Faizal Khan has been working in the dairy sector for the past 15 years and is the biggest milk supplier in the Jhalawar district. He believes that a business must never be abandoned for fear of failure or loss.

Faizal Khan is the owner of a dairy business in Jhalawar, Rajasthan. His dairy has been selling milk, curd, mawa (Khoya), cottage cheese (Paneer), and similar milk products for the past 15 years.

He and his 4 brothers work together in this business, where they have employed 15 people and collect milk from approximately 40 villages.

Khan shares that the cow breed used in the dairy business is very important. He is currently working on cross-breed cows, where they get 20 to 25 litres of milk every day. He cross-breeds Holstein Friesian Breed (HF Breed) and Gir cattle for better-quality cattle. As a result of this, the calves are successfully giving up to a whopping 27 litres of milk per day. Faizal explains that the more milk is produced, the lower the fat percentage in it. If one can afford to give special attention to their cows, they can also buy pure-breed cattle or else go for the cross-breed in the vice versa situation.

Faizal says he has won many state and district-level competitions and participated in many animal fairs in the state. He proudly claims that in the entire district, he is the biggest supplier of milk. He says that his dairy farm provides milk and other dairy products to nearby hotels and resorts that host large-scale weddings and events.

Khan is a resident of Rajpura Village, in Jhalawar District, Rajasthan. In 2004, after quitting his studies, he was looking for business opportunities. During that time, he realised that he wanted to start his own business firm. Hence, he went to Karnal to learn about the dairy business from the NDRI (National Dairy Research Institute). It was a government-sponsored training programme under which he took dairy business training for fifteen days. While pursuing this dairy programme, he decided that this would be his future business venture.

Initially, he thought that he would sell cow milk in bulk quantities to the vendors, but soon he realised that he was not getting a good supply of the produce sold to him. Thus, Faizal decided to do his own marketing and started his dairy farm with 10 cows in 2006. Initially, he established his outlet in the city, and due to his good marketing, he began to receive a positive response. He began collecting milk from milk suppliers in other villages too. Gradually, his business grew, and now he has four outlets in Jhalawar, from which he sells approximately 1800 litres of milk every day. The leftover milk is used to make “mawa / khoya”, especially for delicacies like Gulab Jamun and “Danedaar mawa” used specifically for wedding orders.

Talking about his struggles, Khan shares that initially he had to struggle a lot because of the lack of trust and negative thoughts of the villagers. In his village, it was taken for granted that establishing a new business was very tough and Faizal would also fall prey to failures. But ignoring this negativity, he continued to pursue his dreams. After waking up at three a.m. every day, he used to take care of his cattle, milk them, and then go to the city to supply the milk produce, which was a very hard and tiring process.

For two years, it seemed the business was not generating profit compared to the efforts he was putting into it. But with his consistent efforts, he started making profits in his company and established a brand "Kisan Dairy" with several outlets. Here, they used to sell 200, 250, and 500 grams cow milk pouches. Thus his business started growing, but steadily.

In 2019, he bought 10 Gir cows from Junagadh out of which 6 cows died due to the extreme change in the climate. Once the climate changed, the cows stopped consuming food and thus died. Now, he plans to work on the Sahiwal cattle where he will be selling the cow milk under an organic milk brand.

Faizal shares that the dairy farm business has a whopping revenue margin of 40 percent on the total investment. Explaining with the help of an example, he says that if a cow gives 40 litres of milk per day, with a Rs. 40 per litre selling price, the owner can easily generate Rs. 300 net profit per cow.

Advising the youth of the nation, Faizal says that one should not select a field by copying from others. They should only start a business if they have a genuine interest in that field. He adds that in the dairy business, one has to work alongside the workers hand in hand. A dairy farm owner has to give at least six hours daily for a successful and growing business. The person responsible must be well aware of how to take care of the cows, get them vaccinated, etc.

Faizal also adds that we must not work with the ideology to achieve quick success because every business model takes its own time be it 1, 2, or even 5 years. Hence, we should be patient and have full confidence in our work. Upon failures, he suggests finding the root of the problems and focusing on working on them.