Dairyland (Pvt.) Ltd is an integrated state-of-the art ‘grass-to-glass system’ dairy farm in Sindh. It is the country’s second-largest dairy farm and is one of the major suppliers of milk and value-added dairy products.

The dairy farm produces and processes value-added milk products from its own pasteurised milk, which is collected from automated milking parlours, ensuring a high quality of standardised, unpolluted milk.

The farm has a total herd of over 3,000 100pc Australian cows, of which around 1,800 to 2,000 are milking cows at a time. The cows are fed high quality fodder grown under the supervision of foreign qualified agronomists, kept under a clean and hospitable environment, and regularly checked and vaccinated by qualified veterinarians.

Every batch of milk is subjected to stringent quality controls and microbiological tests are carried out at in-house labs.

Its value-added products include plain, sweet and low-fat yogurt, as well as zeera and podina raita, while its flagship milk product is marketed under the brand ‘Dayfresh’.

Besides this, Dairyland supplies fresh milk packed in poly-pouches and food-grade high density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles to over 1,000 outlets. It also offers long shelf-life plain milk and flavoured milk in HDPE bottles.

‘According to the recently released official data, the number of dairy farms in the country has declined to 8m from 11.5m in 1996 — a loss of 3.5m farms in 18 years’

The company directly delivers its milk and other products through a fleet of chiller trucks to the end consumers.

During a visit to the dairy farm near Gharo on the National Highway, M Nadeem Monnoo, director of Dairyland Pvt Ltd, told this writer that ‘Dayfresh’ is a leader in the fresh milk market in Sindh.

With a background in textiles, the company’s chairman, Parvez Akhtar, and its board decided in 2009 to start this venture on a small scale. The Akhtar Group is currently engaged in dairy and poultry farming, textiles and wind energy.

Around 500 un-joined small cows were imported from Australia. Overcoming teething problems, the company now has a 3,000-strong herd.

Monnoo added that the farm was initially spread over 30 acres, but has now been expanded to a sprawling area of 70 acres.

Providing milk production figures, he said an Australian cow gives around 25 litres of milk every day, while peak production can reach as high as 50-55 litres. Against this, Pakistani animals on average produce around 6-7 litres of milk every day.

Each animal, said Monnoo, has an identity (computer) chip and a number is fixed on its ear. This allows a computer in the milking parlour to keep record the quantity of milk produced by that cow at a certain point of day. The database also has a complete health history of each animal, including vaccination details.

The farm also has a plant that separates manure from the water, which is recycled and used for cleaning and washing purposes. The calf are kept in a nursery for about a month and given mother’s milk. Medical checkups are regularly performed and the calves’ growth is tracked.

The milk collected at the parlours goes directly through the supply pipes to the chillers and the processing plant to ensure its quality, he added. Dairyland is one of few companies that produces its own milk, value-adds the milk from its own source and does not collect from other farm houses.

Responding to a question, Monnoo said the farm has around 6-7 managerial staff and 80 helpers who look after various jobs at the plant, depending upon the seasonal requirement.

He said that Pakistan lags behind in livestock and dairy farming because the sector has traditionally been under the control of absentee landlords and feudal lords, resulting in lack of investment in modern technology and best practices. Not many businessman or industrialists ventured into this segment either until sometime back.

Quoting from an official report, he said the dairy farming sector is confronted with numerous issues, particularly the unbridled imports of whey and skimmed milk powder.. As a result, many farmers are losing interest in the dairy sector.

He added that according to recently released official data, the number of dairy farms in the country has declined to 8m from 11.5m in 1996 — a loss of 3.5m farms in 18 years.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, May 11th , 2015

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