I am intrested in starting up a small dairy farm with farm size of 5 cows.
I have gone through some of the posts and various sites on google stating that cows give milk per day. As per my knowledge correct me if i was mistaken that cows give milk twice morning and evening. 10 litres of milk per day indicates (both morning and evening) which means five litres + five litres per day.
I want to purchase cows and maximum range i can afford per cow betwen 40K to 70K, suggest cow breeds which gives more milk and also provide me where those cows can be available…
provide me few suggestions if any which would help me in successfull run of dairy farm.
A Dairy Farm, like any other business needs a business plan. First write these down on a sheet of paper:
Why do you want to get into dairy farming? Do you or any of your family members/ friends have experience in dairy farming?
Who is your buyer? How much milk can you market per day?
How far is the nearest veternary facility?
What will be your biggest operating costs? Let me tell you - feed! Do a study on the web and calculate how much feed you will need in a day. Calculate costs
See if your revenues (selling price per litre into litres of milk produced in a day) can cover your costs and give you decent profits (25-30%)
Costs provided on the web are average, get specific costs for your locality by talking to other dairy farmers
Calculate the capital expenses (building, machinery, etc). See if you can invest this amount up front. If not, where will you get a loan from? How will you repay the loan? Will you be left with decent profits after repayment?
Once you have these basic calculations, there are a lot of consultants on this forum who can help you.
Disclaimer: I am not a dairy farmer yet. I intend to start and I am in the process of preparing the above said Business Plan.
Your assumption on milk yeild is not completly correct. Milk yeild is not constant. so you have to take average yeild in a lactation. A well maintained and well fed HF animal should give you avarage of 15ltrs/day. This is only up to 5th calving after that it decreases.
As AK1311 posted it is very important to have experience in dairy farming or else you will make huge loss.
Keeping any animal always tied in a shed is not a healthy practice(dairy farmers have no other option). So you will need a well experienced vet who is available for your cows.
Then feed is another important factor. Some dairy in my locality use malt(beer waste) as feed, along with few other feed.
Dairying is not a one man army. You will need some one to replace you at times when you are not around. Keeping full time Labor is not a ideal option(Charges and will they treat your cows well?)
Peak milking is just for 3 months after birth of calf, after which it starts to lower. Say if you inseminated the cow after six months of milking, From there on you will be able to milk cow for another 3 months for most cows. In some cases it may extent for 6 months or more.
Ideally you will have to feed a cow for 6 months with out any income from her(dry period).
Most dairy farmers keep 10 cows, 5 milking and another 5 should be ready when the earlier 5 go dry.
One dairy farmer near my locality has stopped his dairy and drives a auto now. In Kerala most dairy farmers are making loss or are struggling. I believe it is the same in most part of India. Only big players are holding back with perks and subsidies from governments.
Not just that you need lot of water supply to keep the shed, cows and other equipment clean.
Dairy is not a easy task. Lot of things have to be considered before getting into it.
hope this gives you some idea. let me know if you need more info.
