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A Review: Should small holder dairy farms rear own young stock?

Ang Xin Tong¹, Norhariani Mohd Nor¹*, Dikky Indrawan^2,3 and Nurul Aisyah Mohd Suhaimi⁴

¹Department of Veterinary Preclinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
²Business Economics, Department of Social Sciences Wageningen UR, Hollandseweg 1 (Building 201) P.O. Box 8130, 6700 EW, Wageningen, The Netherlands,
³Business School, Bogor Agricultural University, Jl. Raya Pajajaran, (SB-IPB Building) 16151, Bogor, Indonesia
⁴Faculty of Bioresources and Food Industry, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kampus Besut, 22200, Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia

Malaysian J. Anim. Sci. 2018 21(2): 1-6

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In South-East Asian countries, including Malaysia, most dairy farm owners (62%) are small holders. Consequently, the current self-sufficiency of fresh milk in Malaysia was reduced from 127.98% (2012) to 60.91% (2016) within the 5-year period. The government has adopted production strategy to improve the production and economics of small holder dairy farms. The average number of dairy cows was reported at 85 dairy cows per farm while on average, 30% of dairy cows are culled each year. To replace the culled dairy cows, on average 26 first calving dairy heifers are needed per farm. Poor young stock management is one of the major problems in most small holder dairy farms that cause replacement heifers not to be available. Inability to perform proper young stock management occurs to farmers who fail to realize that management throughout the rearing period directly influences income of the farm. Thus, rearing young stock is an expensive investment that needs attention, but farmers in Malaysia are less aware on costs of rearing. Young stock rearing could be viewed as a profit (or loss) centre for the small holder dairy farms which entail decision to outsource. This decision can be supported using partial budgeting and cost benefit analysis methods and needs inputs such as costs of rearing and price of heifers. Estimating costs of rearing a young stock in dairy farms in Malaysia could improve awareness to farmers, improve the decision making either rearing own young stock or purchasing dairy heifers, and could increase economic sustainability and milk production of dairy farms in Malaysia.