Study on adoption level of feeding management practices in different agro-climatic zones of western Maharashtra

Abstract

This study was conducted in different agro-climatic zones of western Maharashtra to analyze different feeding management practices adopted by dairy farmers. Data were collected from randomly selected 240 dairy farmers who had more than five dairy cattle. In ACZ IV, the ratio of mixing green and dry roughages showed complete adoption. The daily use of dry fodder for milch animals was entirely adopted in ACZ IV. The highest adoption rate for the quantity of mineral mixture was 58.33 per cent for 50-70 grams per day in ACZ II. The practice of feeding colostrums to newborn calves was fully adopted in ACZ I, ACZ II, and ACZ III. In ACZ IV, there was a cent percent adoption rate for silage feeding and the silage-making process. All farmers employed harvesting methods, utilized chaff cutters, and operated machines for sowing, harvesting, chaffing, and baling across all Agro-climatic Zones. The mean score suggest that the ACZ IV is the best performing agro-climatic zones while ACZ II is the lowest.