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| Friday, 23 July 2004 |
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Ambewela and New Zealand Farm to increase milk production by Sudarshana Perera Lanka Dairies (Pvt) Ltd a local venture will scale up its dairy business to make Sri Lanka's dairy requirements self-sufficient. The company will invest Rs. 600 million for a new cattle barn and a dairy plant to accommodate 300 cows in addition to its two cattle farms "Ambewela" and "New Zealand". The farm also introduced its latest product "Ambewela Farm Fresh Milk" to provide fresh milk that will help boost demand for liquid milk creating more business opportunities. Cluster Manager for all farms, Sarath Bandara told the Daily News that they have also commenced a "Farmer Development Plan" to assist Small and Medium scale cattle farmers to improve their milk business. With this plan we are planing to collect 25,000 litres milk per day. "We will also install for state-of-the-art technology to meet international standards and our two farms have already installed the latest hygienic milking machines. Ambewela Farm pasture fields have Rye Grass and White Clover which the experts proposed as the best in terms of required nutritional values," Bandara said. Dairy Management Consultant, Kiran Konsher said that the cattle in Ambewela farm belong to the pedigree breeds of Ayershire and Friesian. The breeds are maintained as pure blood lines through artificial insemination using semen imported from Australia and New Zealand. As a researcher points out, soft music is aired when cows are being milked to reduce stress. The farm with an extent of around 600 hectares breeds about 1,300 cattle, 200 Saanan Goats and 1,000 rabbits. It also has two resident Veterinary Surgeons who follow stringent hygienic procedures, thus reducing the intake of drugs and taking care of the health of the animals producing quality milk. "Automated milking parlours, maintained by Alfa Laval Company of Sweden transfer the mill to milk chilling tanks reducing the temperature of milk to 2 degrees centigrade. This prevents the growth of bacteria. The milk is not manually handled at any stage. "If necessary precautions are not taken, bacteria that enters the milk, which is a very sensitive living product, is capable of doubling itself every 20 minutes, which means the milk will contain 16,000 units bacteria per ml after 8 hours, if conditions are not controlled. In other words the milk will be converted to a white coloured liquid with minimum nutritional value," he said. Lanka Dairies (Pvt) Ltd is a subsidiary of Lanka Milk Foods (Pvt) Ltd. |
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