Dairy Farm Management, Housing and Records
Farm management questions are numerical and practical: floor space, ventilation, layout, and records that let you trace an animal, a litre and a rupee.
Housing
- Floor space: 3.5–4.5 m² per adult cow in loose housing, 12 m² for a bull, 1.5–2 m² per calf; add space for feeding and loafing.
- Manger 70–80 cm per animal, water trough accessible, floor slope about 1:40 to a drain, dry bedding.
- Ventilation: ridge opening and side curtains; shed long axis east–west to cut direct sun; minimum 3 m height at the eaves.
- Layout: animal shed away from the milk room; store, chaff cutter, silage pit and manure pit sited to keep traffic clean-to-dirty; foot bath at the entrance.
Records
Keep a daily milk register, breeding/AI register with dates, calving register, feed and fodder account, vaccination and treatment register, and a financial register. Ear tags or neck chains give each animal a permanent identity; a record without an ID is useless.
Culling and economics
Cull on repeat infertility, chronic mastitis, low yield against feed cost, and old age. Calculate cost per litre: total monthly cost divided by litres sold.
Worked example
A 10-cow shed is planned at 4 m² per cow plus 20% for calving and sick pens. Reasoning: 10 × 4 = 40 m², plus 8 m² = 48 m² of covered area, with a separate calf pen of 10 m². If the plan gives only 30 m², overcrowding will raise mastitis and lameness, so the design must change before construction.
Traps
- No animal identification, so records cannot be linked.
- A concrete floor with no slope, leaving urine pools.
- Storing concentrate beside the manure pit.
- Recording only milk sold, not feed and veterinary costs.