Study on Dairy Husbandry Practices in Saharanpur District of Western Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Present study was carried out in Saharanpur district of western Uttar Pradesh. For the present study data was collected from five blocks viz. Rampur Maniharan, Nanauta, Gangoh, Baliakhedi and Puwarka of Saharanpur district. Five villages of each selected block and 8 animal owners from each selected village were randomly selected. The analysis revealed that the highest percent of the dairy animal keepers (56.50 percent) belonged to middle age category and 65.50 percent of the respondents were educated up to Secondary level. Majority (68.00 percent) of respondents had small size family and joint type family (70.50 percent). Most of the respondents had membership in one organization, 47.50 percent were large farmer, 74.00 percent respondents followed mixed farming system in which agriculture + Dairying is main source of income, having small herd size of less than 5 animals (68.00 percent), 39.50 percent respondent had only Crossbred cows + Buffalo and 25.50 percent respondent had only Indigenous cows + Buffalo. The majority (80.50 percent) respondents kept their animal in pucca type houses, whereas 78.00 percent kept in close type house and 71.00 percent of animal sheds were nearby their dwelling. Majority of the animal houses had inadequate size and floor space. majority of the respondents (74.00 percent) had puccafloors to their animal houses,majority (70.50 percent) of the respondents had slope in floors towards back, 83.50 percent of the respondents used asbestos sheets, Only 25.00 percent of animal sheds had provision of pucca drainage facility and 83.50 percent had single slope type of roof sheds. Majority 89.50 percent of the respondents provided manger to their animals.majority (86.00 percent) of the respondents adopted some kind of measures to protect the animals from extreme weather conditions. Largely farmers (89.00 percent) adopted individual feeding system to their dairy animals and Majority of the respondents (67.00 percent) cultivate green fodder crops and 84.00 and 63.50 percent respondents fed green non-leguminous fodder and shedha grass, respectively to their milking animals. Paddy straw was major ingredient (89.00 percent) used as dry fodder. All the respondents washed their hands before milking and cleaned teats and udder by splashing of water and milked their animals at same place twice in a day by adopting wet hand (93.50 percent) and knuckling (69.50 percent) methods of milking. Majority (64.50 percent) of the respondents allowed calves for suckling before milking. The 95.50 percent of the respondents practiced regular vaccination of their animals against Foot and Mouth disease and Hemorrhagic Septicemia disease. Majority (62.00 percent) of the 219 respondents practiced deworming of their dairy animals regularly. Majority of the respondents (90.50 percent) attended calving and cleaned the calves soon after parturition. Majority (90.50 percent) of the respondents followed practice to feed colostrum to new born calves, Majority of the (68.50 percent) respondents followed weaning practices at the age of three months. Majority of the (82.00 percent) respondents provided green fodder from two month followed by 09.50 and only 08.50 percent of the respondents started giving green fodders from three month and one month after birth, respectively. Knowledge about improved dairy husbandry practices is pre-requisite for adoption of it. The distribution of respondents according to their overall knowledge in improved dairy husbandry practices revealed that 70.00 percent of the respondents had medium level of knowledge, whereas 16.50 and 13.50 percent respondents had low and high levels of knowledge, respectively. Regarding knowledge index of different aspects of improved dairy husbandry practices, maximum extent of knowledge was in breeding (72.37 percent) followed by health care (58.25 percent), general management (50.62 percent) and feeding (44.50 percent). Overall knowledge index of improved dairy husbandry practices was 56.43 percent. Majority (76.00 percent) of the respondents belonged to medium level of overall adoption regarding improved dairy husbandry practices. The majority (69.20 percent) of respondents had maximum adoption index in the aspects of breeding followed by health care (56.60 percent), calf rearing (55.70 percent), milking (54.75 percent), housing (50.00 percent) and feeding (47.50 percent). Overall adoption index of improved dairy husbandry practices was 55.62 percent. The constraints for providing good sheds for animals were high construction cost (64.50 percent) and high interest rate (45.00 percent), whereas for feeding practices there were high cost of feed (70.50 percent), non- availability of green fodder round the year (63.50 percent) and lack of availability of fodder crops seed (35.50 percent). The repeat breeding (80.50 percent), low conception rate through A.I. (59.50 percent) and low genetic potential of local animals (57.50 percent) were the constraints of breeding, while a non-remunerative prices for milk (69.50 percent), lack of knowledge in clean milk production (52.50 percent) and high production cost of milk (55.00 percent) were the constraints of milking. The respondents experienced high cost of veterinary medicine (77.00 percent), problem of mastitis in dairy animals (60.00 percent) and inadequate knowledge of diseases and their control (49.00 percent) as the constraints of health care practices.