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Four friends set on a self-learned journey in livestock farming to make most of the barren land one of them owned. Initially confused between dairy or goat &sheep farming they choose the later for less labour and hassle free management. They together established Samrudhi Sheep and Goat Farm in 2011, on Mysore Road, just after Kumbalgodu, Karnataka. Mr. Naveen, one of the founders shares the details about their farm. Excerpts:
Our farm is engaged in breeding of goats and sheep as well as we rear it for couple of months and then sell it to end consumer directly. We usually buy 4-5months old lambs, raise them for another 5-6 months and sell when it gains weight up to 30-40kgs. Our farm spreads across 8acres. We grow fodder in-house for our own animals. We also conduct training programs on our farm once in a month on goat and sheep farming. Sheep breeds reared at the farm are Deccani (local Karnataka) and Sindhanur (central Karnataka) while goat breeds are Sirohi (Rajasthan), Osmanabadi (Nothern Karnataka) and Thalassery (Tamil Nadu and Kerala).
All four of us are professionals working for different companies and also farmers. Harish and Bharath (both are brothers, a software engineer and a banker), myself Naveen (IT professional into SAP) and Sudheendra (auditing manager). First couple of years, we learnt and now we are doing well. The ground work we did was to visit the existing goat farms and learn farming intricacies.
Close to year, I was on sabbatical from work. I visited 30-40 farms pan India, stayed there, learnt from labours, farmers and specialists. I did apply the learning on the field yet many challenges were faced. It took a lot of toll for cultivating fodder and management for our own animals but we consistently corrected our mistakes and finally as experience was acquired we attained success.
We ensure our entire herd is clean, fed well and has no diseases. We let the customer choose the animal at time of sale. None of goats or sheep is slaughtered before their adult age. Green fodder along with some nutrition rich concentrates are fed to goats and sheep. Animals are vaccinated once in a year for contagious diseases like HH, PPR, ET etc. Proper excel sheet is maintained for the vaccination schedule.
Pens or sheds are cleaned everyday with running water and once in 15days it is disinfected with necessary concentrates. Once in couple of months animals are washed thoroughly, feed is washed to avoid contamination. Visitors are allowed only on weekend after use of sanitisation, mask, liquids etc. Mortality is part and parcel of any animal husbandry. It is handled with utmost care. We usually bury the dead animals.
Commonly the herd size in total is 350 animals. We sell during September-November every year while add lambs and kids in December or January. This year it was a lucrative year as we sold many animals during the festive occasion ‘Bakri Id’. We are getting buyers through reference and word of mouth publicity.
In our training programs, conducted on 2nd Sunday every month we have 15-20 participants. These are enthusiastic agricultural shepherds. It is a one day training program that includes all the aspects of sheep and goat such as breed selection, farm management, loan, shed construction, finance, marketing etc. Fee charged is Rs.1500/participant.
We strongly recommend training for the start-ups as learning is better than losing money without experience! I have seen many farms close down to due poor maintenance or lack of involvement in farming activities. Hence invest few thousands in training than losing lakh of rupees. After the training program, we stay in touch with the participants through WhatsApp. We share photos and knowledge.
In time to come we plan for Community Farming. We would form a community and then we will sell the animals at equalised/standardised rate that is not happening in the market right now. We want to eliminate middlemen and help farmer earn better. Sheep and goat farming is profitable business if done appropriately with 100% commitment!
(As told Mamatha S R)
Contact details:
Samrudhi Sheep and Goat Farm
Bethimgere Village, Ramanagaram District,
Off Bidadi, Mysore Main Road,
Bangalore Rural - 562102.
Phone: 9036170603
Email: info@stallfed.com
Website: http://www.stallfed.com/
Our farm is engaged in breeding of goats and sheep as well as we rear it for couple of months and then sell it to end consumer directly. We usually buy 4-5months old lambs, raise them for another 5-6 months and sell when it gains weight up to 30-40kgs. Our farm spreads across 8acres. We grow fodder in-house for our own animals. We also conduct training programs on our farm once in a month on goat and sheep farming. Sheep breeds reared at the farm are Deccani (local Karnataka) and Sindhanur (central Karnataka) while goat breeds are Sirohi (Rajasthan), Osmanabadi (Nothern Karnataka) and Thalassery (Tamil Nadu and Kerala).
All four of us are professionals working for different companies and also farmers. Harish and Bharath (both are brothers, a software engineer and a banker), myself Naveen (IT professional into SAP) and Sudheendra (auditing manager). First couple of years, we learnt and now we are doing well. The ground work we did was to visit the existing goat farms and learn farming intricacies.
Close to year, I was on sabbatical from work. I visited 30-40 farms pan India, stayed there, learnt from labours, farmers and specialists. I did apply the learning on the field yet many challenges were faced. It took a lot of toll for cultivating fodder and management for our own animals but we consistently corrected our mistakes and finally as experience was acquired we attained success.
We ensure our entire herd is clean, fed well and has no diseases. We let the customer choose the animal at time of sale. None of goats or sheep is slaughtered before their adult age. Green fodder along with some nutrition rich concentrates are fed to goats and sheep. Animals are vaccinated once in a year for contagious diseases like HH, PPR, ET etc. Proper excel sheet is maintained for the vaccination schedule.
Pens or sheds are cleaned everyday with running water and once in 15days it is disinfected with necessary concentrates. Once in couple of months animals are washed thoroughly, feed is washed to avoid contamination. Visitors are allowed only on weekend after use of sanitisation, mask, liquids etc. Mortality is part and parcel of any animal husbandry. It is handled with utmost care. We usually bury the dead animals.
Commonly the herd size in total is 350 animals. We sell during September-November every year while add lambs and kids in December or January. This year it was a lucrative year as we sold many animals during the festive occasion ‘Bakri Id’. We are getting buyers through reference and word of mouth publicity.
In our training programs, conducted on 2nd Sunday every month we have 15-20 participants. These are enthusiastic agricultural shepherds. It is a one day training program that includes all the aspects of sheep and goat such as breed selection, farm management, loan, shed construction, finance, marketing etc. Fee charged is Rs.1500/participant.
We strongly recommend training for the start-ups as learning is better than losing money without experience! I have seen many farms close down to due poor maintenance or lack of involvement in farming activities. Hence invest few thousands in training than losing lakh of rupees. After the training program, we stay in touch with the participants through WhatsApp. We share photos and knowledge.
In time to come we plan for Community Farming. We would form a community and then we will sell the animals at equalised/standardised rate that is not happening in the market right now. We want to eliminate middlemen and help farmer earn better. Sheep and goat farming is profitable business if done appropriately with 100% commitment!
(As told Mamatha S R)
Contact details:
Samrudhi Sheep and Goat Farm
Bethimgere Village, Ramanagaram District,
Off Bidadi, Mysore Main Road,
Bangalore Rural - 562102.
Phone: 9036170603
Email: info@stallfed.com
Website: http://www.stallfed.com/
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