DOI: 10.36347/sjavs.2015.v02i02.007

Pages: 112-117

The study was conducted purposively in Surat district to ascertain the milking and health care management practices followed by rural dairy animal owners. A field survey was conducted during March, 2013 to January, 2014 and data were collected from randomly selected 300 dairy animal owners through personal interview with the help of pre-tested structured schedule from five talukas selected at random. The present study revealed that all the respondents washed their hands before milking and cleaned teats and udder by splashing of water and milked their animals at same place twice in a day by adopting wet hand (87.33%) and knuckling (80.67%) methods of milking. Majority (69%) of the respondents followed stripping at the end of milking and all the respondents didn’t wipe the udder and teats just after milking. Majority (60%) of the respondents allowed calves for suckling before milking and 79.67% of the respondents offered concentrates and did teat manipulation, while 20.33% of the respondents used oxytocin injection if the animals do not let down milk after the death of calf. Majority (98.33%) of the respondents did not follow teat dipping after milking and none of the respondents followed testing for mastitis in their dairy animals. The 54 and 46% respondents adopted practice of drying off their dairy animals for less than two months and two months / more time before calving, respectively. Majority of the respondents (99.33%) didn’t follow sealing of teat canal at the end of lactation. Majority (95.67%) of respondents sold their milk to village dairy co-operative society. Majority of the respondents (96.33%) practiced regular vaccination to their animals against Foot and Mouth disease and Haemorrhagic Septicaemia disease. Majority (50%) of the respondents practiced deworming of their dairy animals regularly and also followed various practices (dusting, spraying and injectable drugs) for control of ecto–parasites (63%) and cleaned sheds (66%) while, 34% respondents did