Granma.– Of the 30 years since the Francisco Suárez Soa Basic Cooperative Production Unit (UBPC) was created, attached to the Bayamo Agricultural Company, more than 20 have been dedicated to its livestock areas by the seasoned worker José Rosa Díaz, who since Four calendars ago he assumed the reins of that milk and meat production enclave, currently recognized in the province and the country as one of those that maintains stable commitments to the industry.
“This implies a lot of sacrifice and a sense of belonging for each worker at the UBPC and for the cooperative members and associated usufructuaries,” says José, with the satisfaction of having also closed last May with the delivery to the industry of the territory of about 64,500 liters of milk, 4,000 more than what had been agreed for the date.
«This year we have contracted more than 411,000 liters of milk and more than 30 tons of meat, but due to the pace we are at, and taking into account that during this rainy period production increases, we aspire to produce more than half a million liters of milk for the province,” says the President of the UBPC, after achieving, during the drought, supplies above the plans.
According to José Rosa, there is no secret in this result that places his work group as a reference for other UBPCs in which low productivity, mortality, the decrease in births and, therefore, in the livestock mass prevail, as well as the problems associated with hiring, the diversion of milk and the lack of water and animal feed.
“We have 1,676 head of cattle, and of them 921 (776 cows and 145 heifers) are under production plans, for which water and animal feed based on pastures and forage is not a problem,” notes Rosa. Diaz.
Added to this is the existence of more than 1,570 hectares for livestock farming, within which fields have been allocated for planting protein plants such as moringa, tithonia and mulberry, which, together with the pasture of kin grass They guarantee the food base of the animals, mainly in periods of drought.
«We have also taken advantage of the financial opportunities that the country has stimulated with access to bank loans with which investments have been made aimed at improving the areas, in addition to maintaining salary payments and achieving the purchase of means of protection such as boots, gloves and other necessary implements,” adds José Rosa.
However, with nine milking dairy farms, a heifer center, a development center, four typical dairy farms and an intervention center for the recovery of the livestock mass, distributed in its wide areas, the UBPC has not been exempt from crimes. against cattle.
«This year we have already suffered four incidents of theft and slaughter of livestock, because criminals are hunting cows as if they were pigeons. This has forced us to reinforce surveillance systems in all units, redouble the brigades that guard the largest areas, and create warning systems in the event of any event,” says the President of the UBPC, who affirms that this phenomenon is today one of the main challenges faced by its workers.
Unfortunately, they are also hit by mortality, due to the lack of medicines, “because there are things that can be combated with alternatives and green medicine, but there are others that cannot, because, for example, parasitism in cattle is very aggressive.”
NO GAPS TO INFPRODUCTIVITY
In this strategy of not giving way to discouragement in the face of obstacles and, instead, continuing to look for variants that increase milk and meat production, the UBPC Francisco Suárez Soa took over, just a few months ago, two units from its counterpart Roberto Rodríguez, which They were extinguished due to their lack of productive results.
José Luis Blanco González, an agricultural worker at one of those dairy farms that is now recovering, reveals that the change that, little by little, is being experienced in the unit, is already reverting to better income for its workers, and in the rebirth, again, from milk production.
«Here we spent up to ten months without being paid, and the entire livestock area was infested with weeds up to the road, not even the transformer could be seen. The entire field was marabou,” emphasizes José Luis, who points out that, since those lands passed to Francisco Suárez, in just two months the areas where the first cattle are already grazing have been plowed and recovered.
Juan Castillo Espinosa, who also joined the dairy after learning that the new management was in charge of the UBPC Francisco Suárez, remembers that, upon his arrival, there were only 15 cattle with a milk production that did not exceed 30 liters.
“That reality has already been changing and just two months later the daily delivery of milk already exceeds 75 liters, and the aspiration is to exceed one hundred soon,” he says.
To do this, they also have the gradual introduction of science in these areas, a practice that for years has strengthened livestock production at the UBPC Francisco Suárez, through integration with various entities in the territory, such as the Jorge Dimitrov Agricultural Research Institute. , the University of Granma, and the provincial delegation of Citma.
“For us, the application of science and technology at the UBPC is essential,” says its president José Rosa, who points out that, as part of this development strategy, this year there have already been more than 300 births; reliable proof that it is possible to close the gaps to sterility in livestock farming.
