Heifer International

[haecklers]

I'm pretty curious what your take is on Heifer International. When I was a kid they gave cows like holsteins to Third World families so they could benefit from our "improved" breeds. But the cows are so high input and have such high nutritional needs, I don't think they'd do as well in rustic situations. They also seem to think goats are very hardy but the improved dairy goats sometimes seem to be looking for creative new ways to die. Plus, the local breeds would have adapted to the local conditions and parasites, etc. Shipping modern animals to them seems like a bad idea.

Through World Vision we sent a family enough money to get in their chicken project. They got 50 chicks, some bags of feed, and a class. For some reason all of their chicks died. I think the natural progression for a farmer is to start smaller, learn as they go, make mistakes on fewer animals, and maybe have friends to turn to if something goes wrong, and I worry with an NGO if they get used to getting "all the answers" from them, then the NGO moves on, what happens.

They also say they teach people the "non-grazing" method - where the animals are penned and the land is used to raise crops. The director says that's more sustainable. -?? It seems to me that pasturing animals is sustainable, while tilling the land to grow crops results in decreasing soil fertility.

I've worked in non-profits before where there's a lot of sophistication in keeping the funding, i.e. they strategically don't ask the wrong questions (the ones that show they're not doing a wonderful job). I guess it's made me jaded. :/

[eljay]

When I had Shetland sheep I offered some to Heifer International. I had checked with them and there were a few possible recipients within what I considered reasonable driving distance at the time. I offered to do the health papers and to deliver them. They declined and said that they preferred cash donations instead. That didn't make sense to me.

[haecklers]

I found this article on zero grazing systems for livestock. It appears the farmers focus on feeding, watering, and milking, and often neglect bedding, cleaning, and tending the animals when they know they're sick (this is in Nairobi). www.lrrd.org/lrrd24/9/aler24159.htm

Many spend their lives in a small stall with a concrete walking area to their feeding area, and no bedding. They suffer from lameness, mastitis, and other problems, which are not promptly treated.

[haecklers]

This article www.ilri.org/ilrinews/index.php/archives/629 says farmers in Uganda using Zero-Grazing are not using the manure on their fields to maintain fertility. It also mentions that the government is pushing dairy to export the milk!

"Another finding of the study is that all of Uganda’s dairy farmers, whether intensive, semi-intensive or agro-pastoral, tend to under-use their animal manure as organic fertilizer for their crop fields. The study found the quality of the soils on Uganda’s mixed dairy-crop farms already below a level considered critical for crop production and continuing to drop. This deteriorating situation is fast eroding the long-term sustainability of these farming systems; if nothing is done, food insecurity and poverty in the country are likely to worsen. This is despite these farmers having adequate amounts of manure from their dairy cows to use as fertilizing soil amendments. It is likely that Uganda’s dairy farmers are under-using their livestock manure to fertilize their crop soils because they lack the labour needed to save, transport and apply the manure."

[AnnB (NE)]

I am one who will sing the praises of Heifer International!

In most cases they do not bring cattle/goats/large animals from the US to recipient families, they use the donations to buy local animals that will perform better under those circumstances.

Several years ago I was contacted by Heifer to purchase rabbits when they were setting up a Rabbit Project in Ukraine. They purchased animals plus I donated an equal number of animals (total of 2 breeding trios of 2 does, 1 buck were sent).
Heifer did a great job of getting the recipients started and arranging how surplus offspring would be distributed. I kept contact with the original recipient family for a couple of years. Within 1 year every family in the village that wanted to raise rabbits, had rabbits to raise. It was a resounding success. Heifer expected the rabbits to a successful for meat production, but they didn't expect the fur to become almost as important as the meat.

I would expect no less with their other projects.

Ann B