Engineer starts dairy farm after daughter diagnosed with lactose intolerance; clocks Rs1 crore annual revenues

When Jyoti Padma’s infant daughter was diagnosed with lactose intolerance, it left her both puzzled and saddened. She was puzzled because nobody in her or her husband’s family had this condition and saddened because it meant her child would not be able to enjoy something as simple as milk all her life.

“I tried giving her milk from different brands and even from local milkmen here in Mumbai, but it always resulted in an adverse reaction,” says Jyoti, who completed her BTech in Textiles in 2006.

The young mother took a break from her textiles engineering career and began looking for solutions to her daughter’s milk indigestion. “In early 2018, one of my friends from Lucknow, where my sister also lives, told me he had domesticated a cow to ensure his family drank pure and unadulterated milk,” recollects Jyoti.

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The start of a dairy business

So when Jyoti visited Lucknow a few days later, she gave her daughter a glassful of fresh milk from her friend’s cow. “Ishwarya, my daughter, digested it well and had no adverse reaction. It took me just a minute to understand that impurities and adulteration were causing her health problems,” she adds.

Enthused by the results, Jyoti decided to provide pure, fresh and organic milk from desi or indigenous cows to people around her so that they could also live healthier. 

“By then, my daughter was five and I was planning to resume my textile work. Instead, I began researching milk, cows, and their feed and decided to venture into dairy farming,” Jyoti says.

“I opened the first farm in Lucknow with 15 cows and it became my biggest learning ground,” the woman entrepreneur says.

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She learned about rearing cows, the diet that improves milk protein content, and other facets of dairy farming. “I realised that desi cows are the best as their milk is well suited to our bodies. When I returned to Mumbai after ten months, my daughter needed milk here. I left the Lucknow farm under the care of my elder sister and began afresh in Mumbai,” she says.

By the end of 2018, Jyoti had purchased 21 cows of the indigenous or desi Gir, Sahiwal, and Kankrej breeds. 

She took a 2-acre land on lease in a rural area near the Mumbai-Pune highway as she wanted a free-range farm where cows were not kept in sheds the whole day. 

“Each cow cost me around Rs 80,000, which was high. Being a novice, I overpaid. But today, I advise others on buying the cows at the right price,” she says.

Going desi all the way

Jyoti’s husband, also a textile engineer, supported her with the initial investment. “I spent all my savings on cows and the milk production at BKD Milk Dairy Farm started in 2019,” she says.

Jyoti points out that milk from Indian breed cows contains A2 protein and is packed with omega fatty acids, vitamins, calcium, minerals, antioxidants and other nutrition.

To feed them organic grass, Jyoti started cultivating 5G Napier Grass variety. It has been specifically developed for high yields and quality forage production. Due to its rapid growth and high nutritional value, 5G Napier is a popular livestock feed.

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“In another half an acre, I set up the unit for milk packaging and in the remaining area, we set up a mukt gotha (open cow shed) where cattle roam freely, eat naturally, and get exercise. This leads to their better health and improved milk quality,” Jyoti explains.

Business boost after lockdown

She began packaging and supplying raw A2 milk to users in Thane, Bhandup, Bhiwandi, Meera Road and Borivali. They would place orders online. But the next year, lockdown hit and Jyoti could not increase the number of cows. 

“At that time, my customers also began asking for vegetables. So I started sourcing them from nearby farmers, making it a win-win for all,” says Jyoti, who also offers consultancy in agro-tourism and dairy farming.

After the lockdown, she increased the number of cows to 46 and now sells milk at Rs85 to Rs95 per litre (depending on the delivery area) and desi ghee at Rs2,000 per litre. 

All the cows are A2 certified, which means they produce milk that contains only A2 beta-casein protein. A2 milk of indigenous cows is easier to digest than A1 milk produced by cows of Western origin like Holstein and Friesian.

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Currently, Jyoti sells 250 litres of BKD Milk daily and the extra production is used to make ghee. “I sell ghee on advance booking. The annual ghee sale is around Rs12 to Rs15 lakh,” the dairy farmer says.

Jyoti’s annual income is Rs 1 crore.

At her farm, which employs six people, the cows are milked at 5 am and 5 pm daily. The temperature of the raw milk is immediately brought down using a chilling machine. It is then packed in a double-layered food-grade pouch, put in thermal bags and transported to the customer’s house. By 8 am, all the deliveries are done.

“We have an app on which customers place their orders.”

Jyoti also continues to look after old cows. “We use their cow dung and urine for agriculture purposes. Till their last breath, cows stay with us,” she says.

Now Jyoti is set to launch her Cow Currency model where customers can take ownership of cows for three years. 

“By paying Rs 1.08 lakh, for three years, a family will get 2 litres of A2 milk daily. A small family can take 1 litre of milk daily with 1 kg of ghee monthly. After three years, we will refund Rs20,000,” she says.

The cow currency model will be launched in October 2024, giving a new dimension to Jyoti’s dairy business.

(Rashmi Pratap is a Mumbai-based journalist specialising in business, financial, and socio-economic reporting)

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