For most of the cows living in Indian dairy farms, slaughtering is their final destination. We see it as their final escape from this world of unbelievable torture that it goes through. We came across this darker reality when we started our own dairy farm. When we started Paal 4 years ago we just had one idea in our minds- Is it possible to get raw fresh milk like how we used to get a few decades ago? We thought that this was a great idea and with our very crude knowledge of this industry, we thought it would be very easy to execute. Reality struck us when we went to buy our first cow ( Gowri ).

Through a mutual contact, we identified a vendor who supplied livestock to the small farms near our locality. We asked for a cow that could give 20-liter milk daily. The vendor promised the same. He seemed like a very reasonable guy. After serious negotiation, we finally agreed on pricing and we bought Gowri. We were now all set for the inauguration.

We invited a few of our close family members to our farm. One of them found that the Gowri was jittery. She kept stretching her legs. A close look at her hood revealed a whole bunch of worms. We were shocked and embarrassed. We immediately called the vendor and asked for the reason. He denied having any knowledge of this and added that it wasn’t his fault. That was our introduction to this white industry with dark secrets.

Cruelty is as real as adulteration :

Adulteration is done to increase the quantity of the milk. Cruelty is done to increase the productivity or profitability from the cows. In turn, it also affects the quality of the milk. Our vision was and is to provide high-quality pure milk to our customers. In order to achieve this, we knew that just avoiding adulteration was not enough, but also tackling the productivity issue and consciously not following these cruel practices.

Let us look at how cows have to endure cruelty:

1. She is made to live extremely unhygienic and unlivable environment which makes her vulnerable to infections.
2. She is injected with hormones like oxytocins to make her feel happy artificially, but in the long run it results in low fertility and bad mental state.
3. She is milked completely, leaving nothing for her calves.
4. She is separated from her calves, especially male calves, within few hours of giving birth.

Farms work with a principle of milking as much as possible and selling the remaining (most often) for slaughter. If you want to see all this at one place try visiting the Erode Cow Market during Thursdays. Anybody can see how real cruelty is.

Lose-Lose:

When you dig deeper into these cruel practices you will realize that these people are losing more than they are supposed to make. Let us take a few scenarios. A cow living in an unhygienic environment will incur more vet cost as it is prone to infections. As far as the dairy industry is concerned there is absolutely no cure to any of these major infections. You has to keep spending on the vet until you lose the cow. Cows are super sensitive to the environment.

If you are not allowing her calf to have her milk she will not allow you to milk her completely. She will protest. Resulting in less productivity. Replacing cows is becoming costly by the day. The money you make by selling milk will get spent on vets and vendors. This is the lose-lose situation-

1. Low productivity from cows.
2. Low quality of life for cows.
3. No peace of mind for the farm owner.

Why does a consumer need to care? Because when a farmer runs a low productive farm, it eats into his money and energy. So he eventually ends up compensating through adulteration. And that’s the milk the consumer gets.

Creating a Sustainable farm:

The only way you can run a profitable dairy farm is by creating a sustainable farm. A major reason why many people are not able to create a farm that is sustainable is because of the lack of knowledge and management. We ourselves were able to realize all this only after making all the major and costly mistakes one can possibly make. A sustainable farm means:

1. Creating a hygiene housing for the cows in a way that will make the managing of cows easy. This will result in fewer infections and better productivity.
2. Having a proper feed management to increase productivity.
3. Creating a proper breeding program by tracking the health events properly. This will save you from replacing the stocks.
4. Creating a future herd with the existing calves to scale your farm for a low cost.
5. Making use of technology to track and manage all the systems you created.

Bottom line is to have a happy ecosystem for a cow, its master, and eventually, the end consumers. When you have a happy and healthy herd you will have a profitable and sustainable farm. Solutions are as real as cruelty. Question is -are we ready?