Adoption of Feeding Practices by Broiler Farmers of Haryana

A study was conducted to find out the impact of educational status, caste and size of farm (no. of birds) on adoption of feeding practices by broiler farmers of Haryana. For this purpose, districts of Kurukshetra, Bhiwani and Panipat were selected to represent north, south and central zones of Haryana. As many as 150 farmers, 50 from each district were selected. District, education, caste and size of farm showed significant (P<0.01) association with the source of feed and its storage. Overall 68.7 per cent farmers purchased readymade feed, 4.0 per cent were found to have their own feed manufacturing unit and 27.3 per cent prepared the feed by mixing the purchased concentrates and energy feed ingredients. Education (P<0.05) and size of farm (P<0.01) showed significant association with the testing of feed quality. 52.0 per cent farmers did not have proper storage facilities. Only 10.7 per cent farmers regularly got their feed analyzed. District, educational status and size of farm showed a significant (P<0.01) association with the type of feeder used. Farmers having farm size above 8000 birds were found using semi-automatic feeders. Education appeared to motivate the farmers to adopt improved feeding practices.