Value Addition in Livestock – SS2 Livestock Farming Lesson Note (Third Term)

Value addition means changing a raw farm product into something more useful, longer-lasting, or better in smell or taste. A farmer who turns milk into yoghurt or cheese, or skin into leather, reduces waste and earns more money than by selling the raw product.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

• explain value addition and state its goal;
• list four ways of adding value to meat;
• name four value-added milk products;
• describe the three stages of tanning a hide or skin;
• list common livestock by-products and what is made from them.

What is value addition?

In our previous lessons, we talked about how to raise animals. Farmers can also make more money by adding value to what the animals produce.

Value addition means changing a raw farm product into something else that is more useful, lasts longer, or smells or tastes better.

• Example: If you sell a raw gallon of milk, you might get ₦1,000. If you turn that milk into yoghurt or cheese, you can sell it for ₦3,000.
• The goal: To reduce waste and put more money in the farmer’s pocket.

How do we add value to meat?

When an animal is slaughtered, the body is called a carcass. If we do not process it, the meat will spoil in a few hours.

Ways we add value to meat:

1. Curing/salting: Rubbing salt and spices into the meat (like “Kilishi” or “Suya”). This stops bacteria from growing.
2. Smoking: Hanging meat over a fire. The smoke gives it a nice flavour and dries it out so it can last for weeks.
3. Canning: Putting meat in a tin (like corned beef). This can last for years without a fridge.
4. Sausage making: Grinding the small “leftover” bits of meat, mixing them with flour and spices, and stuffing them into tubes.

How do we add value to milk?

Fresh milk from a cow or goat is very delicate. In our warm weather, it turns sour quickly.

Value-added milk products:

• Pasteurisation: Heating milk to a certain temperature to kill germs so it stays safe to drink for a few days.
• Yoghurt: Adding “good bacteria” to milk to make it thick and creamy. People pay a lot for flavoured yoghurt (strawberry, vanilla).
• Cheese (Wara): In Nigeria, we often use the juice from “Sodom Apple” leaves to curdle milk and make a local cheese called Wara.
• Butter: Churning (shaking) the cream in milk until it becomes solid fat for spreading on bread.

How are hides and skins turned into leather?

The skin of the cow, goat or sheep is very valuable. In Nigeria, many people eat it as ponmo, but that is the lowest value you can get from it.

To turn a raw, smelly skin into leather, it must go through tanning. The steps are:

1. Cleaning: Removing all the hair and fat from the skin.
2. Soaking: Putting the skin in chemicals or natural juices (like those from the pods of the Acacia tree) to make it soft and strong.
3. Drying and dyeing: Stretching the leather and adding colours like black, brown or red.

The cow skin then becomes your school shoes, your belt or a fancy handbag.

What are livestock by-products?

A smart farmer does not throw anything away. A by-product is something extra you get from the animal that is not the main meat or milk.

Common by-products and their uses:

Teacher’s final thought: If you only sell raw products, you stay a small farmer. If you learn to process them, you become an industrialist.

Evaluation

1. What is value addition, and what is its goal?
2. List four ways of adding value to meat.
3. Name the local cheese made in Nigeria and state what is used to curdle the milk.
4. State the three stages of tanning a skin.
5. Name three livestock by-products and state one use of each.

Assignment

Look around your house today.

1. List three things you can see that were made from an animal (not including meat).
2. Identify which animal they likely came from (for example, “My belt came from a cow”).
3. Write down one way you can add value to a crate of eggs other than selling them raw.