Availability of Feed Resources and Animal Feeding Practices in Pauri District of Uttarakhand

A survey was conducted through common questionnaire to find out the existing animal feeding practices followed by the farmers (15 in each village) belonging to four villages, two each from Kotdwar and Lansdown tehsils in Pauri district (hill region) of Uttarakhand. Based on the land holding farmers were categorized into landless (3.33%), marginal (36.67%), small (46.66%) and medium (13.33%) with family size ranging from 5.53 to 6.87. It was observed that landless, marginal, small and medium farmers had 3.38, 41.22, 36.15 and 19.26 per cent of total livestock population, respectively. The average milk production ranged from 2.30 to 13.90 lts./day/family. Animals were stall fed in the morning and evening and allowed for grazing during day time. The livestock owners of the target area used to feed wide range of common green grasses, tree leaves, cultivated fodders and dry fodder. In both tehsils, concentrate feeding included commercial concentrate pellet, readymade concentrate mixture, wheat bran and homemade concentrate mixture. There was no practice of providing mineral mixture to the animals while 76.67 per cent farmers used to provide common salt to their livestock in both the tehsils. The major reproductive problems observed in the study area were anoestrus (16.67 and 23.33% in Kotdwar and Lansdown tehsils, respectively), repeat breeding (20.00 and 23.33% in Kotdwar and Lansdown tehsil, respectively) and others like prolapse of uterus, dystocia etc. (10.00 and 11.66% in Kotdwar and Lansdown tehsils, respectively). Long calving interval (cattle 17.10 and buffaloes 20.24 months) and higher age at first calving (cattle 3.76 and buffaloes 3.91 yrs) were also observed. Animals of surveyed area exhibited negative balance for DM, DCP and TDN intakes. It was concluded that animals must be provided adequate amount of feeds and fodder along with mineral mixture supplementation to sustain dairy enterprises.