Feeding pattern of livestock owners across the different agro-climatic zones of Karnataka

Abstract

In developing countries Smallholder dairy farmers face many feed constraints such as inadequate feed quality and quantity, poor storage facilities for feed conservation as well as insufficient water. However, feeding of livestock continues to pose many problems due to lack of information on composition and utilization of locally available feed resources. A study was therefore conducted to know the feeding patterns, socio-economic parameters of livestock farmers, herd size and crops cultivated by livestock farmers in Karnataka covering under 4 agro-climatic zones, 4 districts, 4 taluks, 12 villages and 120 farmers’ selected using multistage sampling. More number of the farmers belongs to middle age group with medium farming experience and below half of farmers are belongs to marginal farm size with low annual income and nearly half of the farmer had high school education. Milking animals were more in case of northern dry zone followed by northern transition zone, hilly zone and coastal zone. The mean quantity of feeding dry fodder such as paddy straw, ground nut straw, Hay and dry fodder from morning to evening was comparatively more in coastal zone followed by hilly zone, northern dry zone and northern transition zone. Whereas the mean quantity of feeding green fodder from morning to evening was comparatively more in northern dry zone followed by northern transition zone, hilly zone and coastal zone.