scholarly journals ​A Study on the Housing and Feeding Management Practices Followed by Rural Milk Producers of Telangana State

Author(s):  
K. Kalyani ◽  
R.M.V. Prasad ◽  
Suresh Rathod ◽  
P. Jaya Laxmi

An investigation was carried out to study the housing and feeding management practices followed by the dairy farmers in five districts of Telangana state. From each district one mandal and from each mandal five villages were selected. The data was collected from 150 farmers through personal interview utilizing a schedule developed for the purpose. It was observed that most of the dairy farmers (59.33%) had medium herd size and 59.33% of farmers housed their animals beside their houses while 14.67% and 26% of the farmers housed the animals in a separate shed and below the shade of tree, respectively. Most of the animal sheds (66%) in the study area had mud flooring. Majority of farmers (52%) were not taking any measures to protect animals from extreme heat in summer. Grazing and group feeding were most commonly practised except in Rangareddy district where most of farmers (56.67%) followed individual feeding. Majority of the farmers from Medak (50%) and Mahaboobnagar (60%) districts were following one time feeding of their animals, whereas, most farmers from Vikarabad (66.67%) fed two times in a day. In Rangareddy and Nalgonda, majority (66.67% and 63.33%) of the farmers were offering feed three times. Most of the farmers were producing fodder by themselves in Vikarabad, Medak, Nalgonda and Mahaboobnagar districts and their percentages were 66.67%, 63.33% 93.33% and 86.67%, respectively. Most of the farmers of Rangareddy district were procuring fodder from outside.

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1750
Author(s):  
Mohammed Babatunde Sadiq ◽  
Sim Song-Lin ◽  
Siti Zubaidah Ramanoon ◽  
Sharifah Salmah Syed-Hussain ◽  
Wan Mastura Shaik Mossadeq ◽  
...  

This study aimed to assess the knowledge and opinions about DCW among dairy cattle farmers in Keningau, Sabah. A questionnaire was developed, validated, and administered by hand to 30 farmers. The data collected include farmers’ and farm demographics, and opinions regarding the criteria and indicators of DCW. Only 17 respondents (57%) had heard of “dairy cattle welfare” before this study. Nine farmers (30.0%) had poor knowledge about DCW criteria, whereas 13 (43.7%) and 8 (26.7%) farmers had satisfactory and good knowledge, respectively. Farmers with higher education, larger herd size, high production level, and exotic cattle breeds showed a better understanding. Farmers understood most of the indicators; however, opinions regarding cattle behavior during milking, their physical appearance and their lying down behaviour need to be improved. Nevertheless, 28 respondents ranked their animals’ welfare as either good or satisfactory, which further reflects a poor implementation of DCW measures. The main factors suggested by farmers to influence DCW in their herds were facilities, worker issues, management practices, and animal well-being. In conclusion, guidance from veterinarians and animal welfare specialists may be needed to improve the farmers’ understanding and practices of DCW.


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas F. Balcão ◽  
Cibele Longo ◽  
João H. C. Costa ◽  
Cintia Uller-Gómez ◽  
Luiz C. P. Machado Filho ◽  
...  

Smallholder dairy farmers that are responsible for 90% of the milk produced in Santa Catarina State, in southern Brazil, transitioned in recent decades from milk production for self-consumption to commercial dairying. The objective of this study was to identify groups sharing common characteristics, potentials and limitations and compare their main management practices, milk production and milk quality. We collected data from 124 farms distributed in 24 municipalities, using semi-structured interviews, inspection of the housing and milking environment, and live observations during one complete milking. Multivariate analyses revealed three groups of farmers: ‘Semi-Intensive’ (n = 51), ‘Pasture-Based’ (n = 50), and ‘Extensive’ (n = 23). Group differences included land and herd size (both larger in Semi-Intensive, P < 0.002); feeding management of dairy cows (e.g. greater use of pasture improvement techniques in Extensive and Pasture-Based, and more efficient rotational grazing management in Pasture-Based, P < 0.04); use of external inputs (e.g. lower use of concentrate and silage in Pasture-Based, P < 0.001); milking infrastructure and hygiene practices (better in Semi-Intensive, P < 0.04), and milk productivity (greater in Semi-Intensive, P < 0.001). The Extensive group conserves several features of the subsistence, traditional mode of milk production, and makes inefficient use of costly feeding practices, which threatens its sustainability. The two other groups of farms took different, almost opposite directions to deal with the limitations in farm area: the Semi-Intensive group have adopted an entrepreneurial farming style and the Pasture-Based, a more agroecological path. These results highlight the need to develop specific strategies and policies to help these different types of producers to coexist in the dairy production chain.


Author(s):  
Ch. Ashokbabu ◽  
A. Saratchandra ◽  
Ch. Harikrishna ◽  
M. Srinivas Reddy

Background: Adequate housing is essential for wellbeing and welfare of any kind of livestock, which keeps them comfort and healthy thereby increases production and reproduction performance by exploiting their fullest genetic potential. As scanty information available on farmers practices on animal housing, the present study was undertaken to assess housing management practices followed by dairy farmers in Northern Telangana state of India. Methods: Data were collected from randomly selected 240 dairy farmers from 24 villages of 8 mandals from 4 districts. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire in precise language was employed for collecting data through interview and face to face discussion with the dairy farmers duly avoiding ambiguous, dichotomous and non-variant items for proper interpretation. Result: Majority (59.58%) respondents kept animals in kutcha houses and 74.58% sheds located to nearby their dwellings. Majority (50.42%) of the sheds were in east-west direction and 82.08% of the respondents followed single line system of housing. Majority 91.25, 95.42, 84.16, 67.92 and 69.58% of the respondents protected animals against extreme weather conditions, maintained cleanliness, had earthen floor, backward slope in the floor and wooden pillars, respectively. Majority of animal houses had thatched roof (50.42%) and without walls (82.08%) and majority of them (89.58%) provided mangers but only 11.25% had pucca type mangers. Only a few respondents (14.58%) provided pucca drainage system and most of the farmers (58.75%) had manure pit adjacent to their animal houses. The study concludes that, the dairy farmers of the study area are well aware of advantages of keeping animals in hygienic animal houses under adverse tropical climatic conditions of the study area and providing them periodical trainings and visits to modern organised dairy farms helps them to optimize productivity from dairy animals.


Author(s):  
Prakash Kumar Rathod

An ex-post-facto exploratory study was conducted to assess the attitude of dairy farmers towards cultivation of green fodder crops and constraints faced by them for fodder cultivation in Bidar district of Karnataka, India using an attitude scale through personal interview method. The study reported that majority of the respondents had medium level of favorable attitude towards green fodder cultivation and the variables education and scientific orientation of the farmers was found to be significantly correlated with attitude towards green fodder cultivation. The respondents perceived that non-availability of inputs and scarcity of water was the major constraints for cultivation of fodder in the study area. The study concluded that, there is a need to educate the farmers about green fodder cultivation and feeding through various extension approaches for improved dairy production in the study area.


2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 392-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana C.J. Pinto ◽  
Danilo D. Millen

The feedlot industry in Brazil is still evolving, and some nutritional management recommendations adopted by nutritionists changes from year to year. The main objective of this survey was to provide a snapshot of current nutritional management practices adopted in Brazilian feedlots. The 33 nutritionists surveyed were responsible for approximately 4 228 254 animals. Corn remained as the primary source of grain used in feedlot diets by the participants, whereas fine grinding was the primary grain processing method. Corn silage was the primary roughage source indicated by nutritionists, and for the first time, physically effective neutral detergent fiber was the preferred fiber analysis method. The average dietary fat recommended was 50 g kg−1 of dry matter, which is about 10% higher than values reported in previous surveys. The use of truck-mounted mixers increased, which may have increased the percentage of feedlots using programmed feed delivery per pen, allowing the increase of energy content of finishing diets. Feedlots did not increase their capacity and nutritionists reported an improvement in feeding management. Results reported in the current study provide a baseline that can be used to improve practices and aid in the development of feedlot industry in Brazil and similar tropical climates.


Author(s):  
Kalyan Mandi ◽  
S. Subash

Gaushalas play a vital role in safeguarding the cattle wealth of our country. It is primarily occupied with providing shelter to cows and is catering mostly the needs of non-lactating, weak, unproductive and stray cattle. However, a few fore front Gaushalas also maintain nucleus herd for in-situ conservation of indigenous purebred cows and produce quality males so as to enhance productivity of indigenous breeds. With this view, present study was undertaken with the objective of understanding the level of adoption of good management practices by the Gaushalas. The study was conducted in Karnataka State involving 40 out of 80 registered Gaushalas, categorized as small (n=12), medium (n=18) and large (n=10) Gaushalas based on the herd size. Good management practices play an important role in improving the production performances of cattle, enhancing efficiency of animals in Gaushalas. In the present study ‘adoption’ was operationalised as the degree to which the good management practices viz., breeding, feeding, healthcare, general management and hygienic milk production, were adopted in the Gaushalas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 161-169
Author(s):  
Norton E. Atkins ◽  
Keith E. Walley ◽  
Liam A. Sinclair

The majority of dairy cattle in Great Britain (GB) are housed during winter but replacement heifers are out-wintered on some farms, a practice that may reduce the need for high capital-cost housing and facilitate herd expansion. Dairy farmers that were out-wintering replacement heifers in GB in 2012 were surveyed to determine current practice and attitudes. A typical system involved heifers strip grazing pasture or a crop, with baled grass silage as supplementary feed; strongly resembling outdoor wintering systems in New Zealand. Many used more than one grazed forage; predominantly, pasture on 68%, kale on 53% and fodder beet on 33% of farms. Supplementary feed was 44% of the diet in younger, and 35% in older heifers. Although farms were approximately three times larger than the national average and 60% were expanding, expanding herd size was not the primary reason for out-wintering, with the main reasons being to reduce cost and improve animal health and welfare. Farmers that out-wintered heifers typically reported good animal average dairy gain of 0.6 kg/d and high body condition, however, this contrasts with some measured performance in GB. Farmers may benefit from accurate feed allocation and monitoring heifer live weight during winter to ensure high performance.  


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