Vol. 9, Issue 3 (2020)

Author(s):
AL Rathva, LM Sorathiya, GP Sabapara, VR Patel and NB Patel

Abstract:
The required information pertaining to calf rearing was collected by personal interview from 20 each dairy farm locates in urban and peri urban area. The collected data were tabulated and analyzed for frequency and chi square test. About (72.5 %) of the respondents attended calving day & night and 15 per cent practiced ligation/ cutting and disinfection of the navel cord. All the respondents fed colostrum to new born calf and more than half of the respondent fed within one hour. Only 40% farmers practiced weaning of calves and 40 per cent regularly followed deworming of calves. No one provided bedding material to calves. The welfare aspects in both regions were studied by selecting 20% animals from all 40 farms, randomly. Selected animals were scored as per standard practice by one researcher. The welfare indicators studied were subjected to statistical analysis. It was found that shed floor cleanliness score was around 2.30, whereas farm stead premises score was 2.35 and water trough score was 2.15. Average animal hygienic score was 2.24, lameness scoring was 1.36 and hock &knee injury score was 1.03 in urban and peri urban region.