Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Micah Blechner | 180429-N-QV906-039 TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka (April 29, 2018) Maj. Jared Madden, assigned...... read more read more
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U.S. Army Veterinarians and Veterinarian’s assistants attached to the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) participating in Pacific Partnership 2018 conducted a Livestock Management Subject Matter Expert Exchange at the Department of Animal Production and Health in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, April 28 and 29.
Together with the help of several interpreters, Maj. Jared Madden and his team discussed a wide range of topics that included basic principles of dairy cow management, implementation of breeding programs, immunization of livestock, and increasing milk production.
“Look, farming is a risky business,” Madden said earnestly to the class. “You are at the mercy of any number of factors when it comes to running a successful farm. Too little rain, too much rain. Unsuccessful natural impregnation, unsuccessful in vitro fertilization. I am hoping to be able to give you some ideas during this discussion to help you mitigate these, and other, factors that will help you run a more successful farm.”
Madden started out the class by talking about basic principles of dairy cow management.
“A key factor of basic dairy cow management is records keeping,” said Madden. “If you keep good, simple, daily records on breeding, milk production, and heat cycles you can implement all kinds of plans to increase your farm’s productivity.”
Madden explained that it is somewhat universal that farmers want to increase their bottom lines: more milk production, more meat production, and healthier livestock that all lead to larger profits as a result.
“The real goal of this exchange is to provide worthwhile information these farm workers can use to reach their farm’s unique goals,” said Madden.
Madden said that making a plan, in theory, is easy. Farm workers need to look at their farm’s unique goals and weigh key factors, such as resources, space, food, immunization drugs, etc., in determining a game plan to tackle these goals. By keeping good daily operational records a farmer can analyze hard data to determine if his efforts are ultimately going in the right direction.
“By providing these Sri Lankan farmers with new techniques and what may be new information, these farmers will be able to increase their capacity and share with each other what worked for them,” Madden continued.
“My hope is that this class will help foster a sense of community here in Sri Lanka so we can all help learn about the ways we can help each other build stronger, more profitable farms.”
“That is what is great about this mission, Pacific Partnership 2018 (PP18),” Madden explained. “[The PP18 Team] is here to learn about the different ways host a nation deal with emergency situations. We are not here to tell the host nation that our way is the best way for their country when working Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief contingencies.”
Madden said that because the PP18 team is primarily in country to learn from its hosts, they are able to adjust the way future missions will provide assistance when, not if, assistance is needed.
Pacific Partnership is the largest annual multilateral disaster response preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific. This year's mission includes military and civilian personnel from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Peru, and Japan.
USNS Mercy made previous stops in the 2018 mission in Bengkulu, Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After departing Sri Lanka, USNS Mercy will make mission stops in Vietnam and Japan strengthening alliances, partnerships, and multilateral cooperation throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
Pacific Partnership 2018 consists of more than 800 U.S. and partner nation military and civilian personnel working side-by-side with host nation counterparts to be better prepared for potential humanitarian aid and disaster response situations.
| Date Taken: | 04.28.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 05.03.2018 02:05 |
| Story ID: | 275510 |
| Location: | TRINCOMALEE, LK |
| Web Views: | 44 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Army Veterinarians Share Best Practices with Sri Lankans, by PO1 Micah Blechner, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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