Recently I visited a buffalo farm. They had 8 milking buffaloes and production was about 150 ltrs/day with average fat of above 9-10%. They follow very conventional method and I was surprised to see the result. From the resources on the internet, I’ve learned that generally a buffalo give about 8-10 litres/day under farm conditions while in conventional conditions its yield is decreased by 10-15%. This is a shocker, I find it still hard to believe. That particular village has more than 5000 cattles in about 200-220 houses.
Seeing this I am pretty much tempted to start a buffalo farm. Some of the things that I ponder about are…
I am currently running a factory with some spare land where I wish to keep the buffaloes. Would the bank sanction loan & subsidy in this condition. Though sooner or later I will buy some land and cultivate some fodder to bring down my feeding costs but at present due to security reasons, I wish to keep the buffaloes in my factory compound.
The shepherd told me that these buffaloes love to stay in lakes (rather say ponds). Unless this condition is satisfied, it doesn’t delivery to its highest capacity. Now say if I build small pond for 20 or so buffaloes, will it be economically viable for the project?
Can dung of buffaloes be used to prepare compost fertilizer? I plan to use the dung for fertilizing the farm where I would grow some perennial kind of grass.
What kind of perennial grasses are suitable for feeding to buffaloes? Can they be grown here in Saurashtra (Central-Western Gujarat)?
I hope I am not troubling you by firing so many questions at a time.
NABARD (National bank for agriculture and Rural development )is providing subsidized loans for this type of activities.But it directly don’t give any loan. you have to approach any bank for loan (they will ask security) ask the manager to forward it to your district A.G.M, NABARD to get interest subsidy,go for graded murrah (Rs 40000).Buffaloes need exercise ,not necessarily ponds. Hybrid Napier grass,gini grass are suitable as perennial fodders.You have to buy hay (dry fodder)and feed for good milk yield.Any how if you employ more than one for 10 buffaloes you will incur losses.Dung and urine can be used as fertilizers for fodder crop…
Local buffaloes when feed properly gives 10 Litres of milk easily with fat content 8-9% and above. So I am not looking to buy Murrah.
I’ve read some blogs/websites etc and have found that Napier remains dormant during winters hence I need something that can be used as alternate of Napier during winter.
Again I also need to feed dicotyledon type grass. I’ve narrowed Lucerne & Stylo Grass for the same but Lucerne doesn’t yield much during monsoon and hence I need some dicotyledon type grass that can be grown and used in monsoon.
Agriculture and allied projects will never succeed if you follow books and websites ,ask the farmers for any queries not the scientists .Minimize the costs.Hybrid Napier (APBN-!) comes well in all seasons in A.P ,provided water is there.If you grow dicotyledons,green fodder and buy hay and feed ,employ servants for this project you will end loosing one lakh by the year ending.If you are ready to do hard work go for this, other wise leave it.
[hr][/hr]Sir, like you many experts are regularly helping out upcoming entrepreneurs to setup profitable dairy farms. I do not buy your comment about dairy farming being unprofitable. I am currently running a small factory that has turnover in 8 figures. Unless any business is done on a particular scale, its a loss making.
What happens 5 years down the line when I will have more than 30 buffaloes? Should I still work myself? If not how the business be profitable?
We are living in age of precision planning. Proper planning and its accurate implementation makes any industry profitable.
Thanks for the wishes. Desi Buffaloes doesn’t mean they don’t have any standards. A village near my town houses more than 4000 buffaloes, all local. Most of the houses where good care and enough feed is provided, their buffaloes give more than 10 Litres of milk with good fat and reproduce very regularly. I’ve just returned from my 3rd visit to that village.
I guess you are talking about mehsana buffalo, they are available in gujarat and do produce 10trs of milk per day, a friend of mine has just few of them cross with murrah and he gets about 12 ltrs and believe me its 12% fat.
The buffaloes that I am talking of is local of this region. They are of Jaffarabadi breed. BTW I enquired with couple of livestock suppliers in Haryana and they quoted about 50-60K per murrah buffalo with daily yield in excess of 11 Liters. This is just for the information.
Can you let me what is price of jaffarbadi there, probably what is the price for pregnant heifers (1st due lactation). and cost of 1.5 yr old jaffarbadi heifers.
Cost of mature Jaffrabadi buffaloes is anywhere between 40k to 1L. I’ve recently been to Banni Grasslands in Kutch where you find Banni Type of Buffaloes. They are normally kept on wasteland grazing and hence they easily adjust under the commercial farm condition which are way better. They, I heard are great milk producers. A shepherd there quoted Rs. 1L for his buffaloes in 1st/2nd lactation.
I’ve never enquired for a hiefer as I plan to start a new farm and I am least interested to get a male buffaloe calf for the obvious reason. Sorry can’t comment on this one.