Jaffarabad resident Chaudhry Azhar Abbas had kept domestic breed buffaloes and cows until 2016, when he decided to modernise his work with the active support of his son Ali Abbas, opening a state of the art dairy farm and importing Holstein-Friesian breed cows from Australia.

Today, Mr Abbas has 260 cattle and some eight other farmers like him have established modern dairy farms in Chakwal district.

“The dairy sector has great potential, but unfortunately it is not on the government’s list of priorities as the government does not facilitate dairy farmers,” Mr Abbas said.

He added that although dairy farming is closely connected to agriculture, the government is not giving the sector any attention.

“If you start a dairy farm, you cannot run it without making feed for cattle on your own,” Mr Abbas added.

His son Ali added that a cow costs more than Rs1 million if imported at the outset of a dairy farm, which is why smallholders cannot afford to buy imported breeds.

“The problem could be fixed by focusing on domestic breeding,” he said, adding that all the machinery needed on a dairy farm also has to be imported from abroad.

He said research is also needed to prepare vaccines for imported cattle to tackle their diseases.

According to data obtained by Dawn from the office of the Chakwal additional director livestock and dairy development, the district currently has 84,483 buffaloes, 290,883 cows, 187,254 sheep and 367,837 goats. There are at least two cattle in nearly 90pc of homes in rural areas that only fulfil domestic requirements.

Until recently, farmers from Chakwal were only raising Dhanni cows, a famous local breed, and indigenous buffaloes. But a major shift in the last few years has now led to mixed breed cows overtaking the local Dhanni breed.

“This is happening because Dhanni breed cows are physically strong but they are not good producers of milk, as one cow gives hardly five to seven litres of milk in 24 hours,” Additional Director Livestock and Dairy Development Mohammad Sarfraz Ahmed Chattha explained.

With fertile land, a favourable climate and an ideal geographic location, Chakwal district has great potential for dairy farming.

“Eight modern dairy farms have been established in the district in the last few years where owners imported cows from Australia, Holland and the United States. These cows include Holstein-Friesian and Jersey breed. One cow from these breeds gives up to 35 litres of milk in 24 hours,” he said.

Since Chakwal is just 100km from the federal capital and Rawalpindi, he added, milk from dairy farms in the district is easily transported to the twin cities.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2019