Author(s):

PC Regar, ML Kamboj, Manish Sawant, SN Ojha and ML Choudhary

Abstract: The aim of present study was to assess the feed intake and feeding management practices of tribal farmers in Rajasthan. A total of 120 tribal goat farmers were selected from 12 villages from 6 blocks in 3 tribal dominated districts viz., Banswara, Dungarpur and Udaipur. Ten farmers from each village were selected purposively based on the number of goats. The selected goat farmers were grouped into three categories based on flock size as small (<25 goats, N= 60), medium (26-50 goats, N = 36) and large (>50 goats, N = 24). The data on feed intake and feeding management practices were recorded on-field. A half of goat farmers (51.57 %) were adopting partial grazing followed by complete grazing (48.33%) and none of the selected farmers was practicing complete stall feeding. About two-thirds of farmer (75%) sent their goats for grazing for more than 5 hours daily and the remaining 25 per cent farmer sent their animals for grazing for less than 5 hours. The proportion of goat farmers who sent their animals for more than 5 hours was 76.67, 66.67 and 83.33 per cent among small, medium and large farmers respectively. Most of goat farmers (77.5%) were feeding colostrum after the birth of the kids whereas some of the farmers (22.5%) were not feeding colostrums at all to kids at all due to the myth of spread of diseases. About a half of the farmers (49.17 %) offered grasses, fodders (berseem, lucerne, bajra, jowar and oats) followed by 34.16 per cent goat farmers feeding tree leaves (ber, neem, babool, khejri) and 16.67 per cent farmers were feeding weeds and grass (stylo, cenchrus spp., crop weeds) and about the same number of farmers (16.66 %) in small, medium and large flock size practiced feeding weeds and grass (stylo, cenchrus spp., crop weeds). It was observed that overall average amount of green fodder offered to milking goats, dry goats, goatlings, kids and breeding buck was 1.33 ± 0.07, 0.85 ± 0.07, 0.45±0.03, 0.37±0.02 and 1.71±0.10 kg/day respectively. The average amount of green fodder offered daily was significantly (p<0.05) higher in case of small farmers as compared to medium and large goat farmers in case of milking as well as dry goats and significantly higher in case of breeding bucks in case of large farmers as compared to other categories of farmers. The overall available dry fodders fed to milking goats, dry goats, goatlings, kids and breeding buck was 0.95±0.67, 0.93±0.07, 0.87±0.06, 0.37±0.02 and 1.72±0.11 kg/day respectively. Being significantly (p<0.05) higher in small farmers followed by medium and large goat farmers. Overall average amount of concentrate mixture offered to milking/pregnant goats, dry goats, goatlings, kids and breeding buck was 210.09±14.26, 85.37±6.84, 86.76±5.83, 85.65±5.86 and 246.11±16.89 g/day respectively. Being significantly (p<0.05) higher in small farmers followed by medium and large farmers among milking goats and breeding bucks. A sizable majority of farmers (56 %) were offering fattening ration to their male kids for their higher body weight gain so that they attain early market weight and on an overall average 255.79±7923.12 g of concentrate mixture per buck/day was fed as fattening ration. The overall total DM intake through stall feeding in case of milking goats, dry, goatlings, kids and breeding bucks was 1.16, 0.90, 1.01, 0.52 and 1.38 kg respectively. The total DM intake in different categories of goats was similar among the three flock size categories. It was concluded that feeding management practices were mostly traditional without much regard to scientific recommendations. However, these management practices in general were better in case of small farmers as compared to medium and large farmers.

Pages: 227-230  |  1259 Views  290 Downloads

Download (723KB)