Dairy Farm Management

Dairying is the management of animals for milk and its products for human consumption.

Cows and buffaloes generally give more milk than goatsand sheep.

The yellow colour of cow milk is due to the carotene.

Ghee from cow fed on an abundant green fodder is more yellow than when fed on dry food.

The four essential methods for live-stock improvement are breeding (male and female animals selected for breeding should be of superiorquality), weeding (preventing breeding of uneconomical animals), feeding, heeding (care and maintenance of proper hygiene).

The productive potentialities of live stock are controlled by three principle factors; (i) genetic make up (ii) nutrition and (iii) environment including the climatic conditions.

Livestock

Domesticated animals especially farm animals, kept for use of or profit are collectively called live stock.

On the basis of the utility, the live-stock can be put into the following categories:

•  Milk yielding animals : Cows, buffaloes and goats provide us milk which provides animal protein and serve as a perfect natural diet.
• Meat and egg yielding animals : Sheeps, goats, pigs, ducks and fowls provide us meat and eggs.
• Animals utilized as motive power : Buffaloes, horses, donkeys, bullocks, camels and elephants are used in transport and ploughing the fields.
• Wool giving animals : Sheep are reared for obtaining wool from their hide.
• Miscellaneous uses : The hides of cattle are used for making a variety of leather goods.

Cattle

The word cattle includes cow (adult female), bull (uncastrated adult male), bullock or ox (castrated adult male), and steer (young castrated male).

Important of Cattles : The cattles are used in India as source of milk, hide, meat, cowdung and animal power - for ploughing, threshing, harvesting, transporting, and drawing water from wells etc. Hoof, horns and bones are also used to make fertilizers, poultry feeds and decorative items. Hair are used for making brushes. Beef is eaten by certain people.

Breeds of Cattles : There are about 26 breeds of Zebu cattle (Bos indicus). Best breeds are found in dry part of the country.

Breeds differ in their body size, shape, colour, horns and forehead shapes Classified into 3 main groups according to utility.

• Milch breeds : good at milk yield.
•  Draught breeds : as ‘beast of burden’, (only males)
•  General utility breeds : useful from all points of views

Buffalo milk has much higher fat content than cow.

Breeds of Indian Zebu Cattle (Cow)

Milch Breeds Distribution

•  Gir : Gujarat, Rajasthan
• Sahiwal (Montgomary) : Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh
•  Red Sindhi : Andhra Pradesh
•  Deoni : Andhra Pradesh

Draught Breeds

• Malvi : Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (Malva)
• Nageri : Rajasthan (Nagor/Jodhpur)
• Hallikar : Karnataka
• Kangayam : Tamil Nadu and other parts of South India
• Bachaur : Bihar (Sitamarhi)

General Utility Breeds

• Haryana : Haryana, Punjab
• Ongole (Nellore) : Andhra Pradesh
• Tharparkar (Pakistan) : Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh
• Kankrej : Exotic breeds

Exotic breeds are foreign breeds of animals which have been introduced in our country and used for cross breeding & require a specific enviornment.

Holstein Friesian, Brown Swiss, Jersey (USA), Red Dane, Ayrshire

Indian Cross breeds developed at National Dairy Research Institute

Karanswiss — This breed has been evolved at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal in Haryanana by breeding the Sahiwal cows with the semen of Brown Swiss bulls imported from USA.

Sunandini — This breed originated in NDRI, Kerala by crossing the local non-descript cattle with Jersy, Brown Swiss and Holestein-Friesian breeds.

Karan Fries — This breed has been evolved at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal in Haryanana by breeding the Tharparkar and Holstein Friesian.

Buffalo

The water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a subgenus of the genus Bos (Bubalinae) and is a descendent of the wild species (Bubalusarnee) of main land Asia.

The average yield of buffalo is 495 kg with 6.5-7.5 percent fat in comparison with the Zebu cow with 186 kg and 4.5-5.0 percent fat. The

mineral content of buffalo milk when compared with cow’s milk shows that it is superior to that of Indian and European cattle.

Buffalo are better than cows because they are more resistant to diseases, give 3 times more milk & live longer. In milch buffaloes the average period of lactation is 281 days.

Buffalo hide is an important raw material for the leather industry. The epidermis of the buffalo hide is between three and five times as strong as the cattle hide.

The gestation period of buffaloes is about 310 days or 10 months.