Kingdom Businesses

My name is Mack Jennings. I will be bringing you up to date on the Kingdom Business side of Project New Hope International.

Our Kingdom Business segment of the project in Peru currently consists of a dairy located in Viru, an agricultural area about 45 minutes from Trujillo. It is situated on a ten hectare (about 22 acres) parcel of leased land that is also used to grow chala (a corn like product that is used as one of the primary foods for the cows), has five barns for raising up to 11,000 cuyes (a small furry animal that is a food staple in Peru), space for a sizable plant nursery and other developing potentials.

The dairy was formed in 2007 with the construction of the needed buildings, the hiring of a highly qualified veterinarian/dairyman, Javier Vasquez and the purchase of 48 pregnant cows and milking/sanitation equipment. Through the generosity of several institutions, we were able to purchase an additional 32 pregnant cows this year and, with births, we now have a total of 140 cows (a few deaths occurred and all male cows are sold within six weeks of birth). All of the cows that are not producing now will become producers within one to twenty-five months. In fact, one of the initially purchased cows is about to become a grandma, when Esperanza, the first born cow from the 2007 lot gives birth in a few a few months. Then, in about twenty-five months we will add the fourth generation!

The life cycle of a milk cow is birth, impregnation at sixteen months and then delivery at twenty-five months. During that period, they do nothing but eat, so they are expensive resources until they begin producing milk with their first birth. Then, about three months following the first birth, they are impregnated again, so they have a baby cow about every year, producing milk for ten months of that year, with two dry months. A cow is generally good for about seven pregnancies. We use a special semen that has been genetically engineered to produce 75% females, as we have no use for the baby bulls whatsoever.

We had six cows born in October, expect eighteen more in November and will continue to grow the heard of milkers until we reach our optimal size of 420 cows (land restraints will prevent us from growing any larger on our present location).

We hope to grow faster than the birth method will allow by purchasing more pregnant cows. A pregnant cow and the food it eats until it begins producing milk is approximately $2,500 to $3,000 and we welcome contributions for that purpose. Obviously, not all contributions can be of the size to make a purchase on its own, so smaller appreciated contributions will be grouped together until accumulated funds are sufficient to acquire a pregnant cow. BUT WAIT, we also gratefully welcome any help we can get for feeding the new borns for the first twenty-five months.

The next Kingdom Business blog will discuss dairy progress briefly and then also reveal progress we are making in establishing new businesses and their evangelical outreach potential, alongside new university community partners.