Hi Alpesh
Dairy farm area includes pasture land or grazing area, fields for growing crops,buildings including barns, sheds and housing, and areas for storing feed and manure.
Important factors for selection of site are:
1. Nearer by market: It should be nearer to market so as to minimize transportation charges and lesser loss due to the spoilage of production, during storage and transportation.
2. Water supply: Water should be available cheaply and in plenty
3. Topography: Topography should be high and level with no abrupt slopes and fertile soil.
4. Drainage: Soil should be grounds so that effective drainage is possible and farm premises remain dry.
5. Size and slope of area: farm area should be square shape and should be nearly1-2 hectares.
6. Sun exposure and protection: Farm buildings should be located to obtain the maximum sun exposure in the north and minimum sun exposure in south. farm site with many trees around is ideal and to provide the natural shade.Trees act as wind breaks.
These can be the most important steps when you start a dairy farm.
You will need to know your fixed, variable, operating, and depreciation costs.
Fixed costs include rent; variable costs include fuel, feed, fertilizer, cattle prices for selling culls and bull calves, maintenance for machinery, etc.; operating costs include costs of feeding cows, milk production, veterinary bills, feed bills, etc.;
depreciation costs include machinery, building, livestock, and equipment.
Multiply the number of animals that you can house by the median sale price to arrive at the estimated cost of purchasing your dairy cattle.
The amount of feed each animal will require is dependent on the climate and whether you are feeding straight grain, sweet feed, or a combination of grain and grass or hay.
Schemes for support: Dairy Entrepreneurship Development Scheme is a Government of India sponsored scheme to provide financial support to entrepreneurs to start dairy and allied business.
For Small dairy farms: Cross bred cows, Indigenous breeds and Graded buffaloes (up to 10 animals): Rs.5 lakh/unit cost.
NABARD is implementing this scheme through Commercial Banks, State Cooperative Banks, SLDBs Regional Rural Banks and other agencies eligible for refinance from NABARD.
