Dairy farming is a profitable venture but first Let us look at mistakes dairy farmer make.
1. Poor planning
2. Lack adequate knowledge about dairy farming.
3. Lack of enough feeds and poor quality feeds.
4. Poor breeds.
5. Telephone farming
6. Buying a cow that is being milked, no farm sell it's best producing cow, they do culling for a reason .
7. Buying a cow with no clear history
8. Lack of qualified veterinarians
Dairy farming is profitable if done with proper planning.
1. First make up your mind if you are doing zero grazing or semi zero grazing or just free range.
2. Invest in feeds and nutrition before you think of buying a cow this can be silage, hay or Napier grass.
3. Cow shade is important and it should have a good walking area and resting place.
4. Ensure there is sufficient clean water.
5. Ensure there is good biosecurity before you started dairy farming.
6. Buying in calf heifer is better because no one knows it's production.
7. Good feeding and nutrition leads to high rate of conceiving, if the cow calves every year the higher profitability of the project.
8. Visit other farmers before you venture into the project and come up with your way of feeding depending on your financial capabilities.
9. Use qualified veterinarians always.
10. Market for milk is already available and one can do value addition to improve profit margin. You can use manure on your farm or you can also sell it.
11. Start small and grow gradually.
12. Dairy farming creates job opportunities for other people too.
13. Make sure when the cow is on heat it's served with good seed.
14. Use qualified veterinarians.
15. Milk production is dependant on cow genetics.
In conclusion dairy farming is profitable provided you follow best practices around the world. Recording keeping is important as well as good nutrition. Good production is as a result of good feeding and management
