Israelis to participate in South Sudan mega dairy project
Kobi Bogin, CEO of AlefBet, stressed that in countries that have adopted the Israeli dairy farming model, parlors have experience a more than twofold jump in milk product.
By SHARON UDASINCows. Illustrative(photo credit: REUTERS)
Tel Aviv-based firm, AlefBet Planners Ltd., will be conducting the planning and design work for a $600 million dairy farming enterprise being developed by Indian entrepreneurs in South Sudan.The executives of AlefBet say the design work will require a wide range of complex infrastructural solutions. The project is expected to include five dairy farms, each of which will contain some 2,000 cows and adjacent milking parlors, making the facility one of the largest of its kind on the African continent, according to AlefBet.Some of the required infrastructural plans will include establishing a clean water supply, providing a reliable and continuous power source and supplying proper cooling systems for the barns in a hot weather climate, explained Daphna Regev, director of business development and management. In addition, the project will need to ensure that the cows have either imported or locally manufactured food supplies and that a mechanism exists for properly refrigerated transport and marketing of milk and dairy products throughout the country, she added.Kobi Bogin, CEO of AlefBet, stressed that in countries that have adopted the Israeli dairy farming model, parlors have experience a more than twofold jump in milk product.Such farms around the world are making use of advanced technologies that focus on feeding management, comfortable conditions for the cattle, health monitoring systems and quick and easy conveyance of the animals to and from the parlors.“Healthy cows that receive comfortable conditions produce more milk, also benefiting the farmer,” Bogin said. “One of the challenges in establishing a dairy farm is cooling in the summer months, as hot conditions reduce milk production sharply.The Israeli climate requires cooling solutions that are critical in tropical and semi-desert countries.”While AlefBet, a multidisciplinary firm made up of architects, engineers and designers, is conducting the planning for the Indian entrepreneurs on the ground, the project is expected to integrate the technologies of a number of Israeli milking companies. AlefBet was unable to provide the name of the Indian firm, however, due to concerns that this could harm the Israeli firm’s involvement.AlefBet has been involved in planning enormous dairy projects around the world, particularly in Asia. In China, the company planned the country’s largest – and the second largest globally – dairy establishment, worth about $500 million. The expansive facilities enable some 8 million residents of the Beijing area to enjoy fresh milk daily, the company said.Each year, China establishes about 100 new dairy farms, and AlefBet said it continues to take part in the industry there. For over a decade, the company has been particularly involved in helping the Shanghai-based Bright Dairy, a subsidiary of Bright Food, develop the dairy sector.
AlefBet also designed the largest Israeli-led project ever conducted in the milk industry – the TH dairy farm in Vietnam. The $200m. project includes 15,000 cows and covers an area of 800,000 square meters, requiring massive infrastructural planning and the transportation of cows arriving by ship from New Zealand, the firm said.In India, meanwhile, due to the sanctity of the cow in the subcontinent, AlefBet was instrumental in planning “hostels” suited to treat wandering cows as well as nursing homes for elderly cows whose milk production has diminished.“The achievement of the Israeli cow, which occupies first place in the milk production world with more than 10,000 liters annually, has aroused the envy of many countries that wish to set up their dairy barns and milking parlors according to the successful Israeli model,” a statement from the company said.