Ruminants
Senior 2 · Agriculture
Ruminants
Lesson 5 of 5
18 min
Let's begin
A milk collection centre tests every can that arrives. Milk from a dirty shed, milked with unwashed hands into a plastic jerrican, is often rejected: it has too many bacteria, or it has already turned sour. The farmer loses a day's income, and the cow's health is also at risk.
Sanitation means keeping the animals, their houses, equipment, feed, water and surroundings clean, so that disease-causing organisms cannot build up. It is the cheapest way to prevent disease, and it protects the people who work with the animals and eat their products.
Dung and urine are valuable, but only when handled properly. Collect them in a covered pit and turn them into compost for the crops, or feed them into a biogas digester, which produces gas for cooking and a fertile slurry. Rwanda has promoted domestic biogas for zero-grazing farmers. Heaps of fresh dung next to the shed breed flies and worm eggs.
Biosecurity means measures that stop disease from entering a farm or spreading within it.
An animal that died of disease must never be eaten or sold. Bury it in a deep pit well away from water sources, covered with lime if available, or burn it, as the veterinary officer advises. For suspected anthrax the carcass must not be opened at all.
Wear boots and overalls that stay on the farm, wash your hands after handling animals, and cover cuts: several ruminant diseases (brucellosis, anthrax, tuberculosis, Rift Valley fever) are zoonoses. Keep records of vaccinations, treatments, births, deaths and milk yield, so that problems are noticed early.
A disinfectant label says: mix 20 mL per litre of water. The footbath holds 15 litres.
Disinfectant needed = 20 mL × 15 = 300 mL, added to 15 litres of water. The footbath must be refilled when it becomes dirty, because dung inactivates most disinfectants.
Tip
Memory hook, "Clean – Keep out – Cut off": clean the house and equipment; keep out disease with quarantine, footbaths and few visitors; cut off spread by isolating the sick and disposing of carcasses safely.
Exam technique: in "explain" questions, pair every practice with its reason: "dip teats after milking because the teat canal stays open and bacteria can enter".
Define sanitation in livestock farming.
Solution: Keeping animals, their houses, equipment, feed, water and surroundings clean so that disease-causing organisms do not build up.
Why should newly bought goats be kept apart for about three weeks?
Solution: Quarantine gives time for any disease they are carrying (for example PPR) to show its signs before they mix with the flock, so the flock is not infected.
Give two reasons why milk should be collected in aluminium or stainless-steel containers rather than plastic jerricans.
Solution: Metal containers are smooth and easy to clean and disinfect; plastic develops scratches that hide bacteria, so the milk spoils faster and may be rejected at the collection centre.
An acaricide must be mixed at 2 mL per litre. How much is needed to fill a 16-litre knapsack sprayer?
Solution: 2 mL × 16 = 32 mL.
Suggest two uses of cattle manure on a zero-grazing farm, and one risk if it is left in heaps beside the shed.
Solution: Uses: making compost or farmyard manure for crops; feeding a biogas digester for cooking gas. Risk: it breeds flies and spreads worm eggs and bacteria.
Summary
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa.
