Cow Price

🐄 How cows are priced in India

The band above is what sellers asked when they posted, and for a cow it turns mostly on milk — how much, how rich, and how recently she calved. A fresh high-yielding cow and a dry one sit far apart, and two breeds giving the same litres can still be priced differently. Know which market you are in before you read a number.

What moves the price

• Milk yield and lactation stage. Litres per day at the peak, and whether she is freshly calved and in milk with a calf at foot rather than dry or still carrying. A proven milker just into her lactation is the dearest.
• Breed and type. Crossbred Holstein Friesian and Jersey cows are bought on sheer litres. Indigenous breeds like Gir and Sahiwal are bought for prized A2 milk, hardiness and low upkeep, and a good one can out-price a crossbred despite giving less.
• Lactation number and age. First- and second-calvers command more than a cow several lactations in, whose milking life is shorter from here.
• Udder, health and temperament. A sound udder with four working teats, no mastitis, clean feet and a cow that stands quietly to be milked all hold the price; a kicker or a hard quarter pulls it down.

The breeds you will actually see

Among indigenous cattle the Gir of Gujarat stands out — reddish, with a domed forehead and long pendulous ears, famous enough for its A2 milk that Brazil built herds from it. The Sahiwal of Punjab is the best of the indigenous dairy breeds, reddish-brown and heat-hardy; the Red Sindhi is a compact red dairy cow, and the grey-white Tharparkar and Kankrej of the arid west are dual-purpose. Against these you will see the black-and-white HF crossbred, kept for the highest litres but needing feed and cooling, and the fawn Jersey crossbred, smaller, richer-milked and hardier than the HF.

Before you pay

• Watch a full milking yourself, morning and evening, before trusting any yield figure — and beware oxytocin used to force a bigger let-down for the sale.
• Feel the udder for lumps or hardness and check for watery or blood-tinged milk (mastitis). See the calf and read the teeth for age and lactation number.
• Check feet, joints and temperament, and ask about vaccination — FMD, HS, BQ and brucellosis — and pregnancy status.
• Never send the full amount in advance to hold a cow you have not stood beside and watched milk.

A milch cow's price is a price on her milk and her breed. Use the band at the top of this page as your starting point, then judge each animal on what you see her give and what you can verify — not on the listing's claim.