Development Needs of Dairy Farms in Kosovo

The Republic of Kosovo in Western Balkans has raised agriculture as one of its development priorities. Farms are still mainly small and agricultural production poorly developed. Most of the agricultural products in retail stores are imported. The goal of this study was to define development needs of Kosovan dairy farms by observing farm operations. Observations were made in March 2012 by following the work of a farmer in 13 different sized dairy farms. Farmers were also interviewed. The results show that most development needs in milk production are milking hygiene, cleanliness of the milking facility, feeding and heat detecting. For example hoof care and animal welfare were usually at a good level in the observed farms. The size of the observed farms varied between 6 to 115 dairy cows. Milking was done in the smallest farm by hands, ninehad bucket milking system and threepipeline milking system. The observed farms can be classified as semi-commercial and commercial farms which deliver most of their milk to the processor. The main problems in the observed farms were poor milking hygiene and poor cleansing of the milking equipment. This can be also seen from the milk quality of the observed farms: according to somatic cells five farms were in Extra class and 5 in I-class (no information available in 3 farms). In number of bacteria 3 farms were in Extra class, 6 in I-class, 2 in II-class and 1 in III-class (no information available in 1 farm). Especially bucket milking system and in some cases the milking tank seemed to be difficult to clean. In some farms the condition of the milking machine seemed to be poor. The time between calvings was long, on average 432 days. There might be lack of heat detection. Also fertility may be low due to wrong feeding of the cows. The time between calvings was lowest on farms using only natural insemination (396 days) and longest in farms using both natural and artificial insemination (470 days). In farms using only artificial insemination the time between calvings was 444 days. Lactations per cow was on average 3,86. None of the interviewed farmers had agricultural education. An average farm size in Kosovo is about 2,2 hectares of field and about two milking cows. The average milk yield is estimated to be around 2200 kg / year. The biggest problems in milk processors are poor quality of milk and variations in milk received during the year: in summer processors have troubles in using all the milk and in winter the milk production of farms is too low. Only about 10 % of the milk produced is delivered to the processors. The future of agriculture looks bright in Kosovo as all interviewed farmers were willing to develop their farm and saw the future positive. Agricultural advisory (extension) services and the availability of training for farmers play a vital role in improving the basic environment for farming as well as farm profitability.