Livestock management start-up GoCarin is establishing Odisha’s largest cattle feed manufacturing plant with sustainable feed formulation at Balasore. The plant will be operational from November this year, said the company’s founder, Ramanuj Pande.  

“We have a small plant in West Bengal’s Bardhaman region. Its capacity is being fully utilised and there was a need for a bigger plant,” Pande told businessline in an online interaction.

GoCarin acquired an acre of land from the Odisha government, and the plant will be fully automated with Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities. The West Bengal plant will continue to operate along with the new plant.

App functions

The Odisha plant will have a 250 tonnes per day capacity, while the  Bengal plant’s monthly capacity is 500 tonnes. This will serve livestock farmers in Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkhand, besides West Bengal. The company, launched in June 2022, connects with livestock farmers through an app - GoCarin. 

“A farmer can book and connect to a veterinary doctor and discuss his animals’ problems. The app also has facilities for the farmer to seek advice on feed, particularly the basic formulation,” said Pande, who had earlier worked with Amul.

The app has a feed calculator where the farmer provides details such as the weight of the animal, the rearing season and its milk productivity. Based on these inputs, the app will provide suggestions on the feed. 

“Our app has an ERP, where a farmer can register the farm, the number of cows in it and a few more details. After that, the company’s artificial intelligence and machine learning will guide the farmer on the cattle’s next pregnancy date, when to go for vaccination, and other precautions to be taken,” he said. Along with these features, the app has educational videos.

Lack of nutrition

Stating that cattle need protein, carbohydrate, fat and other nutrients, he said generally, farmers give them grasses, and they are not as nutritious as they should be. “Because of this, the productivity of Indian cows is low. If the genetic potential of the cow to yield milk is 10 litres, it provides only 1.5 or 2 litres as their feed is not nutritious,” said Pande, a veterinary doctor who has an MBA from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat.

The lack of nutrition among cows, in particular, results in the farmer losing and dairy turning out unproductive as its pregnancy could be delayed. “Generally, we mix 20-25 different ingredients such as soyabean cake, mustard cake, broken rice, de-oiled rice bran, salt and calcite. A lot of different ingredients are mixed with our formulation,” he said. 

Pande said GoCarin was launched because animal husbandry development in the eastern part of the country has been slack, and the major reason is the high cost of inputs. 

“There was not much focus on the eastern parts during the white revolution. In regions where animal husbandry has thrived, the farming community has seen good development. Animal husbandry does not need a large area. Nor is it dependent on the monsoon,” said Pande, giving details of how he founded the company with his co-founders from IIT Kharagpur and National Institute of Technology, Rourkela.  

360 degree solution

GoCarin decided to go for a different kind of formulation, and they developed it using various types of seaweeds and algae that increase the cattle’s productivity. Methane emission of the cattle also decreases, along with this. Initially, GoCarin sold ₹2.5 crore with feed of their initial formulation. 

“Customers need some hand-holding. When a farmer buys a cow or goat, he needs scientific advice as they don’t have access to veterinary services in their village,” he said.  

Understanding that farmers need a 360-degree solution, the company developed the app, where a farmer can book a doctor consultation even for other farmers. “This gave us two benefits. One, the doctors gave the right advice to the farmers. Second, the doctors pitched the company’s feed to farmers. This gave confidence to the farmers that scientific feed can help improve the animal’s productivity,” said Pande. 

The company identified a few farmers in West Bengal near the plant locality and convinced them to provide the concentrated feed prepared by it. This helped more than triple their cattle’s milk productivity, and now they don’t want to miss even one such feed.

Plans ahead

GoCarin, which also sells feed for goat, fish, pigs, birds and pet animals, sells its products branded as Poshan 8,000, 10,000 and 12,000 based on their protein content. Besides, it has special feed for pregnant cows and calves. 

“We are also launching Gold Goat, which will be the feed formulation for goat. We are launching Gahori, which is a pig feed formulation. This is because we are only focusing on ruminants,” the company’s founder said. 

GoCarin received ₹50 lakh from the Ministry of Biotechnology for developing the feed formulation. It has also received ₹80 lakh funding from the Government, and it won ₹22 lakh at the all-India Startup Mahakumbh.

On future plans, Pande said the company would focus on more on its app technological innovations. For example, the company is planning an app where, if a farmer takes a photograph of a cow, it will give the body score of the animal, the nutrition it requires, its health and its breed. However, the company will strengthen its foothold in the feed sector before focusing on technology. 

Besides looking at Bangladesh as an option to expand, the company is looking into the benefits of various seaweeds, spirulina and red algae. “The research on the benefits of seaweeds and red algae is to reduce methane emissions by 50 per cent in cows. Once we develop that, we plan to export it also,” the company’s founder said. 

GoCarin plans to integrate carbon emissions into its app, and it will help farmers to sell it to the Government or trade with other firms.

Published on June 19, 2025