The NDDB AMCU Specification in Plain Words

The NDDB AMCU specification is a 2017 buying document. It says an automatic milk collection unit must weigh the milk, test fat and SNF, work out what the member is owed, print it, and keep the centre's records. It runs to seven pages, and most of them describe hardware.

It says far less about data than people expect. There is no data format in it. That single gap is what a society or a private dairy should care about most, and we come to it below.

If the word is new, start with what an AMCU is.

What is the NDDB AMCU specification?

NDDB publishes two AMCU documents, and its equipment page still lists these two. We found nothing newer. State federations copy them into tenders and add clauses of their own.

	Ultrasonic AMCU, No 01.13.020.00	EMT based AMCU
Readings	Fat 0.5% to 12%, SNF 6% to 12%, added water 0% to 60%	Fat 0% to 13%, SNF derived by the system
Pay basis	Fat, SNF and weight	Fat and weight
Speed	About 70 samples an hour	About 120 samples an hour

This is a tender document for cooperative buying. It is not a licence rule, and a private dairy can ignore it. A search of the BIS dairy committee's list found no Indian Standard for an AMCU or an electronic analyser. The scale clause cites IS 9281, and that is the only BIS number in it.

What must an AMCU do?

Clause 1.1 gives the job in one line: instant weighing, measuring fat and SNF, calculating the amount payable, and printing it with member details. It adds that the unit keeps "the main records of the collection centre".

Here is what the ultrasonic document asks of each part.

Part	What the specification says	In plain words
Scale	200 kg, least count 20 g, stamped by Weights and Measures, RS 232 port	A legal scale for the can, with a cable out
Analyser	Fat ±0.1%, SNF ±0.2, added water ±5%, resolution 0.01%, RS 232 cable	Readings to two decimals, and a water figure that is only a rough guide
Speed	About 70 samples an hour, 40 second cycle	One test every 50 seconds or so in a busy shift
Computer	Enterprise class desktop, 2 serial ports, Windows 8.1	A 2017 parts list, already dated
Printer	24-pin dot matrix, original plus 3 copies	Multi-part paper, which a thermal slip printer cannot do
Remote display	Wall unit facing the farmer	He sees his own figures
Power	UPS with 3 hours on battery	Must survive one shift without mains
Warranty	3 years comprehensive. Call attended next business day, solved within 24 hours, or 48 hours if a part is needed	Write this into your order

Clause 3.0 then lists the accounts the software must cover: milk purchase, payments to producers, cattle feed and ghee bought and sold, local milk sale, supply to the union, service income and other expenses. Clause 4.0 recommends online data transfer to the union and to local banks for paying members directly.

Clause 5.20 is the software clause. The supplier must build or adapt the software, test it for 6 months, and make one round of changes free. It must be bilingual, in English and preferably the regional language.

What does the data format mean for you?

Here is every line in the document that touches data:

• The scale has an RS 232 port (7.13).
• The analyser comes with an RS 232 serial cable (8.5).
• The PC has 2 serial ports (5.12).
• Data "should be compatible with the format in which the data is accepted by the existing system" (5.20).

There is no baud rate, no line layout, no list of fields and no file type. Backup and user levels are not mentioned either. The one place with fixed sizes is the remote display in clause 10.3:

Field on the display	Size in the specification
Member code	3 to 16 digits
Cattle type	1 character
Milk weight	5 digits
Fat %	4 digits
SNF %	4 digits
Rate in ₹	5 digits
Amount in ₹	6 digits

So two machines can both meet the document and still send different lines. They do. The Lactoscan SA manual gives 9600 baud, no parity, 8 bits, 1 stop bit for its printer line. The Ekomilk Ultra manual offers one-time or continuous sending and tells you to ask your distributor for the rest. Newer tenders accept this: OMFED clause 6.40 asks for "selectable multiple models analyzers output data".

If you are a society under a union

The line that binds you is clause 5.20. The union's system comes first, and the AMCU must fit it. Ask the union for its file layout before you sign anything. NDDB's own AMCS software asks for 3 COM ports at society level, so check the port count too.

Some unions buy software apart from the machine. Benmilk's 2022 tender says the supplied unit must work with payment software the union brings in later, and it moves the computer to Windows 10 and 11. That is a good clause to borrow.

If you are a private dairy

There is no existing system to match, so nobody will force a format on the vendor. Your risk is different. Your records can end up locked in a box that only one company can read.

Use the wording from the Jharkhand federation tender, clause 5.2. The supplier must provide "all the necessary input/output strings/ technical details" if the equipment has to work with other software. Put that sentence in your purchase order. It costs nothing, and without it you are asking for a favour later.

Three small details that cost real money

Decimals against the rate chart. The analyser reads to 0.01%. Many rate charts move in steps of 0.1 FAT. The software must round, and the rule decides who gains. Say a reading of 4.26 is cut to 4.2 instead of 4.3, and one step is worth ₹0.50 a litre. On 300 litres a day that is ₹150 a day, or ₹1,500 on a 10-day bill. Ask what the rule is and print it for your suppliers. The FAT error cost tool does this sum with your own rate.

Kilograms against litres. Clause 7.12 sets the scale to kg by default. If your rate is per litre, something must convert. At 1.03 kg a litre, 103 kg is 100 litres. Pay 103 litres by mistake at ₹45 and you lose ₹135 on that lot.

SNF against CLR. The ultrasonic analyser gives SNF. Many private charts run on FAT and CLR. Ask how the software gets from one to the other, and whether it uses your SNF formula or a fixed one. The Ekomilk manual sets out how CLR is computed from fat and SNF with settings per milk type, so this can be done, but someone has to set it up.

Does a private dairy need an NDDB spec AMCU?

Mostly no. The document was written for a federation buying hundreds of identical sets for villages with a technician on call. Two tenders show what that costs, and both figures are the buyer's budget, not a price paid:

Buyer	Date	Item	Budget for each unit
OMFED	January 2025	AMCU, 350 units	₹1,30,000
SAMUL	August 2024	AMCU, 12 units	₹1,50,000
OMFED	January 2025	Milk analyser, 500 units	₹40,000
OMFED	January 2025	Weighing machine 100 kg, 200 units	₹3,500

Against that, IndiaMART listings (checked November 2026) run from ₹10,999 for a handheld unit to ₹1,50,000 for a Cowbell set, and most sit between ₹35,000 and ₹80,000. These are single seller quotes. The low-priced listings do not describe the desktop, dot matrix printer and UPS in NDDB's document, so do not assume they meet it.

Our view for a private centre: skip the tower PC, the dot matrix printer and the bespoke software clause. A stamped scale at the OMFED budget and an analyser at ₹40,000 come to ₹43,500. Add any working computer and a slip printer. Pay more only if a plant or union you supply insists.

Keep these from the document: the stamped scale, the UPS backup, the farmer-facing display if your suppliers argue over readings, and the service terms. Compare analysers in our milk analyser price guide.

What to ask a vendor

1. Which NDDB document does this unit meet, the ultrasonic or the EMT one, and in which clauses does it differ?
2. Can I see one real line of data as it leaves the analyser and the scale, in writing?
3. What are the port settings: baud rate, data bits, parity, stop bits?
4. Will you put clause 5.2 of the Jharkhand wording in my order?
5. Can I take out all my records as a file without paying you, and in what columns?
6. How is a two-decimal reading rounded to my rate chart, and can I change the rule?
7. Does the software pay on FAT and CLR, FAT and SNF, or kg fat and kg SNF?
8. Does the weight come in kg or litres, and who sets the factor?
9. Does the software run without internet, and what happens to entries in a power cut?
10. Who calibrates the analyser, how often, and what does a visit cost after the warranty?
11. Are the screens and slips in my language, and on which version of Windows does it run?

A vendor who cannot answer question 2 is not ready for your counter.

Where Doodh Master fits

Doodh Master is software, not an AMCU, and we sell no machines. The Windows app reads a serial line from an analyser, one column at a time. Today that line must carry supplier code, litres, FAT and CLR, so a machine that sends only FAT and SNF needs a word with us first. We have not bench tested this with every model, so ask us before you buy hardware for it.

What to do next

Before you buy, get question 2 answered. Then send the model name and that sample line to us on the contact page, and we will tell you plainly if our app can read it.