(a) How do you estimate the cost of milk production in organised and unorganised dairy sector in India? (15 marks) (b) Explain…

(a) Estimating the cost of milk production in the organised and unorganised dairy sector in India (15 marks)

The cost of milk production is estimated by adding all the costs of keeping the animals for a defined period, deducting the value of by-products, and dividing by the milk produced, to give cost per litre (usually for fat-corrected milk, 4% fat). Herds are sampled by size class and data are taken from farm records or a year-long survey.

Cost structure:

• Variable (operating) costs: feed and fodder (concentrates, green and dry fodder), which is 60 to 70% of the total; hired labour and the imputed value of family labour; veterinary, medicine and artificial insemination; electricity, water and milking expenses; and interest on working capital.
• Fixed costs: depreciation on animals, sheds and equipment; interest on fixed capital; insurance; rent of land (actual or imputed); and overheads.
• Credits: the value of dung and manure, and of calves, and other by-products, are subtracted.

Cost concepts used in farm surveys: A₁ (all paid-out costs), B₁ (A₁ plus interest on owned fixed capital), C₁ (B₁ plus imputed family labour), C₂ (C₁ plus rental value of owned land) and C₃ (C₂ plus 10% for management).

Organised and unorganised sectors: in the organised sector (commercial dairies, cooperative-linked herds) there are records, hired labour, purchased feed and higher productivity, so actual costs can be read from books. In the unorganised sector (holders of one to three animals) feed is largely crop residue, grazing and home-grown fodder and labour is the family's, so these costs are imputed at market or opportunity cost. The cost is worked out over the whole lactation and calving interval, including the dry period.

(b) Significance of record-keeping in livestock production (10 marks)

Records are the written data on each animal and the herd, and they are the basis of scientific management. Main types: identification and inventory (herd register), production (milk yield, fat per cent, egg production, body weight, wool), reproduction (heat, service, pregnancy, calving), breeding and pedigree, health (vaccination, disease, treatment, mortality), feeding, and financial records.

Significance:

• Selection and culling: to identify high and low producers and to choose breeding stock.
• Breeding programmes: pedigree and performance records permit progeny testing and estimation of breeding values, and avoid inbreeding.
• Management: heat detection, expected calving and dry-off dates, the calving interval, and feeding according to production.
• Disease control: vaccination and treatment schedules, and tracing of outbreaks.
• Economics: cost of production and profit for each animal or enterprise, and decisions on expansion.
• Marketing, pedigree registration, insurance, credit and traceability, and research and planning.

(c) Feeding and management of poultry for commercial egg production (10 marks)

Feeding by phase: chick starter (0 to 8 weeks) with about 20% crude protein and 2,800 to 2,900 kcal ME/kg; grower (8 to 18 weeks) with about 16% protein and lower energy, to prevent early fattening; and layer feed from about 18 weeks, with 16 to 18% protein, about 2,600 to 2,750 kcal ME, calcium 3.5 to 4% (limestone and shell grit), available phosphorus about 0.4%, and balanced lysine and methionine, with vitamins and minerals. A layer eats about 100 to 115 g a day, and clean water is always available.

Management:

• Housing: cages (about 450 cm² a bird) or deep litter (about 0.15 to 0.2 m² a bird), well-ventilated, with temperature about 18 to 27 °C.
• Lighting: 16 hours of light a day by 18 to 22 weeks, and never reduced in lay.
• Beak trimming, vaccination (Marek's, Newcastle, infectious bursal disease, fowl pox), and biosecurity.
• Culling of poor layers, and moulting or disposal at about 72 to 80 weeks.

Egg collection is done two or three times a day, and peak production comes at about 24 to 28 weeks.

(d) Criteria for preparing a practical and economic ration for swine (15 marks)

A ration should be at the same time nutritionally balanced, practical to feed, and cheap. The criteria:

• Nutrient requirements by stage: creep and starter, grower, finisher, gestating and lactating sow, and boar. Crude protein falls with age (about 20 to 22% in creep feed to 14% in finishers, and 12 to 16% for sows). Digestible energy about 3,200 to 3,400 kcal/kg for growing pigs.
• Protein quality: balance the essential amino acids, especially lysine (first limiting in maize-soybean rations), methionine and tryptophan, and not just the crude protein.
• Minerals and vitamins: Ca:P about 1.2 to 1.5:1, with salt, trace minerals and vitamin premix.
• Fibre: limited to about 5 to 7% for growing pigs, since pigs digest fibre poorly, but higher for sows.
• Palatability and digestibility of the ingredients, and physical form; no spoilt, mouldy or mycotoxin-contaminated feed.
• Anti-nutritional factors: raw soybean, gossypol in cottonseed cake, mustard cake and high rice bran must be limited or treated.
• Availability and cost: use local, cheap ingredients and agro-industrial by-products (rice and wheat bran, oil cakes, maize, broken rice), and formulate by Pearson's square or least-cost linear programming, since feed is about 70 to 80% of the cost of production.
• Safety: kitchen waste (swill) must be cooked before feeding, since raw waste can carry African swine fever and other diseases.