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Anand Agricultural University, Anand
Anand Agricultural University (AAU) was established in 2004 at Anand with the support of the Government of Gujarat, Act No.(Guj 5 of 2004) dated April 29, 2004. Caved out of the erstwhile Gujarat Agricultural University (GAU), the dream institution of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Dr. K. M. Munshi, the AAU was set up to provide support to the farming community in three facets namely education, research and extension activities in Agriculture, Horticulture Engineering, product Processing and Home Science. At present there seven Colleges, seventeen Research Centers and six Extension Education Institute working in nine districts of Gujarat namely Ahmedabad, Anand, Dahod, Kheda, Panchmahal, Vadodara, Mahisagar, Botad and Chhotaudepur
AAU's activities have expanded to span newer commodity sectors such as soil health card, bio-diesel, medicinal plants apart from the mandatory ones like rice, maize, tobacco, vegetable crops, fruit crops, forage crops, animal breeding, nutrition and dairy products etc. the core of AAU's operating philosophy however, continues to create the partnership between the rural people and committed academic as the basic for sustainable rural development. In pursuing its various programmes AAU's overall mission is to promote sustainable growth and economic independence in rural society. AAU aims to do this through education, research and extension education. Thus, AAU works towards the empowerment of the farmers.
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ThesisItem Open Access PERFORMANCE OF CROSSBRED COWS UNDER DIFFERENT FEEDING REGIMES(Department of Livestock Production Management College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry Anand Agricultural University Anand, 2019) Md. Manzarul Islam; Dr. S. V. ShahPresent experiment was conducted to study the performance of HF x Kankrej crossbred cows under different feeding regimes on 18 crossbred cows/heifers which were distributed in to three treatment groups comprising of 6 animals each. Animals of T1 (Farmers’ feeding) group were maintained as per the feeding regime followed by small and marginal farmers. Concentrate feed was not given during pre-partum period and fed @ 50% of milk production in lactation period. Animals were devoid of mineral mixture and fed with paddy/wheat straw on ad lib. basis and 10kg/animal/d cereal green fodder. Animals of T2 (Modified feeding) group comprised of feeding with scientific interventions with resources available with farmers. Animals were provided concentrate feed @ 1kg/animal/d during pre-partum and @ 50% of milk production in lactation period. Mineral mixture was provided to animals @ 30g/animal/d. Legume straw and paddy/wheat straw (50:50 ratio) was given to animals after proper mixing on ad lib. basis and 10 kg/animal/d cereal green fodder was given to the animals. Animals of T3 (Farm feeding) group were fed as per feeding followed at LRS. Concentrate feed was given for steaming up in pre-partum period starting from 500g/animal/d in first week of experiment and increasing by 500g every week, reaching 3.5 to 4.0 kg till parturition. During lactation period concentrate feed was given @ 40% of milk production plus 1kg maintenance/animal/d. Animals were fed with 50g/animal/d mineral mixture. Jowar hay was fed to animal on ad lib. basis and 10kg/animal/d cereal green fodder was fed to the animals. Various observations recorded during experiment included body weight of cows, birth weight of calves, feed and nutrient intake, BCS, milk yield and composition, haematological, blood biochemical and hormonal profile, reproductive and health status of animal and cost of feed & medicines of cows etc. Data were statistically analyzed by CRD (Factorial) and one-way ANOVA using SAS and SPSS software, respectively.ThesisItem Open Access PERFORMANCE OF ADULT SURTI GOATS ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF FLOOR”(DEPARTMENT OF LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE & ANIMAL HUSBANDRY ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY ANAND-, 2019) Rakesh J. Modi; K. N. WadhwaniThe study was conducted on 27 adult dry non pregnant (20 - 30 Kg) farm born Surti goats of Livestock Farm Complex (LFC), Department of Livestock Production Management, College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Anand, Gujarat in winter, hot dry and hot humid seasons. The experimental goats were divided randomly on body weight basis in three treatment groups i.e. T1: Earthen (Kachcha), T2: Brick and T3: Cement concrete (Pucca) floor. Each treatment groups comprised of three replications and each having three animals. The experimental animals were maintained on ICAR feeding standard (2013) and Total Mixed Ration (TMR) offered daily in morning and afternoon in groups. The different behavioral patterns exhibited by goats were recorded by PTZ camera continuously for 24 hrs in each experimental season.ThesisItem Open Access STUDY ON PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE AND GENETIC PARAMETERS OF SYNTHETIC LINE OF WHITE LEGHORN(AAU, Anand, 2006) BAROT, VASANTKUMAR NAVALJI; PATEL, ASHOK M.The present study was carried out to investigate the production performance, inheritance and association among various economic traits in a synthetic strain of White Leghorn for five successive generations under Central Poultry Research Station Project at Department of Poultry Science, Anand Agricultural University, Anand. Number of pullets from first to fifth generation utilized as experiraental materials were 413 (37 Sire family), 446 (30 Sire family), 441 (37 Sire family), 449 (40 Sire family) and 440 (39 Sire family). The data obtained on these birds were analyzed, to obtain the estimates of the means, heritability and genetic and phenotypic correlations, through Least Square Analysis using LSMLMW and MIXED MODEL Computer programme. The least squares means for various economic traits in S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 generations respectively were 1173.21 ±9.11, 1133.36 ± 9.64, 1214.75 ± 11.32, 1200.56 ± 8.56 and 1214.73 ± 5.45 g for BW20, 1514.10 ± 14.64, 1421.86 ± 14.70, 1450.10 ± 11.70, 1456.77 ± 11.96 and 1429.75 ± 7.79 g for BW40, 1525.63 + 14.89, 1477.94 ± 12.41, 1591.66 ± 16.39, 1593.30 ± 13.67, and 1538.53 ± 9.62 g for BW56, 1530.87 ± 19.08, 1487.32 ± 12.89, 1655.85 + 17.06, 1517.11 ± 16.22 and 1645.74 ± 9.44 g for BW72, 153, 150, 159, 151 and 151 days for AFE, 103.736 ± 0.784, 99.511 ± 1.051, 93.576 ± 0.933. 107.036 ± 0.729 and 104.923 ± 0.652 eggs for EN40, 180.730 ± 1.354, 185.623 ± 1.227, 179.663 ± 1.220, 196.590 ± 1.040 and 189.130 ± 1.021 eggs for EN56, 238.403 ± 2.150, 254.015 ± 2.133, 277.950 ± 1.151, 271.726 ± 1.634 and 266.933 ± 1.434 eggs for EN72, 46.235 ± 0.325, 50.139 ± 387, 49.134 ±0.310, 48.012 ±0.265 and 51.724 ± 0.158 g for EW32, 53.272 ± 0.356, 51.915 ± 0.319, 49.219 + 0.326, 50.356 ± 0.281 and 52.306 ± 0.165 g for EW40, 54.101 ± 0.372, 54.379 ± 0.401, 53.139 ± 0.384, 54.897 ± 0.301 and 55.777 ± 0.174 g for EW56, 51.962 ± 0.341, 54.908 ± 0.385, 56.542 ± 0.515, 52.593 ± 0.351 and 61.610 ± 0.224 g for EW72, Rs. 74.00, 95.00, 76.00, 33.00 and 40.00 for ROFC per bird. The heritability estimates for various traits were found to be 0.450 ± 0.168, 0.679 ± 0.203, 0.976 ± 0.229, 0.678 ± 0.192 and 0.427 ± 0.159 {BW20), 0.490 ± 0.174, 0.617 ± 0.194, 0.737 ± 0.203, 0.723 ± 0.197 and 0.573 ± 0.180 (BW40), 0.425 ± 0.168, 0.235 ± 0.128, 1.019 ± 0.235, 0.770 ± 0.204 and 0.533 ± 0.175 (BWse), 0.718 ± 0.241, 0.378 + 0.162, 0.837 ± 0.269, 0.773 ± 0.207 and 0.204 ± 0.127 (BW72), 0.482 ± 0.173, 0.720 ± 0.209, 0.354 ± 0.148, 0.330 ± 0.143 and 0.481 ± 0.167 (AFE), 0.246 ± 0.135, 0.212 ± 0.120, 0.364 ± 0.150, 0.349 ± 0.146 and 0.831 ± 0.i211 (EN40), 0.387 ± 0.162, 0.064 ± 0.091 , 0.162 ± 0.118 , 0.257 ± 0.133 and 0.901 ± 0.219 (ENse), 0.193 ± 0.171, 0.140 + 0.114, 0.190 ± 0.191, 0.097 ± 0.108 and 0.790 ± 0.210 (EN72), 1.199 ± 0.250 , 0.936 ± 0.243 , 0.832 ± 0.204 , 0.624 ± 0.185 and 0.660 ± 0.194 (EW32), 1.099 ± 0.243, 0.861 ± 0.234, 0.708 ± 0.204, 0.630 ± 0.186, and 0.551 ± 0.180 (EW40), 1.081 ± 0.251,1.102 + 0.264, 0.948 ± 0.228, 0.621 ± 0.186 and 1.187 ± 0.244 (EWse), 0.471 ± 0.235, 0.575 ± 0.220, 1.196 ± 0.299, 0.723 ± 0.204 and 0.588 ± 0.195 (EW72) in S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5 generation respectively. The genetic correlations amongst body weight traits (BW20, BW40, BW56 and BW72) were positive and high in magnitude and in desired direction. The genetic correlations of BW20 with other growth traits (BW40, BW56 and BW72) ranged from 0.475 ± 0.226 to 0.924 ± 0.054. The genetic correlations of BW40 with BWse and BW72 were ranged from 0.491 ± 0.213 to 1.176 ± 0.117 where as the same between BW56 and BW72were ranged from 0.940 + 0.162 to 1.227 ± 0.115. The estimates of genetic correlations between body weight at 20 weeks of age and age at first egg were found to be low positive to negative side in all the generation except for the fourth generation. Contrary to this, positive and low genetic and phenotypic association was found between BW40 and age at first egg. The genetic correlations between body weight at 72 week and AFE were found to be positive, favourable and in desired direction. The genetic correlations of EN40 with various growth traits (BW20, BW40, BW56 and BW72) ranged from - 0.631 ± 0.244 to 0.230 ± 0.314 whereas genetic correlations of EN72 with various growth traits (BW20, BW40, BW56 and BW72) ranged little wider from -0.765 ± 0.429 to 0.278 ± 0.444. The genetic correlations of growth traits (BW20, BW40, BW56 and BW72) with egg weight traits (EW32, EW40, EW56 and EW72) were positive and moderate to high in magnitude. Negative genetic correlation of high magnitude was reported between age at first egg and egg production up to 40 weeks. In opposition to this, positive genetic and phenotypic association between age at sexual maturity and egg weight was reported. The genetic correlations between egg production (EN40, ENse and EN72) and egg weight traits (EW32, EW40, EW56 and EW72) were negative and high in magnitude in fifth generation. The phenotypic association of egg number with body weight and egg weight traits were negative and low in magnitude compared to genetic association.ThesisItem Open Access FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION OF SOME IMPROVED ANIMAL HUSBANDRY PRACTICES OF DAIRYING IN ANAND AND VADODARA DISTRICTS OF GUJARAT STATE(AAU, Anand, 2002) GOUR, ANIL KUMAR; PATEL, ASHOK M.The dairy farming plays a pivotal role in the economy of our country. It helps in augmenting food supply, generating employment and raising nutritional level. The major advantage of dairy farming is its minimum land dependency and resource flexibility. It is a major source of income to major segment to rural betterment in small and marginal farmers, at the same time it is also characterized with risk and uncertainty. It is therefore, use of modem inputs and adoption of new technology of animal husbandry are undoubtedly more important in increasing dairy farm productivity. There is a considerable gap between present animal husbandry practices of the dairy farmers and available scientific animal husbandry development so far. Out of these, which technology are known and adopted by its real users of different classes is a matter of question. Hence, to analyze the existing extent of knowledge and adoption of the dairy farmers, the present study on "FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION OF SOME IMPROVED ANIMAL HUSBANDRY PRACTICES OF DAIRYING IN ANAND AND VADODARA DISTRICTS OF GUJARAT STATE" was undertaken. OBJECTIVES: 1. To study the profile of dairy farmers of Anand and Vadodara districts of Gujarat. 2. To study the extent of knowledge of dairy farmers regarding improved practices of animal husbandry. 3 To study the extent of adoption of improved practices of animal husbandry by dairy farmers. 4. To find out relationship between extent of knowledge of dairy farmers regarding animal husbandry practices and dairy farmers profile. 5. To find out relationship between extent of adoption of improved animal husbandry practices and profile of dairy farmers. 6. To know the problems faced by dairy farmers in adoption of modem practices of animal husbandry, and 7 To seek suggestions to overcome problems/limitations of dairy farmers in adoption of modem practices of animal husbandry. The present study was conducted in randomly selected sixteen villages of Anand and Vadodara districts. A sample of 172 dairy farmers having milch animals was selected for the study. The data were collected with the help of "interview schedule" by conducting personal interview. For the measurement of independent and dependent variables, appropriate scales developed and adopted by other research workers were used with due modifications. The statistical tools used for the analysis of data were percentage. mean, standard deviation, correlation coefficient, stepwise regression and path analysis. The important findings of the study are summarized as under; 1. Majority of the dairy farmers (76.74 per cent) had middle age, secondary and higher secondary level of education (58.72 per cent), higher caste (61.63 per cent), organizational participation in dairy co-operative society (57.56 per cent), medium level of mass media exposure (43.60 per cent), medium to high level of extension contact (77.33 per cent), marginal, small and medium dairy farmers had less than four ha. of land holding (72.09 per cent) and low to medium level of herd size (67.50 per cent). 2. The average parity of dairy animals of dairy farmers was observed 3.67 ± 0.08 while, the average age at first calving in indigenous cows, crossbred cows and buffaloes was 47 months, 34 months and 46 months, respectively. Whereas average peak milk yield was 9.03 ± 0.39 litres and average annual expenditure for medical treatment was Rs. 254.30 per animal. The average number of earner, dependent and total members of family was 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 respectively. Great majority of dairy farmers (94.77 per cent) were dependent on crop farming, dairying and other occupation, and majority (87.57 per cent) of them had increased their total income upto 10 to 25 per cent due to adoption of dairy farming. 3. Majority of the dairy farmers (69.18 per cent) had medium to high level of economic motivation, medium to high level of scientific orientation (79.07 per cent), medium to high level of planning orientation (62.79 per cent), medium to high level of production orientation (70.93 per cent), high level of market orientation (53.49 per cent), medium to high level of competition orientation (77.91 per cent), medium to high level of supervision on dairy production (74.42 per cent) and low level of orientation towards development of skill in farm workers (55.23 per cent). 4. Majority of the dairy farmers had medium to high level of knowledge (68.60 per cent) and adoption (81.98 per cent) regarding improved animal husbandry practices. 5. Continuous rate of adoption regarding improved animal husbandry practices viz. reproductive practices was observed in between 72.10 to 91.86 per cent, nutritional practices in between 59.88 to 95.93 per cent, managemental practices between 52.91 to 98.84 per cent, disease control practices between 32.56 to 97.09 per cent and marketing practices between 32.56 to 100.00 per cent by dairy farmers. 6. Great majority of the dairy farmers of Anand district had perception of majority of the activities carried out by Amul Dairy. 7. The variables namely extension contact, animal possession, economic motivation, scientific orientation, planning orientation, production orientation, market orientation, management orientation, competition orientation, orientation towards development of skill in farm workers, supervision on dairy production and adoption of animal husbandry practices had positive significant relationship with the knowledge of dairy farmers, while land holding and total number of occupation had negative and significant correlationship with their knowledge regarding animal husbandry practices 8. The variables namely extension contact, animal possession, economic motivation, scientific orientation, planning orientation, production orientation, market orientation, management orientation, competition orientation, orientation towards development of skill in farm workers, supervision on dairy production and knowledge were positively and significantly correlated with adoption, while land holding and total number of occupation were negatively and significantly correlated with their adoption regarding improved practices of animal husbandry. 9. The variables namely management orientation, milk yield, competition orientation, land holding, market orientation, extension contact and total number of milch animals jointly contributed 67.24 per cent of total variation in the knowledge of improved animal husbandry practices of dairying. 10. Four variables viz. knowledge, production orientation, orientation towards development of skill in farm workers and total number of animal together contributed 63.13 per cent of total variation in the adoption of improved animal husbandry practices of dairying. 11. Variables viz. market orientation, planning orientation, production orientation, competition orientation, extension contact, total animal possession, scientific orientation and orientation towards development of skill in farm workers exhibited positive direct effect, whereas management orientation had maximum total indirect effect and substantial indirect effect on knowledge regarding improved animal husbandry practices of dairying. 12. Variables namely managemental practices, nutritional practices, disease control practices, marketing practices, reproductive practices, planning orientation, market orientation, production orientation, orientation towards development of skill in farm workers, competition orientation and economic motivation, exhibited positive direct effect, while knowledge had maximum positive total indirect effect and management practices had highest substantial indirect effect on adoption regarding improved animal husbandry practices of dairying. 13. High cost of byre construction, lack of knowledge of recommended managemental practices, unavailability of reasonable and quality green fodder round the year, unavailability of comfortable and stress-free housing during summer season, lack of knowledge of viability of cattle/buffalo, difficulty to store milk during summer season and timely vaccination against diseases in the animals were the major problems faced by dairy farmers in adoption of improved animal husbandry practices. 14. Arrangement of regular visit of veterinary doctor and extension specialist, cooperative society should have the facility of preservation of vaccines and semen, atleast five members of a dairy co-operative society should be trained to solve the problems of animal husbandry, regular training should be provided to farmers to improve their knowledge for better adoption and loan/subsidy facilities should be made available for construction of cattle shed and purchase of dairy animals were the important suggestions given by the dairy farmers to improve level of adoption of modem practices of animal husbandry.ThesisItem Open Access DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION OF IMPROVED ANIMAL HUSBANDRY PRACTISES BY THE DAIRY FARMERS OF KHEDA AND PANCHMAHAL DISTRICTS OF MIDDLE GUJARAT(AAU, Anand, 2016) B. S. DIVEKAR; Dr. M. M. TrivediThe present study was undertaken in Kheda and Panchmahal districts of middle Gujarat to know the determinants of adoption of improved animal husbandry practises by dairy farmers. The study was conducted in randomly selected four talukas each from Kheda and Panchmahal districts. From each taluka five villages and from each village five respondents were randomly selected. Thus, total 200 respondents were included in the study. Profile of the dairy farmers and knowledge and adoption rate of improved animal husbandry practises were recorded through well-structured questionnaires by personal interview method. Moreover existing animal husbandry practises like feeding, breeding, housing, milking, health care, milk marketing and calf management followed by respondents were ascertained. Data were analyzed statistically to draw meaningful inferences. Overall, majority of the dairy farmers (47.00 %) were belonged to old age group, had up to S.S.C level education (72.00 %), possessed more than five years of experience in dairy farming (73.00 %), possessed up to 1 hectare of land (50.00 %), owned small sized herd (54.00 %), earned low to medium level of income (84.00 %), belonged to SEBC category (58.50 %), had large sized family (54.50 %), had no social participations (91.00 %), had medium level of mass media exposure (63.00 %) ii and had medium level of extension contacts (88.50 %). Moreover, the majority of the respondents had medium level of scientific orientation (68.00 %), economic motivation (54.00 %), risk orientation (53.50 %) and achievement motivation (62.50 %). Majority of the dairy farmers (80.00 %) had moderately favorable attitude towards dairy enterprise. Majority (82.00 %) of the respondents adopted stall feeding system, individual feeding (76.00 % ),fed only non-leguminous roughages (93.00 %) and followed chaffing of roughages( 75.00 %). Overall, paddy straw was the major dry fodder fed to animals by more than 85.00 per cent of the dairy farmers. None of the dairy farmers was making silage. Majority (92.00 %) of the dairy farmers were feeding compounded concentrate mixture to their dairy animals. More than 75.00 per cent of the respondents were feeding pregnancy allowance to their dairy animals. Majority (94.00 %) of the dairy farmers did not follow practise of feeding special calving mixture, however 88.50 per cent of the dairy farmers nourished their dairy animals by feeding mineral mixture manufactured by co-operative dairies. Most of the dairy farmers were watering their animals either twice (39.50 %) or thrice (40.00 %) in a day. Overall, majority of the respondents (49.00 %) were keeping buffaloes only. Mucus discharges along with bellowing and frequent urination were the predominant heat symptoms as perceived by majority of the respondents. Majority of the respondents (92.50 %) were taking their anestrous animals for treatment, used Artificial Insemination (82.50 %) for breeding, inseminating their dairy animals between 12-24 hours after the heat detection (64.50 %), followed pregnancy diagnosis (97.00 %) and maintained breeding records (77.00 %). Almost all (99.00 %) dairy farmers disposed the placental membranes by burial method. iii Majority of the dairy farmers housed their animals under the shelter as well as under the tree shade in both Panchmahal (73.00 %) and Kheda (42.00 %) districts. Majority (72.00 %) of the dairy farmers of Panchmahal district had animal shed with katcha (earthen) floor either with slope (39.00 %) or without slope (33.00 %). Farmers of Kheda district had animal shed with pakka (47.00 %) and katcha (53.00 %) floor in almost equal frequency. More than 90.00 per cent of the pakka-floored house had slope for drainage. Overall, 79.00 per cent of the respondents used one or other type of roof for animal shed. Dairy farmers of Panchmahal district used thatch (31.00 %), tiles (25.00 %) and asbestos sheet (14.00 %) as major roofing materials. On other hand G.I. sheet (36.00 %), asbestose sheet (26.00 %) and thatch (17.00 %) were the choice of dairy farmers of Kheda district. Farmers of Kheda district largely had pakka (59.00 %) manger where as the respondents from Panchmahal district mainly used wooden log type (46.00 %) manger. Majority of the respondents in Panchmahal (54.00 %) and Kheda (80.00 %) districts used cooling devices during summer. Majority (79.00 %) of the dairy farmers had constructed pakka or katcha drain for disposal of urine and wastewater. Regarding practises like provision of bedding to the calves in winter and regular cleaning and disinfection of the shed/animal dwelling, nearly 50: 50 proportion of farmers were found for adoption and non-adoption, respectively. However, majority (61.38 %) of the dairy farmers were cleaning and white washing manger and water trough. All the respondents milked their animals twice a day and majority (79.50 %) of them were using knuckling method of hand milking. Further, more than two third of respondents were practising wet hand milking. Bathing and/or grooming of animals before milking, washing of teats/udder prior to milking and washing of the hands before milking were practised by 76.50, 81.00 and 74.50 per cent of the dairy iv farmers, respectively. Farmers of Panchmahal district neither followed post milking teats’ dipping nor carried out mastitis detection tests. However, in Kheda district some dairy farmers had followed post milking teats’ dipping (6.50 %) and mastitis detection tests (3.50 %). Majority (90.00 %) of the dairy farmers followed vaccination for prevention of infectious diseases. Majority of the respondents were deworming the calves (76.50 %) & adult animals (61.50 %) and used control measures for the ectoparasites (70.50 %). Majority (93.00 %) of the dairy farmers were using insect control measures of which use of neem leaves (60.00 %) for smoking was predominant. All the respondents used to treat their sick animals and 65.50 per cent of the respondents isolated sick animals from healthy animals. Further, majority (77.00 %) of the farmers had followed burial method of carcass disposal. Cent per cent of the respondents from both districts sold the milk to the dairy co-operative societies. However, majority (85.50 %) of the dairy farmers retained 1 to 2 liters of milk for their household consumption. Majority (71.50 %) of the respondents had followed practise of cutting the naval cord of the calf at the time of birth, of which 67.83 per cent farmers were ligating and applying antiseptic to naval cord. More than half of the farmers had followed disbudding in Kheda district whereas, more than three fourth of the farmers have not adopted this practise in Panchmahal district. Majority (95.00 %) of the respondents followed natural system of calf raising. Majority of the respondents provided colostrum to the calves within one hour of birth (55.00 %) or at the most between one to three hours of birth (28.50 %). Moreover, 38.00 per cent of the farmers provided colostrum only after expulsion of placenta. v Overall mean knowledge index was 60.98 per cent. Mean knowledge index (%) was 54.12 and 67.83 for Panchmahal and Kheda districts, respectively. Almost all (99.50 %) dairy farmers’ possessed knowledge about heat symptoms of a buffalo/cow. Amongst the improved animal husbandry practises, time of colostrums feeding to a calf after birth, advantages of colostrum feeding, age at which fodder are offered to calf for first time, information of forage crops varieties, chaffing of the fodder, quantity of water to be given daily to animal, importance of cleaning the udder and teats before milking, use of Potassium permanganate for cleaning the udder and teats before milking, knowledge of sources of contamination to milk, importance of vaccination to cows/ buffaloes, months of FMD & HS vaccination, heat symptoms in buffaloes/cows, the time of AI/NS to buffalo/cow in heat, average length of gestation period in buffaloes/cows, number of post insemination days for pregnancy diagnosis were the practises in which knowledge index was greater than 50.00 per cent in both the districts. Knowledge indices of the farmers of Kheda district were higher than those of the farmers of Panchmahal district in rate of milk feeding to calves, daily quantity of green and dry fodder required by milch animals, criteria of concentrate feeding to milch animals, pregnancy allowance to the advanced pregnant animals, importance and quantity of mineral mixture to be fed to milking animal /day, post-partum interval for breeding in a buffalo/cow and length of estrus cycle in buffalo/cow. Highest knowledge index was observed for breeding management practises (73.33 %) followed by feeding (65.75%), health care (59.33 %), calf management (54.90 %) and milking management (48.10 %) practises. Overall, majority (67.00 %) farmers had medium to high knowledge regarding improved animal husbandry practises. vi Adoption rate of improved animal husbandry practises was higher in Kheda district (62.78 %) than the Panchmahal district (52.83 %). Majority of the respondents had adopted practises like cleaning of calves after birth (86.00 %), deworming of calves (76.50 %) and feeding of colostrums to newborn calves within one hour of birth (55.00 %). Lower adoption (23.00 %) for disbudding of calves was found in Panchmahal district. Less than 50.00 per cent respondents from Kheda district adopted practice of using sterilized scissors/knife for cutting the naval cord and application of tincture iodine. Overall adoption rate for calf management practises was 59.40 and 62.00 per cent in Panchmahal and Kheda districts, respectively. Majority of the respondents adopted practises like feeding of mineral mixture (88.50 %), pregnancy allowances to advance pregnant animals (76.50 %) and feeding of chaffed fodder to the animals (75.00 %). Adoption rates for feeding of balanced concentrate mixture on the basis of milk production and use of high yielding variety of fodder were found lower in Panchmahal district than those in the Kheda district (18 vs. 75 and 40 vs. 86 per cent, respectively). Overall adoption rate for feeding management practises was 69.90 per cent and was higher in Kheda district (77.00 %) than the Panchmahal district (62.80 %). Higher adoption rates were observed for washing of udder & teats (81.00 %) and washing of milkers’ hands before milking (74.50 %). However, very low adoption rate was found for fullhand milking (17.00 %), post milking dipping of teats (6.50 %) and testing for mastitis detection (3.50 %). Thus, overall adoption rate for milking management practises was found low in both Panchmahal (35.40 %) and Kheda district (37.60 %) with overall adoption rate of 36.50 per cent. Overall adoption rate was 72.25 per cent for health care management practises. Adoption rate was higher in Kheda district (81.33 %) as compared to that in Panchmahal district (63.17 %). About 92.00 per cent of vii respondent prefered services of veterinary doctors only for treatment of their sick animals. Moreover, 90.00 per cent of dairy farmers had adopted vaccination to prevent infectious diseases. Further, dairy farmers had adopted practises for control of ecto parasites (70.50 %), isolation of sick animals (66.00 %) and deworming of adult animals (61.50 %) to a greater extent. Proper disposal of the placenta, artificial insemination and treatment of reproductive diseases by veterinarian were the practises adopted by 99.00, 90.50 and 88.50 per cent of dairy farmers, respectively. Nearly 60 per cent of dairy farmers went for pregnancy diagnosis of their animals between 60 to 90 days of service. Thus, overall higher adoption rate (73.30 %) was found for reproduction management practises. It was higher in Kheda district (81.40 %) than the Panchmahal district (62.50 %). Dairy farmers of Panchmahal district had better adoption rate (55.00 %) than the Kheda district (39.00 %) for maintenance of farm records. For purchase of animals from reliable sources, Kheda district farmers had higher adoption (73.00 %) than the Panchmahal district (37.00 %). Majority of the respondents in both Panchmahal (58.00 %) and Kheda (65.00 %) districts had medium level of adoption. Average adoption index was 54.72 ± 1.59 in Panchmahal and 65.10 ± 1.89 in Kheda district. Overall adoption index observed was 59.91 ± 1.20. Level of education (r = 0.254), annual income (r = 0.364), herd size (r = 0.319), economic motivation (r = 0.266), risk orientation (r = 0.233), achievement motivation (r = 0.345) and mass media exposure (r = 0.267) had positive and highly significant (p< 0.01) association with knowledge of improved animal husbandry practises. Relationship between land holding of respondent and knowledge of improved animal husbandry practises (r = 0.157) was positive and significant (P<0.05). Negative and significant (P<0.05) correlation (r = -0.264) was found between family size and knowledge of improved animal husbandry practises. viii Among the profile of dairy farmers of Panchmahal district annual income (r = 0.201), herd size (r = 0.255), risk orientation (r = 0.209), scientific orientation (r = 0.210) and extension contact (r = 0.241) had positive and significant (p<0.05) association with adoption of improved animal husbandry practises. In Kheda district, education (r = 0.461), land holding (r = 0.290), annual income (r = 0.347) and herd size (r = 0.321) had positive and highly significant (p<0.01) association whereas social participation (r = 0.198) and mass media exposure (r = 0.235) had positive and significant (p<0.05) association with adoption of improved animal husbandry practises. Further, family size(r = -0.265) and experience in dairy farming (r = -0.348) had negative and highly significant (p<0.01) whereas attitude towards dairy farming (r = -0.216) had negative and significant (p<0.05) association with adoption of improved animal husbandry practises. Herd size (b=0.595) and extension contacts (b=3.819) in Panchmahal district and education (b = 5.029), experience in dairy farming (b = -0.380), herd Size (b = 0.396) and land holding (b = 4.809) in Kheda district showed significant (p<0.05) regression co-efficient with adoption. R2 values for Panchmahal and Kheda district were 10.80 and 38.20 per cent, respectively. Average housing index was 10.73 and 13.04 in Panchmahal and Kheda districts, respectively. The overall housing index was 11.88. The average daily milk production of a dairy farm and average adoption index of a respondent were 15.20 ±1.20 liter and 59.91 per cent, respectively. Highly significant (p<0.01) and positive correlation coefficient was observed between milk production of a farm and its adoption index (r = 0.378). Low price of milk, high feeding cost of concentrates, repeat breeding and high construction cost of animal sheds were the major constraints faced by the respondents.ThesisItem Open Access Study On Production Performance And Genetic Parameters Of Synthetic Line Of White Leghorn(Anand Agricultural University; Anand, 2006) Barot , Vasantkumar Navalji; Patel, Ashok M.
