Knowledge of Dairy Farmers about Improved Animal Management Practices

The investigation was carried out with 200 dairy farmers of Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. Ten villages of Jalgaon district of Maharashtra were selected and from each village 20 respondents were selected randomly. The information on socio-economic status and knowledge of improved management practices were collected through personal interviews of the respondents. It was found that, 29 percent of farmers were medium category followed by (27 percent) small category, (23 percent) marginal, (14.5 percent) large and only (6.5 percent) farmers belonged to landless, categorie. Middle age group farmers were highest followed by young age and older age group. It was observed that majority of the farmers were educated upto primary school level. Correlation of socio-economic characteristic with knowledge revealed that age of dairy farmers, family size and annual income was positive but non-significant. Education, land holding, social participation and source of information of dairy farmers were positively and significantly correlated. Animal herd size of the farmer had very weak and non-significant correlation with knowledge of improved animal management practices. Risk orientation attitude had negatively and non-significant correlation with level of knowledge of improved dairy cattle management practice. Socio-economic profile of the dairy farmer influences the knowledge of improved animal management practices.