Knowledge Level of Dairy Farmer in Roorkee Block of District Haridwar

The study was conducted in Roorkee Block of district Haridwar, Uttarakhand to find out the extent of scientific livestock rearing understanding among dairy farmers. An appraisal of study area revealed that 46.67 percent livestock owners belonged to young (18–38 years) age group, 48.33 per cent fall in the category of marginal farmers (below av. 1.0 ha land) group, 60.00 percent have secondary level of education and 100.00 and 95.83 percent had television and news paper as information sources, respectively. About 92.50 percent were depending on tube well for irrigation facility. Engagement with different village and district level social and agricultural organizations were found to be 51.67 and 35.00 percent, respectively. Small family size owned by dairy farmers was 58.33 percent while 46.33 percent dairy farmers had two earning member in their families. Livestock rearing in integration with crop cultivation including other activities or business being done by 85.83 percent dairy farmers while 14.17 percent respondents had dairy farming as their sole livelihood source. Majority of farmers (42.50%) were found to rear four milch animals. Plantation of poplar increased with the increase in land holdings sizes. Area covered under green fodder production was little bit higher (14%) with marginal farmers. On an average 57.61, 27.19 and 15.21 percent had low, medium and high level of awareness about different scientific livestock manage mental parameters. Thus, it was concluded that the majority of dairy owners of study area possess low level of knowledge regarding improved animal husbandry practices.