HI-TECH DAIRY FARMS

HI-TECH DAIRY FARMS
Dr.T. P. Sethumadhavan,
Dr.R. Radhika

Recently with the advancement of information technology, computerised Hi-tech dairy farms have come up in India. The level of computerisation and automation are very much advanced and people employed are comparatively less. Kerala being a state with highest percentage of crossbred cattle there is ample scope for commercialisation in dairy sector. In this context mechanisation would make this sector more feasible and sustainable.
Computerised feeding system
In the scientifically constructed cattle shed, automatic individual watering bowls and feeding boxes are kept. The transponder connected to the neck of the animal helps to identify them. Each animal’s daily ration of concentrate is fixed based on its milk production, body weight etc. and entered in the computer. As the animal walks near to the feeding box, the computer senses the number of the animal and allows a few kilograms of feed to drop into the feeding box. The computer deducts the feed supplied to the animal from its total daily ration. Cow repeatedly goes to the feeder at frequent intervals and gets the feed till its entire allotment of daily ration is exhausted. Animals are not tied in the shed. The feed consumed by each animal is recorded in the computer. In the shed, the feed is transported through pipes connected to overhead silos. There is a dung scrapper on the floor of the shed that scrapes and removes dung and urine continuously to a pit at the end of the shed.
Milking parlour
During the milking time, the animals walk in queue to the milking parlour one by one. Before milking, the animals are washed using a water sprayer. In the milking chamber, teat cups of the milking machine are attached to the udder after automatic washing. At the milking point, the operator can see the details of the animal including the feed consumed, milk yield, disease if any from the display board. After milking, the teat cups drops down and the udder is sprayed using a disinfectant. Then the animal is let out through the passage back to the shed. Milk collected is pumped in to a collecting tank.
Computerised monitoring system

In the computer room every day each animal’s performance can be assessed. More over the sensor implanted in the animal send signals to the computer about the physical activity of the animal. By sitting in the computer room and observing the physical activity graph, heat signs can easily be detected. Through computer monitors located in the owner’s residence, he can get all needed details. Closed circuit television sets are also seen in some of the farms. Water purification plant and roughage cutting shed machines are also available. Roughage is fed directly to the manger from the vehicle driven through the central passage. Central cleaning and disinfection unit, solar water heaters, pathology lab, breeding station and artificial insemination facilities are also provided in many farms. Ultra sound scanning does pregnancy diagnosis.
MILKOBIKE FOR EFFICIENT MILKING

Non availability of skilled milkers poses greater threat to Dairy farmers. Due to improper milking incidence of mastitis is more in high yielding crossbred cows. Moreover unscientific milking affects clean and economic milk production. Dairy development department of kerala launched a novel scheme namely Mobile milking machine project -MILKOBIKE first in India to solve this crisis.

This innovative technology consists of 20 litres capacity milking machine of D-Laval (Agri) India connected to a Bajaj-M80 Moped.Unemployed youths will be selected to operate this. They will be given three days training in handling of milking machine and clean milk production.50% of the cost of milking machine will be provided as subsidy to milking operator by the department. Assistance for purchase of moped will be arranged through bank loan. Milking operator has to visit 30-40 houses daily and to milk animals.power will be taken from respective houses. Farmer has to pay @Rs150 per cow per month. Being the maintanance cost of machineRs 25 should be paid to the concerned milk socities.operator will get a monthly income of Rs4000 through this scheme.
As a pilot project MILKOBIKE was tried in 5 blocks of Trivandrum District. An official in charge of the scheme told that a modified version of Milkobike is in the final stage where power can be generated from the moped itself.