A Crossbred Cow Milking Off Her Back
Rekha Bibi of Basirhat keeps two crossbred cows. The older one, a Jersey × local cow weighing about 320 kg, calved 18 days ago and gives 8 litres a day at 3.8% fat. She is fed 12 kg dry paddy straw, 3 kg rice bran, 5 kg chopped banana pseudostem, and water twice a day; no mineral mixture is given. The cow has lost about 25 kg body weight since calving, her coat is dull, and milk yield has fallen from 10 litres to 8 litres in a week. Rekha's 0.27 ha (two bigha) of land is fallow after aman paddy and she has ₹3,000 in hand. Concentrate costs ₹28 per kg, green fodder can be grown or bought at ₹2 per kg, and milk sells at ₹36 per litre locally. The second cow is due to calve in three weeks.
1. Judge whether the ration meets the cow's requirement, supporting your answer with dry-matter and crude-protein estimates.
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The ration is a maintenance ration, not a milk ration.
- Dry-matter need is 2.5–3% of body weight: 320 kg cow → 8–9.5 kg DM/day.
- She feeds about 12 kg straw (≈10.8 kg DM), 3 kg rice bran (≈2.6 kg DM) and 5 kg banana pseudostem (≈0.5 kg DM) - roughly 14 kg DM. Bulk is not the problem; quality is.
- Crude protein: straw 3–4% × 10.8 ≈ 0.4 kg; rice bran 12% × 2.6 ≈ 0.3 kg; pseudostem almost nothing. Total ≈ 0.75 kg CP.
- Requirement is about 0.45–0.5 kg CP for maintenance plus roughly 90 g per litre of milk, i.e. 8 × 0.09 = 0.72 kg; total ≈ 1.2 kg CP.
The deficit of about 0.45 kg CP, together with an energy deficit, is why she is milking off body reserves and has lost 25 kg. No mineral mixture and little calcium means delayed heat, poor fertility and a risk of milk-fever-type problems later. The 12 kg of straw is also crowding out better feed.
2. What changes would you make with the ₹3,000 and the 0.27 ha of fallow land, and what does the extra feeding cost per day?
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The cheapest fix is to rebalance the ration, not to buy more rice bran:
- Cut straw to 6–7 kg and give 15–20 kg green fodder daily (berseem, lucerne, or maize + cowpea; bought at ₹2/kg that is ₹30–40 a day).
- Raise concentrate to about 4.5 kg/day - 1.5 kg for maintenance plus 1 kg for every 2.5 litres of milk. A home mix of maize 30%, rice bran 30%, mustard cake 25%, gram chuni 12% and mineral mixture 3% costs about ₹25–28/kg; the extra 1.5 kg costs about ₹42 a day.
- Add 50 g mineral mixture and 30–40 g limestone/DCP daily, about ₹3 a day.
- Sow berseem on the two bigha now, or maize + cowpea in March, so fodder cost falls.
Extra spending is roughly ₹75–80 a day. Two extra litres of milk (₹72) nearly covers it, and the real gain is that she stops losing weight, comes to heat on time and protects the next lactation. Judged per litre, cost falls as yield rises because maintenance is spread over more milk.
3. What health and management steps matter most for the cow that calves in three weeks?
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- Dry-cow feeding: do not push energy, and avoid a very high-calcium dry diet, which is linked with milk fever. Keep body condition moderate, not fat.
- Calving pen: clean, dry, well bedded and quiet; wash the hindquarters; keep a clean rope and cloth ready.
- Colostrum: the calf must get about 2 litres within the first hour and up to 4 litres in the first day; colostrum is its only source of antibodies.
- Watch the mother: retained placenta beyond 12 hours, smelly discharge, a sudden drop in milk, hot or hard quarters (mastitis), or staggering with cold ears (milk fever) all need the veterinarian at once. Never use oxytocin to force milk out.
- Routine: deworm the dry cow, follow the FMD/HS/BQ vaccination schedule, clip the flank, and milk with clean hands and a teat dip.
- Keep a simple record of calving date, feed given and milk yield, so the next ration decision rests on numbers rather than guesswork.