Feeding and Housing Management Practices of Dairy Animals Followed by Dairy Farmers of North Bihar

A field study was conducted to get the first hand information about the existing dairy farming practices followed by the dairy farmers of North Bihar. The information about feeding and housing management practices was collected using a semi structured interview schedule from 180 respondents having at least 5 year experience in dairy farming and at least one animal in milk. Group stall feeding, and common salt feeding were done by the majority of the respondents, and 79 per cent of the dairy farmers self-cultivated the green fodder. Only 23.89 per cent of the respondents fed mineral mixture to the lactating animals. In the housing management, the majority of the respondents had kaccha animal houses, had kaccha floors, and arranged smoke in the vicinity of animals to protect them from mosquitoes and flies. The majority of animal houses had good ventilation, optimum size, thatched roof and drainage channel was not there in majority of the animal houses. It was observed that the dairy farmers were unaware of the importance of concentrate mixture, balanced feeding, and proper housing management practices. In view of this fact, the study contributed in the awareness of farmers regarding the importance of proper feeding and housing practices