Ahmed Tahir Ajobe
6 July 2008
Lafia — Established in 1982, the dairy farm started production of its own yoghurt and fresh milk since 2003 but had to close down for facility upgrading for about two years. Today, Nagari Yoghurt is the most sought after in designated supermarkets not only across the state and the federal capital territory but in the whole country.
"We have just finished test-running; what we have is a high quality product that compete with anywhere in the world," the former governor told Sunday Trust in Nagari Farms, located along Nasarawa Road, Keffi, recently.
Part of the expansion programme is the procurement of a modern plant with a capacity of producing four thousand litres of Yoghurt per hour. "We had shut down completely and stopped producing until we put our new plant in place and what you see now is a new plant with improved technology and expertise, Adamu explained.
Along with the new plant were five technical partners from Germany made up of a plant manager, production manager and three dairy engineers. The expatriates are expected to impact their technical know-how on the Nigerian engineers who would eventually take over with time.
It also involved the importation of about two plane loads of pregnant heifers from Holland. Altogether, the farms have about 200 of such breeds in its stock. Each of the breed cost about $3,200 to bring into the country. The heifers, known as Bosmaras and Maras, were among Holland's traditional breeds from the basis of the Holstein Friesian (HF), the dominant breed, accounting for more than 95 percent of the Dutch black and white. They are large and stylist; a healthy Holstein calf weighs about 90 pound at birth. Holstein heifer, according to experts, can breed at 13 months of age. Its gestation period is approximately nine months, like humans.
Interest in Holstein is said to be ever-increasing due to its high production capacity, greater income overfeed costs, unequal genetic merit and adaptability to a wide range of environmental conditions.
Adamu said the pregnant heifers (female) cow were imported by the farm while they were six months pregnant and three months later they gave birth to the calves. After the calving, the milking begins. Each cattle gives something in the region of 25 litres of milk per day, but the farm also has exceptional breeds that can produce between 40 to 41 litres of fresh milk per day. The milking is done twice in a day-morning and evening.
The former governor, however said that not all the three species of the Holland breeds on the farm were for milk, some are meant for beef.
The maximum quantity of milk one can get from the local heifer, he said, is between four to five litres and that two to three from the quantity would go to the calf, leaving about two litres for commercial purpose. He attributed the low production level of the local stock to genetic. "In the strict sense, the local stock is not meant to produce the kind of milk yield that we require today," Alhaji Adamu said. The farm has a herd of a little over 500 of such local heifer popularly known as Sokoto Gndale in its stock.
He said the foreign breeds were genetically improved upon over time for higher yield in terms of milk and off spring through critical artificial insemination (AI). AI, he explained, made the development of reliable, unbiased methods to evaluate the Holland breed genetically possible. He said with artificial insemination, a bull can sire as many daughters as possible. Type and production information on all these females makes it easier to predict performance of future offspring and evaluate the quality of genetics transmitted from sire off spring.
The farm, he also stated, has been able to evolve its own artificial insemination programme aimed at increasing its stock of animal for milk production and, by extension, yoghurt. He hoped that research institutions in the country would come out with the wherewithal required to improve the quality of the local cattle so as to be able to improve their yield.
Production proper, according to Abubakar Yusuf, a senior manager in the farm, begins by reconstituting-mixing whole and skimmed milk into the mix tank, which has capacity for 5,000 litres. It purifies into the balance tank where it pasteurise at 90 degree centigrade and moved into the incubation tanks where it cools for a temperature of 42 degrees. Then, it moves into the two fermentation tanks each with a capacity of about 2,500.
Production is no doubt a chain of processes-You pasteurise at 90 degrees, cool at 42, inoculate with a starter culture and allow to ferment for about four to five hours. The product cool further from 42 to a minimum of 5 degrees centigrade and move from the incubation tank with the help of positive pump and the plate cooler into the two buffer tanks each with a capacity of 5,000 litres. The packaging, Yusuf explained, starts there- from with the aid of packing machines to fill the packs into half and one litres. The finished products are then transferred into the cold room for storage and distribution to consumers.
The farm, he said, produces 5,000 of one litre and 10,000 half litres and twist pack of 190 mill everyday. The packaging papers come in roll and are formed into tubes depending on the required quantity.
Experts said it is normal in commercial yoghurt production to homogenise the milk prior to its fermentation. The homogenisation helps prevent the cream (fat) rising to the surface during the fermentation. The addition of stabilizers and gums to the milk to improve viscosity and texture they said is common in the commercials large scale yoghurt manufacturing plants.
Concentration of the milk by evaporation prior to fermentation is also fairly common, this gives a thicker more full bodied yoghurt. This technique is most common when skimmed milk is used as the base material to produce low fat yoghurt. The solids level is typically increased by a factor of two. As energy costs spiral ever higher the cost of concentrated milk is becoming prohibitive and evaporation is being replaced by a technique known as fortification, where dried powdered milk solids are added to the base milk prior to inoculation.
The heat treatment of the milk prior to fermentation is generally considered essential in commercial manufacturing. The presence of unknown numbers of unknown organisms in the raw milk would make the fermentation too unreliable and unpredictable for commercial operations.
In order to ensure that the flavor, aroma and texture of the product is optimized the growing conditions for the "starter culture" must be as near perfect as possible. In order to achieve these conditions modern commercial yoghurt manufacturers go to great lengths, when compared to the random inoculation of a pitcher of milk on a Turkish mountain side centuries ago.
To ensure that the "starter culture" has little if any competition from other organisms the milk will be heated or treated to kill any organisms that may have been in the milk. Apart from killing unwanted bacteria, the heat treatment will have a physio-chemical effect on the proteins and other additives within the mix. The heating may be necessary for some of the ingredients to achieve the required state to form gels and protein lattice that lead to the products final viscosity and texture.
As many ingredients used these days are dry powders, the heat treatment must be capable of coping with the large numbers of fungal and bacterial spores associated with dry powders. The inoculation and fermentation will take place in sealed hygienic vessels usually made from stainless steel. The temperature will be monitored and maintained at the optimum for the starter culture throughout the fermentation. The levels of lactic acid will be measured and monitored throughout the fermentation and the fermentation will be stopped by rapid cooling at the desired level of acidity.
Part of the reoganisation in Nagari farm is the introduction of a new repackaging system. "We are prepared to compete in the ever growing industry and also have repackaging system that can compete anywhere in the world. Our packaging today can stand the test in Canada, Germany, USA and Britain; it is the number one packaging system in the world," he explained.
Adamu said profit-making is not the immediate consideration. "With investment you have to be patient. The important thing is for you to have a product that is competitive; a product that will meet the satisfaction of our customers that can give them value for their money-quality of product."
He, however, said after the customers confidence initiative is achieved through quality products then the profit consideration comes in. "It is definitely not for charity. On the long run, we hope to make profit from our investment," he said.
The farm is also looking forward to a time when it will begin to export its products: "If the market is good, the product continues to meet the expectation of customers and the market continues to grow; if the domestic market is saturated and we have excess for export, we will not hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity, but for the moment, the attraction for export is very limited because there is sufficient market at home," he observed.
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