Kannur: Yadu Krishnan, a young farmer at Chokli in Kannur, had a brainwave while successfully running a dairy with 30 cows. Yadu earned Rs 50 for a litre of cow’s milk and on learning that the same quantity of donkey’s milk would fetch him a whopping Rs 5,000, he decided to start a donkey farm as an experiment.

Operating a milch farm with cows was child’s play for Yadu. Moreover, he had studied a Livestock Dairy Farm course, which gave him the confidence to try his hand in donkey-rearing along with managing the affairs of the cows. However, taking no risks, Yadu decided to seek formal training in rearing donkeys at farms in Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He finally took the plunge in donkey farming after learning about the profession for eight months at these farms.

Back after the training in his house, ‘Balakamalam’ at Olivilam in Chokli, Yadu set up a separate enclosure of one-acre area with an iron wire fence adjacent to his cow farm to house the donkeys. He took a loan of Rs 20 lakh and purchased 20 donkeys of local, Hillary and Kathewadi breeds from Andhra Pradesh, each costing Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh.

As each donkey yields only 300-500 ml of milk once a day, it is stored in a freezer until the quantity becomes 300 litres, when farms in Tirunelveli come and collect it. Donkey milk is primarily utilised to produce beauty products and some traditional healers in Wayanad and Kozhikode also purchase it from Yadu.

The gestation period of donkeys is 13 months. While the milk is fed to the foal during the first two months after delivery, farmers can milk the donkey for the next seven months. Both Yadu and his father Bashin can milk donkeys.

The main diet of donkeys includes fresh grass, chaff, wheat and oil cake. Yadu allows his donkeys to graze in the open during day time and locks them in a cage at night. “My biggest challenge in donkey-rearing is the lack of treatment facilities if these animals become sick,” says Yadu.

Donkeys suffer from the same diseases that affect horses. They are also susceptible to tuberculosis, which afflicts goats. Donkeys are sensitive to illnesses and could succumb quickly. Currently, Yadu treats his donkeys with self-acquired knowledge.