Evaluation of the dairy farming practices adopted by farmers of sri Muktsar Sahib district of Punjab

Dairy farming in India is a profitable venture with cultural significance. Livestock population has grown from 512 million in 2012 to 536.8 million in 2019, with milk production rising from 116.4 to 198.4 million tons, contributing 4% to the country’s GDP. In this study, a survey was conducted to evaluate the diverse farming practices adopted by dairy farmers in the Sri Muktsar Sahib district of Punjab. The study data suggested that among the surveyed dairy farmers, a significant proportion were either landless (11.3%) or fell into the marginal to semi-medium category (45.16%). Surprisingly, 19.4 per cent farmers with more than 5 hectares of land engaged in dairy animal husbandry, suggesting that medium to large-scale farmers prioritized crop production over dairy farming. Moreover, data regarding management practices indicate that 35.5 per cent of dairy farmers use silage along with green fodder for feeding to their dairy animals whereas 53.23 per cent of farmers used mineral mixture as a supplementation. Additionally, milk selling pattern revealed that 51.61 per cent farmers sold their milk to milkman or at domestic level whereas 38.7 per cent dairy farmers sold their milk to local dairies. The major constraint faced by dairy farmers are repeat breeding (17.7%) mastitis (25.8%) and infestation of ticks, lice and flies (24.2%).