Malabar Rural Development Foundation

The Malabar Rural Development Foundation (MRDF) is an autonomous charitable Trust registered under Indian Trust Act 1882, sponsored by Milma, the Malabar Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Union Ltd (MRCMPU). The objective of the trust is income and social security of the Dairy farmers associated with MRCMPU

Facilitation for farm mechanization

Mechanisation of dairy farms is expected to reduce the cost of labour and overcome the paucity of efficient milkers as well as in scientific waste disposal. Promoting hygienic practices for clean milk production is a key objective of this scheme.

Vegetable Project Supported by Govt. of Kerala

The Govt. of Kerala has sanctioned a project on Procurement, Processing, value addition and marketing of fruits and vegetables, with a total outlay of Rs.500 Lakhs to MRCMPU, which is implemented by MRDF. The project involves procurement of fruits and vegetables through milk co-operative societies in Wayanad, processing and marketing in Kozhikode city.

Custom packing and Sales of Food items

MRDF custom packs and market products like bread, bun, rusk, halwa and cake on contract with an industrial workers co-operative society at Kozhikode and with two private enterprises in Kannur and Shornur. Presently, the products are marketed by MRDF in the brand name, "Dairy Fresh" with a tagline "from the house of milma". The trust also markets syrups, fizz and biscuits produced by Coimbatore Ayurveda Pharmacy in collaboration with MRCMPU

Farm Tourism

Farm tourism in Kerala is being developed as a relatively new tourism product. Kerala, being an agricultural dominated state, has tremendous potential for developing Farm Tourism in a big way without much additional investment. MRDF Entering in the Field of Responsible Tourism.

DAIRY FRESH TMR FEED

The feed given for dairy cattle may be broadly classified into two types

1) Roughages (contain more fibre )
Eg: Green fodder like grass, legumes and tree leaves and dry fodder like hay and straw.

2) Concentrates (contain less fibre)
Eg: Grains like maize, rice, wheat etc, Cakes like coconut, cotton seed and groundnut cakes, brans like rice bran, wheat bran etc.

TMR or Total Mixed Ration is a complete feed made by proper mixing of the roughages and concentrates. The ingredients in Dairy Fresh TMR feed are alfalfa/rosemary/groundnut / maize hay, grains like maize, tapioca powder, brans like rice bran, chunnies of black gram, green gram, turd al, masur dal, molasses, salt, mineral mixture, humic natural complex etc.

Advantages of feeding TMR

1) Improvement in health, milk production, and quality of milk of dairy cows.
2) Regular heat and higher conception rate.
3) Better option for high yielding animal rearing farmers who face land constraint for grass production in Kerala.
4) Control of metabolic diseases due to imbalanced concentrate feeding like laminitis (lameness), digestive disorders like bloat, diarrhoea and sub acute ruminal acidosis (SARA), ketosis etc.
5) Feeding becomes less time consuming.

How to feed

Drastic change of feed can cause indigestion in cows. Half kg TMR may be introduced to the cow along with usual feed. According to the milk production, increase the amount of TMR and decrease other feeds gradually. TMR is in mash form, so may be mixed along with chopped green fodder and fed. Mixing in large amount of water and feeding is not advised.