Cows Prefer Pomegranates

By Alison Park, 17 June 2010 – 2 comments

Every couple of years my brother (farmer) Richard goes on a study trip with a group of local farmers. He has just returned from Israel which has only a 60 year history of dairy farming -- making the farmers very innovative. At a research farm for example, pomegranate juice concentrate was added to the cows' feed. The unlikely sticky liquid was a dietary winner because milk yields increased significantly. Clearly there isn't much scope for locally grown pomegranate back at Low Sizergh (Richard's preference is always to home grow the cows' food) but it was an interesting idea.

2 comments

  • Clare

    17 June 2010, 6.58pm

    Amazing to be able to share global farming innovations - what was the Lakeland advice for Israel?

  • Alison Park

    25 June 2010, 2.27pm

    The local farmers were a bit loath to give them advice! The Israeli farmers told the Brits that they had learned from us what not to do to sell milk. In 1994 the British Milk Marketing Board was broken up, which gave retailers huge power in setting a price they would pay for milk. In Israel they hung onto their centralised marketing system so that farmer, processor and retailer get a fair share on price.

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