MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY DEMONSTRATION FARMS IN ANAND DISTRICT
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Date
2013
Authors
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Publisher
AAU, Anand
Abstract
The study was conducted in Anand district of Gujarat with the objectives of to know personal, socio-economic status of dairy farmers, existing dairy husbandry practices, and economics of dairy farming on Dairy Demonstration Farms (DDF). Twelve dairy farms having 25 or more than crossbred dairy cows and have completed minimum one year of operation were selected for this study. Respondents (dairy farm owners) were interviewed and the desired information was collected in a questionnaire (schedule). The questionnaire was designed to study the socio-economic status of'dairy demonstration farm owners, various management practices under which dairy animal are reared, cost of feed, shed and other expenses were calculated. The collected data were tabulated and subjected to statistical methods to draw meaningful inferences. All DDF were managed by male, majority of them were from middle age group (66 per cent) and belonging to general category (83.3 percent) and 83.3 per cent having joint family of more than 4 members with average family size of 6.33 members. All farmers were having some land holding, 41.7 per cent farmers were having more than 2.5 acres with an average land holding of 3.54 acres at all DDF. The various systems of housing of DDF were tail to tail (41.7per cent), head to head (25 per cent) and single line (33.3 per cent). Most of sheds were in East- West direction (75 per cent). All farmers provide improved housing facility to animal like pucca floor with adequate average floor space of 51.27 sq. ft and back word slope of floor, sufficient light, good natural ventilation by constructing wall of house half, regular cleaning of shed with pucca drainage system, firm houses using brick and cement material in construction and adequate manger space for feeding. Improved feeding practices were followed by DDF like growing leguminous and non leguminous fodder, chaffing of both green and dry fodder, feeding of compound concentrate cattle feed, feeding of concentrate to calf and heifer, special feeding after calving, feeding of salt, and free access to drinking water with automatic water supplier. It was found that majority (75 per cent) farmer follow machine milking twice a daily at 12 hour interval. Washing of udder before milking using antiseptic solution, using scientific milking pail, washing of utensils with hot water stripping at end of milking, using Masti-strip for mastitis detection and teat dipping after milking were followed for clean milk production by DDF owners. Herd strength of DDF was ranging 31 to 99 animals with wet: dry ratio of 76:24. Herd average and wet average of DDF was 8.17 (10.12 - 5.76) aiid 10.68 (12.05 - 9.6) litre, respectively. The average parity of animal was observed in between 3.2 to 4.58. All DDF were having some level of mechanisation in their farm for efficient management of herd. Production and reproductive performance of crossbreed cows like calving interval, lactation length, lactation yield, milk yield per day lactation length and milk yield per day calving interval were 402 (day), 342 (day), 3663.14 (lit.) 9.83 (lit) and 9.12 (lit.), respectively. Dairy Demonstration Farms owners follow good healthcare managemental practices on farm like regular vaccination, deworming of cows and followers at regular interval of three month, control of ecto- parasites and treating sick animal by a qualified veterinarian. Average cost of milk production for high, medium and low profitable farm was ? 17.27, 18.11 and 19.72 per litre of milk. It was observed that a total expense per animal per day was ? 166.80, 166.46 and 163.06 for high, medium and low farm, respectively. While, the return per animal per day was ? 232.02, 221.59 and 201.02 with average benefit cost ratio of 1.39:1, 1.33:1 and 1.23:1 on high, medium and low profitable farm, respectively. Over all result showed that DDF owner adapted improved managemental practices in housing, feeding, milking, and healthcare.
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Keywords
Livestock Production and Management, MANAGEMENT