At 4.30 am, two ‘mehnati kudiyan’ rise to milk cattle, and push a thriving dairy business

2:02 AM ETDeveloping

Health Desk

At 4.30 am, while most of their classmates and peers are asleep, Jashanpreet Kaur, 19, and her sister Supandeep Kaur, 17, are in the cattle shed outside their home in Ladhuwala Uttar village of Fazilka. Watching them struggle, the sisters encouraged and motivated their parents to continue with dairy farming and gradually expand it.

The dairy began with a single buffalo around seven or eight years ago. They sells nearly 100 kg of milk a day, earning about Rs 5,000.

The family puts its profit margin from dairy at 40-50 per cent. Their father Gurvinder Singh had about 2.5 acres of inherited land and, until a few years ago, also drove a school van to supplement the family income.

They start the day by feeding the animals, cleaning the shed and milking the buffalos before attending to household work and their studies. Growing up in a financially constrained family, the sisters grew up watching their parents struggle to make ends meet.

Today, the family has 22 cows and buffaloes, with the livestock valued at around Rs 30 lakh. A loan taken in the initial years to build the shed and buy animals has been repaid.

For the sisters, this has been the daily since they were 11 and 9 respectively. The income is supplemented by sale of calves and young animals.

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At 4.30 am, while most of their classmates and peers are asleep, Jashanpreet Kaur, 19, and her sister Supandeep Kaur, 17, are in the cattle shed outside their home in Ladhuwala Uttar village of Fazilka.
They start the day by feeding the animals, cleaning the shed and milking the buffalos before attending to household work and their studies.
For the sisters, this has been the daily since they were 11 and 9 respectively.
Growing up in a financially constrained family, the sisters grew up watching their parents struggle to make ends meet.
Their father Gurvinder Singh had about 2.5 acres of inherited land and, until a few years ago, also drove a school van to supplement the family income.
Watching them struggle, the sisters encouraged and motivated their parents to continue with dairy farming and gradually expand it.
The dairy began with a single buffalo around seven or eight years ago.
Today, the family has 22 cows and buffaloes, with the livestock valued at around Rs 30 lakh.

Sources

healthlink