Comparing National Dairy Industries
URBANA - Saudi Arabia may not be viewed as a dairy-producing nation, but its large-scale farms are selling milk in several Mideast countries, said a University of Illinois Extension dairy specialist.'Saudi Arabia is very future-oriented and taking major financial resources from its oil revenues and investing in dairy production,' explained Michael Hutjens, who visited dairy operations there and in Japan and Egypt this summer. 'Most of the labor in Saudi dairy farms is foreign. One of the farms I worked with had 7,000 North American Holsteins and was adding 2,500 more.
'Milk cows are handled and fed individually. A few large Holstein dairies are being developed but face political challenges and concerns.'
Michael Hutjens
'The cows are on an alfalfa-and corn-soybean based diet and produce over 70 pounds of milk per day in a place where the daytime temperature is over 120 degrees F.'
The cows are cooled, he added, with a commercial water and air movement system developed in Saudi Arabia.
Egypt's dairy industry features a small-farm, subsistence approach with water buffalo milk common. Farm sizes are small, he noted, with four to six milking buffalo or dairy cows for family use. The milk is sold locally.
'Milk pooling stations are beginning to form in Egypt to improve milk marketing and quality,' he said. 'Milk cows are handled and fed individually. A few large Holstein dairies are being developed but face political challenges and concerns.'
Japan's dairy industry is most like that of the United States. It features Holstein cows, imported corn and soybean meal, the application of technology, and herd sizes similar to those of U.S. producers.
'The challenges faced by the Japanese industry include milk prices remaining static while feed prices increase, the need to reduce inputs to save money, the trend toward exiting the dairy business, and large corporations looking to expand into dairying.
'Japan's dairy industry is challenged and changing.'
TheCattleSite News Desk