Manure sheds and milk production : encouraging results in Senegal

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Date Issued
1998
Language
en
Type
News Item
Accessibility
Open Access
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Citation
CTA. 1998. Manure sheds and milk production : encouraging results in Senegal. Spore 74. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/49036
External link to download this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99604
Abstract/Description
Raising cattle in cowsheds is proving to be a great success in the cotton growing zone of Senegal. The local textile fibre development company (Sodefitex) is encouraging this type of intensive livestock husbandry as one way the area can better face...
Notes
Raising cattle in cowsheds is proving to be a great success in the cotton growing zone of Senegal. The local textile fibre development company (Sodefitex) is encouraging this type of intensive livestock husbandry as one way the area can better face the combined pressures of unsettled climate, devaluation of the CFA franc, population and over-use of natural resources. Manure cowsheds, as they are known, are simply shelters having a pit and a feeding trough. In certain cases, the pit is cemented and in others, it is simply a hole dug in the ground. The animals receive a health check and surveillance (vermifuge and trypanocide treatments), are watered once a day, and fed on stalks from the bush and from maize. The major supplement given is cotton seed. The system is seen as a 'technology package' which results in organic manure for fertiliser and for producing biogas. The cowshed system is viable, according to a recent study conducted on twelve family small-holdings in villages around the town of Tambacounda. Sales of milk and the production of manure are well in excess of the costs of the health treatments and the cotton seed. Profits are even higher for farmers that have concreted cowsheds. Still, this system's success depends heavily on Sodefitex's cotton seed price subsidies. Even so, manure sheds help to conserve natural resources, which benefits rural people. For this reason alone this innovation deserves to be supported as an integral part of the cotton production chain, and it should help maintain productivity over the long term. Contact: Cheikh Ly, Service d'économie rural et gestion, Ecole inter-états des sciences et médecine vétérinaires (EISMV), BP 5077, Dakar, Senegal.
Subjects
LIVESTOCK;
Organizations Affiliated to the Authors
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
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