बुधवार, 21 दिसंबर 2016

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR COWS?

Dear all my lovely people, there are various aspects regarding which we should be very careful while choosing our cows. A lot of young farmers who don’t have any or much experience regarding dairy farming, make a lot of irrevocable mistakes while selecting their cows. I did too. Due to those mistakes they suffer losses and then surrender under the pressure of cash crunch and depression. I made it through that stage but a lot of our friends aren’t that fortunate. So at least I have the moral obligation to tell you people a few things regarding how to avoid those mistakes, which I couldn’t, but our future dairypreneurs can, from now on, without suffering any losses.
 
The best step by step guide to choose a better milking cow for your Dairy. 


Steps to be followed 


1.  The first and foremost thing while buying cows is that you should have adequate knowledge about the breed of the cows. In India, generally people only have one notion that either the cow is Desi or American. But actually there are many breeds of cows of which some are pure breeds and some are crossbreeds.
 For e.g. if we talk about Indian pure breeds, then the best of them are namely the lal sindhi, sahiwal, tharparkar, rathi, Gir.

There are many more varieties but these are the best Indian breeds. Out of all of these, Gir is the best with the best milk yielding capacity. The Gir has been used extensively for making hybrid varieties of cows all over the world and mainly Brazil.

The fat content and the genetic signature of all these Indian breeds is mind blowing as well as they are well accustomed to our country’s weather and are almost disease proof, but the main problem with these breeds is their very long dry period. If you are going to buy it for personal purpose then they are the excellent choice, but, if you have to purchase them for commercial purpose, then they are not profitable at all.

Now if we talk about the foreign pure exotic breeds available in India, then the most popular one’s is the Holstein Friesians (HF). There are also The Brown Swiss, Jersey, Fleckvieh, etc. But HF’s are the best due to their high milk yielding capacity. Now the problem with the foreign exotic breeds is that they aren’t accustomed to our harsh Indian environment. So if you buy a pure exotic breed then you will have to ensure proper arrangements regarding the housing and feeding and what not of the cow, so that the cow feels as comfortable as possible.

Taking care of pure breeds is easy only in their native regions, but not in foreign places, where they aren’t accustomed to live. There is a high risk of them falling ill, as well as it requires a lot of expenditure to make the proper arrangements for them.

So, my point is that, you should choose hybrid varieties of cows for dairy purposes in India. The benefit of hybrid varieties is that they have qualities of both the Indian indigenous breed bull and also the exotic breed mother. Therefore, they can withstand the harsh temperatures prevailing in India, without getting sick and also have high milk yielding capacity and additionally less dry period thus, escalating the profits.
Dairy cows and their quality check. 




2. The second thing that you should keep in mind while selecting cows is that you should purchase them from areas nearby you as much as possible. The reason being is that the cows living near your geographical vicinity will be already accustomed to the climate of your area, so you would not have to make special arrangements or take special care of that cow.

 Sometimes people buy cows from areas having totally different climate than their own area. This brings a sudden drop in the milking capacity of the cow, and can also additionally hinder the health of the cow because the cow isn’t able to cope up with the sudden change in the climate. The farmer then has to take adequate measures (medical/infrastructural) for the recovery of the cow as well as its milk capacity. This adds up to the loss of the farmer.

3. Now, the next important thing, which you should keep in mind while getting a cow from any seller is that “NEVER EVER BELIEVE WHAT THE SELLER TELLS YOU”. Always remember this one thing, if you want to be successful in dairy business. Every time you visit a seller, that should be right before the milking time, whether he be a peasant or a professional seller, first of all THAT SHOULD BE A SURPRISE FOR HIM SO THAT HE DOESN’T GET ANY TIME TO TRY A TRICK OR TWO ON THE COW FOR TEMPORARILY INCREASING THE MILK FOR THE TIME BEING.
    

P.S. There are ways to do so, which we will discuss in my upcoming articles.


Now have a look at the cow closely.

Just look at the size of the udder, the milk vein(the thicker the vein, the larger the milk yield), the level of the teats(it should be either equal or the front teats should be slightly larger than the rear ones).
Always take your personal doctor whenever you go to buy a cow.  He will not only tell you about the various statistics of the cow but he will also help you to take a wise decision too.


4.  Whenever you purchase a cow, then you should make sure that you have the same feed present in your dairy as was given to the cow before. This is important because a sudden change in the diet of the cow can cause a sudden drop in her milk production as well as it also hinders the metabolism of the cow. Therefore, feed the cow with the older feed along with the new feed (in small quantity) for a few days and gradually start increasing the new feed day by day until the cow gets accustomed to it and relishes it. After that switch over completely to your own feed.

5. One last, but the most important thing, which you have to keep in mind is that “NEVER PURCHASE A COW WHICH HAS EITHER HAD A DELIVERY RECENTLY (IMMEDIATELY TO 15 DAYS) OR IS GOING TO HAVE ONE SHORTLY (WITHIN THE NEXT 2 TO 10 DAYS).” There are various reasons behind this concept, which we will discuss in my next article.

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