Journal of Krishi Vigyan

A study has been conducted on farming practices followed by the dairy farmers in the district Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar who were possessing small land holding and mainly dependent on milk production by the dairy animals. Forty two farmers of the district were randomly selected and contacted on telephone by the KVK team. Detail information was collected personally regarding various management practices like feeding and grouping of animals, silage making, rearing of calves and the milk yield obtained from the animals. A total of 13 farmers had a land holding of up to 0.8 ha, 6 farmers between 0.8 to 1.6ha, 11 were in the range of 1.6 to 2.4 ha, 4 farmers between 2.4 to 4ha whereas 3 farmers were holding more than 4 ha. and 5 farmers were identified as landless farmers. It was also observed that landless category of farmers obtained the minimum wet average (4.27 L/d) and herd average (2.78 L/d) contrary to the large farmers having land holding of more than 4 ha area where wet average and herd average were 9.09 and 6.17 L/d, respectively. Therefore, depending on the feeding management practices followed, there was a difference in the milk yield obtained. A lot of variation was observed within different categories of farmers using different practices. Thus, this study showed that for making the dairy farming a profitable market, farmers must follow the recommendations of the research institutes and take maximum care so that productivity as well as profitability can be sustained.