Organic dairy farming picks up in villages
US-returned businessman sets up modern dairy farm,shares equipment and know-how with locals
Phidde village in Ferozepur district is witnessing a small revolution of sorts in the field of dairy farming. Led by 60-year-old Gurbinder Singh Kang,youngsters in this and the surrounding villages are into organic dairy farming these days and are earning good returns.
Kang,who was a franchise holder of the Subway chain of restaurants in California US,came back to India around two and a half years ago and set up this venture. His dairy farm has 160 cows kept in the best conditions for a good yield. While he manages the farm,his wife Hardev Kaur takes care of the packaging of the milk that is supplied to Ferozepur,Moga,Faridkot and Ludhiana.
4N is the brand name of the BAJ dairy farm being run by Kang. 4N stands for Novel,Natural,Nutritious and No-adulteration, he explains. Kang says the milk produced at his farm is 100 per cent pure and the entire process is mechanised,untouched by human hands from milking to packaging and even serving feed to the animals. The fertilisation of the animals happens through artificial insemination,and Kang brings semen from Sweden for the purpose.
The high somatic cells in milk should not be more than 2.5 lakh per litre and after regular quality control this count for my farms milk is 2.33 lakh per litre now, he claims.
Kang is an avid animal lover and takes good care of his cows. Huge fans with sprinklers can be seen in his farm for the comfort of the animals. When the animals fall sick,he prefers homoeopathy or naturopathy for their treatment and says antibiotics are his last resort. He believes light soothing music makes the cows feel good,which in turn helps in a better yield.
Kang has been encouraging youngsters to adopt this profession and till now 90 young boys and girls have started dairy farming. They have formed young farmers dairy association. Kang helps them get loans and shares technical know-how. I am giving them the semen I import for my dairy farm. They are also free to use the chilling equipment and testing lab that I have set up. I have an elaborate medicine centre for the animals,apart from regular doctors. I share these facilities too, he says.
Sarabjit Kaur,one of the women who have started dairy farming,says: Boys in the villages often fall prey to drugs. So this is a good effort that they are busy in their jobs and are self dependent now.
The dairy farmers are making an average income of not less than Rs 10,000 per month.
Now that he has a well established market,Kang plans to sell milk products too.
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