Brief us about your farm activities.
When my father started farming, he was taught how to use insecticides and pesticides, etc. But, he realised that he fell sick whenever he used to spray pesticides. He noticed birds dying in his fields. He had created a canal around the farm for irrigation purposes and he noticed fish dead in them. All these happenings led him to conclude that he was not practicing the right method of agriculture for sure. He then started experimenting farming without the use of any of these additives. Gradually, he was able to switch off from inorganic additives completely. Talking of the early formative years, in the beginning, he was given a little calf. Somebody had brought it on a cycle one morning and a farmer from the village had given him an old cow. He asked her if the cow can graze on field. Both the calf and the cow grew, got pregnant and both of them delivered healthy babies. That was how the idea of a dairy farm emerged because there was sufficient milk and he didn’t know what to do with the surplus milk.
My father began feeding it to the dogs and then supplied it to the ashram communities. That is how the dairy grew and he started using the cow dung and the cow urine for farming purposes. Also, here in Pondicherry in the local villages, he noticed that everybody had got some land, some cows, etc. The cows were usually in the homestead with their manure and urine wasted. The urine didn’t get collected. My father devised this methodology of collecting all the urine in a tank, where it would be diluted further with fresh water. That unit is what my father used to refer to as our fertilizer plant. It is bio gas, cow dung and cow’s urine diluted with water that used to fertilize the fields. That is our only essential input to the fields. This also turned out to be a very cost effective method, which gave really good results. That is how our dairy grew. Per my father, for every 1 acre of land, 1 cow and a duck is good enough to provide the required manure for moderate cultivation. If it is intensively cultivated – crop after crop – then, you need 2 cows and 1 duck per acre. By duck, I mean any kind of fowl for that matter. The reason for keeping it is they go a long way to keep your cattle healthy. They eat all the insects – the ticks, the larvae, the flies, etc. This way your cows don’t fall sick. This process is healthy, natural and saves the farmer from a lot of unsolicited expenses. This is a base model on which the farm is built. I have continued along the same line. We have 100 acres of land with 110-120 animals on the farm. The number of animals varies with the delivery and selling rate etc. We produce an average of 465 litres of milk a day.
What is the feed you give?
My father used to grow many more things. The issue we have been facing since the last two decades is huge water shortage. Our bore wells have gone dry and we have 3 ft of black cotton soil, below which there is 90-120 ft of limestone. So, we only have about 3 ft. of soil. In some places it is 4 ft whereas in some others it is 9 ft. But the soil level is very thin. Water harvesting and regeneration in the underground level is very difficult because water won’t percolate into the ground due to the limestone presence. Another setback we face because of the limestone is extremely hard water. When my father first did drip irrigation decades ago, the holes of the drip irrigation used to get clogged within a week and hence we had to abandon drip irrigation. Our irrigation methodology is largely sprinkler and flood irrigation. Flood for paddy and sprinkler for other crops. The sprinkler irrigation is with our slurry water and fresh water diluted which is rained down. My father used to grow bananas and all kinds of vegetables. We had orchards, oil seeds, soyabeans etc. You name it and he used to grow it. In the beginning I too did it; but because of water shortage we have changed our agriculture methodology. In this farm, apart from the orchard and the paddy that I have to grow to supply to Sri Aurobindo Ashram, we want to make our farm a very fodder-oriented farm. We are just beginning to take baby steps on this venture. We want to generate all the seeds that are good for fodder. We want to go for TMR – Total Mixed Ration so that your statistic concentrate quantity is kept very low. It is very cost effective. The main expense on dairy farming is the cattle feed. If you can reduce the cost in that space, your profit margin grows. You can reduce this expense by growing huge amounts of fodder. That is what we are now venturing into.
Are your animals healthy or do you still counter some diseases?
Well, totally disease free would be being too ambitious and living in an ideal world it is impossible to achieve. My father never opted for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccination. Approximately 5-6 years ago, I also stuck to the same resolve of not using it. Twice a year, in the month of March and October, is when usually the FMD breakouts happen. I give a homeopathy combination medicine to boost the immunity of the cows. If your cows are healthy then there is no question of getting affected by FMD. For instance, when there is a viral fever outbreak, not everyone falls ill, the ones whose immunity is weaker falls ill. The same principle applies to animals and plants. Now, about 7-8 years ago, there was milk coming in from other farms to our chilling unit. The other dairy had an outbreak of FMD. The thing is – even clothes that people wear can carry the virus. Thus, my herd was also affected by FMD. We got it treated with Ayurveda and Homeopathy. There is a mixture of neem oil, camphor, turmeric that can be applied on the wounds. Also, there is a homeopathic spray that can be orally sprayed. I took data of how many animals succumbed to it and how quick the milk got back to normal. Normalcy was established within 1.5 days. So, all the animals that were high on immunity didn’t get affected at all. Homeopathy is the most used medicine among my herd. In October, I started administering my cows with FMD vaccine. Last two years we have stopped again. So, every time we know that FMD is doing its rounds in the neighbouring villages, we give homeopathic medicines to our cows as prevention. When we talk about mastitis, before the disease gets full blown, there will be a sub clinical case of mastitis. We are very staunch about monitoring our milk morning and evening. If a cow gives, for instance, 10 litres of milk every day in the morning and if on a particular day it gives 9.5 or 9.25 litres instead of 10 – the moment there is a drop in milk production beyond half a litre per time, we do the California Mastitis Test for that cow. The California Mastitis test is done by mixing prescribed amounts of detergent solution with the milk for a given amount of time and if the mixture turns viscose, then it is indicative of a sub clinical case of Mastitis. If the mixture can flow like water, on the other hand, then there is no case of Mastitis. If there are cows with sub clinical Mastitis, we medicate them with an SSC – Silica, Sulphur and Carbo veg Homeopathic formula. If you, for instance, have administered this medicine in the morning, the cow recovers before you milk it in the evening. 99% of our cows do not get Mastitis because we keep a keen eye to catch sub clinical Mastitis and our cows get healed at that stage itself. This way I avoid antibiotics for my cows. Of course, in cases when one cow has butted another cow and there is a wound which gets infectious etc., then we don’t have a choice but to administer antibiotics. Having said that, we keep antibiotics for the rarest of the rare cases.
Do you do rice cultivation on a part of your 100 acres land?
We cultivate rice on a range of 20 to 35 acres of land. It varies every year.
What about the remaining acres of land?
We have several acres of orchard comprising of coconut trees, mango trees, guava, lemon and jackfruit. We cultivate jowar as fodder for the cows in about 12 acres and after each round of jowar, we cultivate any leguminous fodder as well. This is to fix the Nitrogen content of the soil. Besides that, I have about another 10 acres of high breed fodder. We try to grow as much fodder as we can on our farm itself. Honestly, I want to grow even more. My wish is to grow at least 55 acres of fodder for the cows.
Is it commercially viable to get into this with 100-200 cows?
I tend to agree with you. I would like to remind you that ours is not a commercial unit. We are a part of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and they require about 1500 litres of milk every day. They have 6 dairies out of which Gloria Land is one. Gloria Land used to supply 1000 litres of milk a day when my father was looking after it. When the water table of our property fell, we couldn’t grow as much animal fodder as we used to and so, we had to reduce our herd. In addition we had labour issues as well. So my father brought down the herd size to half of what we used to have. Our production today is between 450 to 500 litres per day. For every farmer – be it milk, mango or anything that they grow, marketing is a problem. If every farmer had a specific market to cater to, avoiding middle men, he/she would get the money for the produce they cultivate. Hence, marketing is the biggest challenge. In the Pillaiyarkuppam village, where Gloria land is situated, it is the biggest supplier of milk in Pondicherry to Le Pondy. Many of my workers, workers’ families and people in the village etc. have bought female calves from me. They know that if they buy from Gloria land, they will get a good calf. I keep only 10 a year and I sell the rest. The reason these people buy calves from me is to supply milk to the cooperatives and make money. I then found out that the amount of money they get is very little. They only make Rs 18-20 a litre depending on the density. The cooperative then sells it for Rs 40-50 a litre. Currently, the villagers may not have overhead costs. They might do their calf feeding through grazing and do not go into huge expenses, but none of that is an excuse for paying them less. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have expenses. They do have. In my opinion, the cooperative is paying them too little. It is not fair. It is a monopolistic approach since these people have nowhere else to go. So, marketing is an issue.
What would be the investment they will need to keep in mind?
Many people come to me seeking advice because they are keen on opening a dairy farm. Honestly, I do discourage them because you need 24/7 commitment for 365 days a year. You cannot tell a cow that a cyclone has happened so you cannot cut grass, feed or milk the cow. The show must go on – come hail, storm, or rain. I remember when cyclone Thane hit Pondy only three milkers turned up that day. Still we had to milk all our cows as there was no option, and those three boys had to do it all – cutting the grass, feeding the cows, milking the cows and cleaning the dairy. It was immense amount of work but nobody else came. That is the level of commitment you require in a dairy. Also, marketing in Pondy, for example, the Sri Auronbindo Ashram, the excess milk is sent for cheese making which is for internal consumption. If Shri Aurobindo Ashram were to sell its excess milk and open a counter, I am sure half of Pondicherry would come to buy this milk because everybody knows about its quality. We follow very strict rules when it comes to milk. If we have to administer the cows with antibiotics in dire situations, we don’t mix the milk for 72 hours. I will not give inferior quality milk and I will not mix water because I don’t need to mix water. I don’t need to show excess production and get more money because my finances are taken care of. This is not true for everybody else. So, if we were to market, we wouldn’t even have a problem marketing the milk. But that is not the case for everybody else and marketing is the problem all over India. Cooperatives are in no way supportive with the amount of money that they give. This problem has not changed over decades. My father used to talk about the same thing and so am I.
If someone wants to start a farm from scratch what would be your advice?
My advice would be to study the market thoroughly. Study the market demand and work backwards. The demand can vary from region to region.
In my best opinion, you won’t face a problem if you plan your farm as per the market demand. If you can supply what is in demand, you won’t have a problem. But if you produce what is not necessary then you will have things you won’t know what to do with. So, study the market!
How do you take care of the old animals which are no longer efficient for milking?
Up to 2 years back, I had kept all my old animals. There are animals that have given me 10-12 lactations and they have been brilliant cows. I have one such cow even now. She is called Pallok, she is 18. I am not going to let her get pregnant again and I am going to keep her for as long as she lives and I will give her a burial as well. I develop a bond with my animals and I cannot get myself to sell them to a butcher. I cannot do that.
But, for the younger animals, I take different decisions. A cow has to give us at least 10 litres of milk for it to be economically viable. If it is less than that, I cannot feed that cow and so I sell them. There are people ready to buy because not everybody wants a minimum of 10 litres of milk.
Male calf I do sell to the butcher. I think it is a circle of life. Everything has a place. Even we are left out once our role is done. Similarly in the dairy industry, when the bull is redundant I give them away. If I am going to keep a breeding bull, I am going to keep it from childhood and keep it till the end. Otherwise they go to the butcher. To sum up, the 5 basic things for a dairy farm is the fodder, the animals, the housing conditions, the labour and the water. The other issues that crop up are secondary which can be tackled as and when they crop up. A strong market study is imperative.
When my father started farming, he was taught how to use insecticides and pesticides, etc. But, he realised that he fell sick whenever he used to spray pesticides. He noticed birds dying in his fields. He had created a canal around the farm for irrigation purposes and he noticed fish dead in them. All these happenings led him to conclude that he was not practicing the right method of agriculture for sure. He then started experimenting farming without the use of any of these additives. Gradually, he was able to switch off from inorganic additives completely. Talking of the early formative years, in the beginning, he was given a little calf. Somebody had brought it on a cycle one morning and a farmer from the village had given him an old cow. He asked her if the cow can graze on field. Both the calf and the cow grew, got pregnant and both of them delivered healthy babies. That was how the idea of a dairy farm emerged because there was sufficient milk and he didn’t know what to do with the surplus milk.
My father began feeding it to the dogs and then supplied it to the ashram communities. That is how the dairy grew and he started using the cow dung and the cow urine for farming purposes. Also, here in Pondicherry in the local villages, he noticed that everybody had got some land, some cows, etc. The cows were usually in the homestead with their manure and urine wasted. The urine didn’t get collected. My father devised this methodology of collecting all the urine in a tank, where it would be diluted further with fresh water. That unit is what my father used to refer to as our fertilizer plant. It is bio gas, cow dung and cow’s urine diluted with water that used to fertilize the fields. That is our only essential input to the fields. This also turned out to be a very cost effective method, which gave really good results. That is how our dairy grew. Per my father, for every 1 acre of land, 1 cow and a duck is good enough to provide the required manure for moderate cultivation. If it is intensively cultivated – crop after crop – then, you need 2 cows and 1 duck per acre. By duck, I mean any kind of fowl for that matter. The reason for keeping it is they go a long way to keep your cattle healthy. They eat all the insects – the ticks, the larvae, the flies, etc. This way your cows don’t fall sick. This process is healthy, natural and saves the farmer from a lot of unsolicited expenses. This is a base model on which the farm is built. I have continued along the same line. We have 100 acres of land with 110-120 animals on the farm. The number of animals varies with the delivery and selling rate etc. We produce an average of 465 litres of milk a day.
What is the feed you give?
My father used to grow many more things. The issue we have been facing since the last two decades is huge water shortage. Our bore wells have gone dry and we have 3 ft of black cotton soil, below which there is 90-120 ft of limestone. So, we only have about 3 ft. of soil. In some places it is 4 ft whereas in some others it is 9 ft. But the soil level is very thin. Water harvesting and regeneration in the underground level is very difficult because water won’t percolate into the ground due to the limestone presence. Another setback we face because of the limestone is extremely hard water. When my father first did drip irrigation decades ago, the holes of the drip irrigation used to get clogged within a week and hence we had to abandon drip irrigation. Our irrigation methodology is largely sprinkler and flood irrigation. Flood for paddy and sprinkler for other crops. The sprinkler irrigation is with our slurry water and fresh water diluted which is rained down. My father used to grow bananas and all kinds of vegetables. We had orchards, oil seeds, soyabeans etc. You name it and he used to grow it. In the beginning I too did it; but because of water shortage we have changed our agriculture methodology. In this farm, apart from the orchard and the paddy that I have to grow to supply to Sri Aurobindo Ashram, we want to make our farm a very fodder-oriented farm. We are just beginning to take baby steps on this venture. We want to generate all the seeds that are good for fodder. We want to go for TMR – Total Mixed Ration so that your statistic concentrate quantity is kept very low. It is very cost effective. The main expense on dairy farming is the cattle feed. If you can reduce the cost in that space, your profit margin grows. You can reduce this expense by growing huge amounts of fodder. That is what we are now venturing into.
Are your animals healthy or do you still counter some diseases?
Well, totally disease free would be being too ambitious and living in an ideal world it is impossible to achieve. My father never opted for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccination. Approximately 5-6 years ago, I also stuck to the same resolve of not using it. Twice a year, in the month of March and October, is when usually the FMD breakouts happen. I give a homeopathy combination medicine to boost the immunity of the cows. If your cows are healthy then there is no question of getting affected by FMD. For instance, when there is a viral fever outbreak, not everyone falls ill, the ones whose immunity is weaker falls ill. The same principle applies to animals and plants. Now, about 7-8 years ago, there was milk coming in from other farms to our chilling unit. The other dairy had an outbreak of FMD. The thing is – even clothes that people wear can carry the virus. Thus, my herd was also affected by FMD. We got it treated with Ayurveda and Homeopathy. There is a mixture of neem oil, camphor, turmeric that can be applied on the wounds. Also, there is a homeopathic spray that can be orally sprayed. I took data of how many animals succumbed to it and how quick the milk got back to normal. Normalcy was established within 1.5 days. So, all the animals that were high on immunity didn’t get affected at all. Homeopathy is the most used medicine among my herd. In October, I started administering my cows with FMD vaccine. Last two years we have stopped again. So, every time we know that FMD is doing its rounds in the neighbouring villages, we give homeopathic medicines to our cows as prevention. When we talk about mastitis, before the disease gets full blown, there will be a sub clinical case of mastitis. We are very staunch about monitoring our milk morning and evening. If a cow gives, for instance, 10 litres of milk every day in the morning and if on a particular day it gives 9.5 or 9.25 litres instead of 10 – the moment there is a drop in milk production beyond half a litre per time, we do the California Mastitis Test for that cow. The California Mastitis test is done by mixing prescribed amounts of detergent solution with the milk for a given amount of time and if the mixture turns viscose, then it is indicative of a sub clinical case of Mastitis. If the mixture can flow like water, on the other hand, then there is no case of Mastitis. If there are cows with sub clinical Mastitis, we medicate them with an SSC – Silica, Sulphur and Carbo veg Homeopathic formula. If you, for instance, have administered this medicine in the morning, the cow recovers before you milk it in the evening. 99% of our cows do not get Mastitis because we keep a keen eye to catch sub clinical Mastitis and our cows get healed at that stage itself. This way I avoid antibiotics for my cows. Of course, in cases when one cow has butted another cow and there is a wound which gets infectious etc., then we don’t have a choice but to administer antibiotics. Having said that, we keep antibiotics for the rarest of the rare cases.
Do you do rice cultivation on a part of your 100 acres land?
We cultivate rice on a range of 20 to 35 acres of land. It varies every year.
What about the remaining acres of land?
We have several acres of orchard comprising of coconut trees, mango trees, guava, lemon and jackfruit. We cultivate jowar as fodder for the cows in about 12 acres and after each round of jowar, we cultivate any leguminous fodder as well. This is to fix the Nitrogen content of the soil. Besides that, I have about another 10 acres of high breed fodder. We try to grow as much fodder as we can on our farm itself. Honestly, I want to grow even more. My wish is to grow at least 55 acres of fodder for the cows.
Is it commercially viable to get into this with 100-200 cows?
I tend to agree with you. I would like to remind you that ours is not a commercial unit. We are a part of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and they require about 1500 litres of milk every day. They have 6 dairies out of which Gloria Land is one. Gloria Land used to supply 1000 litres of milk a day when my father was looking after it. When the water table of our property fell, we couldn’t grow as much animal fodder as we used to and so, we had to reduce our herd. In addition we had labour issues as well. So my father brought down the herd size to half of what we used to have. Our production today is between 450 to 500 litres per day. For every farmer – be it milk, mango or anything that they grow, marketing is a problem. If every farmer had a specific market to cater to, avoiding middle men, he/she would get the money for the produce they cultivate. Hence, marketing is the biggest challenge. In the Pillaiyarkuppam village, where Gloria land is situated, it is the biggest supplier of milk in Pondicherry to Le Pondy. Many of my workers, workers’ families and people in the village etc. have bought female calves from me. They know that if they buy from Gloria land, they will get a good calf. I keep only 10 a year and I sell the rest. The reason these people buy calves from me is to supply milk to the cooperatives and make money. I then found out that the amount of money they get is very little. They only make Rs 18-20 a litre depending on the density. The cooperative then sells it for Rs 40-50 a litre. Currently, the villagers may not have overhead costs. They might do their calf feeding through grazing and do not go into huge expenses, but none of that is an excuse for paying them less. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have expenses. They do have. In my opinion, the cooperative is paying them too little. It is not fair. It is a monopolistic approach since these people have nowhere else to go. So, marketing is an issue.
What would be the investment they will need to keep in mind?
Many people come to me seeking advice because they are keen on opening a dairy farm. Honestly, I do discourage them because you need 24/7 commitment for 365 days a year. You cannot tell a cow that a cyclone has happened so you cannot cut grass, feed or milk the cow. The show must go on – come hail, storm, or rain. I remember when cyclone Thane hit Pondy only three milkers turned up that day. Still we had to milk all our cows as there was no option, and those three boys had to do it all – cutting the grass, feeding the cows, milking the cows and cleaning the dairy. It was immense amount of work but nobody else came. That is the level of commitment you require in a dairy. Also, marketing in Pondy, for example, the Sri Auronbindo Ashram, the excess milk is sent for cheese making which is for internal consumption. If Shri Aurobindo Ashram were to sell its excess milk and open a counter, I am sure half of Pondicherry would come to buy this milk because everybody knows about its quality. We follow very strict rules when it comes to milk. If we have to administer the cows with antibiotics in dire situations, we don’t mix the milk for 72 hours. I will not give inferior quality milk and I will not mix water because I don’t need to mix water. I don’t need to show excess production and get more money because my finances are taken care of. This is not true for everybody else. So, if we were to market, we wouldn’t even have a problem marketing the milk. But that is not the case for everybody else and marketing is the problem all over India. Cooperatives are in no way supportive with the amount of money that they give. This problem has not changed over decades. My father used to talk about the same thing and so am I.
If someone wants to start a farm from scratch what would be your advice?
My advice would be to study the market thoroughly. Study the market demand and work backwards. The demand can vary from region to region.
In my best opinion, you won’t face a problem if you plan your farm as per the market demand. If you can supply what is in demand, you won’t have a problem. But if you produce what is not necessary then you will have things you won’t know what to do with. So, study the market!
How do you take care of the old animals which are no longer efficient for milking?
Up to 2 years back, I had kept all my old animals. There are animals that have given me 10-12 lactations and they have been brilliant cows. I have one such cow even now. She is called Pallok, she is 18. I am not going to let her get pregnant again and I am going to keep her for as long as she lives and I will give her a burial as well. I develop a bond with my animals and I cannot get myself to sell them to a butcher. I cannot do that.
But, for the younger animals, I take different decisions. A cow has to give us at least 10 litres of milk for it to be economically viable. If it is less than that, I cannot feed that cow and so I sell them. There are people ready to buy because not everybody wants a minimum of 10 litres of milk.
Male calf I do sell to the butcher. I think it is a circle of life. Everything has a place. Even we are left out once our role is done. Similarly in the dairy industry, when the bull is redundant I give them away. If I am going to keep a breeding bull, I am going to keep it from childhood and keep it till the end. Otherwise they go to the butcher. To sum up, the 5 basic things for a dairy farm is the fodder, the animals, the housing conditions, the labour and the water. The other issues that crop up are secondary which can be tackled as and when they crop up. A strong market study is imperative.
Last edited: