Progressive dairy farmers bank on high-yielding cows in Punjab

Punjab's progressive farmers are venturing into commercial dairy with Punjab Holstein, a high-performance cross-bred cows that yield up to 10,000 litres of milk in a 10-month lactation period. Currently, the state has over 25 lakh cross-bred cows, the highest in the country.

Punjab currently ranks as the second among milk producing states in the country and contributes eight per cent in the total output of the country. Punjab Holstein, desi cows of Punjab, is inseminated with the semen of Holstein-Friesian bulls.

According to the Punjab Dairy Development Board (PDDB), the average daily milk production in the state is 26.5 million litres a day. Speaking to Business Standard, PDDB Director Inderjit Singh said, "In the past few years, we have witnessed decline in the cattle population, mainly because of urbanisation. But the introduction of high-yielding varieties of cow is making dairy business remunerative and many progressive farmers are coming forward to adopt it."

Currently, the state has about 10,000 progressive dairy farmers, with farms varying from 10 to 500 high-yielding breeds of cows. Also, the daily production of milk of these farms is about 800,000 to one million litres.

Dairy farmers in Punjab have been importing progeny-tested semen, sourced from some of the best dairy farms in the world. Speaking about their strategy, Daljit Singh, president, Progressive Dairy Farmers Association, said, "Semen of a progeny-tested bull costs Rs 200 to 600 a straw, against the semen straw of a normal Holstein-Friesian bull which costs Rs 20-30 only."

He further said, "Now, the challenge was to take this technology to small dairy farmers. Since small dairy owners cannot afford to import expensive semen straws of progeny-tested bulls, we developed a pedigree of the best bulls and started selling them their semen at lower cost."

Inderjit Singh said, "With increase in the number of dairy farms, we expect to achieve targeted growth of four per cent against the growth of two per cent. The high-yielding varieties of cows will encourage progressive farmers to opt for diversification and will also increase dairy production. We also expect the commercial dairy farming in the state will get a shot in the arm with the recent entry of Amul."