February 24, 2009
India's Banas Dairy on an expansion
Banaskantha District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union, or Banas Dairy, broke ground of its new 500-tonne cattle feed plant at Katarva on Saturday (Feb 21), and opened an animal breeding centre in the district.
The cattle feed plant's capacity can be expanded to 1,000 tonnes per day.
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) will invest Rs50 crore for the plant, a 100-tonne per day bypass-protein facility and a 25-tonne mineral mixture plant.
The NDDB will also provide technical and financial support of Rs120 crore to expand the production capacity of Banas Dairy plant (Banas III) from 10.5 lakh litres per day to 21 lakh litres.
The new facility should be used to produce a variety of feeds for buffalo, cow, calf among others, according to NDDB chairman Amrita Patel.
NDDB and Banas Dairy are implementing a bull production programme for the Kankrej breed. About 5,000 farmers in 25 villagers are participating in the programme, where specimens of Kankrej cows are seen to give more than 2,500 litres per lactation, nearly equivalent to a crossbreed.
