Management practices of calves in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh plain*

Abstract

Data on first colostrum feeding, quantity of colostrum fed to the calf, milk provided to calves were collected from 300 farmers from rural area covering 20 villages of all 9 blocks and 100 farmers from Rajnandgaon city under urban area. The managemental practices like disbudding identification of animals and record keeping Were studied. The information was collected from respondents by a questionnaire already prepared. About 41 % rural and 45% urban fanners provide colostrum to the newly horn calf within 2 hr after birth, whereas 31 and 40% rural and urban fanners provide colostrum within 2-4 hr and remaining 28 rural and 15% urban farmers feed eolostrms 4 to 8 hr ailer the birth of calf: Significantly higher (27.66%) rural farmers allowed one quarter for calves in comparison to 14% urban farmers. All the illrmers in rural and in urban area followed suckling method of calf rearing. Significantly (P< 0.01) higher number of urban farmers practice regular deworming of calf. None of the dairy farmers in rural area and barely 7% of the urban dairy farmer followed identification procedure.