Heat wave affects milk production in state

The recent heat wave has affected milk production in Gujarat,said dairy industry sources on Saturday. Ravindra Mathur,managing director of the Baroda Dairy,said that even though the demand for ice cream and butter milk has gone up,due to rising temperature,the supply of milk has gone down as buffaloes are quite sensitive to heat.

Mathur said milk procurement by his dairy has gone down from 4.75 lakh litres per day to around 4 lakh litres now.

The fall in milk collection has also been reported from other parts of the state and collection at places like Surat,Mehsana and Banaskantha has taken a beating,dairy industry sources said. Normally,milk collection falls in the months of May and June. But this time,production has been hit in April itself.