Dairy farming gets costlier

Milk production has turned costlier in the past few months due to soaring prices of animal feed, leaving dairy farmers with little hope of securing expected profits.

Feed prices have increased rapidly due to a lack of market control, according to various farmers across the country.

Wheat bran, a component of animal feed, is now sold for Tk 1,200 to Tk 1,250 per maund (around 37 kilogrammes) even though the same amount would cost just Tk 950 to Tk 1,000 a couple of months ago.

Similarly, each maund of Mashkalai dal bran, a pulse grain, currently sells for about Tk 1,400 per maund while it was around Tk 1,200 previously.

Oilcake, another vital component of animal feed, costs Tk 3,000 to Tk 3,200 now compared to about Tk 2,500 a few months back, said a number of dairy farmers.

Besides, the price of ready feed such as straw also soared up to Tk 80 to Tk 100 per maund at the same time, they added.

Md Motiur Rahman, a dairy farmer of Ramkharua village in Sirajganj's Shahzadpur upazila, said he has to spend about Tk 2,400 per day to feed his 12 cows.

Previously, he would spend just Tk 1,500 to Tk 1,700 a day to feed his cattle, which produce about 60 litres of milk daily. It would cost around Tk 35 to produce one litre of milk just a few months back but now it costs about Tk 45 per litre.

However, the selling price of milk has not increased in line with the rising production cost, Rahman said, adding that dairy farming was becoming too costly to be sustainable at this rate.

Rahman went on to say that it costs at least Tk 75,000 to Tk 90,000 to produce milk worth Tk 90,000 to Tk one lakh per month.

So, he does not expect to secure adequate profits considering the current situation.

Poor and marginal dairy farmers have been hit the hardest as they lack the capital to buy costly dry feed and their farms do not have enough grazing space either.

For example, Md Eakub Ali, a marginal dairy farmer of Modhdho Pungol village in Pabna's Faridpur upazila, owns just four cows that produce 20 to 22 litres of milk worth about Tk 850 every day.

However, he needs to spend a minimum of Tk 750 to feed the animals if he depends only on dry feed. "I do not have enough cash to buy dry feed every day so I often give water hyacinth as feed to save costs," Ali said.

And due to improper feeding, the cows have grown thin and milk production has fallen, making it near impossible to recover production costs, he added.

Md Shakhawat Hossain, a dairy farmer of Sonahara village in the same upazila, told The Daily Star that milk was selling for about Tk 55 per litre in local markets but farmers often sell it directly from their farms for just Tk 45 per litre.

Milk Vita is the biggest buyer of the product in the region but farmers do not get adequate profits by supplying the milk processing company and so seek out private markets instead for profit.

The price of milk offered by Milk Vita varies depending on quality and so, the farmers often do not get more than Tk 40 to Tk 42 from the company. "That is not enough to cover production costs and as a result, farmers mostly seek out private markets," Hossain said.

Due to the lack of market control, dairy feed prices have increased rapidly and the production cost of milk is increasing too.

"There is no authority for monitoring the dairy feed market, where producers have been increasing prices as they wish since nobody controls them," he added.

As a result, dairy farmers of Pabna and Sirajganj, the biggest milk producing zones in Bangladesh, have been struggling to keep the regional industry afloat.

"If the dairy feed market cannot be controlled, people may lose interest in dairy farming. For the sake of keeping milk production at normal levels, the dairy feed market must be controlled," Hossain said.

While speaking with The Daily Star, Dr Al Mamun Hossain, district livestock officer of Pabna, said dairy farming gets costlier during the monsoon season every year.

Due to flooding, grazing fields become mostly submerged. So, farmers become dependent on ready feed, increasing production costs in the process.

"But the situation becomes normal in the dry season," he added.