Hong Kong has opened its first new dairy farm for 20 years. It will be a teaching farm for veterinary students who are studying to become vets. The farm plans to make its own milk and ice cream next year.
The farm, which opened in Tai Po last week, is operated by City University. It houses 24 Jersey cows. These are a kind of small dairy cattle from the British Channel Islands.
"It's an amazing achievement just having a dairy farm here, and starting dairying in Hong Kong again after two decades," says Dr Eryl Done, the farm manager. "It allows our veterinary students to get practical experience with these cows. It's something that they have never been able to do in Hong Kong before."
The farm has barns for cows and calves, feeding tables, milking machines and a room for processing milk.
The veterinary students will attend courses at the farm during their six years of studies. They will learn basic animal handling, how to do medical examinations, disease diagnosis and treatments for cattle. They will also learn about animal welfare, farm management and food production and safety.
Professor Vanessa Barrs says the skills that students learn at the farm will be useful for their future careers, like helping to manage wild cattle in the city.
"The knowledge and skills our students will learn means that they are trained to be talented problem solvers. They are great at thinking outside the box," she says.
The cows at the farm will give birth early next year, and will produce 20 to 30 litres of milk each day for nine months. Milk and ice cream made by the farm should be on sale at City University in February.
Although the farm will not be open to the public, they want to work with schools to educate people about cattle.
Five things to know about
1. Cattle are herbivores that eat vegetation such as grass. Cattle are farmed for their meat and milk. There are more than 1 billion cattle in the world.
2. Cattle is the plural name of these animals. Adult females are usually called cows, adult males are called bulls, and young cattle are called calves. But when cattle are used to pull ploughs on farms, we call them oxen.
3. Cattle stomachs have four chambers which help break down the tough plants that they eat.
4. Cattle are sacred to members of the Hindu religion in India. They cannot be killed there.
5. Cattle are colour-blind. They can't tell the difference between red and green.
