Hello Sir
Buffaloes can be maintained on more fibrous crop residues, hence scope for reducing feed cost.
Buffaloes largely mature late and give birth to calves at 16 to 18 months interval.
Buffaloes need cooling facility e.g. Wallowing tank or showers / foggers with fan.
Popular buffalo milch breeds are Murrah, Surti, Mehasani, Jaffrabadi, and Nali – Ravi and Badhawari. The indigenous milch breeds of cattle are Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi and Tharparkar. The exotic breeds of cattle are Holstein Friesian, Jersey and Brown Swiss.
Economic life of buffaloes is 5-6 lactation and that of Crossbreed cows is 6-7 lactation.
Under Indian condition a commercial dairy farm should consist of minimum 20 animals (10 cows, 10 buffaloes) this strength can easily go up to 100 animals in proportion of 50:50 or 40:60.
The space required per animal should be 40 sq.ft in shed and 80sq.ft open space. Besides, you will also need:
One room 10” x 10” for keeping implements.
One room 10”x 12” for milk storage
Office cum living room of suitable size.
Water tank capable of storing minimum 2000 liters
Bore well with capacity to fill water tank in 1 hr
Ideal space requirement for 100 animals is 13,000 to 15,000 sq.ft (120″ x 125”).
Land size of of 15 to 20 acres with irrigation facility is enough to cultivate green fodder for your animals.
(One acre of green fodder cultivation for every five animals is required as a thumb rule.)
Economics of whole dairy animal management depends upon its economic feeding.
By making fodder’s like Lucerne or Berseem available for your animals you can reduce cost on feeding concentrate feed.
The strength of labourers in your farm can vary with number of animals usually the thumb rule is one labour for every 10 animals on milk or 20 dry animals or 20 young stock.