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SUMMER 2016 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
12
CHAR I TY CHAL L ENGE
A man caring for his cow
’Rwandans love cows,’ says Alex. ’They are
a symbol of wealth. They provide milk, and
of equal importance, fertiliser. This enables
the soil to be improved so that more crops
can be grown, even through the dry season.
The dung is even used to produce biogas for
cooking.
To receive a cow, families must be able
to demonstrate that they are producing
vegetables to feed themselves and have
cultivated at least half a hectare of land for
fodder crops to feed a cow.
The charity will then teach families, usually
meeting up in groups of 30-40, to build a
shelter for the cow; they are also taught ani-
mal husbandry skills.
About cows
Cow shed with veg garden in front
Jean-Claude and Josephine had received a cow
last December and she had calved. The cow
produced 200 litres of milk in the first month
and a surplus of 60 litres was sold. This
generated enough money to buy one year of
health insurance for the family
Zero grazing systems
All of the Send-a-Cow projects operate on a
zero grazing system. In Rwanda, this is the
most welfare-friendly option for the following
reasons:
1. Disease
– Tick borne diseases are common
in Rwanda, as is Brucellosis (Undulant Fever
in people). Reducing exposure to ticks
reduces the chance of disease in people
and animals.
2. Heat stress
– It’s hot in Rwanda and black
cows and sunshine do not mix well!
Providing shade in an airy shed is a far
more comfortable environment to be in.
There is a small outside area should the
cow wish to go out (they rarely do).
3. Free access to feed and water
– The
alternative to being housed is being tethered
or being shepherded, because fences do
not exist. In which case, access to water
may be restricted and feed may not always
be abundant. The farmers with Send-a-Cow
are trained to provide plenty of forage
(including conserved forages in the dry
season) and to provide plenty of water,
essential for milk production.
4. Companionship
– Being a herd animal,
the cows would probably prefer to be in a
group but until resources allow, this is not
possible. However, these cows are not
alone, their owners dote on them! They
are brushed, scratched and interacted
with frequently.
gas. This is collected into a slurry pit and
from here it can be mixed with compost and
used as a fertiliser for the garden. It was
very, very impressive!’
Mini biogas plants
’With cows being housed, then all their
manure and urine can be collected,’
explains Alex. ‘These make ideal fuel for a
biogas plant. They are mixed together, with
some water, in a concrete masher. This
drains into a large plastic or concrete silo.
The mixture is fermented to produce biogas
which rises to the top of the tank where a
small pipe plugs directly into a gas burner.
There is enough gas generated to cook all
day, every day. So there’s no need to send
the children out to get firewood, they can go
to school instead!
’The manure is pushed out of a pipe at the
other end of the tank by the pressure of the
Why it works
’In the past, the soil was hard and infertile,
there was malnutrition and no future for these
farming families. The Send-a-Cow charity has
shown them how to use the resources they
already had, and taught them new skills.
’There is no doubt in my mind that the Send-a-
Cow formula works,’ says Alex. ’Motivation
and education are the keys to success, and
these have to be sustained. It appears that the
Send-a-Cow team are very good at doing this
and the support from other villagers enrolled
on the programme means that there are always
mentors to support those that are struggling.
’Before my visit I had equated ‘charity’ with
helping people survive and to just get by. But
this project empowers people and enables
them to have plans for the future. Plans that are
not too dissimilar from our own, albeit on a
slightly different scale.’
Through their fundraising activities, XLVet
practices raised over £35,000 to support
both charities local to them and Send-a-
Cow. Following this amazing achievement
several XLVets members have been working
with Send-a-Cow to consider how they can
further support the fantastic work that the
project undertakes.
The XLVets FarmSkills training has been
identified as a valuable tool that could help
improve animal husbandry and livestock
health for all the African countries the project
supports. The aim over the next three years
will be for XLVets practices to raise funds to
enable four XLVets vets to deliver specific
training to improve skills and knowledge of
project co-ordinators and farmers.
Keep an eye out for an update on how the
project progresses and how the training is
being used by Send-a-Cow farmers in
upcoming issues of Livestock Matters.
The mixer used to add dung to the fermentation
bag
This is the fermentation bag, the pipe takes the biogas
produced to the cooker; below, cooking on gas
instead of fire