Milk production too declines

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: NJ Mathew, a dairy farmer based in Pathanamthitta, has been frantically revising his monthly budget for managing 15 cows on his farm over the past two months. His water stock dried up long before summer and over the past 36 days, Mathew's water purchase bill totalled to Rs 24,000, an unexpected contingency due to a harsh summer.
“I require 2,000 litres of water a day for the cows, not just to keep them hydrated but for other purposes as well.I have to make this purchase or my livestock will perish,“ he said. The searing summer has completely rattled the milk production in Kerala.
According to statistics available with dairy department and Kerala cooperative milk marketing federation, production has dipped between 5% and 20% in the organized sector in March and April. While the daily procurement in the capital registered a 20% dip, Ernakulam and Malabar units recorded a slide of 5% and 7% respectively . The state is already facing a deficit of 2 lakh litres per day (LLPD). “During the past seven years, we have managed to bring down the deficit from 8 LLPD to 2 LLPD.Our target is to negate this deficit within a year or two. However, this summer has upset our plans, with all milk societies registering a drop in production,“ said an official of dairy department. It is estimated that to produce a litre of milk, a cow needs at least 20 litres of waterday . For cross-bred varieties, the water requirement ranges from 80-100 litresday . “When a cow, which produces 10 litres a day , is suddenly deprived of its daily supply of water, the production slumps to 4 or 5 litres and this dip increases gradually as the heat increases,“ said K Pradeepkumar, president of All Kerala Dairy Farmers Instructors' Association.
The biggest impact is the loss of livestock. In Palakkad ­ where temperatures rose as high as 41 degrees celsius ­ 20 cows died due to heat stress. The dairy department has already issued a nine-point circular to dairy farmers in Palakkad in the wake of animal deaths. The district leads the milk procurement list through cooperative societies. In 2014-15, the total milk procurement by Palakkad stood at 8.41 crore litres.The daily procurement from cooperative societies is 15.5 LLPD and this is expected to drop heavily . The average procurement of KCMMF's Thiruvananthapuram unit in 2014-15 was 1.01 LLPD and the target for 201516 was 1.09. Till April, only 90.5% of the target was achieved. “We have steadily increased the procurement since 1997 and for the first time during a decade, we are experiencing a serious dip in production,“ said an official.
Heat stress is the biggest challenge.“Even if we overcome this summer, the animals have to survive to increase production. Cross-bred cows are the most vulnerable and they are also our biggest assets.Lack of water reflects in feed intake, climate resistance and hygiene requirements and we might lose cows with good yield to heat stress,“ said an animal husbandry department official.