Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

The third need identified in Honduras was the lack of technical
assistance to produce new types of cheeses and thus diversify the market,
and not so much the search for new markets for the same types of cheeses.
In Nicaragua, the need was to improve the quality of cheeses produced by
artisan factories.
Technological Implications
The results of this survey have two types of technological implications
for the Tropileche Consortium: animal feeding and genetic improvement of
animals.
Regarding animal feeding, these results suggest that an aggressive
program to promote the shrub legume Cratylia argentea and sugarcane as
supplements of cattle herds during the dry season would have a much
higher impact than the promotion of grasses or legumes during the rainy
season. This technological change would reduce the need to purchase feed
concentrates to supplement the herd, thus improving the cash flow of
producers and increasing milk fat content.
The protein contained in milk is the main input to produce cheese. In
other words, milk with higher protein content yields more cheese. It is
estimated that for each 0.1% increase in protein content, cheese yield is
increased by 4% (Sozzi, 1999).
Therefore, the other technological implication of improving yield
efficiency of cheese making is by using milk with higher protein content, and
this is mainly achieved by genetic improvement of animals at the farm level
by crossbreeding with cows that produce milk with higher protein content.
The type of livestock commonly found in Honduras and Nicaragua is Zebu
(Brahman). The protein content of Bos indicus breeds such as Brahman,
Guzerath, and Nelore is 3.10%, with little variability among them. In Bos
taurus breeds variability is greater, ranging from 3.15% for Holstein cows, to
3.50% for Brown Swiss cows, to 3.80% for Jersey cows (Ruiz, 1999). As a
result, a genetic improvement strategy that incorporates Jersey or Brown
Swiss genes into the local Zebu gene pool would allow producers to offer
artisan cheese factories milk with higher protein content, provided that a
transparent payment system that values milk protein exists.
Conclusions
Study results and the implications of this analysis led to the following
conclusions:
• The main buyer of the milk produced by small and medium producers in
Honduras and Nicaragua is the small-scale artisan cheese industry.
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