editorialteam
New Member
Runs dairy farm in natural and cost effective manner. Prefers breeding over milking
“Money should be spent in most appropriate way. To do so first and foremost self involvement is extremely important to run any business effectively and efficiently. Secondly one needs to be a good negotiator and lastly should be informed really well about the market price of everything used in the farm. For example the cost of cow shed construction at our farm was Rs. 239/sq ft as against the quoted price of Rs. 1000/ sq ft,” says Mr. Gourish, founder, Yogi Farms.
Mr. Gourish
Sharing more details he shares, “Initially I brought in some engineers to develop the shed and they quoted construction cost as Rs. 1000/sq.ft. I felt it was too high price as NABARD recommendation is Rs. 200-300/sq.ft. I refused and personally went ahead to Hubli wholesale market. I could gather lot of material making sure that structurally engineering aspect is well considered such that later in expansion stage our construction cost would be very low. Shed was built for 20animals and cost incurred was Rs. 375/sq.ft. After some time it was expanded using the support of the old shed leading to the total cost as Rs. 239/sq.ft. So we gained considerably.”
Mr. Gourish established Yogi Farms in August 2014. Spread in 5.5 acre, farm is located at Dharwad, Karnataka. It is a mix of cows and buffaloes, Murrah breed of buffaloes and cross breeds of cows Jersey and HF. Total herd size is 42 including calves, cows and buffaloes. There are 10 adult buffaloes and one bull buffalo for reproduction while 9 adult cows. Rests are calves. “Murrah breed of buffalo yields better and is a docile animal. It is easy to milk and human friendly. Besides having good popularity its’ resale value will always be high when compared to other breeds. Whereas in cows, I preferred HF for high milk yield and Jersey for high resistance to diseases,” he adds.
Cattle were purchased in multistage. “In the beginning I purchased six murrah animals from the dairy shut down hence had good opportunity to bargain on rates. It cost around Rs. 65 thousand/animal, relatively less than market price!” he says. In the second year 6 more buffaloes were sourced from Haryana at Rs. 90 thousand/animal while cows at Rs. 40, 000 – 70, 000/animal.
At Yogi Farms first priority is breeding over milking. “We rear calves more than we prefer milk. The animal price is increasing consistently from past 7-8years when compared with milk price! Hence breeding caught our attention. The milk production will not be constant over the year and if we concentrate on milk production, then it might lead to some losses. On the contrary breeding is always profitable because animals can be sold any time and money can be earned,” he elaborates.
Mr. Gourish opines, “I experienced that with artificial insemination the reproduction success rate was low so I decided for natural insemination and brought in a bull. Then after there was good success in pregnancy rates.”
Feed given to the cattle is seasonal as it is healthy for the animals and cost effective too. “Right now we are feeding with safflower cake, tur and channa husk, maize powder, mineral mixture etc. Most of the time it depends on the price! The feed that is reasonable and affordable is selected with no compromise on quality,” he explains the feeding diet. For example in June or July, maize price is high so it is replaced with wheat bran. If wheat is available at cheaper rate, then wheat is choosen or otherwise wheat bran. “Exclusively natural feed without chemical or artificial inducers is opted always and it is maintained as organically as possible. Raw materials are procured from local sources where I am assured of the quality then we mix it at the farm in proper proportion and feed it to cattle.”
5-6 varieties of fodder grasses are grown in house namely napier, grazing guinea grass, multi cut sorghum and maize. “We grow some fodder trees also.” To grow fodder, cow and buffalo dung based compost is used. “We even sell the compost at Rs. 8 thousand/ton in wholesale while Rs. 15/kg in retail,” he adds. Sprinklers are used for irrigation.
Cattle are fed twice in 24 hours, 3.30 am and 3.30 pm. “Soon after feeding milking is done manually. Milk is packed and delivered to the customer door step within 3 hours of milking,” states Mr. Gourish. Daily milk production at the farm is 65-70 liter per day. “As our focus is more on calves we extract less milk for supplying. Generally we feed calves more with milk under 3 months old to kick start their growth.” Milk is sold under the brand name Nisarga in Dharwad city. Cow milk is sold at Rs. 45/liter and buffalo milk at Rs. 60/liter.
Speaking of farm management Mr. Gourish says, “We are very particular about hygiene and sanitation. Also the shed is well ventilated. So the animals rarely fall sick. We do vaccination ourseleves as we know our animals really well. Medication is given as and when required. We have small water feeding system in our farm where using gravity we have set water flow and water level is always maintained without power. So that animal has freedom to drink water whenever needed. Proper structure and mechanization is implemented at different scales to ensure smooth operations.”
When asked about managing drought conditions, he responds, “As we do not use any chemicals in our farm the water holding capacity is really high. We prepare vermicompost and compost using microbial fermenting. On being tested in lab these composts showed that water holding capacity of soil has been increased. We are trying to include biomass as much as possible into the soil and we trying to use wind barrier by planting serbenia or suchbenai surrounding our farmland.”
Problems and challenges faced, “The beaurocracy/government is not encouraging as of now. Even if we are doing it independently, we see lot of trouble from other people belonging to the unorganized factor. Most of the people in dairy/agriculture behave unprofessionally,” he shares.
In time to come Mr. Gourish plans to start up new a setup for agriculture. “It will be marketing and sales of naturally grown agricultural commodities,” he signs off.
Mr. Gourish completed BE from Davangere and Masters in Biological Engineering from NC State University, USA. Later he returned back to India and planned to start a company related to biodiesel and dairy farming. At different levels, there is an integration of dairy and biodiesel that could save money on the logistics and labour. Initially he thought it could be a profitable model but found in reality there existed huge drawback in the raw materials in the biodiesel industry. So he decided to have an exclusive dairy farm. Although he was well read on dairy operations yet he took training on dairy farming at Agriculture University Dharwad and Bangalore. He also visited lot of dairy farms that helped him largely.
Contact Details:
Yogi Farms
Plot No. 200, 2nd Main Kumareshwaranagar, Belgaum Road,
Dharwad – 580 008, Karnataka
Email: gourish444@gmail.com
“Money should be spent in most appropriate way. To do so first and foremost self involvement is extremely important to run any business effectively and efficiently. Secondly one needs to be a good negotiator and lastly should be informed really well about the market price of everything used in the farm. For example the cost of cow shed construction at our farm was Rs. 239/sq ft as against the quoted price of Rs. 1000/ sq ft,” says Mr. Gourish, founder, Yogi Farms.
Mr. Gourish
Sharing more details he shares, “Initially I brought in some engineers to develop the shed and they quoted construction cost as Rs. 1000/sq.ft. I felt it was too high price as NABARD recommendation is Rs. 200-300/sq.ft. I refused and personally went ahead to Hubli wholesale market. I could gather lot of material making sure that structurally engineering aspect is well considered such that later in expansion stage our construction cost would be very low. Shed was built for 20animals and cost incurred was Rs. 375/sq.ft. After some time it was expanded using the support of the old shed leading to the total cost as Rs. 239/sq.ft. So we gained considerably.”
Mr. Gourish established Yogi Farms in August 2014. Spread in 5.5 acre, farm is located at Dharwad, Karnataka. It is a mix of cows and buffaloes, Murrah breed of buffaloes and cross breeds of cows Jersey and HF. Total herd size is 42 including calves, cows and buffaloes. There are 10 adult buffaloes and one bull buffalo for reproduction while 9 adult cows. Rests are calves. “Murrah breed of buffalo yields better and is a docile animal. It is easy to milk and human friendly. Besides having good popularity its’ resale value will always be high when compared to other breeds. Whereas in cows, I preferred HF for high milk yield and Jersey for high resistance to diseases,” he adds.
Cattle were purchased in multistage. “In the beginning I purchased six murrah animals from the dairy shut down hence had good opportunity to bargain on rates. It cost around Rs. 65 thousand/animal, relatively less than market price!” he says. In the second year 6 more buffaloes were sourced from Haryana at Rs. 90 thousand/animal while cows at Rs. 40, 000 – 70, 000/animal.
At Yogi Farms first priority is breeding over milking. “We rear calves more than we prefer milk. The animal price is increasing consistently from past 7-8years when compared with milk price! Hence breeding caught our attention. The milk production will not be constant over the year and if we concentrate on milk production, then it might lead to some losses. On the contrary breeding is always profitable because animals can be sold any time and money can be earned,” he elaborates.
Mr. Gourish opines, “I experienced that with artificial insemination the reproduction success rate was low so I decided for natural insemination and brought in a bull. Then after there was good success in pregnancy rates.”
Feed given to the cattle is seasonal as it is healthy for the animals and cost effective too. “Right now we are feeding with safflower cake, tur and channa husk, maize powder, mineral mixture etc. Most of the time it depends on the price! The feed that is reasonable and affordable is selected with no compromise on quality,” he explains the feeding diet. For example in June or July, maize price is high so it is replaced with wheat bran. If wheat is available at cheaper rate, then wheat is choosen or otherwise wheat bran. “Exclusively natural feed without chemical or artificial inducers is opted always and it is maintained as organically as possible. Raw materials are procured from local sources where I am assured of the quality then we mix it at the farm in proper proportion and feed it to cattle.”
5-6 varieties of fodder grasses are grown in house namely napier, grazing guinea grass, multi cut sorghum and maize. “We grow some fodder trees also.” To grow fodder, cow and buffalo dung based compost is used. “We even sell the compost at Rs. 8 thousand/ton in wholesale while Rs. 15/kg in retail,” he adds. Sprinklers are used for irrigation.
Cattle are fed twice in 24 hours, 3.30 am and 3.30 pm. “Soon after feeding milking is done manually. Milk is packed and delivered to the customer door step within 3 hours of milking,” states Mr. Gourish. Daily milk production at the farm is 65-70 liter per day. “As our focus is more on calves we extract less milk for supplying. Generally we feed calves more with milk under 3 months old to kick start their growth.” Milk is sold under the brand name Nisarga in Dharwad city. Cow milk is sold at Rs. 45/liter and buffalo milk at Rs. 60/liter.
Speaking of farm management Mr. Gourish says, “We are very particular about hygiene and sanitation. Also the shed is well ventilated. So the animals rarely fall sick. We do vaccination ourseleves as we know our animals really well. Medication is given as and when required. We have small water feeding system in our farm where using gravity we have set water flow and water level is always maintained without power. So that animal has freedom to drink water whenever needed. Proper structure and mechanization is implemented at different scales to ensure smooth operations.”
When asked about managing drought conditions, he responds, “As we do not use any chemicals in our farm the water holding capacity is really high. We prepare vermicompost and compost using microbial fermenting. On being tested in lab these composts showed that water holding capacity of soil has been increased. We are trying to include biomass as much as possible into the soil and we trying to use wind barrier by planting serbenia or suchbenai surrounding our farmland.”
Problems and challenges faced, “The beaurocracy/government is not encouraging as of now. Even if we are doing it independently, we see lot of trouble from other people belonging to the unorganized factor. Most of the people in dairy/agriculture behave unprofessionally,” he shares.
In time to come Mr. Gourish plans to start up new a setup for agriculture. “It will be marketing and sales of naturally grown agricultural commodities,” he signs off.
Mr. Gourish completed BE from Davangere and Masters in Biological Engineering from NC State University, USA. Later he returned back to India and planned to start a company related to biodiesel and dairy farming. At different levels, there is an integration of dairy and biodiesel that could save money on the logistics and labour. Initially he thought it could be a profitable model but found in reality there existed huge drawback in the raw materials in the biodiesel industry. So he decided to have an exclusive dairy farm. Although he was well read on dairy operations yet he took training on dairy farming at Agriculture University Dharwad and Bangalore. He also visited lot of dairy farms that helped him largely.
Contact Details:
Yogi Farms
Plot No. 200, 2nd Main Kumareshwaranagar, Belgaum Road,
Dharwad – 580 008, Karnataka
Email: gourish444@gmail.com