India’s dairy sector needs adoption of innovative ideas to achieve further growth, increase milk production and attract entrepreneurs and investors, according to K.S. Mani, Milma Chairman.

In his presentation at the 49th Dairy Industry Conference and Exhibition 2023 held at Gandhinagar, Mani called for urgent steps to reduce the production cost, besides addressing critical issues like shortage and high price of cattle feed, gaps in veterinary care, measures to enhance quantity and quality of milk.

To achieve these targets, authorities must take steps to improve the cattle health by strengthening their immunity, optimise the labour to reduce input cost and create a healthy and pollution-free environment for livestock rearing and milk production, he pointed out in his presentation on ‘Animal Husbandry Innovations’.

The cattle should gain stronger immunity against diseases to make them healthy and more productive, besides keeping them fertile through better artificial insemination, he said at the conference organised by the Indian Dairy Association.

Cows must get special care during their initial stage of pregnancy and greater attention needs to be given on the quality of the cattle-feed. Besides improving the institutional mechanism for veterinary care, scientific nurturing and breeding, it is important to maintain cleanliness of sheds, Mani said.

Containing epidemics

Listing certain bovine diseases afflicting cattle, Mani stressed the need to carry out effective measures to contain lumpy skin, brucellosis, theileriosis and mastitis. New diagnostic systems must be developed, the cattle should be equipped with stronger resistance against micro-organisms and better care against inflammation of the udder provided.

The ethno-veterinary medicines brought out by Malabar Milma, a constituent of KCMMF, are helping in reducing the use of high-cost antibiotics for cattle, and these could be tried all over the country, he suggested.

The feed for cattle ought to be balanced and economical. The pickled silage pasture grass can address not just shortage of cattle feed but provide it at an affordable price. The feed can include bypass fat, milk replacer and calf starter. Cows should be given sufficient intervals amid milking to guarantee better results in the measure and quality. Also, farmers must be aware of the ideal gaps between pregnancies in cows, Mani said.

Bovine hygiene

Low-cost cattle-sheds are a need of the hour. Their cleanliness must be ensured by timely removal of cow-dung as well as guarding the cattle against worms. Further, there should be updated technologies to generate energy and value-added products from cow-dung. Mechanisation can help improve not just the quality of milk at a lower cost of production, but also the cleanliness in cattle-sheds, the Chairman added.

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