No abstract

The Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) have experienced since the early 1950s a rapid demographic growth coupled to a significant rhythm of urbanization. This has led to a marked increase in the demand of dairy products. In order to secure the supply, specific policies have been implemented. They mainly consisted in the establishment of a dairy industry, based on the processing of either raw milk produced locally (in Morocco and Tunisia) or imported milk powder (in Algeria). These divergent options have had significant consequences on the whole organization of the dairy chains in these countries, from cattle rearing practices, to milk collection and processing. They have also implied differences in milk and its derivatives’ prices and levels of consumption. The paper draws a comparative analysis of milk chains within the three countries: a supply mainly based on imports in Algeria, whereas in Morocco and Tunisia, the demand is satisfied by a chain relying on locally produced cattle milk. The paper also emphasizes on the future challenges that will have to be addressed: a rising volatility of milk and other strategic inputs’ prices (feed, machinery, cattle, etc.) in global markets, an improvement in consumers’ awareness about milk quality, a further pressure on natural resources (mainly soils and water) to get more raw milk, in countries already suffering an acute water stress. The article also establishes recommendations about specific issues related to the development of the dairy chains in the context of North Africa. These are mainly linked to the fragmented offer induced by numerous smallholder farms, which implies obvious difficulties to assess the hygienic and the chemical quality of milk batches delivered daily. Moreover, this fragmented offer also means that specific support programs will have to be designed, as the vast majority of farms are not dairy specialized, expecting both milk and calf crop from their herds.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-162) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

No abstract

Six steers, each fitted with a ruminal cannula and T-type duodenal and ileal cannulae, were used to investigate protein and fibre utilization from lucerne, birdsfoot trefoil and sainfoin preserved both as hay and silage. Steers were fed at 2-h intervals during six 12-day periods in an experiment with a 6 x 6 Latin-square design. Animals were fed all-forage diets of six treatments (lucerne hay and silage, birdsfoot trefoil hay and silage, sainfoin hay and silage). Samples were collected from all alimentary sites twice daily during the last 3 days of each period. Acid insoluble ash was used as a solid marker and Cr-ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid as a liquid marker. Organic matter (OM), hemicellulose (HC) and cellulose (CL) total tract digestibilities of lucerne, birdsfoot trefoil and sainfoin were similar (OM: 599, 608, 580 g/kg; HC: 499, 497, 480 g/kg; CL: 590, 618, 608 g/kg). However, crude protein (CP) digestibilities were lower (P < 0-001) for sainfoin (582 g/kg) than for lucerne (732 g/kg) or birdsfoot trefoil (693 g/kg). Nitrogen (N) flows at the duodenum or ileum were similar among forages despite lower N intake for sainfoin. Presence of tannins in sainfoin may have been responsible for low protein degradation in the rumen, and reduced N digestion in the small intestine. Forage preserved as hay or silage had similar CL, HC and OM digestibilities, while CP digestibility was higher (P < 0-05) for silages.

No abstract