Adoption of Scientific Clean Milk Production Practices by Dairy Farmers

Clean milk production is an important occupation of rural farmers in India. Adoption of scientific clean milk production practices has great potential to improve the quality of milk. The present study was conducted in Hisar district of Haryana state to evaluate their extent of adoption of scientific CMP practices. 120 dairy farmers were selected from six villages. The data were collected from dairy farmers by using a structured, pretesting interview schedule by interviewing with the farmers at their home /farm at the time of milking. The present study reveals that 57.5 per cent of farmers were females and the majority of farmers belonged to middle age group. Majority (70.84%) of farmers was literate and 65.83 per cent had animal husbandry and agriculture as a source of income. In general, farmers had poor extension and mass media contact. The study further has revealed that CMP practices like full hand method of milking (25%), Good dung disposal facilities (37.5%), Animals suffering from any contagious disease including mastitis should be segregated from the healthy ones (11.67%), Regular vaccination and deworming of animals (25.83%), discard initial milk from all the four teats to minimize the bacterial load (10.83%), milk from diseased animals should be kept separate (12.5%) had found low adoption score. The milk should be filtered before pouring into the vessel (74.17%), Chewing, smoking and spitting with tobacco should be avoided during milking (63.33%), Sneezing/coughing towards udder/vessel during milking should be avoided (67.5%), Milker should wear clean clothes (63.33%) were the practices that had high adoption score.