You’re Doing Dairy Wrong: Dutch Farmers

Milk Made: Six dairy producers from Holland visit Indonesian counterparts, offering technical advice in Farmer2Farmer program

Jakarta Globe, Adelia Anjani Putri, Oct 02, 2014

Dairy farmers collect milk at a farm in Lembang, Bandung, West Java
 (JG Photo/Rezza Estily)

Cisarua, West Java. Four experienced Dutch dairy farmers have come to Indonesia to train local farmers in ways to improve milk production.

Wendy Kamp, Gerben Smeenk, Marten Djikstra and Jan ten Kate were brought to Indonesia by dairy company FrieslandCampina through the Farmer2Farmer program.

The initiative aims to helps farmers share their experiences and knowledge in order to help local dairy farmers to increase the quality and quantity of their milk production.

The guest farmers scores their Indonesian counterparts on current practices and held a short training on how to improve conditions for workers, including how to increase sunlight exposure on cow pens and how to milk cows properly.

With over 19,000 farms and 1.5 million cows, Holland is one of world’s leading milk producers. In 2012, the Dutch produced 11.6 million tons per year — far surpassing Indonesia’s 38.4 million liters recorded by the Central Statistics Agency.

Traditional farming practices and lack of land are the two most often-cited reasons for Indonesian farmers’ poor production .

“They still use traditional ways and keep doing the same mistakes, especially with the hygiene and feeding system. For instance, here farmers give the cows random grass available nearby without considering the cows’ nutritional needs. The food, of course, affects the quality of the milk,” Gerben Smeenk said.

“In Holland, the farmers have higher education and different circumstances, with the climate and land, so we can’t really compare the two countries,” Jan ten Kate said.

While some believe Holland’s farmers are advantaged by having as many as 85 hectares in which cows may roam freely, while Indonesian farms still use small cages, the reality is that range has diminishing returns — particularly for dairy cattle.

“We need government’s attention,” Erif Kemal Syarif, one of the trained farmers, said upon receiving the training. “We’re not really behind the farmers abroad, but we still need help from the government with the land. They should provide permanent farming land for us.”

Erif also said the government needs to lower taxes on farm equipment.

“The tax is too high. I recently bought a milking machine for Rp 110 million, [$9,000] and the spare parts cost me Rp 1 million each! I need to change eight of them twice a year, while it only costs around Rp 400 thousand each in Holland,” he said.

The Farmer2Farmer exchange, which reached six farms in West Java and Central Java, is the second such visit to Indonesia. Participants are scheduled to share their findings in Jakarta on Oct. 10.

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Dutch food policy needs rethink on dairy and meat: WRR