Existing housing management practices followed by rural dairy animal owners in Surat district of Gujarat

The study was conducted purposively in Surat district to ascertain the existing housing management practices followed by rural dairy animal owners. A field survey was conducted during March 2013 to January 2014 and data were collected from randomly selected 300 dairy animal owners through personal interview using pre-tested structured schedule from five Talukas selected at random. The study revealed that majority of respondents provided close type (54.33%) and Kuchha type (56.33%) houses. Majority (88.33%) kept their animals inside the house during day as well as night; 88.67 per cent of animal sheds were near to the dwelling of the farmers and 72.67 per cent of the animal houses were oriented in east-west direction. Majority (87.67%) of respondents had single row system of animal housing and only 47 per cent had optimum sized animal houses. Adequate floor space was available in animal houses of around 49 per cent of respondents; 89 per cent respondents had provision of sufficient light in the animal houses; 50.33 per cent had provision of good ventilation to their animal sheds. Majority (66%) of dairy farmers had clean animal houses; 51.67 per cent had earthen floors in their animal houses; 64.33 per cent had slope in floors towards backside of the animal sheds; 49 per cent of respondents used cemented type poles and 31 per cent used bricks and cement to construct the walls of animal houses. Majority of respondents (94%) possessed single slope type of roof; 66 per cent farmers provided manger to their animals; 33.33 per cent had Pucca type of manger and 36.33 per cent of animal sheds had provision of Pucca drainage facility of urine. Majority (58.33%) of respondents adopted some kind of measures to protect the animals from extreme weather conditions and only 14 per cent provided bedding material on floor for the animals.