Strategies to Increase the Domestic Production of Raw Milk in Indonesia and other South East Asian Countries

Abstract

The increases in domestic milk production throughout Asia have failed to keep up with the increasing demand for liquid milk and processed dairy foods. Consequently self- suf ciencies have and are still falling to such an extent that Asia now accounts for over 40% of the world’s total dairy imports. Taking Indonesia as a case study, poor on-farm management, selling off dairy cows for beef and high animal feed prices are major contributors to their 30% self-suf ciency in raw milk. Small herd sizes (from one to  ve milking cows) are also a major constraint to increasing per cow performance. Increases in national milk production can result from more dairy farms, more cows per farm and/or higher milk yields per cow. Because of very high herd wastage rates, importation of dairy heifers from overseas is the main way to increase the national herd size. Such animals require high quality feeding and herd management, particularly during their early post-arrival phase and this is rare to  nd with most of the unskilled small holder farmers. There is increasing interest in “mega dairy farms” holding 500 to 1,000 or more milking cows in virtually all of the South East Asian countries. This review concludes with listing 14 pros and 19 cons, as well as other considerations, when assessing the potential viability of large scale intensive dairy farms in the humid tropics.