Buying and Selling Cattle Online: What to Check Before You Pay

Most bad purchases begin as vague ones. Write down, before you browse anything, the species and breed you want, the lactation number you are willing to accept, the minimum current yield in litres per day, your ceiling price, and whether you can manage a pregnant animal right now. A farmer with those five numbers walks away from the wrong animal easily; a farmer without them gets talked into whatever is in front of him.

Match the choice to your actual conditions rather than the highest yield on offer. A high-yielding crossbred needs feed, water and heat management that a buffalo in the same shed may not — our guides on cow vs buffalo dairy and dairy cattle breed selection exist precisely because this decision is made badly so often. Buying an animal your farm cannot feed properly is a slow, expensive mistake that looks fine on purchase day.

If you remember one thing, remember this: milk the animal yourself, in front of the seller, before agreeing anything. Not the seller's helper, not a bucket already filled when you arrived — you, at the time the animal would normally be milked. Yield is the single most inflated claim in cattle trade, and it is also the easiest to verify, which is why a seller's reaction to this request tells you almost everything.

Insist on the full let-down from all four quarters, and where you can, be present for two consecutive milkings, ideally morning and evening. A single milking can be manipulated by delaying the previous one so the udder is unusually full. Two milkings roughly twelve hours apart cannot be faked that way, and the difference between the two is itself informative.

While you milk, use your hands. Feel the udder for hard lumps, uneven quarters or heat, all of which suggest mastitis, past or present. Check that all four teats actually give milk — a blind quarter is common, permanently reduces yield, and is very often not mentioned. Look at the first few squirts for clots or watery, discoloured milk.

Take someone who buys animals regularly, and if the amount is significant, pay a vet to examine it. A vet's fee is small against the price of a milch animal, and a pre-purchase examination catches mastitis, pregnancy misstatements and lameness far more reliably than an enthusiastic buyer will. Our guide to common cattle and buffalo diseases and the vaccination calendar is worth reading before you go, so you know what you are looking at.

Insist on seeing the animal where it lives. The shed tells you things the animal will not — how it is fed, how clean the housing is, whether there are other sick animals, and whether the seller is a farmer or a trader moving stock quickly. A seller who wants to meet you at a neutral point with the animal already loaded is avoiding exactly that inspection.

Never send an advance to someone you have not met, and be especially firm about this online. This is the most common fraud pattern in every online marketplace: a convincing conversation, a plausible reason for urgency, and a request for a deposit to hold the animal. There is no animal. In Khetiyaar's Agri Bazar you can ask questions through the listing without sharing your phone number, so you can qualify a seller at length before you commit to anything — and the platform is a place to find each other, not a party to your transaction.

Pay on delivery or on collection, in a traceable way where you can, and take a written receipt with the date, the amount, the animal's description and identifying marks, and both parties' names and contact details. Cattle do not come with a title document, which is exactly why a receipt matters. Where a purchase is large, agree a short trial period in writing if the seller will accept one — reputable sellers often will.

Plan the transport before you buy, not after. Animals must be moved with adequate space, footing and ventilation, and there are legal requirements around animal transport in India that vary by state and situation. Check what applies locally before loading. A stressful journey can drop milk yield for days and turn a good purchase into a disappointing first fortnight.

If you are on the selling side, understand what makes buyers hesitate, because removing hesitation is what sells an animal quickly and at a fair price. Buyers want to know the breed, lactation number, days in milk, current measured yield, pregnancy status, vaccination history and why you are selling. A listing that answers all seven gets serious enquiries; one that says "good milk, best price" gets tyre-kickers and lowball offers.

Photograph the animal standing square in daylight from the side, then the udder, then a clear head shot showing the face. Add a short video of an actual milking if you can — nothing else you do will build trust faster, and it filters out buyers who were never serious. State any blind quarter, past mastitis or lameness plainly. It feels like it costs you money; in practice it saves the wasted day of a buyer who discovers it on inspection and walks away.

Price against reality. Breed, lactation number, current yield and pregnancy status set the value, and a seller who can show a measured yield can defend a higher price than one who claims one. If you are selling milk as well, our guide on selling milk through a dairy cooperative covers the income side, and dairy feeding and milk yield optimisation explains why a well-fed animal presents better and fetches more.