Table Of ContentPRINCIPLES OF
DAIRY MANAGEMENT
\
PRINCIPLES OF
DAIRY MANAGEMENT
by
P. Venkateshwara Rao
I
BIOTECH
2008
Biotech Books
Delhi - 110 035
2008 © Publisher
ISBNlO 81-7622-199-6
ISBN13978-81-7622-199-3
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Preface
Dairying is the business of producing milk, butter, cheese and
other milk products, and entails an industry which is
continually growing the world over, with an annual turnover
of nearly $500 billion. With mechanisation pervading nearly
every arena of the agricultural process, dairy management has
had to incorporate the principles and techniques which define
the latest technology with age-old practices, leading to a
pertinent amalgamation of the old with the new, an essential
feature of the dairy farm endeavour. With the increasing
insistence on health and safety checks, the relevance of these
principles of dairy management has undertaken a whole new
dimension altogether.
This text aims to acquaint dairy farmers with the most
essential and relevant principles of the science of dairy
management, taking care to thoroughly entrench them in the
basic concepts, practices and techniques which give shape to
the modern process of the science. In addition to delineating
the current trends and developments in the dairying field, the
text takes care t o elaborate upon the whole industry, its
revenues, prospects and challenges, with due consideration to
the rapidly globalising dairy sector itself. Further, critical
perspectives have been incorporated, which provide fresh
insights into the ways in which dairy management is rapidly
assuming new dimensions.
It is hoped that the erudition and insight of the book serves
well for the readers.
P. Venkateshwam Rao
Contents
Preface v
1. Introduction to Dairy Production 1
2. Organisation of Dairy Plant 13
3. Dairy Development 29
4. Management of Dairy Cow 45
5. Dairy Cow Breeding 65
6. Milking Process 95
7. Dairy Pasture Management 127
8. Economics of Dairy Nutrient Management 155
9. Managing Dairy Feeding Programme 171
10. Hygiene Management in Dairy Farms 193
11. Packaging of Milk 211
12. Milk Production and Marketing:
Challenges and Opportunities 243
Bibliography 267
Index 273
1
Introduction to Dairy Production
A dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing
of animal milk-mostly from goats or cows, but also from
buffalo, sheep, horses, or camels -for human consumption.
Terminology differs slightly between countries. In
particular, in the V.S. a dairy can also be the facility that
processes and distributes the milk or the store that sells dairy
products, and in New Zealand English a dairy means a corner
shop, or Superette-and dairy factory is the term for what is
elsewhere a dairy.
As an adjective, the word dairy describes milk-based
products, derivatives and processes, for emple dairy cattle,
dairy goat. A dairy farm produces milk and a dairy factory
processes it into a variety of dairy products.
HISTORICAL OUTLOOK
Milk-producing animals have been domesticated for
thousands of years. Initially they were part of the subsistence
farming that nomads engaged in. As the community moved
about the country so did their animals accompany them.
Protecting and feeding the animals were a big part of the
symbiotic relationship between the animal and the herder.
In the mor2 recent past, people in agricultural societies
owned dairy animals that they milked for domestic or local
(village) consumption, a typical example of a cottage industry.
2 Principles of Deiry Management
The animals might serve multiple purposes (for example, as
a draught animal for pulling a plough as a youngster and at
the end of its useful life as meat). In this case the animals were
nOrMally milked by hand and the herd size was quite small
so that all of the animals. could be milked in less than an
hour-about 10 per milker.
With industrialisation and urbanisation the supply of milk
became a commercial industry with specialised breeds of cow
being developed for dairy, as distinct from beef or draught
animals. Initially more people were employed as milkers but
it soon turned to mechanisation with machines designed to do
the milking.
As herd numbers increased so did the problems of animal
health. In New Zealand two approaches to this problem have
been used. The first was improved veterinary medicines (and
the government regulation of the medicines) that the farmer
could use. The other was the creation of veterinary clubs where
groups of farmers would employ a veterinarian (vet) full-time
and share those services throughout the year. It was in the
vet's interest to keep the animals healthy and reduce the
number of calls from farmers, rather than to ensure that the
farmer needed to call for service and pay regularly.
Most dairy farmers milk their cows with absolute
regularity at a minimum of twice a day, with some high
producing herds milking up to four times a day to lessen the
weight of large volumes of milk in the udder of the cow. This
daily milking routine goes on for about 300 to 320 days per
year that the cow stays in milk. Some small herds are milked
once a day for about the last 20 days of the production cycle
but this is not usual for large herds. If a cow is left unmilked
just once she is likely to reduce milk-production almost
immediately and the rest of the season may see her dried off
(giving no milk) and still consuming feed for no production.
However, once-a-day milking is now being practised more
widely in New Zealand for profit and lifestyle reasons. This
is effective because the fall in milk yield is at least partially
offset by labour and cost savings from milking once per day.
