Abstract

A bench mark survey was conducted to collect the base line information from the Pantja goat rearers regarding to various feeding management practices with special reference to Pantja goats under field condition of Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital districts of Tarai region of the Uttarakhand during a period of two year (April, 2015 to March, 2017). The results of present study revealed that maximum goat rearers (65.58%) adopted semi stall feeding system and grazing was done mostly on community land (95.97%). The dry fodder was provided by majority (65.12%) of the goat rearers in summer season followed by 45.43% in rainy and 33.33% in the winter seasons in the surveyed area. Majority of goat keepers (79.22%) fed concentrate to all goats. The maximum goat rearers (78.24 %) provided concentrate to the goats during morning time and 89.24% fed concentrate to the goat as such. Majority of goat keepers (88.68%) practised special feeding to the female goats post kidding. Only 10.85 and 39.38 per cent goatherds fed mineral mixture and common salt supplements, respectively to the goats regularly. It can be concluded from the study that the scientific feeding practices are generally not followed by most of the farmers. Creation of awareness regarding scientific feeding practices will help in improving the productivity of goats and income of the farmers.

Key words: Feeding management, Concentrate, Green fodder, Goat keepers, Mineral mixture