Almost every farmer who walks into our shop knows exactly what the dairy pays per litre. Far fewer can say what it costs them to produce that litre. Those two numbers together are the entire business, and the gap between them is your income.
We have deliberately not put rupee prices in this article. Feed prices move with the season, and a page quoting last year's rates is worse than no page at all. What follows is the method — put your own current numbers into it.
Step 1: Cost per cow per day
List everything a milch cow eats in a day and what each item costs you. A typical ration might look like this — fill in your own quantities and rates:
| Item | Quantity per day | Your rate | Your cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beer Poosa (wet) | 8 kg | ₹ ___ /kg | ₹ ___ |
| Maize / energy feed | 1 – 2 kg | ₹ ___ /kg | ₹ ___ |
| Dry roughage (straw) | 4 – 5 kg | ₹ ___ /kg | ₹ ___ |
| Green fodder | 15 – 20 kg | ₹ ___ /kg (or own land) | ₹ ___ |
| Mineral mixture | 60 g | ₹ ___ /kg | ₹ ___ |
| Total | ₹ ___ per cow per day |
Step 2: Cost per litre
Divide daily feed cost by daily yield for that cow. A cow costing ₹200 a day to feed and giving 10 litres has a feed cost of ₹20 per litre. If the dairy pays ₹35, you have ₹15 per litre before labour, veterinary care, breeding and depreciation.
This is the number to track, and it is where a lot of intuition turns out to be wrong. A cow eating an expensive ration and giving 14 litres is frequently more profitable than a cow on a cheap ration giving 6 — even though the second one "costs less to keep".
Step 3: Check the share
As a rough guide, feed should account for somewhere around 60–70% of your gross milk income in a smallholder dairy. Use that as a diagnostic:
| Feed as share of milk income | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Under 55% | Good — or you are underfeeding and yield could be higher |
| 60 – 70% | Normal range for a smallholder herd |
| 70 – 85% | Tight. Check yield per cow before cutting feed |
| Over 85% | Losing money. Something is structurally wrong |
Where the money actually goes
Feeding low producers the same ration as high producers
A cow giving 4 litres does not need a 10-litre ration, and feeding her one is a pure loss every single day. Group your animals by yield and feed accordingly.
Cutting feed when milk drops
The instinctive response, and usually the wrong one. It lowers today's cost and next week's income, and it takes weeks to recover a lactation that has fallen away. Diagnose the cause first.
Buying on price per kilogram
You are buying nutrients, not weight. Work out cost per kilogram of protein rather than per kilogram of feed — the ranking often reverses.
Skipping the mineral mixture
It costs a few rupees a day and affects yield, fertility and how long a cow stays productive. It is the last thing to cut, not the first.
Feed that spoils
Feed you throw away costs exactly the same as feed you use. With wet feeds, buying three or four days at a time usually beats a bulk price you cannot use through.
A quick worked example
Two cows, same shed, feed rates as at your local market:
| Cow A | Cow B | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily yield | 6 litres | 11 litres |
| Ration | Straw + 2 kg concentrate | Straw + green + 8 kg Beer Poosa + 1 kg maize + minerals |
| Feed cost per day | Lower | Higher |
| Feed cost per litre | Usually higher | Usually lower |
| Margin per day | Smaller | Larger |
Cow A looks cheaper and is generally the worse animal to keep. Fixed costs — labour, shed, veterinary care, the cow's own maintenance — are spread across far fewer litres. This is the single most common miscalculation we see.
Run the numbers on your own herd
Take one cow, work out her cost per litre for a week, and you will know more about your dairy than most farmers know about theirs. Bring the figures to the shop at Karivedu, Kalavai and we will go through them with you — including telling you if you are already feeding well and the problem lies elsewhere.