Knowledge of dairy animal owners in improved dairy husbandry practices in Surat district of south Gujarat

To study the knowledge of dairy animal owners in improved dairy husbandry practices a field survey in Surat district of Gujarat was conducted during March 2013 to January 2014. Data were collected from randomly selected 300 dairy animal owners through personal interview with the help of pretested structured schedule from five Talukas selected at random. The present study revealed that majority of dairy farmers had medium knowledge of different components of improved dairy husbandry practices viz 74.00 per cent for feeding, 75.67 per cent for breeding, 67.00 per cent for general management and 52.67 per cent for healthcare. The overall knowledge level of the respondents in improved dairy husbandry practices falling under low, medium and high categories was 18.33 per cent, 68.34 per cent and 13.33 per cent respectively. The knowledge indices of different aspects of improved dairy husbandry practices of feeding, breeding, general management and healthcare practices were 42.46, 71.33, 49.21 and 55.92 per cent respectively and overall knowledge index of improved dairy husbandry practices was 54.73 per cent which indicated medium knowledge level of dairy farmers in the study area.