6 Mistakes farmers make while starting a dairy farm
There are many challenges in professional dairy farming, but it is only through resolutely tackling them that success is achieved. The biggest challenge is to make dairy farming a profitable business. Obviously, it costs twenty to thirty lakh rupees to open a medium-scale dairy farm and a huge amount is also spent in its operation. In such a situation, one cannot depend only on the sale of milk for income.
Now the question arises that what mistake farmers generally commit with the business of dairy farming and don’t achieve desired income.
1. Not Adding Calf rearing to additional income
The farmer should focus on how to rear a calf and how many calves should be reared. Dairy farmer Rambaran Yadav said that apart from this, he also gives great importance to calf rearing. Every year 7-8 calves of the good breed are produced, which not only gives them extra income but also increases milk production. Rambaran Ji described calf rearing as very important in the business of dairy farming. He said that calf rearing would have cost extra fodder for a year or two, but once a good breed of the calf is ready, then selling it or the milk that is obtained after it is conceived, earns a lot from it.
2. Revenue from products like vermicompost, milk by-products.
We talked to Rambaran Yadav, a farmer from the Jamui area of Bihar, regarding similar questions. Rambaran Ji is doing professional dairy farming for the last many years.
His dairy farm produces an average of more than 150 liters of milk per day. They sell most of the milk directly to the customers in the nearby town at Rs 45 per liter. But the entire income goes to the expenses of the dairy farm of 40 cows. As a result, they do not have any significant savings.
Rambaran told that, when he assessed the profit and loss, it came to know that nothing special is being earned in a year. In such a situation, he started running his mind towards additional earnings. He said that in the last few years, there is a lot of emphasis on organic farming and there has been a lot of demand for organic vegetables, organic fruits, organic grains. Obviously, there is a demand for organic manure for all these farming.
In such a situation, he also got the idea of making organic manure from cow dung on his dairy farm. Rambaran told that for this he took training at the local Krishi Vigyan Kendra and then started producing vermicompost on some land of his farm.
Today Rambaran is very happy because he did the work of preparing vermicompost using cow dung. Initially, they had to spend on buying earthworms, but now it does not cost much. He has made sixty pits of vermicompost on the spare land of his farm itself, and from this, he earns about thirty-five to forty thousand rupees every month.
Dairy farmer Rambaran Yadav says that there is a lot of demand for vermicompost in the surrounding area, the vermicompost of his farm is sold hand-in-hand. Now his dairy farm has also become profitable, due to which the animals are well looked after and the milk production has also increased.
3. Not trusting Artificial insemination of cows with good quality semen
Dairy farmer Rambaran Yadav, who understands the importance of calf rearing, considers the quality of semen very important to prepare a good breed of cow. He said that to produce good breed animals, they get their cows artificially inseminated with the semen of good breed bulls. He said that there is a problem in getting semen at the government level, but it is easily available with private AI experts and veterinarians, and they get artificial insemination of their cows done from them.
4. Proper Record-Keeping- Apps are the best way to maintain a record
Dairy farmer Rambaran Yadav is not well educated but understands well the importance of technology in dairy farming. He said that he notes the complete information about the dosage, milk production, time of arrival in heat, disease, etc. in a register and after seeing it from time to time, takes care of the treatment and food of the cows accordingly.
He said that if there is not complete information about each cow, then there is a lot of difficulty in finding out about what it needs, which medicine is needed. Although he had no idea about online data collection dairy farming management apps, he was also curious about the knowledge of such apps.
He said that if all the information about the animal can be collected online, then many problems will be saved, and the hassle of registering will also end.
5. Not considering buying a cow from the nearby area
Evaluation of breed before buying. The initial step to start a dairy is to procure animals. Mistakes in the procurement of animals can lead to long-term cost implications. Dairy farmer Rambaran Yadav told that initially, he had bought good breed cows from the farmers of Haryana, but later he went to nearby villages to buy cows.
He said that transporting cows from far away costs a lot, while at the local level this problem does not arise. However, he said it is wise to go to acquaintances to buy animals because in buying an animal from an unknown person or trader, it is not possible to get solid information about its breed and other qualities.
Rambaran Ji had no idea about online animal buying and selling and was surprised to hear about the animal trade from the internet.
6. Do not underestimate scientific nutrition practice
Farmers should always have nutrition information for their feeds and fodder. Lack of this information can impact cattle health and lead to a loss in a dairy farm.