Primary Research Plan: Cattle Pregnancy Kit

Prpeared by Manju Gill

[Company’s name and address]

Prepared for Dr. David Foord

May 1, 2022

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Introduction

In this plan we present our project to conduct primary research on problems

associated with Indian cattle pregnancy detection. Our preliminary understanding is that the

problems for Indian farmers are primarily due to the cost of detection if a veterinarian is used

and the lack of reliability of folk methods. This is a pressing problem for farmers as the

tracking of pregnancy stages is an integral requirement to manage the profitability of a dairy.

The ability to determine pregnancy is important for making timely culling decisions and

focusing the farm resources of operations on sound, reliable breeding practices (Carpenter,

2022). It is also a problem with a large market size, given that India is the world’s largest

milk producer and home to the world’s largest population of cattle (dairyindustries.com,

2021). Our vision is to use this research to determine whether and how to develop a cattle

pregnancy kit that can provide pregnancy results with more than 90% accuracy between the

30th and 45th days after insemination (Collins & Whitlock, 2015). To assess the market

opportunity, we plan to conduct semi-structured interviews with 15 dairy farmers and survey

another 300 during February and March 2022 in four Indian states. Our goal is to understand

their problems, needs, pains, gains, and jobs. The initial list of interview subjects is included

in this plan. Other interview subjects will be recruited via the snowball method.

Problem

In our semi-structured interviews, we plan to ask farmers to rank their problems. We

presume the topmost problem of the Indian dairy farmers is the financial loss if inseminated

cattle do not become pregnant (Sandeen, 2017). These farmers can lose up to 90 to 120 days

of milk production per cow. Presuming an average of 4 litres of milk loss per day, this

translates into a loss of 360 to 480 litres of milk. Given an average selling price of 50 Indian

Rupees (INR) per litre, this means a loss of INR 18,000 to 24,000, roughly 360 to 400

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Canadian Dollars (Purandare, 2022). In addition, the price for a veterinary diagnosis is

between INR 500 to 1000. The second problem faced by Indian farmers is the time and stress

of repeating the entire insemination cycle and paying for the process. More generally, there is

a lack of awareness amongst dairy farmers about the latest tools and technologies to use with

cattle pregnancy (Bhagyalakshmi, 2020). The primary reason for farmer dependency on

experts for cattle pregnancy diagnosis is the lack of awareness and non-availability of

reasonably priced cattle kits.

Demography

In our semi-structured interviews, we also plan to collect information on location and

size of the farms. The target customer segment is dairy farmers in the largest milk producing

states in northern India: Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. In addition to

segmenting by geography, farms may be distinguished by those with less than five cattle

(small), five to ten cattle (medium), and more than ten cattle (large). We presume large firms

are the primary clients for veterinary-based cattle pregnancy diagnosis and may offer a

beachhead market. Although we do not plan to ask about the annual revenue, we will ask

about the willingness to pay for cattle pregnancy kits. The goal in collecting this demographic

information is to ascertain the market size and potential for sales, as well as competitive risk

for the pregnancy detection kits. Moreover, it will help us narrow and refine our customer

segments and identify our target audience.

Questions

The questions will be targeted to our customer segments: dairy farmers from four

northern Indian states. We plan to conduct 25 semi-structured interviews and 150 surveys. In

the interviews we will seek at least six from each farm size segment: small, medium and

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larger and at least four from each of the four states. The interviews and surveys will be

conducted online in February and March 2022. Interviews are expected to last 15 to 30

minutes. The surveys will be conducted using SurveyMonkey.

The questions were prepared to aid us in understanding customer needs and wants and

conceptualize the cattle kit value propositions. We have prepared both broad questions to

explore the context of farm operations, as well as specific questions to understand our

presumed primary problem, potential competition and willingness to act as testers.

The following questions will be asked of the dairy farmers in both the interviews and

survey.

1. What is the nearest town or city to your farm?

2. How many cows and buffaloes do you have?

3. What are the biggest problems in profitably operating your farm? How do you rank

those problems? Are you aware of potential or emerging solutions to these problems?

4. What method(s) do you currently use for cattle pregnancy diagnosis?

5. How many days after insemination do you check for cattle pregnancy?

6. In your opinion, how many days after insemination should the cow be checked for

pregnancy?

7. In your opinion, how many days after insemination should the buffalo be checked for

pregnancy?

8. If you use veterinarian services, how much do you pay for a cattle pregnancy

diagnosis?

9. What are the costs to you if there is a misdiagnosis of the pregnancy, e.g., loss of 90

to 120 days of anticipated milk production at 4 litres per day?

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 10. Are you familiar with cattle pregnancy kits? If so, what do you know or have you

heard about them?

11. Have you ever tried a cattle pregnancy kit? If yes, how was your experience? How

can that experience be improved?

12. Would you be willing to try a cattle pregnancy kit? If so, when?

13. What is the value to you from cattle pregnancy kit with a more than 90% accuracy

detection rate?

14. Would you recommend this product to other farmers?

The form at the link below will be used to collect the date from farmers.

https://forms.gle/bztKyLcrtZV5t3pB7

Bibliography

1. Bhagyalakshmi, D. M. (2020). A study of major issues and challenges of dairy

farmers in India. Science, Technology and Development, 9(4), 166-172.
2. Carpenter, Z. (2022). Determining Pregnancy in Cattle - Texas A&M AgriLife
Extension County.
http://counties.agrilife.org/ector/files/2011/07/detpregnancy_4.pdf
3. Collins, S., & Whitlock, B. (2015). Pregnancy Diagnosis in Cattle. UTCVM Large
animal clinical sciences.
4. Purandare, T. (2022). India Today. Retrieved from Indiatoday.in:
https://www.indiatoday.in/cities/delhi/story/mother-dairy-hike-milk-prices-delhi-ncr-
march-6-1921118-2022-03-05.
5. Retrieved from dairyindustries.com.(2021)
https://www.dairyindustries.com/news/38666/india-is-now-top-producer-and-
consumer-globally/.
6. Sandeen, A. (2017). Why Cows Don't Get Pregnant. https://extension.psu.edu/why-
cows-dont-get-pregnant. Penn State Extension.