Problems + solutions + Developments

Being a start up and that too with only a passion and no biz plan in mind except that I wanted to offer as pure as possible farm produce to friends and their friends in the city leads to certain situations which hadn't been anticpated . The month of August had quiet a few glitches happening , though it made some people think that the quality of milk was inconsistent -- though homes that have been taking from us for over a year had no problem in understanding the genuiness of our problem that lead to milk curdling in a few homes .

We as all know chill the milk to 2 degrees after milking the animals and once it reaches that temperature is when we start packing it in the milk cans ..... now what happened was that on 3 consecutive days the meter showed the temperature as 2 degrees and we as normal would start the packing process but inspite of that we got reports coming in that the milk was curdling in homes towards the end of the delivery routes . On day 1 we thought it was probably due to some mistake in the cleaning of the cans and thats why some homes reported the problem . I took the boy who cleans the cans to task and made sure I stood there while he washed the cans returned on that day . Day 2 we again got similar complaints and from the same houses which kind of had me baffled but we again couldn't figure out the problem . When it happened on Day 3 we decided to get the chilling machine checked and VOILA - the meter reading it was displaying had a huge error . Instead of the temp of milk being 2 degrees as being displayed it was about 14 degrees so basically we were packing milk at 14 degrees which obviously meant that the bacteria was still multiplying which in connection with the summer heat was making the milk curdle way earlier than it should do normally . We got the machine fixed the very same day and since then no problem at all ....

This was the first big problem we experienced but Im sure it made a few people think that the quality was bad maybe due to other factors .... we have nothing to hide and thats what we stand for , the day I feel we cant mantain quality we shall close down the farm without anyone having to tell us to do so .

The other weak link that keeps getting mentioned by our member homes is of adulteration enroute by the delivery boys ..... we have tried various things but none of them have really been feasible keeping in mind that the Govt regulation state that if we package the milk then we have to pasteurise it , we have to mention the fat content which has to be 6% for full cream milk ( not possible wth cows milk unless we resort to adding milk powder like most packaged milk companies do ) , also mention the expiry etc and that would make our model either very expensive or then unfeasible to continue . Now after a long search we found a manufacturer who has gone out of his way and designed special cans for us , we should be getting the delivery of the first batch of these cans around the 10th of Oct -- hopefully these cans will satisfy this worry of a lot of our members . These cans also will be more hygenic as they will have no blind spots making it even easier to clean .

We are also looking at keeping free range chicken and also local breed of hens for their delicious eggs ... hopefully these should be on offer by Dec or maybe beginning of the New Year . We also getting more animals so will be moving over to the machine milking instead of hand milking as we do so now ...... hand milking though is better for the animals but makes us very dependent on the labor who at times can resort to blackmail ( threatening to leave in the middle of the night knowing we cant do much except give in to their demands ) !!

The next few months are gonna be interesting as we have quiet a few things lined up which should make the entire experience better for the members .... also look out for our new website which should be up a few weeks after Diwali ( in stages ) .

Fingers crossed that no more unexpected problems arise :-) !!

Cheers

Spiralling costs ..

BIG WORRY FACTOR .... :-( !! The Biggest worry to hit a small operaion like ours are the spiralling costs of all feed materials this year ... most of the items have gone up by 40-45% over last season and are expected to go up even more . This high feed cost is hitting the farm and its viability in a big way and inspite of trying to avoid it , we see no other way around it but to increase the price of milk soon .

We hoping it doesn't make us lose members that we have worked hard to make ... and hoping they realise that the reason is genuine and not us taking advantage of them loving our milk quality .

This month after a lot of effort and searching .. we have finally ordered for secial milk cans which will allow us to make them tamper proof before they leave the farm . This aspect was a weak link in the entire process of getting the milk to our members and hopefully should address their worries regarding the trust factor of our delivery boys .

With winters coming we also looking forward to the vegetables which as of now are being planted and hopefully should be ready for harvest starting mid Nov if the weather Gods don't play spoilsport till then .

We are looking to add other things like free range eggs - free range chicken and maybe even goats milk in the coming months so stay tuned :-) !!

THE LOGO

A lot of you must be confused between Singha farms & Asaavi Farms and wondering if they are two different farms or what !! Actually , they both are the same entity -- started of as Singha Farms but then had to change to Asaavi farms as under the company law ( or something like that ) I can't get exclusive rights over the sirname -- so tomorrow if it does somehow become very popular then my cousin/uncle can also start an enterprise with a simlar name and I can' do much about it . So now we are ASAAVI FARMS for all future reference .

The logo took ages to design but at the end the friend who designed it has done a pretty cool job ... and must thank her as I really did chew her brains up before FINALISING on this design . My instructions were very clear to her -- wanted it to be CUTE & DIFFERENT and it does fulfill both the requirements .

Lets hope in the coming time this LOGO does become a house hold logo atleast in the local area of wherever we operate from .

Back .. after a long break from blogging !!

I kind of got lazy mainly due to the fact that I got very busy with the farm expansion and stuff ... along the way I also became a dad and as we had decided to try and bring up our child with no help , I became a sit at home dad by default ( not complaining at all though I never thought id be happy doing something like this ) !! The farm has over time expanded its customer base , shifted twice from its original location due to problems beyond our control , and I have 3 pups at home to look after and a whole lot of other things ..

Back to the main topic .. THE FARM ! The Farm has now shifted to the Kapasera area of Delhi and we are busy settling in on the new location . Our in house milk producers have gone up to 30 though as of today most of them are lined up and ready to deliver their off springs . So from a shortage of milk till recently we should move to abundance of milk in a few weeks once the babies start to step into this world .

The high temperatures in summers luckily didnt affect the cows much as the new farm is surrounded bby a lot of greenery thus keeping the temperatures lower than what other residents of this city experienced . Can't say the same for the people at the farm as power cuts were regular and for long periods ( ownder when this will get sorted out by the Govt ) .

We are gearing up for a serious attempt at advertising and hoping to rope in large number of people in the coming winter months . Lets hope we get a good response when we do attempt to stand in colonies advertising about our operations . We also hope that our existing members will help us in this exercise .

On the home front , as mentioned earlier we were blessed with a son whereas we were totally prepared for a daughter ( even had a name lined up -- had none for a son ) . He was born over 2 months pre mature which in hind sight was a good thing as the last minute anxiety/nervousness didnt even set in . He's now 16 months and a bundle of naugtiness and his best friends are the 3 pups that we had adopted over the last few years . Baby sitting him has been an experience in itself about which I guess Ill write somewhere else so that other gonna be dads may get a few tips .







All in all life is hectic ... the all out being that not much time or energy left for socialising so the intake of Kingfishers has diminished considerably -- SORRY to Mr . Mallya though I hope to be get re connected with the Kingfishers pretty soon .

Will hope to be more regular with the updates .... from now on .

Cheers