Animal welfare management practices followed by dairy farmers in Konkan region of Maharashtra

Abstract

This study investigated the dairy animal welfare management practices adopted by 120 dairy farmers across Thane, Raigad, and Palghar districts in the Konkan region of Maharashtra state using structured interviews. From each district, 2 blocks were selected purposively and from each block five villages were selected randomly. From each village, 4 respondents who had at least 10 milch animals at the time of survey and 5 years dairy experience were selected randomly. Animal welfare management practices related to the five major aspects of dairy husbandry such as feeding, housing, health care, breeding and milking management practices followed by commercial dairy farmers were studied. For assessing welfare practices, a dichotomous (Yes/No) response format was used for each practice, with '1' assigned for a positive response and '0' for a negative one. Results showed that about 98.33% fed colostrum to dairy calves whereas 89.16% used to give colostrum within 2 hours of parturition. Dairy animals were deprived for a period of 6 hours for food by 88.33% of commercial dairy farmers.