COLOMBO: Sri Lanka, in an effort to boost local milk production, has imported 3,000 high yielding milch cows from Australia. ColomboPage reports that the milch cows imported by the Ministry of Rural Economy will be distributed among fifty middle-scale entrepreneurs in Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Kandy, Kurunegala and Badulla districts.
These cows have been imported under the second stage of the program to distribute 20,000 cows to dairy farmers in Sri Lanka. The Ministry expects to increase the fresh milk production up to 75,000 liters per day with the imports of Friesians, Jersey and hybrid cows. Over 4000 dairy cows imported from Australia earlier have been distributed to the National Livestock Development Board farms at Ridiyagama, Bopattalawa and Diyagama. Those cows have added 1.5 million liters of milk per month to the national milk supply system.
Milk cows imported from New Zealand in this year have been able to produce one million liters of milk monthly. The milk they have produced 1850 calves as well. The government aims to achieve self-sufficiency in dairy products by 2020 and to save 40 billion rupees it spends annually on importing powdered milk.
