Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
NK Khyalia, BP Singh, AK Chaturvedani and Jitendra Pratap

Abstract:
The study was conducted in two districts (Jaipur and Udaipur) of Rajasthan with an objective to assess the welfare status of the dairy animals in terms of feeding practices followed by the dairy farmers. Total 8 villages of 4 blocks from two districts were selected for the purpose of data collection and 20 dairy farmers from each village were selected randomly, making total sample size of 160 respondents. A structured interview schedule duly pre-tested and validated was used to elicit information from the respondents. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the dairy farmers were following individual method of feeding whie grazing is common for draught animals with average grazing period of 2-4 hours. Feeding of green fodder and salt was practiced among most of the farmers whereas use of mineral mixture and probiotics was not so common. Frequency of feeding green fodder was twice a day while concentrate was used to feed once a day among majority of the respondents of both the districts. Quantity of green fodder offered to the animals was found low (below 15kg/day) and concentrate feeding was also poor except in case of milch animals.