The Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State, in partnership with Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria PLC, has established a milk collection center code-named “Dairy Village” to reduce the importation of milk and improve the welfare of the farmers.
The Technical Assistant to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Joshua Ogunwole, and Director of Student Affairs, Dr. Adebola Adewunmi Aderibigbe, while taking journalists on a tour of the facility sited within the campus, revealed that the project is part of the institution’s community service and economic empowerment through research and development.
Aderibigbe disclosed that the milks are sold raw at the point of sale to Friesland Campina and that the institution is working at improving the local breed of cow available in Nigeria with Girolando, special cows from Brazil that can yield more milk than the local animals in the country.
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Prof. Tunde Lawal, a professor of Animal Science, who is in charge of the project, disclosed that the university is already planning to take the dairy village to another level with the establishment of pasture and range land in preparation for the Girolando breed, whose semen has already been used to impregnate local animals to produce hybrids that’ll be producing milk in very high quantities.
According to him, the hybrids would be released to farmers in Iwo and beyond to service their female local breeds, adding that the calves would be producing 15 liters of milk as opposed to the one and a half or two liters produced by the local breeds.
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The agricultural officer of the school, who is in charge of the paddock, Olugbenga Ajibade, noted that the institution has 33 cattle currently, as work is ongoing for them to reach the 100 targets, explaining that aside from milk production, the cattle are meant for commercial, teaching, and research purposes.
