SKUAST JOURNAL OF RESEARCH

A comprehensive survey was carried out in various veterinary blocks of Pulwama district where it was found that agriculture was the major source of income (46.87%), followed by unskilled labour (24.10%), government employment (19.61%), and skilled labours (9.43%). The irrigated landholding with dairy farmers of the district was 5.16 kanals and non-irrigated land holding 5.16 kanals. An average number of cattle/family were 3.71 in the district, with average lactating cows, dry, heifers, calves, and bulls 1.40, 0.23, 0.88, 1.12 and 0.18 respectively. Average number of sheep, goats equines and birds per family in the district were 21.06, 8.27, 3.03 and 19.87 respectively. Out of the total bovine animals surveyed in the district 69.58% were crossbred Jersey, 11.53% were crossbred Friesian and 18.90% were nondescript. The average age of the dairy animals was recorded as 6.36 years depicting the majority of households prefer younger cows with an average body weight of 250.75kg. The dairy animals of Pulwama district were within 3^rd parity with an average milk yield of 8.68 liters per day. The average roughage and concentrate offered to dairy cows were 7.03 kg and 3.30 kg respectively. The concentrates available were mostly wheat bran, rice bran, mustard oil cake, and commercial pellet feed, whereas the roughages were mostly rice straw, wheat straw, oats hay, mixed hay, and maize stovers. The animals were let for grazing only for 2.17 hr. Only 11.89% of farmers from the district were following supplementation in the form of vitamins, minerals, or salt. The daily dry matter, DCP and TDN intake was deficit by 0.64 kg, 43.04 g and 0.72 kg respectively for dairy animals of Pulwama district.