Improving Cow Milk Production Potential by Introducing a Herd Health Management Program on Camagüey’s Dairy Farms in Cuba

Milk production in Cuba struggles to meet the demand of milk in the daily ration of many Cubans. Several factors resulted in a decrease of milk producing potential in dairy cattle herds. The lack of efficient (re)production strategies decreased the number of dairy cows that attain reasonable milk production levels.For this reason, sustainable measures are urgently required to improve the efficiency of dairy cattle management. The general objective of this project is to increase the milk production potential and as a consequence food security and economic well-being in general and of dairy farmers in Camagüey in particular. To do so, the project aims specifically (i) to implement a computer-based herd health management program for dairy herds in the Camagüey province that will permit the follow-up of (re)production, nutrition, and health parameters to finally increase milk production efficiencyand (ii) to build up ICT capacity and improve digital literacy at the academic as well as the end-user level to stimulate the development of innovative IT solutions for the livestock sector.