Milking swamp buffaloes in villages in the Mekong delta of Vietnam

摘要

Twopilottrialswerecarriedout,intheperiodFebruarytoJune1996,toassessthefeasibilityofmilkingswampbuffaloesinvillagesintheMekongdelta,.Measurementsweremadeofmilkyieldandcompositionandoftheimpactofthetechnologyonthevillagesociety.Thebuffaloesselectedforthetrialwerestudiedfromthefirsttothefifthmonthoflactation.Thecalvessuckedeachteatforafewminutesandthentwoteatsweremilkedbyhand.Teatstobemilkedwererotatedeverytwodays.Aftermilkingthecalfsuckedtheresidualmilkincludingthetwoteatsmilkedoutbyhand.Aftersuckingwasfinished,thecalfwasseparatedfromthecowuntilthenextmilking.Dailymilkyieldwascalculatedastheyieldfrom4teatsbyaddingthemeanofmilkondays1and2(teats1and2)withthemeanofmilkondays3and4(teats3and4),andsoon.Intrial1,theaveragemilkyield(mean±SE)was1.50±0.48kg/day.Thecontentsoffatandproteinwere9.1and4.40%,respectively.Intrial2,themilkyieldwas1.55±0.11kg/day,andmilkfatandproteinwere8.68%and4.86%,respectively.Theperiodrequiredtotrainthebuffaloesformilkingrangedfrom15to32days.Themilkwasreadilyconsumedbychildrenandoldpeople.ItisconcludedthatthemilkingofswampbuffaloesinvillagesinVietnamhasapromisingpotentialtosolvetheproblemofchildmalnutritionandtomakemoresustainablethefarmingsystems.