Shakti Kant Dash

Dairy Animal Welfare during Transportation in Punjab: A KAP Study

A KAP ( Knowledge, Attitude and Perception) study on dairy farmers of Punjab was conducted to have the idea of their knowledge on animal welfare practice during transportation. A total of 200 dairy farmers across the state were randomly selected for the said study. Dairy farmers were asked to answer the 27 questions comprising of open ended question and multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks. The animal welfare indicators like physical injury, bruising, fracture, bleeding, broken tail, behavior of animal, feeding, drinking, vocalization, urination and defecation during loading and unloading of dairy animal was observed. Beside these, method of loading/unloading the animal, vehicle design, attitude of handler, stocking density, type of bedding, side railing and accompanying person was observed. The study revealed majority of dairy farmers (72%) have low knowledge level of animal welfare issue during transport. The same percentage (71%) of farmers has poor to average adherence to animal welfare practice during transport. It was concluded that the animal welfare issues are compromised during transportation of animals in Punjab by dairy farmers. Extensive and consistent campaign is recommended for apprising the dairy farmers about animal welfare issues.

Multiple linear correlation and prediction of lifetime performance on the basis of first lactation fertility and production traits in Karan Fries (Holstein Friesian crossbred) cattle

Higher productions along with superior fertility are the functions of greater stayability of dairy cattle in the herd. Present investigation was undertaken to evaluate lifetime traits and their prediction on the basis of first lactation traits in Karan Fries cows maintained at National Dairy Research Institute. Data of 5878 lactation records of 1988 adult cows pertaining to the period between 1978 to 2012, were collected for analysis. The phenotypic and genetic correlations of first lactation with lifetime traits were estimated and lifetime performance was predicted using backward elimination multiple linear regression models. Cumulative milk yield (CMY) analysis indicated that the Karan Fries cows achieved around 85% of their lifetime production by 4 th lactation. Phenotypic and genetic correlations of lifetime production traits were positive with first lactation production traits, whereas the association was negative with first lactation fertility traits. The coefficient of variation and mallows Cp criterion estimates of better fit models were lower and ranged between 12 to 18% and 2.51 to 6.00, respectively. Results indicated that the first lactation traits used for the prediction, best explained the variation in traits such as Lifetime yield upto two lactations (51.00%) and breeding efficiency (51.43%), on the basis of coefficient of determination (R 2 )estimates. Regression models for predicting lifetime yield upto three lactations, milk yield per day of productive life and lifetime daughter pregnancy rate had moderate coefficient of determination estimates.

Effect of non-genetic factors on first lactation production and reproduction traits in Tharparkar cattle

The present investigation was carried out with the objective of performance appraisal of Tharparkar cattle with respect to production and reproduction traits. Data were collected on 230 cows over a period of 50 years (1959-2011), maintained at NDRI, Karnal. The overall least-squares means for first lactation 305 day milk yield (F305Y), First lactation total milk yield (FTMY), first lactation length(FLL), First lactation total milk yield per day of first lactation length (TMY/FLL), First lactation dry period (FDP), First lactation service period (FSP), First lactation calving interval (FCI) and First lactation total milk yield per day of first lactation calving interval (TMY/FCI) were found to be 1618.47 ± 49.39 (kg), 1822.65 ± 70.2 (kg), 321.47 ± 8.87 (days), 5.65 ± 0.16 (kg/day), 99.80 ± 10.62 (days), 151.13 ± 16.27 (days), 436.75 ± 16.18 (days), 4.59 ± 0.20 (kg/day). Further, the last squares analysis revealed no significant effect of season of calving whereas, the effect of period of calving was found to be significant on first lactation production and reproduction traits.