Awareness programme through on-farm testing on use of mineral mixture in dairy animals

A study was undertaken to assess the gain in awareness of farmers by on-farm testing on mineral mixture feeding to dairy animals for three years in tehsil Sangaria of Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. Thirty animals were given three treatments i.e. farmers practices, recommended practices and refinement for 90 days. The awareness level of the farmers was measured on two major parameters i.e. milk yield and decrease in anoestrous cases. The results indicated that there was a notable change in the knowledge of animal rearing in all the three aspects of use of mineral mixture after completion of on-farm testing. An increase of 2.53 (1.33-3.64), 5.9 (4.83-8.00) and 6.39 (5.00-9.09) percent in milk production for T1, T2 and T3 groups, respectively was recorded. Twenty females (66.7%) were also detected in oestrous during the trial period. Major source of information for farmers was Subject Matter Specialist of KVK followed by neighbouring farmers and farmers got knowledge about mineral mixture feeding in animals.