How to buy a milch cow or buffalo: checks and papers

Buy a milch animal only after you have milked her yourself, checked her health, teeth and papers, and had a vet confirm any pregnancy. Never pay an advance to a seller you have not met, and keep the new animal apart from your herd for 30 days.

Before you go

• Know what you want: cow or buffalo, the breed, in milk or pregnant, and your budget. See Choosing a dairy cow or buffalo: breeds compared.
• Get ready first: the shed, the fodder and a separate pen for the new animal. See Dairy cow shed: space, floor, roof and cooling.
• Time it. Buy a cow in her first or second lactation, about a month after calving; TNAU names October and November as good months to buy (TNAU).
• Buy from a similar climate. Animals brought from very different conditions often fail to settle (TNAU).
• Buy at the owner's farm rather than at a cattle market, where animals are more likely to pick up disease (NDDB).
• Online, on Kattutharai, browse cows for sale and buffaloes for sale, ask your questions in the app chat, then go and see the animal. Do every check below yourself.

Milk her yourself before you pay

• See her milked at her usual times, then milk her yourself, fully, by hand. Judge her yield from the average of three complete milkings in a row, or at least two (TNAU).
• She should stand quietly and let a stranger milk her (TNAU).
• Check the first squirts from each teat in a cup, not on the floor. All four teats should milk freely, with no clots, blood or watery milk (TNAU).
• Feel the udder after milking. Hard lumps or a shrunken quarter mean old (chronic) mastitis, and such quarters rarely recover (NDDB).
• Ask for her history: how many calvings, the last lactation's milk, and any mastitis, prolapse, retained afterbirth, difficult calving or milk fever. Look for stitch marks on the vulva, a sign of an earlier prolapse (NDDB).
• Expect a dip after the move. Buffaloes hold back milk for some days with a new milker or a new routine (TNAU).

Check her health

See her standing, walking and eating, in daylight. A healthy animal shows these signs (NDDB):

• Eyes bright and clear, with no discharge or crusts.
• Muzzle cool and moist; she licks it often.
• Breathing regular and quiet, with no cough or wheeze.
• Coat glossy and clean, with no ticks or lice.
• Body not thin for her breed; she is alert and does not stand apart from the herd.
• Walk easy, without a limp, and she gets up easily.

Walk away from an animal with fever, drooling, mouth or foot sores, a swollen throat, diarrhoea or a cough; see Cow and buffalo health: vaccine calendar and warning signs. For foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), buy only animals vaccinated 15–21 days earlier, never from a village where the disease is present, and buy no new animals until six months after an outbreak (TNAU).

Age by the teeth

Count the large permanent front teeth in the lower jaw; younger animals have small milk teeth there (TNAU).

Large front teeth	Age, about
2	2 years
4	2.5–3 years
6	3–3.5 years
8 (full mouth)	4–5 years; buffaloes 5–6 years

The full set comes later in native cattle and buffaloes. By about the sixth year the centre teeth are worn flat, and by about the tenth all the front teeth are worn, with gaps between them (NDDB).

Pregnancy check and blood test

• Sold as pregnant? Ask for the insemination date, and have a vet confirm the pregnancy before you pay. A vet can confirm it from about 45–60 days after insemination (NDDB). The seller's word is not proof.
• Brucellosis test. TNAU advises buying cattle only after a blood test for brucellosis, a disease that makes animals abort late in pregnancy (TNAU). Ask too whether any animal in the herd has aborted.
• Other tests. NDDB also advises testing a new animal for hidden (sub-clinical) mastitis, TB and Johne's disease; your vet takes the samples. A negative test does not prove she is free of disease (NDDB).

Ear tag, health card and insurance

• Ear tag. Check her 12-digit ear tag (Pashu Aadhaar). Vaccinations, inseminations and treatment are recorded against that number on the government's Bharat Pashudhan app (PIB). Match it with her health and vaccination card, and write it on your receipt.
• New owner. After the sale, ask the vet or vaccinator to record you as the owner against the tag; a change of owner is one of the records kept there (PIB). If a tag falls off, tell the veterinary dispensary at once.
• Insurance from day one. If she is insured, have the policy moved to your name and take the policy paper; if not, insure her soon. Government-supported insurance has needed the 12-digit tag and two photos, with the farmer paying 15% of the premium for up to 10 cattle, and no claim is paid in the first 21 days (DAHD). Ask your vet or milk society which scheme is open now, and see livestock insurance.

Paying safely and avoiding fraud

• Never pay an advance for an animal you have not seen, not as a "booking amount" and not as "transport charges". A common trick is attractive photos or videos, a low price and a request for money by UPI before you visit.
• Pay at the handover, after you have milked and checked her.
• Make sure the animal loaded is the one you checked: match the ear tag number.
• A price far below other ads for the same breed and yield is a warning sign. Compare asking prices in farmers' ads for cows for sale and buffaloes for sale.
• Get a receipt with the date, the seller's name and village, the ear tag number and the price paid.
• If you lose money to an online fraud, report it at once on the national cyber-crime helpline 1930 or at cybercrime.gov.in (MHA), and report the ad in the app.

Taking her home

• Papers for the vehicle. Each load needs a qualified vet's certificate, from an examination within 12 hours before the journey, that the animals are fit to travel, free of infectious disease and vaccinated; without it, the carrier must refuse them (AWBI). A transit certificate is also required; ask the animal husbandry office for it (AWBI).
• In the vehicle. Carry at most six cattle in a goods vehicle, with anti-slip matting, one attendant and no other goods (AWBI). Give each animal about 1.4 sq m if she weighs 300–400 kg, and 2 sq m above 400 kg (AWBI). Even where the 2009 table allows more, keep to six.
• Before loading, give feed and water, and fix a label with the sender's and receiver's names, addresses and phone numbers (AWBI).
• Never move a newborn calf, a sick, lame or weak animal, one likely to calve on the way, or one that calved in the last 72 hours (AWBI).
• On foot for 5 km or more, each animal needs a vet's certificate. Walk cows at most 30 km a day, buffaloes 25 km and calves 16 km, never before sunrise or after sunset, and not in great heat (AWBI).
• Crossing a state border? Ask your veterinary hospital what the other state needs.

The first 30 days at home

• Keep her apart from your herd for 30 days (NDDB).
• Tend her last. Look after your own animals first, and wash and change clothes after handling her; milk her separately, after the others (NDDB).
• Watch her every day for fever, cough, diarrhoea, a drop in milk or a swollen udder.
• Ask your vet about deworming, tick control and any vaccinations she has missed.
• Change her feed slowly, starting with what she ate at the seller's farm.

Common mistakes

• Paying an advance to a seller you have never met.
• Paying for a cow without milking her yourself at her usual times.
• Taking "pregnant" on trust, without a vet's check.
• Moving animals without the vet's fitness certificate, or more than six in one goods vehicle.
• Mixing a new animal with your herd on the first day.

Frequently asked questions

How can I tell a cow's age without papers?

By the large front teeth in her lower jaw: 2 at about 2 years, and the full 8 at about 4–5 years, later in buffaloes (NDDB).

Should I buy a pregnant cow?

You can, if a vet confirms the pregnancy and the insemination date. Do not move her close to calving: the transport rules forbid moving an animal likely to calve on the way (AWBI).

What papers should I take home with her?

The receipt with the ear tag number, her health and vaccination card, the vet's fitness certificate for the journey and the insurance policy, if she has one. Then have yourself recorded as her owner against the tag.

Next

Get the shed ready with Dairy cow shed: space, floor, roof and cooling, and plan her feed with Dairy cow feeding: fodder, concentrate, minerals and water. Ready to look? Browse cows for sale and buffaloes for sale near you.