Low milk yield results in high dairy prices

LAHORE: Milk price in Pakistan is high because of low productivity of its milking animals compared with European Union, United States and China, an agriculturist said on Friday.
Muhammad Suleman said the average herd size in Pakistan is less than three animals/farm. This increases the cost of production.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation statistics reveal that Pakistan obtains 37 million tonnes of milk from 21 million animals compared with over 40 million tonnes obtained by China from 15.5 million animals and 90 million produced in the United States by 9.0 million cows.
It added per cow yield in Pakistan is 1,229 litres of milk, compared with 9,901 litres in United States, 2,918 litres in China, and 1,349 litres in India.
Similarly, a buffalo produces 1,934 litres of milk per annum in Pakistan, while it is 5,596 litres in China, and 1,799 litres in India.
Suleman said low herd size not only increases the cost of labour, but also of feed and animal healthcare. Another reason for the higher cost is the longer transportation routes, since the milking animals are mostly reared in remote areas without farm to market roads. A large quantity of the produce at times is spoiled due to the longer routes.
He said while poor dairy farmers struggle, many industrialists and big landholders have established modern dairy farms by importing high yielding cows from Australia or United States. Average milk yield of these cows varies from 22-27 litres a day, which is almost the same as milk produced by a US cow. These farms vary in size from 1,000 to 6,000 cattle, he said.
Compared with an average yield of four litre per day of a normal Pakistani buffalo or cow, the productivity of these imported cattle is five to seven times higher, Suleman explained.
Still, he added, the rate of milk produced by these farms is the same or higher than provided by the common milkman.
He said most of the milk produced by these farms is purchased by the three large milk processing units, while some, like the Chaudrys of Gujrat and Sharifs from Lahore sell the milk at the same retail price as charged by top milk processors.
Progressive farmer Hamid Malhi said Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of milk in the world after India, United States, and China. He regretted that Pakistan is increasing its milk productivity by increasing the number of milking animals, instead of increasing the yield per animal. He said the situation in India is also the same, which produces 120 million tonnes of milk per year from over 81 million cows and buffaloes.
Malhi claimed the white revolution the government talks about would not come without increasing the milk yield of livestock. American farmers, he added, feed one cow to obtain the same quantity of milk that a Pakistani farmer obtains by feeding 4.5 buffaloes or cows. This, he added, is crowding out land needed for other productive crops.
Malhi said the dairy sector has shielded the farmers from crop failures. In most parts of India, cattle raising is separate from crop cultivation, whereas in Pakistan, crop farmers rear two or three milking animals that act as an insurance against any unfortunate crop failure.
He said the number of buffaloes in Pakistan was 2.57 million in 1961 that has now increased to over 11.2 million. India increased its buffalo population during the same period from 12.6 million in 1961 to 37.2 million. In China, the buffaloes doubled from a total of 2.6 million in 1961 to over 5.45 million.
It is worth noting that the buffalo population quadrupled in Pakistan, tripled in India and hardly doubled in China during a span of four and a half decades. But the increase in yield of Chinese buffalos was phenomenal during this period. In 1961, Malhi added the milk yield of Chinese buffalo was 30 percent less than Pakistan, now it is 3.5 percent higher. The Chinese are improving the breeding methods of livestock. They have developed high milk yielding breeds, which both India and Pakistan have failed to develop.