Economic analysis of green fodder crops for enhancing the dairy profitability in Punjab

The present study has been carried out in three agro-climatic regions of Punjab state, i.e.  Sub mountainous, Central and South-Western regions for examining the economics of different green fodder crops and importance of green fodder in enhancing the dairy profitability. The study consisted of a total sample size of 120 farmers growing green fodder crops and keeping dairy animals.  It was observed from the study that the profitability from important green fodder crops based crop cycle is a little bit higher (bajra + berseem ` Rs.1,213) than the traditional wheat-paddy crop rotation (`Rs.49,005). It was found that proportion of green fodder in the cost of milk production was lower (12.12 per cent) if green fodder is home-produced compared to the market prices of green fodder (23.13 per cent). In this way, the expenditure on green fodder can be curtailed by about 13-14 per cent, which will curtail the overall cost of production of milk and enhance the productivity and profitability from milk production. A direct link between green fodder quantity and milk yield has been observed. Therefore, farmers need to motivated for enhancing the green fodder production for properly feeding the animals and further, they should try to increase the herd size so that higher profits from dairy farming can be realized.