Healthcare and management of buffalo calves in Nili-Ravi breed of buffalo in its home tract

Buffalo plays a vital role in the Indian dairy sector with a contribution of about 49 percent to the total milk produced in the country. Adoption of improved calf healthcare and management can be helpful in reducing calf mortality and ultimately help in enhancing profits from the dairy enterprise. The study was designed to evaluate buffalo calf husbandry practices followed by farmers of Ferozepur district of Punjab, India which is part of the breeding tract of Nili Ravi breed of buffalo. The data were collected from a total of 150 buffalo keepers from all the six blocks of the district during the period from June 2019 to December 2021. The results revealed that the practice of deworming the pregnant dam during last trimester of pregnancy was adopted by only 19.3 per cent of respondents. A moderately high percentage of farmers (61.3%) kept a close observation and provide assistance during the calving of buffaloes for any difficulty during the process and extremely low number of farmers (10.7%) adopted practice of cleaning of muzzle of new born calves for clearing mucus. Only 4 per cent used the practice of cutting of naval chord and applying disinfection to it. Majority of farmers (64.7%) in the area preferred to feed colostrum to the newly borne calves only after shedding of placenta by the dam. Only 48 per cent of buffalo farmers in the area had knowledge about harmful effects of endoparasites and adopted practice of deworming. It was encouraging to note that a very high percentage of farmers i.e., 74.7% adopted practice of vaccination.