Farming Namibian Style

Our first stop on this unbelievable adventure was the Neudamm campus of the University of Namibia. What makes Neudamm so unique is that it is the only agriculture school in Namibia. It also has its own farm! During our stay at the campus we were able to go on a tour of the farm. The dairy cows were first on the list and they were incredible! The Neudamm campus has 14 cows in total and has a machine that can milk four cows at one time. The milk is pasteurized and made into whole and low-fat milk, cream, and yogurt. These products are sold to the workers who live on the farm and are also used to feed the university students.

We then made our way to the pig barn, where we were absorbed with taking pictures of all the piglets. Our tour guide told us how the students are conducting an experiment where half of the piglets receive pig milk while the other half receives cow milk. This experiment is to see if different milk types affect piglet growth in different ways. The next area of the barn housed the boars and sows. One of the boars was huge! Our tour guide laughed and told us the boar is “a teddy bear” and started scratching the boar’s back.

Our last stop was the poultry barn. Normally I would never go into a barn full of chickens, because we all know how stinky chickens can be… But to my surprise the barn didn’t smell bad at all! Our guide explained that they use wood shavings to absorb the chicken excrement, which reduces the otherwise pungent smell, and is also useful in their composting. There were about a hundred hens that are used to produce eggs. The eggs are collected and graded right on the farm! It was amazing to see the egg-grading barn full of egg crates. This was just the first stop on our eventful journey. I can’t wait to see what else Namibia has in store!