Blue and white cows are grazing across a cyan landscape dotted with blue trees on the milk carton fresh from our dairy in Hamrun. Without cows and fields of clover desertification could set in, leading to a "Hong Kong effect" in the words of Dr Wolfgang Pflug, veterinary consultant to the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Environment. This conjures up images of coast-to-coast building construction and the disappearance of farmland.

Our consumption of milk is directly linked to the appearance of our environment. Dr Pflug paints a picture of a barren wasteland devoid of greenery were it not for the dairy cows. "If the land does not get any manure, the composition would change and the soil would just blow away." He also considers the multi-functional value of the local dairy industry, which makes us self sufficient in milk. "What happens if we are cut off from mainland Europe?" he queries.

Around half of all the cultivated greenery which makes up our landscape is that thanks to the farmers who grow fodder for animal feed. Much of this goes to nourish the dairy herds.

Outside competition

After the accession gates opened to the EU market, Malta Dairy Products Ltd (MDP) experienced a dent in milk sales as consumers tried out the various brands of foreign milk.

The dairy decided to take action to boost the local product, and its dipping revenue. Besides the marketing of local dairy products, the livelihood of dairy farmers and growers of fodder was also in the balance. Suppliers of dry feed, and pharmaceutical agents too, hold a stake in the dairy industry spread over 100 farms in Malta and 45 in Gozo.

"Nothing can compare with the taste of fresh milk" ran the Benna television advertisement, designed to put the foreign competition in its place. Then crossfire between the local dairy and an importer of milk products erupted in the media at the height of the ice-cream season.

"Unfair", complained the importers of long-life UHT (ultra-high temperature treated) milk in response to the Benna campaign. To retaliate the importers ran a series of anonymous newspaper advertisements quoting the Malta-Europe Information Centre on transitional periods for milk quality, to which MIC reacted with similar wrath.

The suggestion by the importer that EU negotiations on locally produced milk had compromised food safety was generally seen as an underhand trick devised to undermine the Maltese dairy industry.

UHT milk products are exposed to extremely high temperatures, over 135°C (much higher than in the pasteurisation process used by the local dairy and for a longer exposure time).

MDP says it had been looking to improve the quality of local milk well before the advent of EU membership. Changes to the system of paying farmers for quality rather than quantity of raw milk brought to the dairy first started in the mid-Nineties.

Target 3.5% fat by 2009

Some consumers may prefer to buy milk with less fat for health or weight control reasons. They choose skimmed milk over whole milk because the fat has been removed. But if the fat was never there in sufficient quantity to begin with, this could indicate "a nutritional disorder in the cow", as MDP puts it.

A minimum fat content of 3.5% in milk has been established by EU regulations because a certain percentage of fat naturally present in cows' milk is a good indication of good farming practice.

Check the labelling on your milk carton and you will see it is still not quite up to the EU standard at 2.5%. It has been due mainly to a diet lacking in fresh, high quality forage that the Maltese herds have not been able to produce milk of a quality and fat content acceptable within Europe. This is set to change but the improvement will have to be gradual.

The management of feed is resistant to sudden change as disrupting the feed mixture can upset fermentation. Dr Trevor Zammit, veterinarian to the dairy farm industry, explains: "A change in the feed mix, even if for the better, could in the short term bring on acidosis." The advice is never to make any sudden drastic changes in the cow's diet because the micro-organisms involved need time to change. "You see, you don't feed a cow - you feed its rumen," he continues.

Acidosis is a condition which can damage the rumen and alter the fat content and quantity of leucocytes. It has been a frequent problem in our herds, mainly because of the lack of roughage (grass or hay). Fat content in raw cow's milk has been as low as 1.8% but MDP claims it has never sold this milk to the public.

Breeding and mastitis

A tricky thing with breeding cows for higher production of milk is that the gene which helps cows resist infection of the udder is lost. On the one hand cows are bred to give more quality drinking milk but high production milking cows requiring treatment for chronic mastitis is also more common. This infection is inherent wherever intensive mechanised milking of dairy cows takes place, although the incidence in Malta is higher than the average found on European farms at the moment.

MDP prefers not to generalise and goes on the defensive: "This is unfair to all the Maltese dairy farmers which have excellent management practices and results, and implies that all European farms are better. Do you have any idea about what the situation is like in Greece, Spain and the new member states? The average Maltese Somatic Cell Count is much better than Grade A milk standard set by the US."

In a 1996 study on bovine mastitis in Malta* it was found that inadequate maintenance of milking machines, lack of pre-milking hygiene and poor housing for cows were contributing factors.

On the basis of this report a national mastitis control programme was recommended. Things have changed since then and inadequate maintenance of milking machines is no longer a major contributing factor, although hygiene and housing apparently still need to be upgraded on some farms.

MDP says it is working with farmers to bring the rate of mastitis down to a more acceptable level. A farmer in Rabat has invested over Lm170,000 to build individual pens for cows to rest, shaded from the sun. He had been promised help through EU funding but was still waiting for the funds to arrive.

Directive 64/432/EEC specifies that milk must not be taken from cows suffering any recognisable inflammation of the udder. Fortunately, there is no chance of the mastitis passing to humans through the milk due to the pasteurisation and clarification processes at MDP.

What might concern us more is whether the levels of antibiotic residues and other substances are above established limits. EU directives specify that milk must not be used for human consumption if it contains antibiotic residues in a quantity which exceeds authorised levels.

MDP insists: "We check every single batch of milk before we sell it to our clients. We spend large sums of money on testing and quality assurance to make sure that we and our suppliers, the local farmers, follow both local and EU legislation regarding antibiotic residues."

Maximum residue limits of veterinary medicinal products in foodstuffs of animal origin have been subject to European regulation since 1990. A 1981 directive prohibits substances having a hormonal action in any product sold as raw milk followed by a 1988 directive against the use of such substances in livestock farming.

The competent authority responsible for organising the system of checking milk and milk-based products is the Veterinary Services Department within the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Environment. The National Reference Laboratory designated for analysis and testing is the lab used by the department based in Marsa. MDP adds that for routine analysis it also makes use of its own laboratory with "the latest technology for the analysis of raw milk, which primarily serves the company's quality assurance department".

Quality of feed

The dairy industry has had to work within constraints, such as the poor quality of locally grown fodder. The dairy farmer would prefer the straw to be cut at an early stage in the season but the forage producer often waits until the straw is thicker so he can get more money for his crop. The forage producer may also delay harvesting his fodder due to bad weather.

If it is raining and soil impaction on clay surfaces might damage the soil he would rather wait. New lightweight equipment in use by some forage growers today is designed to turn the hay after cutting so it still dries properly even though there may have been some showers.

Forage is sold by volume, not by weight, so the thicker the straw the less is needed to make one bale. But thick straw makes for less nutritional value. This means that farms which buy poor quality fodder are feeding their cattle on dry straw with the nutritional value of cardboard.

Some farmers have approached the hay producer offering to pay more if the grass were cut early. The nutritional value of the bale would be higher, resulting in healthier, more productive cows. The rest of the cow's diet is made up of a compound mix from KPH mills.

There have been accusations in the past that the consumption of excessive levels of compound feeds were being promoted in the mill's own interest.

The dairy farmer was previously bound by contract to buy half a kilo of compound feed - twice the average figure in European dairies - for every litre of milk he produced, thus forcing the fodder/feed ratio down to favour less forage and more feed on the menu for his cows. This system is no longer in operation. Carmel Fenech, animal nutritionist at KPH, comments:

"For the past three or four years the farmer has been free to feed whatever he likes in whatever amount he feels is appropriate. The concentrate feed/forage ratio in past years was 70:30. Farmers, with the assistance of their co-operative KPH, have lately been importing better quality forage and the ratio has moved closer to 60:40. This is expected to continue to improve with the consequent improvement of the milk fat level as we are currently seeing already."

Based on current census information, the estimated available supply of fodder is sufficient to meet only approximately 38% of the total amount of roughage (hay, grasses) required for animal feeding.

A range of compound feeds is given to dairy cows according to which lactational phase they are in. There are feeds for high yielders and feeds for low yielders. All the dairy feeds in Malta are made by KPH. It is considered that safety of the feed-food chain ( a question of residues in the milk and beef reaching our tables) is more likely when the feed comes from a controlled central source. According to Mr Fenech, this system means that traceabilty is respected.

In a pilot project at the government farm in Ghammieri different types of grasses were grown to see which would be the ideal roughage for use in Malta.

The chemical composition of the three major forage crops cultivated in the Maltese Islands was looked at during five different stages of their development. The results indicated clover as a more highly nutritious forage crop, in comparison to wheat or barley.

A foreign variety, Fiddien Sulla, was highlighted as an ideal crop since it can be harvested at a stage when both dry matter digestibility and dry matter protein yields are at a maximum. The optimum harvesting stages for digestibility of the forage crops under study were also identified on a calendar basis. Recently KPH, which is owned by the dairy farmers, started to import Italian forage with a higher nutrient content, with a view to decreasing the concentrate ratio.

Better management on the part of forage producers could bring about many of the required improvements and protect rural landscapes at the same time. Through proper management, even when the amount of feed concentrate to fodder is on the high side, the farmer can produce quality milk, Mr Fenech claims.

Through proper management, even when the amount of feed concentrate to fodder is on the high side, the farmer can produce quality milk, Mr Fenech claims. Levels up to 3.8% have been reached. The fat content is not just a dietary factor for the consumer but indicates that the cow is not suffering from a nutritional disorder.

Reducing the herds

With 8,600 head of cattle kept within an area of 4,500 hectares, herd management is an ongoing process. Improvements to efficiency through breeding and nutrition will mean that the number of cows needed to reach milk quotas will go down. One estimate has put the number of cows needed at nearly half the present number if milk quality improves sufficiently.

There may be some resistance to reducing the herd. But a switch to incentives for quality instead of quantity should help change this. The quality payment scheme and other economic factors are helping to make reduction of the herd more attractive

Fewer cows could also help reduce the nitrate pollution problem when it comes to our ground water. But MDP is quick to point out that "cow manure is an important slow-release fertiliser and soil conditioner for the local horticultural industry. If demands are not met, these farmers will have to turn to other potentially problematic sources of nitrogen to keep up production."

The government is helping farmers financially in the restructuring of their farms so that seepages of animal waste into the environment are eliminated at source and our drinking water is protected according to EU directives. Farmers are being made to build concrete vats to store manure and cover it so rain does not wash nitrates into the ground water.

Incorrect application of fertiliser by farmers has also had negative effects on the quality of both fodder and ground water. "They put all the nitrogen on when they plant the grain and it gets washed into the aquifer. It should be put on about ten to 12 weeks later at the beginning of the year," an independent farming consultant advises.

If forage producers can be persuaded through rural development schemes to preserve country landscapes and time their harvest for optimum nutrition, then all is not lost. Some farmers may get funding for early retirement from the EU while the rest turn to production of high quality dairy fodder.

Because there is a market for forage, farmers can tend their land and keep it environmentally attractive. The local dairy industry can do much to help Malta stay green while improving the quality of milk according to EU standards.

Better management of forage producers could bring about many of the required improvements and protect rural landscapes at the same time.

One last thing - although I am supposed to keep quiet about it - the gbejniet (cheeselets) produced by Benna are actually made from cows' milk. MDP's comment is "Who specifies that cheeses should be made only from cows' or goats' milk?" As they point out, it is the cheeses which are made from goats' or sheep's milk which must be labelled as such. That is how it is in the rest of Europe.

I was escorted to the gate following this interview clutching a complementary bag of gbejniet straight from a Maltese cow. They were promptly devoured as I savoured the important link between cows and our fields of green, even if the cows don't know it.

* Epidemiology of Bovine Mastitis in Malta by S. Mifsud and T. Zammit, Institute of Agriculture, University of Malta, 1996-1997.