Vol. 11, Special Issue 6 (2022)

It was observed that 80.00% of the respondents resorted to natural services while 20.00% of the cattle keepers relied on artificial insemination. Regarding feeding practices, majority of the farmers (90.00%) followed group feeding and grazed in fallow or harvested fields. Home prepared concentrate mixture was prevalent (75.00%) in the area. All the cattle keepers (100.00%) had kutcha floor in shed and half of the dairy farmers (50.00%) kept their cattle near dwelling house. Double slope roof along with double row housing system was observed (15.00%) in study area. Very few of the respondents followed grooming (28.00%) practices. The results indicated that knuckling was the main method of milking (100.00%). All the respondents (100.00%) cleaned the udder and teats and washed their hands before milking. More than half of the respondents (70.00%) fed colostrum to newly born calf within 2 hours. All the respondents (100.00%) attended the calf at the time of calving and majority of the cattle keepers cut and disinfected the naval cord of calf. Only few respondents (18.00%) dehorned and castrated the calf. Regarding sick animal treatment, majority of the cattle keepers (68.00%) preferred first quacks then veterinary doctor/stock man. Majority of the respondents (58.00%) followed vaccination and deworming practice. Majority of the cattle keepers (65.00%) also isolated their sick animals from healthy animals. Water trough and manger was cleaned at weekly interval by all the respondents (100.00%), while animal shed was cleaned daily by majority (70.00%) of the cattle keepers.

I also gained valuable knowledge about the problems and issues faced by the farmers in my area. I was able to gather information about spoilage of milk due to lack of storage facilities for storage in the area. Corruption at milk co-operative companies and unavailability of veterinary doctors at the hospitals. The farmers also faced issues with fodder availability due to extreme heat and drought.

India rural household owns cattle and has been raising them since a long time ago. If our policy makers can force real change on ground and be able to contribute credit to the rural farmers, the milk scenario of our country will change dramatically. We have come a long way in terms of milk production from being a country having a scarcity of milk to the highest producer of milk in the world. The dairy farmers of developed countries have become very modern in terms of technology and thus we need to continue to protect our rural dairy farmers by providing subsidies and putting big import taxes on milk exports and milk products.