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Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Sep 15: The Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Milk Union, covering Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, recorded a business turnover of Rs 1174 crore in 2024-25 and registered a net profit of Rs 12.79 crore, said union president Raviraj Hegde.

Addressing a press conference at the union office on Monday, he said that 751 milk societies are currently collecting 3.97 lac litres of milk daily. “In 2024-25, the collection was 3.42 lac litres per day, and there has been a 16% increase this year, reaching 3.97 lac litres,” he said.

He added that the union has initiated a scheme to procure cattle feed from Erode and other districts to provide to farmers, with the transportation and insurance costs borne by the union.

Hegde said that MLA Ashok Kumar Rai had facilitated 10.30 acres of government land in Puttur for the union’s expansion. He also noted that the state government’s subsidies had been received till June and that the remaining amount usually comes in one instalment. Under the Farmers’ Welfare Trust, Rs 2.05 crore was disbursed in 2024-25 towards farmers’ death compensation, medical expenses, and cattle mortality claims. Insurance coverage was provided for 30,629 cattle, with 1,177 claims settled.

Plans are underway to set up an ice-cream unit. In 2024-25, Rs 2.60 crore was sanctioned for projects including green fodder development and purchase of fodder-cutting machines, he said.

Former president and director Sucharita Shetty said that for milk with 3.5% fat and 8.5% SNF, the union pays Rs 40.30 per litre to societies and Rs 39 to producers. Currently, milk with 4.4% fat and 8.5% SNF is being procured from farmers, for which the union pays Rs 42.06 to societies and Rs 40.76 to producers, she added.

KMF director Belapu Deviprasad Shetty, union vice-president Uday Kotian, directors S B Jayaram Rai, K Shivamoorthy, H Prabhakar, K Chandrashekhar Rao, Mamatha R Shetty, Nandaram Raighi, Sudhakar Rai, and union managers Raviraj Udup and Madhusudan Kamath were present.

Hegde also informed that embryo transfer work has been initiated under which oocytes collected from high-yielding cows are fertilised in laboratories with sex-sorted semen and then transferred to selected cattle owned by member farmers. This programme, already being carried out in Mysuru, Kolar, and Bengaluru, began in Dakshina Kannada on September 10 with 40 cows. The cost per embryo transfer is Rs 21,000, of which farmers pay only Rs 1,000.