What is PowerGotha ? Part 1 : Introduction

This article was published during Diwali day of VasuBaras.  It is the first day of Diwali called – VasuBaras.   It is the day on which we worship the cows which give us so much in various ways.  And we’re delighted to have this article out on the auspicious day in English.

Exactly, two years ago, the project Powergotha started with an aim to help traditional dairy farmers become modern, and first article about loose housing (mukta gotha in Marathi) was published.   It has taken 2 long years to seriously begin translating our site into English.  Exactly one year back, the article in Marathi was published defining the minimum qualifications a PowerGotha, a PowerFarm should have.

In these  two years, the website has garnered millions of views.  Farmers in very remote sections from Mahrashtra have visited and read some of the modern dairy farming techniques.

Exactly one year back, the article in Marathi was published defining the minimum qualifications a PowerGotha, a PowerFarm should have.

This article explains the theme behind PowerGotha – What is PowerGotha and why it is essential to have your Dairy Farm become a true PowerGotha.

It is the first of a Seven article series.

Concept

Powergotha is a modern dairy farm wherein

• The number of cows reared in the farm is ever increasing.  The farmer can also opt to sell of new heifers (female calves) to earn a fortune.
• High quality, high yielding cows are bred right in this Powergotha dairy farm
• The farm has all the records of breeding and accounting
• The farm has planned for fodder supply of whole year round in advance – it has Silage
• Loose housing is practiced.  The cows are free to roam, happy and stress free.  They are fed right and on time.
• Plenty of clean water available 24/7
• The labour has been trained effectively and clean milk is produced.
• The farm owner – is free from High Cost, high labour traditional dairy farming.  The famine doesn’t bother him.  The farm is unaffected even during downward trend in milk prices.
• Low capital expenditure on cow purchase or shed construction

And so on the list goes.

We’ll discuss every one aspect from the list above in our upcoming article series.  Before that a refresher course in this article.

A Dream

The high literacy rates in India is good overall for the economy and country’s progress.  However, in the wake of millions of students passing out with undergraduate and graduate degrees, we don’t really have equivalent number of jobs to cater to their ambitions.  People have lost faith in Agriculture as even after bounty is produced the minimum floor price isn’t guaranteed, you might be selling your produce for peanuts.

Not all can become professionals, engineers, doctors etc.  The unemployed youth thereby can suffer depression.

Terrifying indeed.

The legacy education system left by Britishers doesn’t have room for skill development.  The actual skills that will enhance your character to sustain in the post education cruel world aren’t taught in any classroom.  Awareness about professional training hasn’t sunk in.

Shining India and the India inc are demanding skilled labour and professionals to work for them.  The unskilled labour is disposable, and always has a replacement.  There’s huge supply of unskilled labour.  Accordingly, the wages are low – not enough to lead a comfortable life.

What can be done in such scenario?

We are lazy people, happy to let all things be.

Who’ll be the savior then in this dim condition?

When all doors are closed, a new door has to be found or constructed.  We will show you the door.

Opportunities in Animal Husbandry Sector

The biggest weakness is also one of the biggest strength of India – its population.  The thing that is a hindrance in providing high quality services and amenities is a boon when it comes to running a business.  A huge market with a target audience in plenty for every kind and every segment of marketing lingo.

The world is fascineted by Indian market as we speak.  We can’t be less interested then.

The businesses which cater to the growing needs of such growing population will never go out of fashion.  The products and services of which can be bought by all people and they serve to address a particular need of the whole population.  What are those businesses?

After brainstorming for extended periods, team Powergotha was out with solution.  There’ll be always a demand in the food industry owing to growing needs of population.  Animal husbandry and farming provide raw materials to food industry.  Farming however is prone to its inherent weaknesses. Animal rearing or animal husbandry is far from getting saturated.  Milk, meat and eggs – the output of animal rearing and their value added varieties can be consumed by this large population in large quantities.

For example in Maharashtra, while the demand for eggs is 30 million daily – 15 million eggs are supplied from neighboring states.  Take that for an opportunity.  Can you be one supplying that shortage ?? Locally produced goods will always have some advantages.

Shopping malls and departmental stores of cities are replete with Skimmed milk, toned, double toned, slim milk etc.  Flavoured milk is being purchased for high prices as compared to raw milk.  More people are eating cheese through McDonald and Domino’s of the food world.  More people are eating flavored dahi or Yogurt, pro-biotic  as a source of good gut bacteria.   Cheese and yogurt are anyway highest selling Value added products (VAP) of the food chain.

This brings us to conclusion that the dairy farming which produces the raw material for such business, must also be flourishing.

Even Team Powergotha thought so – How wrong we were.

Milk business, especially the dairy farming at the producer level is in shambles – perennially loss-making.

How do we say so ?  What is the proof ?

It can be verified easily.  The business which is profit making attracts many participants.  A successful medical store’s abnormal profits are ate up by another one opening in the adjacent shop.  Successful Mobile shop is replicated, be it accessories, repairing or actual phones being sold.  Presence of copycats tells you that the business works and is profitable.

Is it so in the business of Milk, meat and eggs ?  Not really.

Examples of a dairy farmer, increasing his farm size from 5 animals to 25 animals in 5 years are pretty rare itself.  Forget about copy cats appearing emulating his success in his village.  Why ?

We studied, we analysed.  What are the reasons of such anomaly ? The field of great opportunities is not being utilised.  For last few years we studied in the fields observing dairy farmers of Maharashtra- how youths of Maharashtra can earn dividends from this potentially rewarding business.   We found some inherent weaknesses, problems those have been persisting since long.  These can be improved upon easily.

Weaknesses of Dairy Farming business

1. Ignorance about the fine details of the business
2. Practice of Traditional methods
3. Gross Neglect of the producer by other stakeholders of milk business
4. Limitations of funding, financing for dairy farming
5. Apathy – lack of willpower
6. Lack of vision

We’ll go through the above list one by one.

1. Blatant Ignorance about the fine details of the Dairy farming business

By ignorance, we mean lack of actionable knowledge or insight.  Even fundamental things go wrong in Indian Dairy farming, so we call it blatant ignorance.

We are into dairy farming since ages, so we must know minute details of this business.

The dairy farm business aka milk production business, is totally dependent upon basic things such as cows showing heat on time, cows having deliveries every year, having female calves in each lactation cycle, producing optimum milk quantity according to her breed and progeny, not being prone to diseases, best management and planning for fodder and feed, efficient management of the farm etc.   The PowerGotha concept encompasses all these.

More number of cows in your farm producing female calves is not in your control as such (except for sexed semen – which is not that common and still being tested). However, other things are totally in our control and can be improved by using good management practices.

On this point, there appears to be absence of knowledge about basic things and actually implementing those basic things.

Lack of knowledge includes things like knowledge about life cycle of a cow,  when’s the right time for Artificial Insemination of a heifer,  ignorance about fodder management, not knowing Annual milk yield of any cow in your farm, non knowing FAT/SNF of each cow even though it is hampering your overall FAT/SNF and your inocme, not knowing basic details of diseases like Mastitis and FMD (foot and mouth) – which can be prevented by using preventive measures,  not keeping records, in-breeding etc

PowerGotha was founded to overcome these shortcomings, and we are spreading knowledge through our website, emails, Facebook page, and training.

2.  Traditional methods of Dairy Farming

For many a years, we have been practicing same old methods to carry out dairy farming.  It is not even taught by Grandfather to father and father to son.   Most of the things are passed on from generation to generation by practice, observing and copying.   Thus, the dearth of innovation and progress.

Cows housed in traditional systems of tying cows, lack of grooming the cows, wet floor, uncleanliness,  hot air in the farm-shed,  irregular feeding times,  absence of 24 hour drinking water,  superstitions about diseases, breeding, misconceptions about dairy farming, not using mineral mixtures and other supplements, not keeping records, same bull being used for successive generations, milking the cows using traditional methods, not using milking machines or parlors, ignorance about silage, misconceptions about HF, Jersey and other imported cross-breeds, hard labor,  high input costs etc are some of the things hampering milk business.

More importantly, traditional dairy farmer is always busy with dairy farm related work such as removing cow dung and urine, feeding, providing water.  He is not able to attend family functions or have any holidays.

The solution for these problems is to adopt modern techniques, Loose housing, Silage, and Clean Milk Production.

Exactly How to do that ?  No worries, We are here to teach the same 🙂

3. Gross Neglect of the producer by other stakeholders of milk business

There may be a lot of hindrance in making profit in the milk business, however, the sheer turnover size of this business is very enticing.

The benefits of this were reaped by drug manufacturers, feed companies, doctors etc.   However, they couldn’t  be of any help to the original milk producer.  The regular ordeal of Milk producer farmers was witnessed and recognised by very few.

Some efforts were made to make the business profitable at producer stage.  Clearly, that wasn’t enough.  Nothing great so to compare with milk revolution witnessed in late 20th century in India.

Per capita income in cities went up regularly and in multi-fold.   The citizens of these progressive cities started spending large amounts too.  Very small portion of this increased expenditure or consumption reached the end producer.   The moment milk rates went up, the cost of input goods such as medicines or cattle feed went up in similar fashion too.  Thus, negating the selling price hike effect.

Had all other stakeholders reaping benefits of the business, had tried together to help the milk producer reach to profitable and respectable levels, even Maharashtra for that matter would be now competing with likes of Denmark or New Zealand.

Wasn’t meant to be.

This mammoth task has been taken up by PowerGotha team.

4. Limitations of funding, financing for dairy farming

It has been the top No. 2 most frequently asked question through Powergotha.com website as well as our Facebook page, comments, messages. The farming community has been time and again asking on exactly how to secure funding to setup or advance the business. Whether any subsidies are available, where can they source it form, if somebody can finance cow purchase or shed construction.

Both existing Dairy farmers as well as new aspiring entrepreneurs ask these questions alike.

Central and State Govt, on their own or through organizations such as NDDB, NABARD, do run many schemes to help dairy farmers, goat farmers, poultry farmers. The information regarding the same will be available on respective websites or can be sought directly from these departments.  You can use right to information act too to your advantage.

Lakhs of Rs are spent through these schemes every year.   But, due to lack of preparation and planning, such assistance goes in vain and also, lakhs of Rs remain unspent.

Careful observation will reveal that the milk production business is very fragile.  The mainstay of the business – the cow is prone to illness and diseases.  If cow falls sick, dies – you make losses.  If you haven’t planned for the fodder supply of the whole year – you make losses.   All these finer details are not always known to the beneficiaries of Funding or subsidies.   They start making losses from day 1.  You don’t expect them to repay or service the loan on time.

Now, if majority of the dairy farming population is behaving in similar fashion, the banks and the NBFCs look at this business with suspicion and skepticism.  It is very hard to find a new funding or totally impossible.

Funding becomes difficult even due to lack of knowledge about how to maintain records, how to present a business plan, whom to approach.

5. Apathy – lack of willpower

You have to try and fail to know a particular method in which the things don’t work.  If you remain idle, blaming all world for unfavourable conditions, you won’t get anywhere.  You have to catch the train.

The number 1 reason above, can be overcome by referring to books, websites, attending seminars and training.  YouTube, Google on internet, and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) on offline mode also provide information about successful dairy farming, and modern dairy farming techniques.

India has crores of cows.  The per capita cow number is 2-3.  The per cow output of milk is stagnating at 4-5 liters.

120 crore population translates into high demand for the milk.  It is the absence of willpower which renders the milk business into losses.

Due to such apathy, people tend to blame the outside agencies such as govt, feed companies or circumstances beyond control.

For new dairy farm to be profitable, it takes long time.  It can take about 5 years to go from 5 cows to  25 cows without buying cows from outside.  With proper management and planning, few dairy farmers are earning good profits.  They have gone from 1 cow to 25 or more, and doing well.   Why isn’t everyone simply copying them ??

We ran a survey with our Facebook followers.  With questions like

1. Do you think the milk business is profitable ? Large majority of 207 people who answered said yes.  Some even explained how it can be profitable.
2. Is your milk business profitable ?  Only 83 people answered this time,  most saying No.
3. How many cows did you have in 2010 and in 2017 ?  Third question tried to get more insight about actual troubles or wellbeing of our dairy farmers.  Only 50 people answered this time and very few had more number of cows in 2017 than what they had in 2010 e.g. 2010 – 6 and 2017 – 22.
4. Do you use silage for your milk business? Only 24 people answered.   The number of people responding went down as we started digging deep.

There was no need to get worried about the survey as we also knew that 99% of the actual dairy farmers don’t really use Facebook.

We came to know that many people are carrying out the business or keeping an eye on it, but don’t know the finer details which can take them to profitable venture.   Interest was there but, lack of willpower and apathy was also there to be seen.

We are trying to insert enthusiasm into this business.

6. Not having Vision

It is easier to say – what nonsense, what vision or dream a dairy farmer will have.  He has to rear cow, milk cow and submit milk to collectors.

It is essential to have a vision of where you want to be with anything in your life you are taking up.   Only with a clear diagram, a big building can be constructed.  When a painter draws an awesome painting, he has already done a thousand times revision in his mind.

For so many years, dairy farmers haven’t really seen real money, or profit.  It is difficult for them to visualize actually making lot of money from this business.

You can do following things to visualize.  YouTube and Google for farms with large number of animals, visit successful farms in various places around you, TV shows dedicated to animal husbandry, write down your vision and purpose of dairy farming business.

It is so important to dream about successful dairy farm and jackpot monies in the bank account.

We have dreamt of thousands of such successful dairy farms.   We are ready for whatever it takes to achieve that.

We are coming with all guns blazing.

Are you ready ?

To complete the vision we have come out with a mobile application, which can help you keep records of your dairy farm and provides your access to articles from within the app.  It also enables you to buy dairy farming related products.  Click the button below to know more about the app.

 

Click the button below to download the app.

Download Powergotha app

 

 

 

 

PS

You have gone through the whole article which indicates you keenly interested very much in Dairy Farming business. You want to know more about it.  You also have access to the means to access that knowledge, in terms of computer, internet and mobile.  You also know how to use it.

However, 99% of the dairy farmers as you know may not be reading this.

You can do following to change that,

1. Share the link of this article on Whatsapp and Facebook.
2. Allow at least 10 people from your village who don’t have access to internet or inform them about such knowledge.
3. Arrange for free training by PowerGotha in your village about Loose housing, fodder management, silage etc.  You have to just gather 20-30 enthusiastic dairy farmers and call us at 9112219603/9112219612 or mail us at support @ powergotha.com . You can also inform us via Whatsapp groups or our Facebook page.  We have vision of reaching at least 1000 villages.

Together we can and together we will make a difference.