2. Cattle feed and its management

The food given to the cattle should support the healthy life of the animals and the production of milk. The feed for the dairy cattle is broadly classified into two:

  

This coarse and fibrous fodder. It comprises succulent feed (cultivated grass, fodder and root crops) and dry fodder (hay, straw and chaff).

  

These are substances that are low in fibre, high in carbohydrates, protein and other nutrients. A wide range of raw materials such as kambu (pearl millet), cholam (jowar), ragi (finger millet), rice bran, wheat bran, cottonseed cake, linseed cake, mustard cake, groundnut cake, mango seed, neem cake and yellu (sesame) cake are used to prepare concentrate feeds. Green fodder (maize, lucerne, berseem, millet, and elephant grass) should also be fed.

 

The feed of the dairy cattle should contain all nutrients, food additives containing minerals, vitamins, antibiotics and hormones to promote the growth of animals, good yield of milk and to protect them from diseases in balanced rations.

 

The daily average feed ratio of a milking cow:

The tremendous increase in the production of new breeds with high capabilities is due to the improved breeding techniques in cattle.

 

 

This is a programme that involves the cross-breeding of indigenous cows with exotic (European) breeds to increase milk production. In this programme, new methods and modern equipment are made available for machine – milking of cows.

 

 

Operation flood is a dairy development  program introduced by Dr Verghese Kurein, the founder of National Dairy Development Board (\(NDDB\)). He was known as the Architect of India's Modern Dairy Industry and the Father of White Revolution. Operation flood is the largest dairy development programme that is based on the dairy commodity aid to increase milk supply in urban areas.