Pahang to become dairy hub

KUANTAN: Pahang is geared towards becoming the East Coast
Economic Region (ECER)’s dairy hub when a RM50mil farm in Rompin
comes into operation this month.
The farm, managed and owned by First Dairy Farm (M) Sdn Bhd, is
located in Muadzam Shah on a 446ha of land in an area designated
under the ECER master plan for cattle and dairy activities.
First Dairy Farm president Datuk Wan Abdullah Wan Salleh said the
company had imported Jersey breed cows from more than 20 farms in
Australia, expecting to produce more than eight million litres of milk this
year.
“The dairy farm will be developed in four stages with the first batch of
284 Jersey cows from Australia already here.
“We expect to have a fourfold increase to 1,200 heads of dairy cows in
the second phase of our operations by yea-end,” he said in a statement
released here on Wednesday.
He added that the indoor barns were the first in the country to be
equipped with air-conditioned control units that provided climate
conditions similar to the country where the cows originate.
It would maintain the quality of milk produced, he said.“All the cows are milked twice a day with each dairy cow producing up
to 22 litres of fresh milk a day.
“When fully operational, milk production will increase to 22,000 litres a
day,” Wan Abdullah said.
He also said the movement of the dairy cows would be monitored
through closed-circuit televisions.
First Dairy Farm executive director S.Muhd Alwi said the dairy farm
planned to tap into the strong milk demand from Australia, New Zealand
and West Europe as Malaysia was still heavily dependent on imports
from the countries.