Tag: Raziq

The Milking Camels of Australia~World Camel’s Day Gift

The beautiful series of World Camel’s Day (WCD) is continue. The recent updates are received by Hannah Purss from Australia. She is telling about her camel journey and the milking camels of Australia. Here is her article in the ensuing lines.

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The disciplined Camel walking on grass instead of sand

“I was first introduced to camels when I was working in Central Australia, a hot, semi-arid region of the country. As I learnt about the valuable contribution camels made to Australia’s development, and the current wild population in the Australian deserts I realized what a valuable, yet wasted, commodity we have here. Dromedary camels do not roam free in other countries as they do in Australia, we are the only country that is yet to recognize their value. Here in Australia, wild camels are said to be in numbers above 300,000.  Most farmers and landholders that have access to wild camel populations view them as a pest, are uninterested in camels or are unsure of how to work with them.

 In 2014, Evan Casey and I founded Australian Camel Solutions Pty Ltd, a company that is based on solid and progressive camel handling and the development of the camel industry in Australia.

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The safe and friendly transportation of camels

 In Queensland, in Australia’s east, we have co-founded The Australian Wild Camel Corporation Pty Limited, a commercial scale camel dairy company. Being on the east coast of Australia means we can be closely linked with universities, academics and various dairy, camelid and veterinary experts.

We have been in operation for around six months now. We are having the most remarkable experience putting our theories and plans into practice, and as a team we are learning more each day.

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Hannah Caring her camels

Currently we are milking over 50 camels and as we move into Australian calving season, we hope to increase that number rapidly. The training program we use to bring camels from completely wild and out of the desert into our milking herd was developed by our company, Australian Camel Solutions, and is based on body language and the communication methods we’ve picked up from the camels themselves. In our dairy training program, we don’t use ropes or restraints on the animals which has helped us tremendously in the speed we can train them, and in keeping their stress levels down during the process. On farm, we have a vibrant, young team and it is especially exciting for me to see them growing in their camel handling skills and their passion for the industry. At TAWCC, we are passionate about fostering a supportive and progressive camel community.

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The Camel Milk

We have been conducting lots of product development – from fresh milk, to ice cream, yogurt and more. Our milk is currently being used to produce our own brand of camel milk soaps and skincare products. The skincare products are currently available only in selected stores, but very soon we will have them more readily available in Australian stores, online and hopefully around the world.

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The Happy, Healthy, Alert and Beautiful Camels of Australia

A very Happy World Camel Day from Australia!”

Hannah Purss, Australian Camel Solutions PTY LTD

www.camelmilkaus.com

The Wise Naqa Camel and Lavish Holstein Cow

Holstein is a dairy queen among the cows and producing around 12,000 liters per lactation. Though its’ farming system (intensive) is objectionable in many features as; animal welfare, environment, energy, methane and carbon foot print etc. but satisfies the ever increasing desire of the milk consumers. Beside all discomforts, she is very generous and kind, consuming all her available (glucose) and reserve (fats) energy to produce more milk. She keeps her life on risk and experience deficiency/metabolic ailments in her shortened life. The scientists are agree that the higher yield of this generous cow has shortened the life span of Holstein.

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Camel milk let down is best in the presence of her calf

On the other hand Naqa (the milk producing camel is called as Naqa in its true habitat) is very wise in consuming and storing energy. In good days (when surplus feed available) she stores energy (fats) in her hump and re-use during the feed scarcity. Having been with the Naqa dairy (modern and intensive), I have experience that even the high yielding Naqa increases the feed conversion efficiency (during high milk yield period) to fulfill extraordinary energy demand and try to keep her stored fat intact (hump). An elder wise man whispered “she stores and uses energy judiciously to keep her body beautiful” as camel’s beauty lies in her hump.

It is a brain storming for you all. Enjoy the life, learn more and revolutionize your ideas.

The Camels’ Terminologies Needs to be Re-established

The world terminology in Wikipedia is written as;

Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words or multi-word expressions that in specific contexts are given specific meanings.

The camel terminology is mainly derived from a cow/cattle production system in English, which is a wrong approach. I’m giving you a food for thought to reconsider and re-establish camel’s terminology. As the camel was domesticated, evolved and managed for centuries in Arabian Peninsula, the best terminology will be the one used in that region.roadtrip0501_8_base

As an example, I hereby give some terms which I learned here in the region and some are found in the literature. I’m lucky living in the specific area (Hilli Alqatara in Alain) where the camel was domesticated. I can say, I’m living in the cradle of camels’ domestication.The Ice Cream Species of Plants for the Camel and Goat, the camel icecream food is found in the region.Al Ain National Museum Explores the History of Domesticated Camels. The analysis of bones found on dig sites across the country indicated that camels were tamed and domesticated no earlier than 1000 BC. 

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  1. Camel is not a cow… the best word for milking camel is……  NAQA
  2. Camel male kid is not a calf but a …………………                          Gaood
  3. Camel Female calf is not a heifer but a………………………………….Bakra
  4. The breeding male is not a bull but a…           ………………………..Baeer    

I am really looking forward to discussion, criticism, fortification, addition to this precious topic.

Reference;

http://www.almaany.com/en/dict/ar-en/camel/

Camel Milk can Help in Shark Conservation. Japan can be the Possible Market for Camel Milk

In Japan, health-conscious people use Shark fins for natural and good health. They think that Shark fins are rich with nanobodiesWHAT ARE NANOBODIES?. They considered the Shark fins as health promising, energetic, and aphrodisiac. This is the reason that Shark prices are very high in Japan. Fortunately, some recent studies have revealed that even better Nanobodies are found in the camel milk, considered richer than the Shark fins.Camel! A One in All Creatures

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A single-domain antibody (sdAb, called Nanobody by Ablynx, the developer) is an antibody fragment consisting of a single monomeric variable antibody domain. Like a whole antibody, it is able to bind selectively to a specific antigen.

A famous chef name Chinn (protecting Shark) even claimed “Shark’s fin soup has no taste! You take fins off a shark and you don’t really get anything. There’s no value except what you’re paying for.” Camel milk can be a good source of NB and reasonable replacement to the Shark fins. Hence, we can say that Japan and Korean Peninsula can be the new and emerging market for camel milk.

I started this debate as a brainstorming and a new thought.

shark fins

Camel Milk
Milking a camel at Sheikh Zayed Festival Abu Dhabi UAE

Beef Cattle Fattening for Eid ul Adha

An entrepreneur to harvest superfluous income

Karachi is the hub of the economic activities of Pakistan. The home of many industries and business offices, Karachiates spend extra money to buy unique and special items. The people of Karachi buy charming and beautiful bulls for qurbani (Eid ul Adha) Islamic ritual and pay many times more money for this purpose.IMG_1618 IMG_1574

They like beautiful animals with more beef. They prefer polled animals with attractive colors. Usually, native breeds like Thari, Bhagnari, Cholistani, Lohani etc are preferred but a new phenomenon also exists as buying exotic beef cattle. The beef animal having white eye lashes and white muzzles are highly liked in the qurbani market. The whole white body is rather more acceptable.

Karachi is the largest market for such animals in Pakistan. It was revealed in a visit to Sind Dairy Farm that each dairy farm is producing beef animal for this special market. They either fattens their own male calves produced at farm or buy male beautiful calves from country side to hunt this market. They buy bulls/steers from the pastoralist communities like Dajal, Tharri, Rojhan etc. They dehorn such bull at the farm while using clutch wire. I felt such method very cruel and harmful for the animals. Some animals were found with wounds and pus because of de-horning with such a cruel method.

Only Sindh Dairy Farm sold 500 bulls for qurbani last year in Karachi market. We noticed that yearling male (12-15 month of age) were in a very good healthy having a weight of almost 600 kg. They have 100 beef animal, comprising of many breeds, i.e Rojhan, Dajal, Bhagnarri, Cholistani, Jersy, Belgium black, Simmental, Angus, and Hereford.

They regularly weigh their animal at monthly intervals and offer good and nutritious TMR.

This entrepreneur is a unique of its kind and provide opportunities to the commercial dairy farmers to harvest extra money and sustain profitable business. A comprehensive study is the utmost need of time to portrait the flow diagram and the income etc.

Unique Style of Good transport at Farm ~ Commercial Dairying in Karachi City of Pakistan

bull cartUnique Style of Good transport at Farm ~ Commercial Dairying in Karachi City of Pakistan

They use bull/steer Cart for traction at farm. Thari breed is considered as best for traction with a traction power of 3.6 ton. There are about 10 traction bulls at the farm.

Modern Reproductive Technology in Commercial Dairy Farm in Karach

As discussed in the previous blog;

https://arkbiodiv.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/commercial-dairying-in-karachi-city-of-pakistan/

The farm is practImageicing embryo transfer technology at the farm. They have already produced 12 male and 8 female calves (now in breeding age). They have some more females with lesser ages. The embryo of HF was used for this purpose and the recipient mother was from Cholistani cattle.

The embryo was from the HF breed with milk production potential of 120 liter. The heifers produced with ET technology were then inseminated with the semen of RIVER bull. Embryo transfer technology was facilitated by military dairy farm Okara Pakistan.

The calves born at the farm are now well acclimatizing with the prevailing conditions and weathering temperature. They also use sexed semen only for good heifers and first calver. The cows with more parity are not suited to sex semen because of low success rate. They buy semen of the CRI Company through Altaf and Sons Company of Pakistan.

Camel Riding in Khartoum

The picture was taken at the occasion of the conference on camel research and production, 17-18 April, 2013.
The camel for riding is incredible. I really liked the saddle of the camel. It is beautiful, comfortable and light weighed.

Dr Amel Bakheit, dean of the faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science University of Khartoum

She was so kind and humble. She duly respected each participant. There were many scientists from around the world. The eminent scientists like Wani, Pamela, Rifat, Skidmore, Abu Bakar and many others participated in the conference.

Livestock for Futures and Global Agenda of Action (GAA)

Livestock for Futures and Global Agenda of Action (GAA)

There is ever increasing demand for meat, milk and other livestock products because of crawling urbanization, developing economies, population pressure and awareness about livestock based food stuffs (contrary to developed countries, where the people are minimizing usage of animal products, especially meat). Up to 2050, there is a challenge of more meat and milk 74 % and 52% respectively to fulfil nutritional requirements. In the meanwhile some hot issues are also interconnected to livestock i.e. food security, environmental issues, feed and water scarceness, human health and biodiversity etc. In the above mentioned situation GAA stresses for a sustainable livestock production systems to keep a smooth course of animal based food products.

To understand the chemistry of sustainable livestock production, we need to know in depth about the current livestock production systems prevailing in at global level. In a broader sense there are two production systems like that of high input livestock production systems (HILPS) and small scaled livestock production systems (SSLPS).

High Input Livestock Production system (HILPS) is composed of high yielding genetic resources (cattle, pig, chicken, maize and soy), heavy mechanization/automation, large strips of land, heavy loans and subsidies, tax payer money, modern education/techniques, processing plants and corporate sector support. The system provokes import of feed resources, especially soy and export food items and even manure. Such system demands huge consumption of fossil oil which further complicates the question of sustainability.

On the other hand, SSLPS depend on a wide flora and fauna biodiversity. This system not only produces healthier food but also provides eco-system services and touristic opportunities. The system is highly sustainable and evolved with precious traditional knowledge. This system relies on local feed resources and high level import of feed resources is out of question.

Threats from High Input Livestock Production system (HILPS)

To beat the challenges of ever increasing food items, HILP is generally supported among the policy makers to beat this challenge. In contrary small-scaled livestock production (SSLP) is always neglected and even considered as backward and worthless. The rich industrialized livestock production system is getting more and more volume while engulfing small scale farming consequential in a threat to precious biodiversity of livestock and other related biomasses. The use of narrow based genetic material making it susceptible to catastrophe of certain genes’ linked diseases which further deepens the concerns about its sustainability. The present HILP is not sustainable and this bubble cannot inflate further. The rupture of this bubble can create further catastrophes which demands for making it sustainable. Regrettably, such theme is still embryonic among the policy makers.

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In Europe, USA and other industrialized countries the number of farms are lessening and number of livestock is increasing. Such intensification provokes other problems like that of environment and animal welfare. HILPS is centered on high level import of Soy and corn from Latin America resulting in marginalization of small keepers over there and promote land grabbing. The precious and wide biodiversity of rain forests is on stake because of this mega monster.

Recommendation

To achieve the goal of sustainable livestock future, some suggestions are hereby presented in the ensuing lines.

  • Taking small scaled livestock keepers on-board at policy levels (local, national, regional  and international levels) is the paramount need of time
  • Linking small farmers with the market through branding of its products and value addition
  • A diverse livestock production system based on a many pillars, like biodiversity, TK, culture, heritage, ecosystem services and management, native livestock breeds, is more sustainable and can produce healthy food
  • There is utmost need of time to understand and study SSLPS and evaluate in a broader module to compare with HILPS
  • Convincing consumers to pay more for the products come from the pastoral and small scale livestock keepers
  • Agriculture should declare as heritage but not only food production factory by the developing countries
  • Promotion of production in balance, not import feed and not export manure

The above paragraphs were written in the context of GAA of the FAO and Livestock for Futures Conference in Bonn, Germany.

For further reading please go to the links below.

WORLD DONKEY DAY

WORLD DONKEY DAY

World donkey day was celebrated worldwide.

 

Henderson and the donkey
Henderson and the donkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WORLD DONKEY DAY

World donkey day was celebrated worldwide.

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Camel Fairs in Pakistan: A Case Study from Mangrota of Pakistan

Camel plays a very pivotal role in the life of the people of the northeastern Balochistan (Suleiman  mountainous region). The camel herders graze their camel herds all around the year on the woody vegetation of the mountains and in the month of October, they separate the camels ready for sale. The ready for sale animals are then moved to Mangrota camel fair. Mangrota camel fair is very famous among the camel breeders and is the main market for their camels. Mangrota is the town of Tehsil Taunsa, Dera Ghazi Khan (D.G.Khan) district of the Punjab province, Pakistan. The Mangrota camel Mela is held every year in the month of October and is the largest event of the year for the pastorals and traders of the region. The camels brought are predominantly white in color and are known as Kohi camel. These camels are mostly brought from the Suleiman Mountains and the adjoining areas. Mostly mature well-developed males of age more than 5 years are brought, but some cow camels and immature male and female are also brought.

The male matured draught animals acquire by the people of the high mountains for downloading timber wood, vegetables and the old and sick populace down to the roadsides or nearby towns. They carry their daily requirements by loading on camels to the peaks of the mountains where they live. These camels are moved from Mangrota camel Mela both on foot and by loading in trucks to Swat, Dir, Dera Ismail Khan (D.I Khan), Tribal areas & other parts of the NWFP province and some may reach to Afghanistan.Camels in Magrota

Location & History of Mangrota Fair
Mangrota is a town of Tehsil Taunsa, Dera Ghazi Khan (D.G.Khan) district of the Punjab province, Pakistan. Mangrota is situated at the terminal of the piedmont of Suleiman Mountain eastward. According to some elders and, Mela was previously called as Dosera, which was being held regularly at 16-23 October of each year. The Mela was purely a religious event of Hindu people before partition. Those times the camel was being used for bringing the Hindu families to the Mela place mainly on camel back, donkeys, and horses. A lot of camel, donkeys, and horses were being gathered at one place and the Mela gradually got importance as camel and other draught animal’s bazaar. After partition, the religious importance of the Mela diminished and the marketing importance still exists. The Mela is interesting for the camel herders, traders, businessmen, local healers of camel and other related people. Now the Mela has been declared as Camel Mela officially.Mangrota Camel Fair

Number and type of animals
Mela is for the camel but horses and donkeys are also brought. An increasing trend in the number of donkeys and horses has been observed. Camel comes here range from 8,000 to 10,000 every year. In the year 2006, the camel number was comparatively lesser than previous years due to the trouble in Maree and Bugti hills of Suleiman Mountains. The causes of the lesser number of traders participation were the rumors that this year the Mela will not be held because of the trouble in the Maree and Bugti area and the because of the month of Ramazan. In the year 2007, the camel number was higher than 2006 but the traders were lesser, because of the uncertainty in the Northern tribal area, where the majority of the camel goes.

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Business and Marketing System
The contract of the Mela is auctioned by D.G. Khan Municipal Corporation each year and contractor of the Mela charges 5 % of the cost of camel, which is paid by both the supplier and buyer or only one party pay the whole tax depending on the bargain. If someone found selling or buying an animal without paying the tax, will be punished eleven times of the actual tax. Broker charges of Rs. 400/ on each bargain (200 from each party) on the camel and a broker can make up to 25 bargains in a day. The traders paying for a camel.

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Marrecha Camel passing by the Draban forte in Cholistan desert of Pakistan

Camel passing by the Draban forte in Cholistan desert of Pakistan

The title of the photo is self explained.

Camel is not just a source of earning livelihood and food security but a main player in cultural and recreational goodwill of the camel’s pastoralists in its habitats. In Pakistan, camel is being enjoyed for many recreational purposes but dancing is one of the most important and unique event, especially among Marrecha camel paternalists. The Marrecha camels’ pastoralists are very fond of camel dancing and practice annual events to share the performance of their elite camels. According to Marrecha pastoralits, their camels are the best in learning dancing and even other commands. They define their camels as obedient & humble and good in learning different commands. Marrecha camel quickly learn dancing, riding/racing in desert and even working commands in the agricultural fields and densely populated cities’ street. This breed of this camel is highly liked by the people of Cholistan and its adjoining areas for accessibility in desert, beauty of gesture and good learning ability. To read more about Marrecha camel and Cholistan please click the links below;

https://arkbiodiv.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/marrecha-camel-of-cholistan-desert/

http://www.pastoralismjournal.com/content/1/1/3

Camel passing by the Draban forte in Cholistan desert of Pakistan

The title of the photo is self explained.