HEALTH CARE, FEEDING PRACTICES AND LUCRATIVE DAIRY FARMING IN BANGLADESH

Genotype based dairy cattle performance were documented in rural villages and suggestions from farmers lifelong experience were explored to suggest the way forward for lucrative dairy farming in Bangladesh. The main occupation of the selected farmers was dairy farming (59.00%) and three types of cattle genotype like Holstein-Friesian crossbred, Sahiwal crossbred and Deshi cattle reared. A total of 593 farmers were enumerated in 13 upazillas of Dinajpur district during October 2019 to December 2019 in Bangladesh to explore information and the data were analyzed using SPSS version 14. Holstein-Friesian crossbred was reared by 82.40% farmers and mean number of cattle found 8.42 per farmer. Majority (74.00%) of the farmers cultivated fodder and 95.00% farmers bought concentrate feeds. About 96.00% farmers vaccinated and 98.00% farmers used anthelmintics for de-worming their cattle. The mean numbers of calves were found 2.648±0.05, 2.171±0.14, 3.105±0.28 and  the mean  peak milk production were 11.964±0.21, 5.846±0.23, 3.197±0.25  liter/day/cow for Holstein-Friesian crossbred, Sahiwal crossbred, Deshi cows, respectively but the mean lactation period were 227.796±2.06, 217.236±5.90, 181.212±6.37 days for the same. Farmers pointed out some issues to resolve as soon as possible, like, provide them with advanced training, rationale price set up of milk and animals, subsidy on feeds and fodder procurement and cultivation directly towards farmers from government, availability and affordability of vaccines and anthelmintics, feed and shelter for animals at calamities, provision of loan without interest and on easy condition. By resolving farmers pointed above mentioned issues, dairy farming could be made a lucrative one.