Naba Farm’s mission to provide fresh meat, pure milk

Naba Dairy and Cattle Farm in Rajshahi, a sister concern of the Nabil Group which is one of the biggest and leading conglomerates in the country's north, has become a household name in the region because of its quality meat and milk.

Starting its journey with 300 cattle (13 cows and 287 bulls) in 2020, the farm on 20 bigha land at Mahendra in Rajshahi's Paba upazila at present has 570 cattle, including bulls, cows and calves.

The farm authorities said that during the initial days of 2020, the farm used to produce 120-150 litres of milk a day. At present, 300-350 litres of milk is produced from 70 Friesian cows. The milk is processed, packaged and marketed with the brand name Naba Fresh Milk at Tk70 per litre.

The currently produced milk can be preserved for seven days at 4 degrees Celsius. The process is ongoing to increase the production to 2,000 litres per day. 

Besides milk, the farm sold 350 bulls during each of the last two Eid-ul-Azha on average. 

Naba Dairy and Cattle Farm have Holstein Friesian, Sahiwal, Sahiwal cross, domestic breed, Jersey, and Goyal. It collects semen of improved breeds of cattle from different parts of the country and abroad and produces calves through artificial insemination using its breeding system. Male calves are raised for meat and the female ones are raised as dairy cows. 

At present, the farm has 150 Sahiwal bulls, weighing between 250 kg and 600 kg, which are being prepared for the upcoming Eid.

The cattle are fed grass, cattle feed and hay produced on their land and factory premises, and they are fattened in a completely organic way.

As many as 48 employees work on the farm, which was only 20-22 at the beginning, including two veterinary surgeons and an animal husbandry physician.

Naba Dairy and Cattle Farm Manager Veterinary Surgeon Md Asaduzzaman said, "Our farm can rear 1,000 cattle, but we have a plan to make this farm bigger to rear 4,000 cows."

"Currently, fresh meat is sold in Rajshahi by slaughtering a few cows every week. We will build a slaughterhouse with a target to slaughter 30 to 35 cows every day so that we can supply fresh and healthy beef all over the country," he added.

Rajshahi District Livestock Officer Zulfiqar Md Akhtar Hossain said, "Last week, I visited Naba Dairy and Cattle Farm. They fatten cows bred on the farm or bought from the market and sell them during Eid-ul-Azha. I have found that they were using the organic method for fattening."

Besides, they sell packaged fresh milk and meat in the markets of Rajshahi all year round. Although not the largest in the whole of North Bengal, their farms are the largest in the district, he added.