The Beef Cattle Development Plan for 2010 (No1155/QD-UB Nghe An) was introduced in May 2003.
The plan set objectives to increase beef production, use crossbreeding to introduce new breeds and
improve rural incomes. The traditional VN beef industry is based on very small household farmlets,
grazing waste land; this model has proved unsustainable. This project is developing a sustainable,
economic village based beef farming model to improve long-term meat supply, and improve incomes.
This project is implementing and evaluating the village based beef farming system in the Nghe An
Region and three rural villages, which have below average household income levels (Nghia Lam,
Nghia Son and Nghia Yen).
The project has introduced new tropical pasture species from Thailand that are proving very effective
in improving nutrient levels and increasing protein availability. The introduction of bi -product silage
to the nutrient mix is also proving very effective, especially the introduction of cassava leaf silage.
The beef cattle genetic base in the region is very low and the project has introduced Sindi, Brahman
and Droughtmaster to improve long-term potential
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Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Program
208
AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND TRAINING FOR BEEF
CATTLE DEVELOPMENT IN NGHIA DAN, NGHE AN
Project title: Nghe An Province Sustainable Village Based Beef Cattle Development
Training and Extension Program
Code of the project: CARD 010/06 VIE
Author(s): Hoang Van Tao1, Nguyen Quoc Toan2, and Timothy Graham Harvey3
Project Implementing organisations:
1 Nghe An 19th May Fruit and Vegetable Company;
2 Bavi Cattle and Forage Research Centre under National Institute of Animal Science;
3 Massey University, New Zealand.
SUMMARY
The Beef Cattle Development Plan for 2010 (No1155/QD-UB Nghe An) was introduced in May 2003.
The plan set objectives to increase beef production, use crossbreeding to introduce new breeds and
improve rural incomes. The traditional VN beef industry is based on very small household farmlets,
grazing waste land; this model has proved unsustainable. This project is developing a sustainable,
economic village based beef farming model to improve long-term meat supply, and improve incomes.
This project is implementing and evaluating the village based beef farming system in the Nghe An
Region and three rural villages, which have below average household income levels (Nghia Lam,
Nghia Son and Nghia Yen).
The project has introduced new tropical pasture species from Thailand that are proving very effective
in improving nutrient levels and increasing protein availability. The introduction of bi-product silage
to the nutrient mix is also proving very effective, especially the introduction of cassava leaf silage.
The beef cattle genetic base in the region is very low and the project has introduced Sindi, Brahman
and Droughtmaster to improve long-term potential
Key words: beef production, small householders, project, pastures, silage, extension, training
1. Background
Nghe An is the biggest province in Vietnam
with the area of 15000 km2 and the population
of more than 3.4 million persons, of which
70% is farmers living in rural regions that have
lower living standards and social-economic
conditions than the average level in the whole
country1.
In the province, the traditional agriculture
mainly relies on horticulture, animal
husbandry only occupies a small part in the
whole agricultural income1. The livestock
production sector has had little investment
over the last 20 years. Therefore the structure
of livestock production systems is poorly
established, with old technologies used.
In order to change the agricultural structure
reasonably, increase livestock production,
diversify agricultural products and achieve
sustainable rural development, the national and
provincial governments have issued the policy
of strengthening and pushing the livestock
production including beef cattle development
on the aspect of increasing the productivity and
quality of the products in animal husbandry.
CARD 010/06 VIE – Beef cattle development in Nghe An
209
Some new beef breeds have been introduced in
the province through artificial insemination
technology and direct importation. However,
the provincial beef development has still been
slow because of farmers' low knowledge in
animal nutrition balance and limited
application of new technologies, especially in
remote areas. All of this is shown by the small
population of beef herds, low productivity and
fertility and limited growth rate in the region2.
Currently, the province owns about 400.000
local yellow and improved beef cattle (mainly
Zebu crossed breeding), being reared
separately in small sized farms from lowland
to plant for the purposes of food and/or
draught3. These animals can be selected for the
breeding improvement program in order to
increase the effectiveness, productivity and
quality.
The Beef Cattle Development Plan for 2010
(No1155/QD-UB Nghe An) was introduced in
May 2003. The plan set objectives to increase
beef production, use crossbreeding to
introduce new breeds and improve rural
incomes.
The project VIE 010/06 is completely suitable
for the above mentioned decision No 1155.
The project aims to gain the objective of
developing a village based beef production at
small holders in effective and sustainable
model to improve beef livestock system and
increase farmers' income through training and
extension approaches. This project is
implementing and evaluating the village based
beef farming system in the Nghe An Region
and three rural villages, which have below
average household income levels (Nghia Lam,
Nghia Son and Nghia Yen).
2. Research methodology
The research project has been implemented by
using agricultural extension method through
training courses that were organized for the
local farmers in the project site and in some
locations that had an experienced time of
raising cattle such as Bavi and Thaihoa. These
training courses were held with different
methods that were suitable for a number of
selected activities and objectives. Of which,
main activities were focused on beef
production technologies, breeding
improvement techniques, the introduction of
high yield and quality species of tropical grass,
animal feed preservation and processing
technologies, especially the silage making
technologies using different forages and by-
products.
To assess livestock performance by farmers
themselves is the second method that the
project applied during the implementation time
of VIE 010/06. The project farmers were given
girth tapes with using instructions to measure
their animal's chest circumference besides,
they were also taught how to record and assess
their animal's performance every month. This
method helped farmers to form the habits of
observing the growth rate of their beef cattle
therefore, to change appropriately the diet and
ratios for their animals and compare the
performance between the local and cross-bred
beef cattle.
The collected data has been processed by using
Excel software.
3. Results and discussions
3.1 Extension activities
3.1.1 Trainers of Trainers (TOT’s)
The project trained three ToT’s. The key ToT
has been Mr Toan; a senior member of the
BCFRC with a strong academic background in
his position. Mr Toan developed training
material and build on his previous experience.
Knowledge developed by Mr Toan has been
the experience with the new pasture species as
well as providing training to both farmers and
technicians in beef and dairy farming and
animal husbandry management. Toan has
managed the delivery of the village bull project
and worked closely with the project key
farmers, the distribution of pasture seed to
project and non-project HH, and the
distribution of pasture tillers for transplanting
Hoang Van Tao, Nguyen Quoc Toan & Timothy Graham Harvey
210
in two new non-project villages. He has taken
responsibility in arranging farmer training at
Bavi
Mr Ly is the Senior Extension Officer in the
Nghia Dan District. Mr Ly is based in Thai
Hoa Township (20 km from project villages)
and has a team of six technicians responsible
for all aspects of agriculture, with 2 on animal
and forage extension in the District. Ly and his
team have worked mostly with non-project
villages, introduced project technologies,
pasture species now established on 26 farms.
In 2009 they had 30 village training seminars
to 1060 farmers of which 1/3 was pasture and
livestock focused.
Mr Hoa is a senior animal breeding technician
from BCFRC that was seconded to the project
for 6-months in July 2007 to Jan 2008 provide
training in animal breeding, AI and forage
management. He was effective during his 6
months assignment of living and working in
the village.
Table 1 provides a summary of the number of
farmers receiving and adopting technology
from ToT’s.
Table 1. Trainer of Trainers (ToT), technology, number of farmers receiving and adopting
technologies.
Person & Area Technology No. Farmers
knowledge transfer
No. Farmers adopting new
technology
Toan Village bull 5 HH as bull managers 4 using & keeping records
Cross breeding 120 75% adoption
Animal health 80 70% adoption
Silage 20 30% adoption
New pastures 60 75% using 1 year later
Feeding guidelines
Ly (Thai Hoa) New pastures 38 provided seed 18 continued after 2 years
Hoa AI & breeding 45 (mostly non- project) 40% conception rate
Nutrition na na
3.1.2 Farmer Training
Training over the period of the project fell into
three distinct approaches.
Demonstration training directly provided
to farmers
The first approach was providing hands on
practical demonstration training directly to the
farmers. This practical training involved
members of the project team, using the key
project farmers farms as demonstration sites
where technicians undertook practical tasks
such as LWT recording, silage making and
pasture establishment. Over the first 2-years of
the project 20 demonstration training events
were undertaken. The accumulated number of
farmers attending was 131, technicians 72 and
152 hours of training was given. The events
are listed in Table 2. The list does not include
normal farm visits where informal training and
discussion is undertaken. Approximately 50
informal visits have been undertaken in a wide
range of locations, which includes the 3 project
villages as well as farmers in Nghia Dan and
Bavi areas.
Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Program
211
Table 2. Project site demonstration & practical field training
Date Location Type Presenter Subject No. Partici-pant Farmers
Techni-
cians
Dura-
tion
(hours)
12/07/07 19 May Demo Phil Rolston Pasture esta-
blishmnet
5 5 4
17/07/07 N. Son Demo Tim Harvey Silage 8 6 2 2
17/07/07 N. Son Demo Tim Harvey Silage 8 7 1 2
17/07/07 Nghia Son Demo Tim Harvey Silage 9 6 3 2
18/07/07 Nghia Lam Demo Tim Harvey Silage 5 4 1 2
18/07/07 Nghia Lam Demo Tim Harvey Silage 9 6 3 2
18/07/07 Nghia Lam Demo Tim Harvey Silage 8 6 2 2
19/07/07 Nghia Yen Demo Tim Harvey Silage 4 3 1 2
19/07/07 N. Yen Demo Tim Harvey Silage 7 6 1 2
19/07/07 Nghia Yen Demo Tim Harvey Silage 8 7 1 2
22/09/07 N. Son Demo Tim Harvey Silage 12 10 2 2
28/09/07 N. Lam Demo Tim Harvey Silage 7 3 4 2
28/09/07 Nghia Yen Demo Tim Harvey Silage 6 2 4 2
30/11/07 Project site practi
cal
Mr Hoa AI Training 10 9 1 100
20/09/08 19 May Co Demo Tim Harvey Pasture
management
5 0 5 4
23/09/08 19 May Co Demo Tim Harvey Silage 10 8 2 4
26/09/08 19 May Co Demo Tim Harvey Pasture
management
22 16 6 4
12/03/07 19 May Co Field Harvey/Rolston Beef Nut/Ensiling
Bi-Prod
38 30 8 4
20/09/07 19 May Co Field Michael Hare Pasture Nursery
Mgmt
10 10 4
26/09/07 19 May Co Field Tim Harvey Condition Score 12 2 10 4
TOTALS 203 131 72 152
AVERAGE 10.2 7.3 3.6 7.6
No Of Demo 20
Formal workshop within the project sites
The second training approach was based on
more formal workshops within the project site.
These workshops were normally held in a
classroom environment and had duration of
approximately 4-hours. The project team
presented technical data as well as undertaking
some training on trainer methodology, adult
learning and systems management. The
programme normally involved both
technicians and farmers and in year 2 the use
of key project farmers as trainers of farmers
was encouraged and developed as a concept.
Over the first 2-years of the project 14
workshop training events were undertaken.
The accumulated number of farmers attending
was 203, technicians 119, and 62 hours of
training was given. The training events are
listed in Table 3.
Hoang Van Tao, Nguyen Quoc Toan & Timothy Graham Harvey
212
Table 3. Project site workshop training in Nghe Dan District
Date Location Type Presenter Subject
No.
Partici-
pant
Farme
rs
Techni-
cians
Dura-
tion
(hours)
05/03/07 19 May Co W/S Tim Harvey Farm Management /
Beef Nutrition
14 14 4
13/07/07 19 May Co W/S Phil Rolston Project Goals 20 15 5 4
18/09/07 19 May Co W/S Michael Hare Tropical Pastures 8 5 3 4
24/09/07 19 May Co W/S Averill Ramsey-
Evans
Cattle Database
Management
4 4 4
29/09/07 19 May Co W/S Tim Harvey Training Schedule 20 10 10 4
19/03/08 19 May Co W/S Tim Harvey Tropical Pasture &
Farming Systems
15 3 12 4
20/03/08 19 May Co W/S Tim Harvey Tropical Pasture &
Farming Systems
30 25 5 4
19/06/08 19 May Co W/S Rolston/Hare Tropical Pasture &
Farming Systems
34 26 4 8
27/09/08 Thai Hoa W/S Tim Harvey Beef Production 26 14 12 6
03/03/09 Nghai Lam W/S Tim Harvey
/Chesterfield
Beef Production 22 18 4 4
04/03/09 Nghai Yen W/S Tim Harvey
/Chesterfield
Beef Production 22 18 4 4
05/03/09 Nghai Son W/S Tim Harvey
/Chesterfield
Beef Production 22 18 4 4
06/03/09 Thai Hoa W/S Tim Harvey
/Chesterfield
Beef Production 25 6 18 4
04/03/10 Nghia Son W/S Harvey/Hare/
Rolston/Toan
Final workshop,
breeding, forages,
nutrition balance,
65 45 20 4
TOTALS 327 203 119 62
AVERAGE 23.3 14. 5 8.5 4.4
No of W/S 14
International and national specialised
training
The third training approach was international
and national specialised training. Three
specialised workshops were undertaken by
BCFRC at Bavi with project farmers and
technicians travelling from Nghia Dan to Bavi.
The workshops were delivered in Vietnamese
by experience Bavi staff. These workshops
were normally of 3-days duration. The format
involved classroom training as well as more
practical farm visits and discussion with
farmers.
International training involved a 5-day filed
trip to Thailand to look at new pasture species
and beef production systems. This training
was most successful and has led to extension
and use of new tropical pasture species4.
These new species have proved very
successful and Dr Michael Hare, who led the
trainings in Thailand, has now established an
agency in Vietnam for the formal importation
and distribution of pasture seeds. Over the
first 2-years of the project 4 workshop training
events were undertaken. The accumulated
number of farmers attending was 31,
technicians 20, and 307 hours of training was
given. The events are listed in Table 4.
One formal training event in New Zealand was
undertaken in 2007. This training involved the
2 project leaders Mr Diep and Mr Toan and
included training in beef production systems,
beef marketing, conservation of forage and
training methodologies. A second training
event for 2 people was held in Queensland,
Australia in Feb 2010. One Massey University
CARD 010/06 VIE – Beef cattle development in Nghe An
213
scholarship was completed at the beginning of
the project with Mr Toan spending 2-months in
New Zealand undertaking practical and formal
training in NZ farming systems.
Table 4. International & National Specialised Training Events
Date Location Type Presenter Subject
No.
Partici-
pant
Farme
rs
Techni-
cians
Dura-
tion
(hours)
12/08/07
to
28/09/07
BCFRC W/S BCFRC Staff AI Training 1 1 250
2&
3/10/07
BCFRC W/S BCFRC Staff Beef Cattle 25 15 5 16
12&
13/12/08
BCFRC W/S Toan Pasture & Seed
Production
18 13 5 16
15-
19/03/08
Thailand
training
Intens
ive
Michael Hare Tropical Pasture &
Farming Systems
12 3 9 25
6-
12/02/10
Queens-
land, Aust
Intens
ive
Tim Harvey
J. Groaks
Tropical cattle
breeds and
management
3 0 2 50
25/02/10 BCFRC W/S Tim Harvey
Phil Rolson
Michael Hare
Pasture, Nutrition 50 15 35 4
26/02/10 BCFRC W/S Tim Harvey
Phil Rolson
Michael Hare
Final workshop,
breeding, forages,
nutrition balance
60 10 50 4
TOTALS 169 56 107 365
AVERAGE 24.1 8.0 15.3
No of W/S 5 4 5 5
3.2 Establish and operate key farmer
groups in three project communes
The Project approach to selecting three beef
farmer groups in three communes with 9 key
farm households. Key project activities such
as: using project Sindi bulls to crossbreed local
cows, with identification of improved bulls to
successfully crossbreed/mate; establishment
and harvesting of new pasture
species/varieties; application of silage
technology; providing small scale equipment
such as small grass choppers, silage tanks, new
pasture varieties, ear tags, and a measuring
tape to reasonably accurately estimate cow
liveweight on a regular basis.
3.2.1 Improvement of local cows
The project has introduced Red Sindhi
bulls as Stage I. Once Red Sindhi crossbred
female replacements are mature, there will be
the opportunity to introduce a third breed i.e.
Droughtmaster and Red Angus. A small three
year project can only just start a genetic
improvement programme and will require on-
going support to be effective.
Caption Village Bull
3.2.2 Establishment of new pasture
species/varieties and application of
silage technology
Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Program
214
In 2007 the project identified the following
new pasture options which were evaluated
with project and non-project farmers:
* Mulato II (Brachiaria ruziziensis x
Brachiaria brizantha x Brachiaria decumbens)
Mulato II is an improved bred hybrid cultivar
bred at CIAT in Colombia and released in
2004 for more fertile soils that soybeans will
grow in. Mulato II is a high quality forage
grass. The grass has a hairy stem which can
irritate the arms of some peoples when being
hand harvested.
Mulato II pasture
* Ubon paspalum (Paspalum atratum) is a
wild species native to central-western Brazil
and adapted to low pH soils and tolerates Al
toxicity. Ubon paspalum has very wide leaves
and a very high leaf/stem ratio. Farmers find it
very easy to cut because it is so leafy. Ubon
paspalum is a very palatable grass, has good
digestibility but its crude protein levels are
lower than other grasses (5-10%).
Cutting Ubon paspalum
* Improved Napier grass species. There are
two improved Napier grass species that are far
leafier than the common Napier grass planted
by farmers in Nghia Dan district. Cultivar Mott
is called dwarf Napier and is more leafy and
suitable for grazing than common Napier
grass. Hybrid Napier or banana grass
(Pennisetum purpureum x P. americanum) is a
cross between Napier grass and pearl millet.
Improved Napier grass in Thai Hoa
Application silage technology
The project has introduced silage technologies
to the farmers. The uptake of this technology
has been varied; however, the best farmers
have seen tremendous benefits.
The best combinations of silage are:
Napier grass 70% cassava leaf 30%
green maize stove 60% cassava leaf
and top 40%
sugar cane top 70% cassava leaf
and top 30%
Napier grass with additives
All four options increase nutrient levels of
conserved feed well above any traditional
methods. These conservation options also
reduce fibre and increase intake. The cost of
these options is all low (i.e. 500-600 dong/kg
DM).
CARD 010/06 VIE – Beef cattle development in Nghe An
215
Training Outcome:
Farmer attitudes to change and acceptance of
new technologies was variable with a small
proportion of farmers not prepared to adopt or
change their approach. The reasons for this
varied from lack of motivation due to age,
enjoyment of the lifestyle of communal
grazing of cattle, lack of labour or capital to
implement change, lack of education to
understand the concepts. The number of
farmers in this category ranged from 10-25%
of groups evaluated. This level is not
surprising given the rural nature of the project
site.
The majority of farmers accepted the new
technology in some form with some making
radical changes, others just changing minor
aspects such as nutrition balancing. The three
most successful technologies introduced
through training was:
1. the introduction of new tropical species
of pasture,
2. nutrient balancing (especially reduction
in fibre intake) and
3. the use of new improved genetic bulls.
Where farmers could get direct access to these
tec