Dairy farming is one of the leading components of agricultural activities in Kashmir valley. In rural Kashmir dairy farming is playing great role in socio-economic development. Dairy farming is a major source of revenue generation in rural and peri urban areas of Kashmir. Many marginal farmers are exclusively dependent upon income generated from dairy cows. Most small scale livestock keepers have no access to land, and number of rural landless households is likely to be increased due to further subdivisions of land. This will cause shift from crop based farming to dairy based farming. The income generation from livestock is in terms of milk and manure. Earlier it was in terms of draught also but due to mechanisation and reduction in land per household the draught importance of animals has drastically reduced. Usually dairy farmers of valley rear 1, 2 or maximum of 3 dairy cows. People associated with dairy farming are generally from rural areas and perform dairy farming on archaic basis. There are many innovations in scientific dairy farming but due to lack of extension facilities farmers’ acceptance rate to these is very low. Dairy Farming has contributed to the food basket, nutrition security and household income of farmers, and plays a significant role in generating gainful employment and women empowerment in rural and peri urban Kashmir.
In last few decades department of animal husbandry had achieved about more than 80 percent upgradation of livestock through artificial insemination program in plan areas. Now through the nationwide artificial insemination program of GoI dairy animals are inseminated free of cost at every veterinary institute in order to upgrade our dairy animals by superior quality germ-plasm. Now most of dairy animals of Kashmir valley are not genetically less than dairy animals of other states like Punjab, Haryana, or Gujarat, in terms of production capacity. But due to feeding of unbalanced ration during different stages of life, animals don’t develop as per their genetic makeup and are not able to produce fully as per their capacity. Department of animal husbandry is also trying to create employment for unemployed youth through different attractive schemes like integrated dairy development scheme, feed and fodder development scheme and integrated poultry development program.
In commercial dairy farming, Kashmir valley has seen a new dawn in last few years. Commercialisation of dairy farming is at peak reasons, may be active participation of department through attractive schemes like integrated dairy development scheme, unemployment, effective extension and awareness campaigns, reduction of land per household due to which farmers are adopting dairy farming as means of earning, increased demand of fresh milk and milk products and inflation.
Nowadays many educated youth are approaching to establish business in dairy farming but they should be aware that dairy farming is not a white color job, it is to deal with animals. Most of the youth consider dairy farming like running a shop or using some machinery, but in dairy farming one has to deal with a living entity where you have to create such an emotional attachment with animals that you should feel the discomfort of animals. Many new dairy entrepreneurs are trying to run their farms by sitting in cozy offices. They are surrendering their farm to labours, but they should keep it in mind that they have to first gain experience in farming by literally engaging themselves in it. Its not possible to direct anyone without having any experience in the business. When an owner is experienced then he could find faults in management and could guide his staff. Entrepreneurs are also trying to start Dairy by large number of Units. In my opinion entrepreneurs should start with least units (5-10 cows) first in order to gain experience and to avoid unnecessary risk in managing the farm. I have seen how farmers are getting confidence while managing less animals and getting discouraged while handling more units. Starting from minimum dairy animals may not only cut failure risk but injects confidence in entrepreneur and creates strong base of business. Farmers should also try to use new innovative technologies in farming in order to make it profitable. Many entrepreneurs are considering dairy farming as gold mine and get discouraged when they come across less returns. There are only few people who want to make a career in dairy business, others want to do it on temporary basis. I have seen no body to pen down his future strategy of business, a business plan. Regarding profitability let me clearly mention here that in addition to progeny a dairy farmer with 5 dairy animals and managing their farm on scientific guideline can earn 10-15k monthly.
There are many mistakes done by dairy farmers which lead to failure. First and foremost, people are only after milk they don’t consider progeny as returns. As per my experience there is about 30 percent calf mortalities in commercial dairy farmers which is only due to negligence (hypothermia). Farmers have prioritised revenue from milk and don’t give so much importance to progeny. They don’t know actual earning is from offsprings if grown on scientific guidelines. Farmers don’t have a concept of calf starter concentrate and keep their calves only on roughage and little milk. This results in undergrowth and loss of high yield germ-plasm. Awareness about importance of balanced ration is least. Here dairy farmers feed wheat and rice bran as concentrate but both are ingredients of animal feed. Farmers also prefer to feed wheat bran over well balanced feed which not only reduces production but results repeat breeding also. Knowledge about inter-calving period is also very low. This is the period between two successive calving. It is more profitable to have one calf yearly in cattle. Most of heifers are also getting conceived at the age of 3 years due to feeding of unbalanced ration. Age of the animal at first calving is very important for high life time production. The desirable age at first calving is 2 years in cross breed cattle. Prolonged age at first calving adds cost of production and naturally cuts profit margins of business.
Kashmir valley dairy industry should develop proper dairy processing and marketing infrastructure. Due to least developed marketing infrastructure the milk produced is distributed asymmetrically in the valley. There remains a gap of about Rs 5 in retail price of one liter milk from high yield area to milk scarcity area There are many unexplored areas in dairy farming, people consider rearing of cows only. Less than one percent of milk is processed here. Value addition of milk in terms of ghee, butter, cheese, ice cream, khoya and sweets need to be explored. In my opinion we should prioritise value addition units under integrated dairy development scheme. In terms of feed and fodder we are having great opportunities due to ample production of rice, maize, mustard which are important ingredients in feed formulation of animals. Earlier dairy farmers were using products from several crops like straw, hay and other crop residues for dairy production. But due to reduction in land size of dairy farmers they are only depending on local market. We need to introduce high yield fodder like maize, sorghum, oats, and berseem in fields. Concept of silage making is new to Kashmir valley farmers. The silage which a dairy farmer gets from local market @1200 per quintal can be easily manufactured in valley. Department and other institutions like SK University of Agriculture Aciences and Technology need to play more role in extension services. Silage can also be used for winter when we are devoid of green fodder. Establishment of milk pasturisation units is need of the hour in order to increase shelf life and symmetrical distribution in valley. In order to increase the competitiveness of dairy industry in Kashmir valley, efforts should be made to reduce cost of production. This can be achieved through increasing productivity of animals, improving animal health care and breeding facilities, management of dairy animals, milk processing, and building marketing infrastructure.
Dr Mukhtar Ahmad is a Field Veterinarian
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.