By attending a week-long NorFor training course on dairy management nutrition, senior nutritionist Tomislav Mesic´ is not only taking his own knowledge to a new level. The outcome of the course will later be shared with colleagues at home to benefit Croatian dairy farmers.

“My all-important part is to help Croatian dairy farmers improve their productivity. For the time being, NorFor is the best concept in the marketplace in that respect. And the training course here in Sweden is excellent when it comes to communicating the new knowledge and its implementation”.

   Senior nutritionist Tomislav Mesic´ from the Croatian Advisory Service has had a long second day of training, but his voice sounds content on the phone when he is asked to assess the NorFor Certified Dairy Management Nutrition Coach Training.

     “I am very pleased with the things I have seen and heard so far. That includes an introduction to the Swedish advisory service and the methods used here for collection and handling of feed samples as well as analyzing techniques. Also, we have visited farms to see how our Swedish colleagues advise on feed and milking”, Mr. Mesic´ mentions.

Colleagues from ten nations

Tomislav is also one of 40 attendees at the NorFor annual advisory workshop, which is composed of colleagues from ten European nations – a diversity greatly appreciated.

     “Obviously, our climate conditions and production challenges are different, but it is priceless to exchange experiences on e.g. feed ration optimizing and the entire approach to advising”, Mr. Mesic´ states.

     Becoming a certified coach – the tangible outcome of the training course – is important to him.

     “This position enables me to train my 20 colleagues in Croatia. They are scattered all over the country, but we meet regularly, and on such occasions I shall convey all I have learned about NorFor”, Mr. Mesic´ promises.

     Thus disseminating the NorFor knowledge of nutrition, milking and management, he is confident that Croatian advisors will better achieve their overall objective – to help farmers overcome their challenges and boost their yields.

     “And as soon as I have processed the many impressions of today, I look forward to fill up again tomorrow”, Mr. Mesic´ adds with an almost audible smile.

– in a few words

The five days training course took place in Sweden, in late September 2016, training professional advisors to become certified dairy and beef management nutrition coaches. The content was a mixture of lectures by experts and researchers, visits to advisors’ organizations as well as dairy farms, meeting with certified coaches, workshops and discussions.

     Finally, participants received a certificate, proving their knowledge to obtain optimum results with NorFor in the dairy and beef herd. Among the skills acquired during the training course can be mentioned:

• Design, organization and sale of advisory services that create customer benefits
• Optimization of feed rations and diets
• Observation and utilization of rumen load and feed intake capacity
• Handling of an automatic body condition scoring camera as well as inclusion of the scores in feed rationing. 

As an international arrangement, the training course was accompanied by extensive exchange of knowledge and experiences among advisors from different nations and regions, thus strengthening the understanding of feeding cattle in general and the NorFor concept in particular.

– Voices from the workshop

The workshop that took place in late September in Ås Norway  was attended by 42 participants from ten countries.

For further information contact Patrick Nordgreen +46 10 471 06 50.