Dairy Farm Management

B. Dairy farm management : The dairy industry covers three linked activities: the production of milk on the farm, its processing, and its distribution to consumers, and it centres on milk, a valuable food staple consumed almost universally by people. Milk yield depends heavily on the quality of the breed being kept, so selecting good breeds that combine high yielding potential with genuine adaptation to the local climate, and with adequate disease resistance, is the basic starting requirement for any dairy farm.

In India, both cows and buffaloes are used for dairy farming. Among cattle, Sahiwal, Sindhi and Gir are important indigenous Indian breeds, while Jersey, Brown Swiss and Holstein are exotic breeds also kept for their high milk yield. Buffaloes, which are restricted to certain parts of Asia only, include six recognised Indian breeds — Jaffarabadi, Mehsana, Murrah, Nagpuri, Nili and Surati — all of which are good milk producers.

Day-to-day management. Cattle must be well looked after: they need quality fodder in the right quantity and proportion, and silage made from legumes and grasses, or from maize and jowar, makes a good staple feed, usually supplemented further with oil cakes, minerals, vitamins and salts. Cleanliness and hygiene — of both the animals and the people handling them — matter enormously during milking, storage and transport, and in recent years much of this handling has been mechanised specifically to reduce direct human contact with the milk. The cattle shed itself must be cleaned daily and should be spacious, with adequate arrangements for feeding, watering and lighting. Regular veterinary visits to a dairy farm are treated as mandatory, since prompt detection and treatment of disease is central to keeping a herd healthy and productive.