Cattle production system in doab area of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

The present study was undertaken for collecting base line information on cattle rearing pattern and identify, establishment of germplasm distribution network of Frieswal crossbred and zebu cattle under field conditions of Doab area.The study on socio-economic parameters revealed that the average age of dairy farmers was 51.31 years with range between 23–85 years.Occupation wise maximum (89%) households belonged to agriculture (farming) group followed by dairy (8%), service (2.5%) and business (0.5%).The average educational qualifications of animal owners were high school (24.5%). The average herd size was 2.89 dairy animals per household followed by 1.15 cattle and 1.75 buffalo per households in study area. A total of 95.58% crossbred cows were covered by artificial insemination and 4.42% were covered through both AI/natural services. The average number of services per cow was 1.75 per animal. Parity wise production of cattle was found highest (14.28±2.7 kg) in 4th lactation and lowest (9.61±3.4 kg) in 1st lactation followed by 5th (11.71±4.4 kg), 2nd (10.21±3.0 kg) and 3rd (9.70±2.9 kg) lactation. The average milk production was 14.33 kg out of which, 7.36 kg per day was used for household’s consumption. The rest of milk (12.24 kg) was sold to local milkman/purchaser for income. This study will be very helpful in improvement of breeding, feeding and healthcare management practices and to understand the production and consumption pattern of milk in the Doab area of Uttar Pradesh.