WILLING TON: A few cows are tied to a tree in the 40 degree Celsius heat. That’s how Myanmar dairy farmer U Ouh Kyau grazes his cattle, as is the way in the Southeast Asian nation now blighted by ethnic cleansing. As a cow wrestles against a rope tying it from nose to branch, visiting dairy advisor Kent Weston-Arnold inspects a slightly underweight six-month-old calf. okoroa-born Weston-Arnold is technical advisor to the Myanmar Dairy Excellence Project, a $6 million New Zealand aid effort now entering its fourth year. The “agriculture diplomacy” project hopes to foster a love for milk in Myanmar, but also has New Zealand’s dairy trade interests front of mind raditionally, Myanmar dairy farmers have a handful of cows tied to trees. Feed and water is given twice daily, in the 40C heat. Milk yields are a low six to eight litres a day, a third of what is achieved in New Zealand. The fodder often used is nutritionless rice straw. There’s only three or four suppliers who refrigerate and most equipment is never washed with hot water. Today’s first stop is the Shwe Oh dairy farm on the city’s northern outskirts, where farmer U Tin Win and his son Ko Kyan Shone Kyin run 170 cattle. Shwe Oh is state of the art for Myanmar: this week they’re moving 60 milch cows into a new barn, and are finishing a modern herringbone-design milking shed capable of handling 10 cows.
The tropical grass grows in long, thick-bladed tufts which can be cut for fodder every 19 days during the summer. Importantly, it’s half the price of rice straw, has 60 per cent more energy and 100 per cent more protein. If we could replace the use of rice straw with the use of good quality fodder, that would have a massive impact on the industry,” Weston-Arnold says. The success of mombasa is apparent in Sagaing, near Mandalay, where farmers U Winbo Bo and U Hmwe Thein are now using it for fodder.
