CoHE President Özvar Attends Workshop on Fertility Problems in Cows and
Prevention of Calf Mortality
March 9, 2025 / Kars
Developing itself in the field of human and animal health, Kafkas
University continues to work on a project that will prevent yield losses
and high costs in animal husbandry. It is estimated that 2 million 260
thousand calves were lost in Türkiye in 2022. The economic equivalent of
these losses with 2024 prices reaches 113 billion TL. While 90% calving
rate is considered acceptable in the world, this rate is 58.32% in Türkiye.
Raising awareness of breeders and improving health services are of great
importance to reduce calf losses. Kafkas University provides practical
trainings for animal breeders within the scope of the studies carried out
for this purpose. The project, which aims to prevent calf deaths, will make
a great contribution to the economy and prevent an annual yield loss of 113
billion TL.
The breeder training workshop titled “Fertility Problems in Cows and
Prevention of Calf Mortality” was hosted by Kafkas University with the
participation of Erol Özvar, President of the Council of Higher Education.
In addition to Özvar and the CoHE delegation, academics, sector
representatives and animal breeders in the region attended the workshop.
On March 8, International Women's Day, male breeders attended the workshop
with their wives. Erol Özvar congratulated the Women's Day of all women
attending the workshop.
In his speech, CoHE President Erol Özvar stated that the agriculture and
livestock sector is one of the most critical economic and strategic areas
of Türkiye and emphasized the importance of universities coming together
with the people, producers and employees of the region.
Stating that the workshop is one of the best examples of the dialogue
between breeders and universities, Özvar emphasized that he believes that
effective solutions will be produced to the livestock problems of the
region and that their success will set an example for other provinces. He
said that they closely follow the works carried out in the region.
He said that primary problems in animal husbandry is low productivity, calf
deaths and fertility loss. He stated that universities have great
responsibilities in solving the problems encountered in the livestock
sector. Özvar stated that the Council of Higher Education encourages
universities to increase their contribution to their regions and to
specialize in certain fields, and pointed out that the education and
training programs at universities should be constantly updated by closely
following the changes in the agriculture and livestock sectors. He also
underlined that topics such as digitalization, artificial intelligence,
internet of things, precision agriculture, biotechnology, sustainability
should become an integral part of agriculture and animal husbandry
education. He stated that the Council of Higher Education will continue
to support such initiatives.
Prof. Hüsnü Kapu, Rector of Kafkas University, said that they contribute to
the economic, social and cultural processes as well as the educational
processes of their region. Prof. Kapu stated that especially in recent
years, they have focused on animal husbandry, which is one of the most
important sources of income in Kars, and they have increased their studies
on fertility and calf mortality, which cause significant economic loss. He
also shared the information that they will take an active role in the
treatment processes to prevent calf deaths with their newly accepted
projects.
Following the workshop, CoHE President Özvar visited the cattle and sheep
farms where Beefmaster and Zavot cattle breeds are kept, and received
information from the officials.
It is aimed to create a core herd of a beef cattle breed with the frozen
embryo transfer of Beefmaster, a beef cattle breed with proven genetic
value and superior features that have never been tried in our country until
now.
Ozone therapy is applied in addition to treatments in cases of diarrhea in
calves. In Kars province, the economic loss caused by thousands of calf
deaths in a single calving season amounts to 6.6 billion TL annually. (2022
figures) The treatment is the first of its kind in the world.