Performance of Rural and Peri-urban Dairying under Existing Management System in Jhenaidah, Bangladesh

Abstract

This study was conducted by a baseline survey to explore the current scenario of dairying in respect of productive and reproductive performance under existing management practices such as breeding, feeding, housing, disease prevention etc. at four upazillas of Jhenaidah district in Bangladesh. Majority of the farms in the study area are classed as small holder following semi-intensive method of rearing chiefly for three genotypes namely Indigenous (IG) (15.17%) Holstein Friesian (HF) crossbred (61.38%) and Shahiwal (SL) crossbred (23.45%). Along with rice straw and concentrate mixture, a considerable amount of green grass as 6.32 ± 3.80, 7.71 ± 3.0 and 7.90 ± 3.54 kg/day/cow was supplied to IG, HF Cross and SL Cross respectively. Although 82.76% respondents provided anthelmintic to their cattle but 88.28% did not vaccinate their stock. Biosecurity measures are often ignored resulted in prevalence of different diseases including Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD). Despite having no knowledge about frozen semen, 81.38% farm owner practice Artificial Insemination and among them 66.21% preferred semen of HF genotype. Age at first calving, length of dry period and post-partum oestrus of IG cows was significantly (p<0.01) higher than that of HF and SL cows. A higher significant difference was observed in calving intervals and gestation period (p>0.05). The average milk yields of IG, HF and SL cows were 0.96±0.59, 3.45±1.00 and 1.94±0.81 L/day/cow, respectively. The lactation length of HF and SL cows was significantly (p<0.05) higher than of IG cows. The majority of the farmers’ reaction regarding productive and reproductive performance of crossbred cows along with feed price, milk price, marketing system and veterinary service was disappointing to which this study recommends to address duly.