Our dairy welcomed some new friends last month, as our first cows joined us and are settling in nicely to their new home. The cows are a Yellow Asian Cow and are common in villages right across Laos.
We had been planning to expand to include cows in our nutrition programme for a while now, so Rabbi Sholom, kindly donating two cows to the farm was perfect. For Rabbi Sholom, this was also an opportunity to have fresh milk for his family that he knew and trusted to be Kosher. The Rabbi also knows this farm is a safe place for the cows to live, as we have an expert team to care for, feed and vaccinate the animals. The cows will receive 24/7 care!
Similarly to buffalo, farmers don’t usually milk cows in Laos. Farmers tend to raise them for meat. So, right now we don’t know how much milk a Yellow Asian Cow can produce - our best guess is about 2 litres, whereas a dairy cow in Europe or the US produces 30-70 litres every day. Although not a huge amount, it can be invaluable additional nutrition for a family who cannot provide regular nutritious meals for their children. Farmers, who attend our nutrition programme, learn how to milk their cows and then cook their sticky rice in the milk to add in nutrition to these meals. It makes sense to use resources the farmers already have as it provides a sustainable way forward!
The World Bank nutrition programme has been planning to expand into cows. The Rabbi’s kind donation has given us a head start as we can now monitor and test the milk production and plan how to develop the project over time.
Currently, we only work with farmers who own buffalo, providing them with a new income stream and teaching them about how to look after their animals. However, along with the World Bank, we want to help even more farmers. So a natural thought was, what about cows? Farmers who own cows in Laos are traditionally not as wealthy as those who own buffalo. Cows cost about half the price and are smaller in size, which means when they sell the meat, they receive less income.
How we can help farmers investing in cows
At the moment, due to the impacts of COVID-19, we are seeing more and more villagers investing in cows. The jobs many people relied on in Luang Prabang have now dried up, and many people have moved back to their villages. The money they were once saving up to buy land in the cities they are investing in livestock and in particular, cows.
The concern is that a large number of people are investing their hard-earned savings in cows, with little or no agricultural experience. There is an opportunity here for the farm to offer training that helps these farmers make the best of their investment. For examples, something as simple as a worming tablet, which costs 8000 Kip or about 80 cents, can increase the life expectancy of a cow. As with buffalo, we are using an asset a farmer currently has and helping them learn how to take better care of it.
In the future, we also plan to explore the potential benefits of goats because the poorest farmers in Laos will have goats. Stay tuned as a future blog will highlight the arrival of the goats at our dairy and cute pics of the kids are sure to follow!
So we say a big Thank You! to Rabbi Sholom. His kind donation has helped kick start this next stage of development for our work here in Laos.
Did you hear our news??
Lola, our show girl, had her beautiful baby!! This little guy was born on the evening of Saturday, 8 August. We joke and say little, but…..he was a whopping 39 kilo!!! That’s big for a buffalo. On our farm, in the beginning, swamp babies were about 20 or less kilo when they were born. Now they are more likely to be 25+ kilo, thanks to the better health and nutrition here at our farm.
This new baby is a cross breed - Swamp and Murrah. We need your help to name him! He needs an “L” boys name to go along with his mum, Lola, and big sister, Lisa. Comment with your suggestions!
2020 MEKONG EXPERIENCE SHOWCASES FINALIST
Only 3 days left to vote!!
In case you missed this fantastic announcement last time, we are one of the finalists in the 2020 Mekong Experience Showcases. According to the members of the Mekong Tourism Advisory Group, we fit the bill for 3 main principles:
To make a significant social impact in our community.
To provide an authentic local experience for tourism.
To have an innovative and sustainable concept in our business model.
We are so excited to have been singled out as one of the responsible small businesses to do this. But, it isn't over quite yet! There is still another round of voting to go through.
From 7 July to 15 August we are asking that you please go to http://www.destinationmekong.com/ems2020/ and vote for us. The winner will be announced on 25 August 2020.
TOURISM IN NEED
COVID-19 has badly affected tourism and visits to the farm. In order to mitigate some of the effects of the loss of income this has meant for the dairy, we have teamed up with the Tourism in Need initiative that supports responsible tourism organizations affected by the pandemic. Through this initiative, travellers can support the dairy through the Give Today, Go Tomorrow fundraising scheme. Click here to find out more and to make a contribution to help us to pay farmers and staff, and continue to train farmers and work on our nutrition program.
