy Company etc., who not only cater to Saudi national dairy products requirement, but are also major exporters to other Middle Eastern countries

Al-Marai Dairy in Saudi Arabia is presently the largest integrated dairy company in the world with a total herd size of 93,000 dairy cows and produces about 1 billion litres of milk annually.  In 1998, Al Safi Dairy also in Saudi Arabia was listed in the Guinness World Records as the largest integrated dairy farm in the world with more than 30,000 Holstein Friesian cattle reared on one single farm. Throughout the Gulf, you will find dairy products from Saudi Arabia all over the place.

In a FAO Report in 2012, the country ranks 1^st among 20 top countries with average yield per cow in the world with a yield of 10,133 litres per cow per annum.

The success story of dairy industry in Saudi Arabia is an inspiring piece for any-one who wants to succeed despite the odds but how has the country been able to beat the odds to achieve this feat?

There are four areas that are key to the development of dairy in Saudi Arabia:

a.      Sourcing of Pasture abroad

Source of pasture for Saudi Arabia’s dairy is synonymous with the California’s dairy industry model of sourcing for dairy feed which has reduced on –farm pasture cultivation and maximize the number of dairy cows on the farm for more milk production.

California, the leading dairy state in United States of America accounts for more than 20 percent of United States’ milk production. Approximately one out of every five dairy cows in the U.S. lives in California because the state maximizes the number of cattle per farm while minimizing the need for on-site food production. Unlike the rest of the states in America where dairy farmers grow a considerable amount of their own feed, California dairy farmers don’t grow pasture on-site for their cows but simply bring pasture from other states in the US.

Dairy cows can be fed with a wide range of pasture and silage and this includes Alfalfa, Rhodes grass, Sorghum silage, Sudan grass etc., but Alfalfa is commonly used as dairy feed because it has the highest feeding value of all common hay crops. It is the highest-yielding forage plant (high yield per hectare) and it has high nutritional quality and highly digestible fiber.  Also, Alfalfa hay supports higher milk production in dairy cows but Alfalfa grass is a high water use crop as it requires high amount of water for its cultivation.

Due to limited arable land and the need for high quality hay, dairy companies in Saudi Arabia import alfalfa not only to feed their cows but also to save water in their own territory. While some partly import the alfalfa hay, some dairy farms import 100 percent of this feed and all these come from different places in the world – such as Sudan, Egypt and US.  Some of the big dairy farms even own expansive alfalfa farms abroad. Al-Marai has over 30,000 ha of Alfalfa farm in Argentina, 14,000 acres in California, 10,000 acres of farm land in Arizona amongst others.

It is expected that Saudi dairy feed import will reach 2.4 million MT in 2016.

                            One of Almarai Dairy Company’s Hay farm in United States.

b.      Technology

i.                    Creating Cattle Friendly Environment

At natural temperatures of 45⁰C in Saudi Arabia, dairy cows will produce about 4 litres of milk or less per day. In other to optimize the productivity of the dairy cows, an artificial cooling conditions must be created. There are two ways of cooling the cows, in the sheds, misting sprays, fans and the shade cools the cows to a target range between 20 and 25 degrees. At this temperature, dairy cows can still produce up to 25 litres per day. The misting spray sends out twisting cyclones of water droplets which continuously wet the cows’ hides to cool them and to spray off manure and anything else that could contaminate the milk, fans are run over them to evaporate the water so that puddles won’t build. 

Also, high-tech desert air conditioner mounted overhead in the sheds maximizes the convective cooling by cooling the area directly around the dairy cows to a temperature of 16-20⁰C. At this temperature, cows in Saudi Arabia have been able to produce up to 40 litres of milk/day.

At the milking parlours, the cows are milked 3 -4 times daily and the milk is pumped into a cooler where it is cooled below 5⁰C degrees for preservation.

Cow shed with desert coolers 

                                                                

ii.                     Automated Milking parlours

Dairy companies in Saudi Arabia made huge investment in milking the cows. The whole process is fully automated and there is no human contact with raw milk so as to avoid contamination.

                                                 Cows in Milking Parlour

                  c.   Alternative Source of Water Supply

There are about 250,000 dairy cows in Saudi Arabia with each producing between 35-40 litres of milk a day. For every litre of milk produced by a dairy cow, it needs to drink at least three litres of water. This means that one dairy cow requires about 120 litres of water a day and 43,800 litres of water in a year. The total water requirement for all the dairy cows is approximately 10,950,000,000 litres per year (2,892,685,336.59 gallons). Considering the dry conditions of this country, how has dairy industry in Saudi Arabia meeting this dairy demand for water?

Nature is not the only reason why Saudi Arabia is lacking water. During the good oil years, Saudi Arabia ploughed a higher percentage of their financial resources to self-sufficiency.  It cultivated the desert using high technology irrigation system to grow food crops as well as pasture for its livestock. This massive project was at the expense of Saudi Arabia’s underground water reserves.  About 80 percent of the country’s underground water has been used.

To meet its national demand for water, Saudi Arabia turned to sea water. In 1969, the kingdom built its first desalination plant. As of today, twenty-eight desalination plants are spread across the kingdom for urban and industrial use thereby freeing water for agricultural uses.

Dairy farms in Saudi are among the few firms that are allowed to use underground water. Deep wells of about 2000m are bored into the ground. The reason for this depth is that water from the shallow aquifer is extremely hot and extremely aggressive and it contains calcium and magnesium which makes the pipes corrosive. So, dairy farms employs submersible turbine pump located about 1500 meters or more underground to force up cooler water from below. The wells themselves have to be clad with stainless steel to avoid corrosion.

Once water is topside, it's pumped into cooling ponds or through a circulating pipe system to evaporate the heat until it's a safe temperature to drink.

Also, waste water from Urban, Industrial, cow washes and other dairy facilities are recycled and use for agricultural irrigation.

d.      Government support for dairy Development

There are many initiatives taken by the government to support dairy industries and this includes:

        i.            Production incentives to reduce the production cost.

      ii.            Tax incentives.

    iii.            Priority in land allocation for pasture farming is given.

    iv.             Energy subsidies for electricity.

      v.            Permission to draw on the kingdom’s natural aquifers/ low-cost water

    vi.            Duty-free imports for dairy machinery.

  vii.            Government offers long-term interest free loans

 Nigerian Milk Production

Milk production in Nigeria is abysmal. Unlike Saudi Arabia that has no suitable land to cultivate pasture, conducive weather that supports dairy, ready water to feed the cows or dairy breed to produce the milk and yet still produce enough milk to feed itself and export to other Arab countries, Nigeria has everything that can make it sufficient in Milk production. 

With about 20 million local breeds of cows, fertile soils for forage production, abundant water bodies and some cold places that can support dairy farming, Nigeria control the dairy market in the whole of West Africa. The national annual demand for milk in Nigeria is about 1.45 billion litres which cannot be met by domestic production and to cover for the shortfall, Nigeria spends about $1.5 billion on powder milk importation and additional $5 billion dollars on dairy products like yoghurt, cheese etc. 

Though Nigeria is a tropical country, big milk companies operating in Nigeria like Fries Land Campian (WAMCO Nigeria Plc) makers of Peak milk and three crown milk, Promasidor Nigeria Limited makers of loya and cowbell milk, Arla foods makers of Dano Milk, Givanas Nigeria Limited distributor of Luna Milk, etc prefer to import milk powder and re-constitute it into liquid milk or repackage into small affordable sachets because it is cheaper and economical than to adopt the Saudi Arabian model.  Cattle breeds in Nigeria include Sokoto Gudali, Adamawa Gudali (Bokolo), White Fulani (Bunaji), Red Bororo, West African Dwarf (Muturu) etc. These breeds are reared by pastoralist and milk production in Nigeria is therefore dominated by wives of these pastoral farmers in the northern region of the country who usually milk the cows for their immediate family’s needs and sell the remainder in local markets as ‘Nunu’ but over 90 percent of these milk waste away. 

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural development in Nigeria release livestock statistics in June 2016 stating that Nigeria has about 19.5 million cattle. Assuming half of this cattle population is cow and 60 percent of the cow population lactate in a year, that means there should be about 5,850,000 lactating cows in Nigeria and with each producing 1 litre of milk per day. If there is a well organised aggregated milk collection centres in cattle rearing areas in the north, good transportation system, adequate refrigeration system, ranching system, incentives for cattle rearers etc., Nigeria can still get over 5 million litres of milk every day.

 

           Traditional Milking and sale of cow milk

The Diary Development Program in Nigeria

Diary Development Program (DDP) is an initiative of FrieslandCampina WAMCO and it is the only diary initiative in Nigeria. The company has its headquarters in Netherlands and as such its milk imports into Nigeria is from Europe. Since 2010, there has been instability in the prices of milk as a result growing global demand for milk which makes the landing cost of milk into Nigeria higher. Confronted with this challenge, FrieslandCampina Wamco saw an opportunity to develop the production capacity of local milk producers to augment importation. The company started Dairy Development Program (DDP) in August 2010 in Shongai farms in Kwara State. In 2013, the program also kicked off in Iseyin, Oyo State.

Under the program, the company will build Milk Collection Centres where there are clusters of pastoralists, train these pastoralists on hygienic milking and provide them with a bucket for collecting the milk. These pastoralists transport their fresh milk collected on daily basis to the Milk collection centre from where it is transferred unto a waiting specialised truck with cooling systems which is then transported to their Friesland factories for commercial production. There are also qualified veterinary doctors that monitor the health of the animals and also microbiologists to ensure quality control.

Currently, there are about 3,000 Fulani cow owners who produce 15,000 litres of raw milk daily under this program.

 

 

Pictures from Dairy Development Program of FrieslandCampina Wamco

The company intends to maximize number of participating farmers and also scale up the program in other states but this laudable program is threatened by infrastructural deficit like good roads, rail system, power, little government support etc.

Maximizing the Potentials of Mambilla Plateau for Dairy Production in Nigeria.

The Mambilla Plateau in Taraba State is a high grassland plateau with a land mass of  9,389 km²  and an average elevation of about 1,524 metres (5,000 ft) above sea level, making it the highest plateau in Nigeria. The plateau which has an undulating landscape is the coldest region in Nigeria and could also compete for the coldest in West Africa. 

The top of Mambilla Plateau could produce 20 Obudu Cattle ranch in Cross River State. The richness of forage on the plateau has attracted a large number of Fulani herdsmen to the mambilla. Taraba state has the highest concentration of cattle in Nigeria with about 5 million cattle out of which about 500,000 are on the mambilla and the number increases during the dry season when there are no grasses in the lowland.

Lactating cows on the plateau produce about 5-7 litres of milk daily with aggregate production from all cows reaching One (1) millions litres annually but these waste away.

Mambilla Plateau (picture by OYASAF Photography)

There are number of factors that makes the Mambilla an hot spot for Dairy in Nigeria.

Temperature: temperature at the plateau ranges between16-25⁰C. The average temperature is 21.1C, and around August, it plummets to a chilly 11⁰C. Friesian cows can still produce about 20 litres of milk at this temperature.

At these temperatures, dairy cow can still produce 20-25 litres of milk daily.

Bodies of Water: The plateau has many streams and rivers like the Donga River and Taraba River which can serve as source of water supply for the dairy companies and irrigation for pasture farming.

Fertile soils: The Plateau has one of the most fertile soils in Nigeria, almost everything grows there. A lot of different forage crops can be grown on the soil.

Insects free: the Plateau is free of all insects that could affect the cows.

To achieve sufficiency in milk production in Nigeria, the following actions must be taken:

i.       The government should mandate other milk companies to adopt the Dairy Development Program of FrieslandCampina Wamco. They should be mandated to organise these pastoralist into clusters or identify clusters of pastoralists for raw milk collection.

ii.                Government should through public-private partnership with milk companies in Nigeria develop cattle ranches with requisite infrastructures across the federation where pastoralists and people interested in cattle farming can raise cows.

iii.       The Federal government and Taraba State Government should provide basic infrastructures like good roads and electricity in the Mambilla to attract investors.

iv.             Investors should leverage on the natural endowments of the Mambilla plateau by setting up dairy companies. Imported dairy breeds on the plateau can produce about 20-25 litres of milk.

v.       Research institutes should be mandated to conduct studies on cattle breed improvement to maximize milk output from local breeds.