Australian High Commission
Colombo
Australian High Commissioner visits newly-arrived dairy cattle at
Bopathalawa and Menikpalama farms
On 29 January Australian High Commissioner, HE Robyn Mudie, visited Bopathalawa and Menikpalama farms to see first- hand 2000 dairy cattle which have been imported from Australia over the past year by the National Live Stock Development Board (NLDB) for milk production and breeding purposes.
The cattle have been imported as part of a joint project between a leading Australian cattle exporter, Wellard Rural Exports Pty Ltd (Wellard) and the NLDB, under the auspices of the Ministry of Livestock. The USD 12.95 million project is underwritten by finance from the Export Finance Insurance Corporation of Australia, with funds loaned by the Netherlands - based Rabo bank.
As part of the project, NLDB has developed sophisticated farm infrastructure to support large-scale milk production.
An initial batch of 500 dairy cattle was imported to Sri Lanka in March 2012 and a further 1500 delivered on 7 January 2013. The cattle were transported to Bopathalawa by road and are housed in cattle sheds constructed by Wellard with its local partners.
The project aims to develop and increase Sri Lanka’s local milk production by importing high yielding animals and developing and improving NLDB dairy farms. Calves born locally are distributed to local farmers.
Welcoming High Commissioner Mudie to Menikpalama Farm, NLDB Chairman Mr Ranjith Ellegala said the project has had a tremendous impact on the local dairy industry so far. “Since the arrival of the first 500 cows in March 2012, milk production has increased by eight fold. The imported cows produce an average of 21 litres of milk per day. Previously milk production per cow has been 3 litres per day.”
High Commissioner Mudie said “The Australian Government is very pleased to be supporting this major contribution to the development of Sri Lanka’s dairy industry. I was very impressed with the conditions in which the cows were being housed at the farms, and pleased to see that they all appeared to have settled well in their new environment”.
Commenting on the project, Johann Wasserman, – International Project Manager for Wellard said “The milk quality is very good and NLDB can be proud to produce excellent quality milk in Sri-Lanka. The infrastructure development and equipment installations of the second stage at Menikpalama, Bopathalawa and Dayagama are currently in progress and should be completed in the next 2 to 3 months.”