As-Suwayda - Sana
Multiple projects for raising livestock are being witnessed in the village of Al-Masqouf in the southern countryside of As-Suwayda, which supports the stability of many people in the village and secures a source of income for them to help them face the burdens and requirements of life.
The village of Al-Mashfaq, according to the head of its municipal council, Nabil Aziz, has the necessary ingredients to establish development projects in it, especially in the field of livestock breeding, as its projects are considered successful in the village, but it requires work in the coming period to secure fodder and veterinary medicines at encouraging prices for breeders, indicating that the projects are distributed among 8 cattle and sheep farms in addition to Small holdings of heads.
Aziz explained that the production of livestock from milk achieves self-sufficiency for the village and the neighboring villages, in addition to the production of good quantities of meat, pointing out that the marketing of milk, whose daily production averages between 2 and 4 tons, is done directly to citizens from the village and outside, in addition to the presence of two facilities for the manufacture of its products in the village. One of them was supported by the “My Project” fund.
Radi Al-Safadi, deputy head of the extension unit in Salkhad, to which the village of Al-Mashfaq belongs, indicated that the number of livestock heads in the village, according to last year's census, amounted to 5780 sheep, 892 goats and 82 cows.
According to the breeder Thaer Sobh, he started working in sheep breeding eight years ago with about 50 heads and was encouraged to work in this field in line with the nature and privacy of the village and gradually expanded his work until he has today a farm with 1200 heads, explaining that its production of milk last season was during the milking season, which It starts at the end of March and continues to mid-July, reaching 12 tons, in addition to the presence of 60 percent of births, stressing at the same time the need to work to limit the rise in feed prices, especially during the past months.
The breeder, Jihad Al-Hajali, in turn, explained that he has been working in the field of sheep breeding for 15 years, as his father had previously worked, because the village is suitable for this, indicating that he has 100 sheep, and he recently returned to raising goats with numbers ranging between 10 and 15 heads because their costs are less than sheep, suggesting reactivating work in Salkhad Center To sell feed to reduce the burden of movement to buy it.
Breeder Hashem Aziz pointed out that he established a cow farm in which there are currently 13 heads that produce between 140 and 150 kilograms of milk per day, indicating that his experience is good and successful, but the problem lies in the high cost of fodder, which was reflected in the price of milk and led some breeders to sell cows, suggesting the establishment of a factory for the manufacture of fodder Affiliate with state institutions and work to spread and encourage alternative fodder crops.
According to the owner of a milk processing facility, Adnan Al-Hajali, he attracts daily about a ton of cow’s milk from the village of Al-Mashfaq and the neighboring villages, and manufactures all kinds of milk and markets it in the city of As-Suwayda and the governorate’s villages, and through his facility, he provides 6 job opportunities.
Al-Mashqaq village is 38 km away from the center of As-Suwayda Governorate and has a population of 3,700 people.
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