Insurance companies do not give the full amount for insured animal-Ashwin (Dairy Farmer), Gujarat
A cow or buffalo of the best breed is very necessary for commercial dairy farming. Obviously, good-breed cattle are very expensive, so they also have to be taken care of seriously. In the business of dairy farming, lakhs of rupees have to be invested only in buying good-breed cattle. This is the reason why it is very important to ensure these cattle because, in the event of an epidemic or disease, the life of these cattle is in danger. If the animal is insured, the dairy farm operator does not have to bear the loss, as the entire compensation for the damage comes from the insurance company.
Clearly, insuring animals is the first condition for a successful dairy farm. There are many livestock insurance schemes running in different states of the country. Government and private insurance companies insure animals. But the ground reality is very different. First of all, commercial dairy farmers have a lot of difficulty in insuring their animals. Even if you get insurance done, then it is difficult to get the claim amount when the animal dies. We spoke on this issue to Ashwinbhai, a successful dairy farmer who is doing dairy farming in Himmatnagar in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat. Ashwinbhai, who has been doing dairy farming for the last four years, has 190 cows of HF and Gir breeds and produces around 700 liters of milk per day.
When the premium is complete, why not complete the claim
Ashwinbhai, a dairy farmer, said that there is no problem in getting animal insurance in the Sabarkantha district, but if needed, there is a lot of difficulty in getting the claim amount. He said that for example, the price of a cow is one lakh rupees, the insurance company takes its premium in full, but if the cow dies, then the claim amount of fifty thousand rupees is only received. Not only this, if more animals die within a year, then the number of claims on every animal, in the same way, goes down.
He said five cows died on his farm last year due to the pandemic. The insurance company gave the claim of the first cow 50 thousand rupees and only 20 thousand rupees were received for the death of the fifth cow. Ashwinbhai said that when he spoke to the representatives of the insurance company about this, he said that this is the policy of the company. Ashwinbhai's demand from the government is that when companies take a premium in full for every cow, the claim should also be paid in full.
Professional dairy farming is not possible without technology
Dairy farmer Ashwinbhai also spoke to him on the subject of the importance of technology in professional dairy farming. He said that professional dairy farming is not possible without technology. He uses many modern machines including milking machines, TMRs on his farm. He said that one has to invest in technology, but it significantly reduces the operating cost of the dairy farm and facilitates management.
It's hard to remember the data of every animal.
Like technology, dairy farmer Ashwinbhai also described the data as very important for dairy farming. He said there are so many animals on the farm that information about every single animal cannot be remembered. Each animal on the farm is given a tag and all the data related to it is recorded online on the same tag number. For example, how much milk was produced from the animal, how much is its breeding cycle, when the cow came into the heat when it was conceived. He said that for the first year, he did manual data collection, but for the last three years, he has been collecting data through online apps.
No problem in getting a good breed of semen in Gujarat
Ashwinbhai, a successful dairy farmer, is also working on developing good breeds on his farm. He said there is no problem in finding semen in Gujarat. AAG, a subsidiary of NDDB, gets a good breed of seaman on a subsidy. Apart from this, there is also a bull center in every district, where the seaman of Indian Bull is available for just Rs 50 to Rs 60 per dose. There is also a high-quality seaman of ABS and WWS company available. On behalf of Sabarkantha Dairy Federation, one AI employee has been deployed in every three to four villages and they get the AI of cows done on their farm from the same.
Freedom from buying cows from calf rearing
Talking about the need for calf rearing in dairy farming, dairy farmer Ashwinbhai said that calf rearing is a profitable deal. He said that at the beginning of dairy farming, he had purchased 67 cows and today he has a total of 190 animals on his farm. Of these, 40 are calves. The number of calves will double in one to two years. He said that 30 good-breed cows are prepared on his farm every year.
Another very important thing that Ashwinbhai pointed out is that he knows which of the cows born and raised in his farms are of good breed and which one is not well. Cows that are lacking, they sell them. He said that a good breed of cow is hardly found in the market, so the advantage is that a good breed is prepared on its own farm. In this, not only profit is profit. However, Ashwinbhai, a dairy farmer, said he has never bought animals online.
Deworming with different medications every season.
Ashwinbhai, a dairy farmer, gets all the animals on his farm vaccinated from time to time. He said that if the animal is vaccinated, it will be safe if an epidemic spreads, otherwise, there will be a lot of damage. Similarly, he also described deworming as essential for the health of animals. He said that every three months, the animals should be dewormed according to the changing weather.
Ashwinbhai said another thing that every time deworming should be done with different medicines, by using the same medicine, the resistance of the insects towards that medicine is created and the drug has no effect. He said that the area of Gujarat where his dairy farm is located has proper veterinary arrangements, so there is no special problem to face any special problem.