Thailand is an agricultural country in which many people work on the land
(Jedsada bundit P, 1998). Raw milk production is one of the important agriculture
occupations in Thailand. Since the 1980s, local milk production has been increasing
rapidly. As might be expected, not every region of Thailand is suitable for
commercial milk production, and an indication of this variability is shown in Table 1.
The reasons for these differences are primarily ecological, because whereas forage
feeding is available all the year round in Ratchaburi Province, Khon Kaen is located in
a much drier area. Other serious problems that often occur on dairy farms are low
fertility and low conception rates, a high incidence of mastitis and low milk yields; the
latter mainly result from a shortage of quality roughage, such as silage and hay, to
provide the animals with sufficient feed, especially during the dry season (Kiyothong
K, 1998).