How to Start Dairy Farming
If you want to start your own dairy farm then you must be aware of the fact that it costs a lot to establish a dairy farm. You need to have a considerable amount of money to start a dairy farm. You should also be mindful about what you are going to do and how you are going to deal with it. To help you starting up your dairy farm, following are certain useful tips.
Make a Business Plan
This step is the most important step for first time dairy farmers. You must make a business plan that should contain important things like herd health practices, manure management, breading timetable for each cow, feed rations, manpower, calving, calf care, weaning, harvesting crops, milking cows and a lot more. Make sure you get a clear idea of all these things before moving on to next step.
Capital for Dairy Farm
If you are willing to purchase an already established dairy farm that contains the desired capital like buildings, machinery and equipment, then you should check its sterilization facilities. Check whether there are appropriate and sufficient sterilization facilities available for milk storage and pasteurization, corrals, manure storage, barns for holding cows, areas of feed, a milking parlor, and also check if there is sufficient land to grow feed four dairy cows. After all this evaluation you have come to the conclusion that you need to buy more land then take following points into consideration.
- If you want to build on the new land then build barns, silos, sloughs, corrals, stanchions for milking cows, and an area where AI cows will be easier. You should also build a cavity facility along with a facility for keeping calves to bottle feed the cows and to send them in milk production.
- You should take the size of herd you have into consideration to build an appropriate building for that strength.
Paperwork
You need to carry out some paperwork at the time of starting your dairy farm. This paperwork is done with government. You need to have at least 100 cows to start a dairy farm in Canada according to rules.
Get the Best Breed
While searching for the best milk producing cows, Holsteins is the best breed that is capable of producing a great amount of milk on daily basis. While getting your cows for your new dairy farm, make sure they are healthy; they donХt have any disease, docile and are good produces with good udders.
If you want to add quality to the quantity you already producing, get Brown Swiss and/or Jerseys.
Important Tips for Your Dairy Farm
- You should follow stringent health practices to ensure the good health of your dairy cows.
- You must design a proper system of dumping manure. It is because poor management of manure could make your farm stinky and give it an untidy and unhealthy look.
- Make sure you provide a good feed ration to your dairy cows to get an appropriate milk production.
- Take the maximum care of cows during their milking process and make they are comfortable.