Almost dairy farms in Vietnam are small scale

The population of Vietnam is approximately 80 million people, more than 80% of which live in rural areas and make their living depending on agriculture. Farm animals make up about 30% of the total agricultural products and supply food for local consumption. These local consumption products provide a rich source of protein through meat and dairy products. The local cattle of Vietnam have a small body size, low meat percentage and low milk production abilities. However, the improved local cattle breed plays an important role in dairy breeding as well as in the dairy development program in Vietnam. The dairy Holstein-Friesian crossbreeds are well suited to local feeding, local management systems and are adapted to tropical climate conditions.

During the last few years the dairy cattle population has rapidly increased, due to a high local demand for dairy products in consumption and the new policy on dairy cattle development from the Government of Vietnam. In Vietnam today the dairy cattle population is about 50,000 heads, 90% of which are Holstein-Friesian crossbreeds and 10% of which are pure Holstein-Friesian cattle. The strategy for increasing milk production from development of dairy cattle in Vietnam has been indicated in the Government Decision No. 167/2001/TTg, dated 26 October 2001. A breeding program that selects improved, local cows and inseminates them with the frozen semen of the proven exotic dairy bulls is used to produce Holstein-Friesian crossbred cattle, and is considered as the main method of boosting the dairy development program in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnam also imports a quality dairy cow gene source from tropical countries around the world to meet the heavy demand for dairy breeds in the country. The plan to improve the level of milk productivity of dairy cattle and the selection of a good dairy breeding program (ONBS and MOET) are sound solutions to improve dairy production in Vietnam. With the improvement of cattle feeding and management systems, the artificial insemination breeding program at present plays a very important role for dairy cattle development in Vietnam.

Since 1990 Vietnam has become a self-sufficient food country, with the ability to produce enough rice to meet local demand and has been exporting rice to other countries since 1991. The livestock production sector of the country has also shown improvement and contributes a vital role in agriculture production by providing meat and dairy products. As of October 2002, the total food production of Vietnam has been the equivalent to approximately 36.8 millions tonnes of rice. Vietnam has become the second largest rice exporter in the world, with more than 4 millions tonnes of rice per year. The living conditions of most Vietnamese have improved, and the milk and dairy requirements have increased rapidly over recent years. The requirement for milk consumption per capita is indicated in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Milk consumption per capita per year

Milk production in Vietnam has rapidly increased, however the requirements for domestic consumption has increased even faster, so milk production in this country falls short of the local market demand. Total annual milk production per capita is indicated in Table 2. Every year about 90% of milk and other dairy products have been imported from overseas to meet the requirements for local consumption. For example, in 2001 the total powdered milk and dairy products imported into the country totaled the equivalent of roughly 500, 000 tonnes.

Table 2. Milk production per capital per year 

So an increasing demand for dairy and growing population requires the country to examine its dairy industry. The population of dairy crossbred cattle (local improved females and Holstein-Friesian bulls) make up nearly 90% of the total dairy production in Vietnam. Almost all of these

Lai Sind cross-bred

dairy cattle are owned by household farmers. These first and second generation crosses (F1 and F2) have milk yields of about 3,000 to 3,500 litres in 305 days lactation. This type of dairy breed is concentrated in surrounding areas of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and in other provinces such as Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc, Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Long An, just to name a few. The Lai Sind cross-bred population is about 1 million, and these cattle are located in many provinces across the country. Their population is also concentrated in the surrounding areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with average milk yields from 1,000 to 1,200 litres per lactation. This breed is considered to be the main source of breeding females for a dairy crossing and development program. Dairy farm herds in Vietnam normally retain a small number of cows (usually less than ten animals) however, there are a few large farms holding about 50 to 100 cows in regions like Cu Chi and Binh Thanh; districts of Ho Chi Minh City. The dairy population development, milk yields and milk quality of Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle in Vietnam during the last decade are indicated in Table 3.

Table 3. Development of dairy cattle population in Vietnam.

There are two major exotic dairy cattle farms spread across Moc Chau, Son La, Duc Trong and Lam Dong which have been importing Holstein-Friesian cattle since the 1970's. The population of Holstein-Friesian cattle in these farms is about 2400. Of this population, 2200 are cows originally from Cuba, 100 are from the USA and 100 are from Australia. These animals produce average milk yields of between 4,200 and 4,500 litres in 305 days of lactation. However, there are some elite cows in this population that yield more than 6,000 litres per lactation. Due to a high demand for dairy cattle, Vietnam has been looking for dairy breeds and importing dairy cattle from abroad. In the 2002 about 3,500 tropical Holstein-Friesian cows and heifers were imported from Queensland, Australia. These cattle are mainly raised in Ho Chi Minh City, An Giang, Can Tho, Tuyen Quang, Son La, Ha Nam, Thanh Hoa and the Nghe An provinces. Nowadays the total HF population is about 6000 heads; all of which are dairy cattle in the adaptation-raising period. However the distribution of these cattle is unbalanced. The total dairy cattle population in Vietnam is approximately 50,000 heads, which are mainly Holstein-Friesian crossbreeds (F1, F2 & F3) and 76% are distributed mostly in the south of Vietnam and surrounding areas of Ho Chi Minh City. About 20% of the dairy cattle population is located in the north and the remaining 4% is in the central coast and highland provinces. The distribution of dairy cattle in Vietnam is shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Dairy cattle in different regions 

The milk productivity of dairy cattle in Vietnam is still limited when compared to other countries in the region. Nonetheless, in the last few years the dairy sector in Vietnam has received more attention from the government and as a result the milk productivity of dairy cows has shown some improvement. The milk yield of dairy cattle is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Milk yield/lactation (1,000 kg) 

There are a number of opportunities for dairy development in this country. Dairy cattle production has been rapidly developing due to a number of reasons. There is a high local market demand for milk and dairy products (especially in urban and industrial areas), and there's also an opportunity to export dairy products to other countries in the region. The raising of dairy cattle helps farmers to change the structure of their livestock production and breeding. Milk production is readily improved providing economic benefits to farmers in the rural area. The dairy Holstein-Friesian crossbreeds are well adapted to the feeding and management system of Vietnam. The dairy sector provides job opportunities in rural areas, helping the problem of high unemployment. Some leading dairy farmers in Ho Chi Minh City build their modern farm for milk production with herd size more than 100 HF crossbred cows, and this is aided by the large number of willing workers in the area who are without jobs. Milk collection systems have been well established in most dairy cattle raising areas with reasonable purchasing prices. All the fresh milk produced by dairy farmers is collected in dairy processing plans and the outputs for dairy cattle products are stable. Another advantage is that in October 2001, the Vietnamese Government issued new policies for dairy cattle production and a nationwide program for dairy development, intended to work from 2001 to 2010. And many provinces have a long term plan and policy for dairy cattle development. Most dairy farmers are willing to invest in milk production to increase dairy productivity, and hence their own personal economic income.

But of course there are the constraints to dairy production to examine about as well. The history of dairy cattle production in Vietnam is still young, and lacks experience when compared with other countries in South East Asia. There are many limitations to the dairy sector. Firstly, Vietnam lacks suitable tropical dairy breeds for each region to meet the growing demand for breeds of dairy cattle. Our country is also lacking technical staff with dairy cattle breeding and management skills. There is a real requirement for staff with milk production and dairy development experiences. There is also insufficient land for raising cows and not enough land for cattle housing facilities and forage production. The country also lacks suitable tropical grasses (primarily legume grass varieties) for diary cattle feed production and cattle ration balancing. Traditionally, cattle production in Vietnam was used for draft-powder and meat production, so the level of knowledge farmers have of raising dairy cattle is still very poor. Dairy production is a new sector in Vietnam, hence it lacks experience in the supply of technical equipment, animal health services and especially in the area of reproductive diseases and disorders in diary cows.

After conducting a great deal of research, a prospectus entitled the Dairy Development Plan of Vietnam, 2002 - 2010 has been set up. It's objectives estimate that in 2005, the total dairy cattle population of Vietnam is estimated to reach 100,000 heads, and the total milk production will be 165,000 tonnes, which will meet 20% of the local demand for dairy products. By 2010 the total dairy cattle population of Vietnam will hopefully be 200,000 heads, and the total milk production will be 350,000 tonnes, meeting 40% of the local demand for dairy products. There are also plans for the production of a new cattle breed in Vietnam, which will have high milk productivity and will be biologically suited to the environmental conditions of this country. Alongside this, its hoped that the breed structure of livestock will change, which will become more economically viable, thus improving the income and living conditions for household farmers in rural areas.

The solutions are based around a number of different strategies and ideas, that are all interrelated. There are plans to produce Holstein-Friesian crossbreeds by way of an artificial insemination program. To achieve the goal of 100,000 dairy cattle in 2005, we must produce about 8,000 to 10,000 of F1 (50& HF) cows per year, from crossing local improved females with Holstein-Friesian bulls. From the present dairy cattle population of 50,000 heads, each year we must produce from 10,000 to 12,500 of F2 (75% HF) and F3 (87.5%) cows. So, every year the dairy cattle breeding program in Vietnam will provide about 18,000 to 22,000 cows and heifers to the dairy cattle population.

Another important measure is the planned improvement of the artificial insemination breeding program for dairy production. In order to meet the growing demand for dairy breeding programs in many provinces in this country, greater numbers of frozen semen doses and more AI kits are needed to supply the central grass-roots AI breeding services system. Besides the AI breeding service, the feeding and management techniques for dairy cattle also need to be improved, in order to meet the demand for dairy production programs, especially for the dairy farmer in the new dairy cattle raising areas.

A strategy to increase dairy cow population is the establishment of a new dairy cattle breeding program which uses the Open Nuclear Herd Breeding System (ONBS) with Multi Ovulation and Embryo Transfer (MOET). From this program, the production of the elite cows and the superior bulls from progeny testing programs through ONBS and MOET can be begun. This can assist the setting up of a specific and unique dairy breeding management system for whole country. This needs to be established with an identification system, management system and dairy recording system for every province in the dairy breeding project. 

Some important factors in solving this sector are worth noting. The Investigation into the raising of tropical Holstein - Friesian cattle in different biological regions of Vietnam for one, and the import of new gene sources of Holstein-Friesian and Jersey breed from other countries for improving the dairy cattle breeding program in Vietnam. Outside of these strategies there is a master plan for dairy production in Vietnam. The regions for raising dairy crossbreeds (F1.HF 50%, F2.HF 75%) are included in the dairy plan as Ha Noi, Ha Tay, Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Hoa Binh, Bac Giang, Son La, Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang, Ha Nam, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Binh Dinh, HCM City, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Long An, Can Tho, and An Giang. The suitable regions for raising Holstein-Friesian cattle and F3 HF (87,5% HF) are Moc Chau, Son La and Lam Dong due to climate and weather. However, for a dairy development plan in Vietnam planned for 2002 to 2010,we must investigate the possibilities of raising tropical Holstein-Friesian in places like Ho Chi Minh City, Tuyen Quang. Son La, Ha Nam, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Binh Dinh, An Giang and Can Tho. 

Dairy feed production is another significant area to be investigated while solving these problems. It is necessary to spend our efforts on cultivating the land for intensive grass production, if we are going to progress in dairy cattle raising. It's obvious that forage production plays an important factor in the development of dairy farms in any country in the world. To this end we must transfer the intensive grass production technique for high yield grass varieties such as King Grass, and Ghine grass with productivity from 120 to 150 tonnes/ha/year for raising 8 to 10 dairy cows. It's also necessary to identify the legume grass varieties, which are suited to the climate conditions in this country. By applying new feed processing techniques to the production of rural farms we are better able to utilize available animal feed resources in small holder farms. We must investigate and produce the concentrate formulas from available feed resources for dairy cattle, which meet the demand of the different development stages of milk production. 

The basis and foundation for a dairy industry is a strengthened animal health and veterinary services industry. Dairy production requires periodic vaccinations of dairy cattle for all relevant diseases, production of vaccines for diseases, (protecting high quality dairy cows and importing any vaccines that aren't produced locally), and control of all veterinary products and antibiotic products which are locally produced or imported from other countries for use in any dairy cattle development program. This also means training farmers in the basic principals of dairy cattle raising and disease prevention, as well as udder health hygiene, milk preservation and some common disease treatments. 

Once the dairy industry has been strengthened in the above mentioned areas, a great deal of organization needs to be implemented. For example, the establishment of the milk collection system in new dairy production regions. The industry must improve methods for milk quality testing, supply of milking equipment and the standards of milk collection cold tanks, while providing more efficient dairy processing services. Upgrading the available dairy-processing plan with modern equipment is necessary, in order to provide effective milk hygiene testing programs and to ensure food security. New dairy plans in the dairy development regions need to be built, in areas such as: Moc Chau, Binh Dinh, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Lam Dong. Alongside these kinds of measures, Government policies for dairy production must be implemented, like decision number 167 /2001/QD/TTg on policies for the dairy cattle development program for 2002 to 2010.

The social impact of the dairy development program will manifest in various ways. It will cause a reduction of the imported dairy products from overseas; which provides an opportunity to improve the milk production in different parts of the country. Also, raising dairy cattle changes the structure of livestock breeds and increases the income for livestock producers in rural areas. It will provide a sorely needed solution to the unemployment problem in the agriculture production sector by providing an opportunity to the farmer for diversification of their livestock products, and will utilize available land and labor potential in highland and mountain areas for dairy cattle raising and milk production.

How this dairy development plan is implemented requires some careful consideration, and follows a set order of tasks. Firstly, the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development builds the dairy cattle development program for each province and submits it to MARD for consideration and sanction. Then MARD evaluates and approves the provincial dairy development projects according to the local potential. The Government of Vietnam encourages all economic organizations (including joint venture and foreigners) to develop all kinds of dairy cooperatives or dairy association for dairy production. This will enhance the investment for dairy development program and strengthen the technical services in dairy cattle raising; milk production and dairy processing. 

To summarize, in Vietnam, the dairy production sector is still very young and has far less experience than other agricultural sectors. However, in the last few years dairy cattle have played an important role in livestock production. Dairy cattle have made a substantial contribution to the changing structure of animal breeding, and have increased the total economic income of farmers. The breeding program of dairy cattle in Vietnam is divided into two main stages. The first stage involves up-grading the program to improve the productivity of farms by increasing the body size and growth rate ability of local cattle. The second stage is by implementing a dairy breeding program by using the Holstein-Friesian bulls and crossing them with local improved female cattle for producing HF crossbred cows. These breeding programs for dairy production exploit the genetic potential of both native and exotic cattle breeds. At present, the total dairy cattle population of Vietnam is about 50,000 heads, with an annual increasing rate of 20%. The dairy HF crossbreeds have the potential for increased milk production as it is well adapted to the local management system and climate conditions. The total domestic milk production in 2002 is estimated to be from 85,000 to 90,000 tonnes, but it meets only about 10% of local demand. Therefore, national dairy cattle development and milk production is confronted by many problems, including a lack of dairy breeds, insufficient land for cattle raising and forage productions, a lack of farmers with cattle feed and management experience, ineffective animal health services and a shortage of long term investment funds. In spite of these limitations, the government has issued Decision No. 167/QD/2001/TTg on policies relating to dairy cattle development. From 2002 to 2010, the main objectives of the Dairy Development Plan of Vietnam is to increase milk production in order to meet more of the local demand for dairy products, and to improve the income for rural farmers. To achieve these goals the number of dairy cattle in 2005 and 2010 will need to increase to 100, 000 and 200, 000 respectively. Meanwhile the annual milk production of 2005 and 2010 would need to reach 165,000 tonnes and 350,000 tonnes respectively. Therefore, the solutions for dairy cattle development programs include better breeding plans, greater feed production, animal health care, sanitized milk collection, better processing and a better policy for dairy cattle production.

                                                                                                                   Ha Noi, 2004