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Preferably purchase the animals of
the breed of choice from it native area, from a reputed and
reliable breeder
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Try to purchase young animals,
recently calved and preferably in second lactation
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Make sure that animal is disease
free
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Carefully examine the udder
including the teats. After milking, the udder should shrink like
a balloon from which air blows out. In other words, on
palpation, the udder should not give any feeling of being meaty
or containing any hard tissue. The teats should be properly
placed and of moderate size. There should be no extra teats
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To determine the daily milk yield,
the animal should be milked for three consecutive milkings. This
also helps find out the temperament of the animal
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Make the animal move a few steps to
assess if there is any leg problem
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Also check that the animal has
healthy eyes
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The dairy animal should not be
abnormally over or under conditioned
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Better watch the animal while it is
ingesting feed. Possibly, examine its teeth and observe that it
ruminates well
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Ask the owner which method of
breeding was used. AI or natural service
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Ask the owner about vaccinations
done and about the diseases that commonly are encountered in the
area.
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Only high producing animals should
be selected
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Keep the newly purchased animals
separate and away from the already eating stock for at least 3
weeks to make it sure that they do not have any disease problem
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Provide almost the same feed to the
animals which they were being fed by the previous owner and if
need be, change the feed gradually over a period of 10-14 days
so that production is not affected
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Find out the brand mark or some
other mark of identification of the animal
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Make sure about the ownership of
the animal. The deal should be documented and signed