• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Texas A&M Forest Service
  • Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostics Laboratory
  • Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
  • Texas A&M AgriLife Research
  • Texas A&M College of Agrculture and Life Sciences
Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
ALEC Abroad

Farming Namibian Style

August 2, 2014 by g-wingenbach Leave a Comment

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.

This is one of the dairy cows used on the Neudamm campus farm.

This is one of the dairy cows used on the Neudamm campus farm.

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 tour guide shows us how gentle the boar is by scratching its head.

Our tour guide smiles as he scratches the boar’s back to show us how gentle it really is.

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!

These hens are used to produce eggs which are graded on the farm.

These hens are used to produce eggs which are graded on the farm.

Filed Under: COALS Study Abroad, Namibia Tagged With: Namibia

Leave a Reply

Recent Posts

  • Growing Namibia
  • Positive Energy for the Future
  • Numerous Cultures, One Family
  • Self-Sufficiency in Namibia
  • Traditional Different Foods
  • Compact with Texans
  • Privacy and Security
  • Accessibility Policy
  • State Link Policy
  • Statewide Search
  • Veterans Benefits
  • Military Families
  • Risk, Fraud & Misconduct Hotline
  • Texas Homeland Security
  • Texas Veterans Portal
  • Equal Opportunity
  • Open Records/Public Information
Texas A&M University System Member