6 Factors Impacting Commercial Dairy Farming

In the business of professional dairy farming, the importance of a good breed of animals is as important as the insurance of those animals. Obviously, whether it is a good breed of cow or a good breed of buffalo, they are worth millions. If an animal dies in an emergency, milk production is affected, there is also a loss of lakhs of rupees.

Therefore, it is very important to insure animals in professional dairy farming. But it is very unfortunate that despite all the claims of the Governments, it is very difficult to insure animals in rural areas. Whether it is banks or insurance companies, both are hesitant towards Cattle insurance.

1. Dairy farmers on the ground need access to PM Livestock Insurance scheme benefits.

Kaif Pirzada, a young dairy farmer who has been doing commercial dairy farming business for the last three years in Wankaner tehsil of Rajkot district of Gujarat, has the same problem.

He said he wants to insure cows and buffaloes of his farm, but no company is willing to insure. He said that insurance companies or banks insure only those animals which have been purchased with loans and do not show any interest in insuring the rest of the animals.

He said that when he started the farm, he had taken some loan and also insured the cows in lieu of it. Then, in the first year, when three cows died, their entire money was received from the insurance company, but the company stopped insuring after the loan was exhausted.

Obviously, under the Pradhan Mantri Pashudhan Bima Yojana, farmers who rear animal husbandry at the rural level get the benefit, but professional dairy farmers do not get the benefit of this scheme.

2. Dairy farming requires both traditional and scientific knowledge

Asked about the importance of using technology in dairy farming, young dairy farmer Kaif Pirzada said that if 50 per cent scientific methods and 50 per cent traditional methods are used, the business can make a lot of profit today.

Terming the data in dairy management as very important, young dairy farmer Kaif Pirzada said that if the data of the animals in the farm is not maintained, the loss is fixed at 100 per cent. He said that the more data collected and stored on animal milking, dosage, heat time, AI time, disease, vaccine, etc., the more benefit it will be.

He elaborated that this shows the performance of every animal. It also shows how much was spent on him in a year, how much he earned. At the same time, there are alerts on animal care. Analysis of this data can benefit dairy farms.

3. Good breed animals are very essential for successful dairy farms

According to dairy farmer Kaif Pirzada, it is not only enough to buy good breeds of animals to set up successful dairyfarms, but it is equally important to produce good breeds of animals. He said that during cow AI, they use good-quality semen.

The calf that is produced is also crossed with good-quality semen. By doing this continuously, the third-fourth breed produces pure and gives a lot of milk.

Kaif Pirzada, a young dairy farmer who started dairy farming as an amateur, has become an expert in the sector today. When asked about the need for calf rearing, he said that calf rearing must be done on dairy farms and calves should be kept in proportion to the number of cows. For example, if there are 15 cowsin thefarm, no more than 5 calves should be reared.

This reduces the cost of the form. If more calves are reared, the entire income will be spent on rearing these calves. He said that calf rearing does not require buying a new cow for the farm every year, these calves are prepared as per their requirement.

4. Do a thorough check-up while buying animals

Young dairy farmer Kaif Pirzada said that practical symptoms should be looked into carefully while buying animals. Above all, the breed of a cow should be good, its stature should be seen, the horn and teeth should be inspected and milked four times on the spot.

He said he had initially bought cows from Punjab for his dairy farm. Praising the cows of Punjab, Kaif Pirzada said that the cow there is very quiet and there is no difficulty in installing milking machines.

Despite being a young and progressive dairy farmer, Kaif Pirzada has not yet purchased and sold animals online. He said that ithas not been publicised much and is not even popular in rural areas. Farmers at the grass root level have to be told about its benefits to popularise the online animal trade. However, he pointed out a lack of credibility in buying animals online.

5. Get your cattle vaccinated before illness

Dairy farmer Kaif Pirzada termed vaccination of animals as very important. He said this is the easiest way to prevent disease. Once a diseaselike scrapingspreads, then vaccination does not help.

He said animals should be vaccinated every year without any gap. Similarly, they also give a lot of importance to the de-warming of animals. He said that there is no competition for the benefit sown by de-warming.

This kills the stomach worms of animals, improves theirdigestion, increases the intake of green fodder, improves health and also increases milk. He said dewarming keeps cows fresh and also causes regular concides. However, he said liquid dewarming is more beneficial.

6. Government veterinary condition needs Standardization

When asked about the facility of treatment of animals at the local level, dairy farmer Kaif Pirzada said that if the animal is sick, it has to depend on private doctors for treatment.

It also costs more money. He said that government hospitals do not get full facilities and government doctors do not tell the cattle herders about the facilities available.

Under compulsion, one has to go to private doctors for the treatment of animals. Kaif Pirzada, a young progressive dairy farmer from Gujarat, is not dependent on milk production earnings alone.

He has set up a lab for dairy farming as well as pregnancy testing of cows in the last two years. Not only that, they also do business in animal medicine and dairy farm equipment for additional earnings