PROSPECTS AND LIMITATIONS OF DAIRYING IN GUJRANWALA DISTRICT (PUNJAB-PAKISTAN)

Published: November 20, 2011

By: M. Arif, A. Iqbal, M. Younas, Bakht B. Khan and M. Sarwar

Summary

A survey study involving 120 respondents of different categories from district Gujranwala (Punjab-Pakistan) was conducted to investigate the trends in dairying. Average milk production of cows and buffaloes was found to be 4.50 and 6.53 lit./day respectively. Milk is mostly (98.3%) consumed and marketed to milk collector in raw form @Rs. 28.25 / lit. Combined animal feeding was the common practice with no special allowance for high yielder. Average green fodder offered to lactating cows and buffaloes was found to be 43.49 ±2.67 and 59.03 ±1.39 kg/head/day, whereas corresponding values for dry cows and buffaloes were 26.46 ±2.13 and 39.48 ±1.58 kg/day, respectively. Lactating animals were preferred for concentrate feeding i.e 1.84 ±0.221 and 2.13 ±0.216 kg/head/day respectively. Animals are vaccinated mainly against foot and mouth disease and haemorrhagic septicaemia. Average cost of milk production was found to be Rs.19.21 /lit. Disinfection of the naval cord, dehorning (in cows), natural breeding, teat dipping, washing of udder and culling, and adoption level was 8.3, 25.8, 51.7, 20.8, 74 and 61.7% respectively. Special feeding of dairy animals before calving was also reported by 41.7 % respondents. Record keeping was utterly lacking (91.7 %). Age at first breeding, age at first calving, lactation length, dry period, calving interval and productive life in case of buffaloes was 40.87±0.43, 52.48±0.48, 10.66±0.085, 4.35±0.051, 15.13±0.18 months and 9.22 ± 0.18 years respectively while in case of cattle were 29.11±1.280, 43.20±6.33, 9.12±0.37, 2.56±0.11, 12.50±0.50 months and 8.36 ±0.42 years respectively. It may be inferred from these results that adoption of modern husbandry practices is still grossly lacking with a variable degree. As a consequence, low productivity is a common feature, leading to very low profitability of the producer. Evidently, low productivity and profitability stem from lack of extension services by trained people. Keywords: Epidemiology, milk production, disease load, management

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