Feeding practices of goats adopted by the farmers of Mewar region of Southern Rajasthan

A survey was carried to study the feeding practices of goats adopted by the farmers of Mewar region of southern Rajasthan. Information was collected from 360 farmers of Mewar region belonging to Udaipur, Rajasamand, Chittorgarh and Bhilwara districts. Two tehsils from each district, 3 villages from each tehsil and 15 goat rearers from each of village were randomly selected. Eighty seven per cent goat keepers adopted semi-stall feeding system and grazed their goats on community pasture land for more than 5 hours daily. Most of the goat rearers neither protected pasture land nor preserved the tree leaves. The green fodder was fed by 60.28% goat rearers. Lopping of trees was a routine practice for goats during grazing. Majority of goat keepers provided 100–200 g concentrate to their goats prior to milking and 79.72% respondents used single ingredient concentrate. Majority of the respondents provided concentrate to their male kids for early maturity. Sixty nine per cent goat rearers provided common salt while only 3.61% provided mineral mixture to their goats. Significant effect of flock size was observed on grazing site, protection of pasture land, green fodder provided to different category of animals, type of green fodder and feeding of common salt.