ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
INTRODUCTION
It is the scientific management of livestock. Animal husbandry is the science of rearing, breeding, disease control and utilization of animals. Animal based farming includes cattle, goat, poultry and fish farming.
OBJECTIVES OF ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
- It is required to meet the increasing demands of animal based goods like milk, meat, eggs, leather etc according to the size of the population and living standards of the people.
- It sets guidelines for proper management and systematic approach to animal rearing.
CATTLE FARMING
In India, farmers practice cattle farming in husbandry for two purposes: milk and drought labor for agricultural work like tiling, irrigation and carting. Cattle farming in India belong to two different species:
- Bos indicus (cows)
- Bos bulbalis ( buffaloes)
On the basis of the work done by cattle farming, they can be divided into two categories:
- Milch animals: These are milk producing females or dairy animals.
- Draught animals: These are used to do labor work in farms.
The breeds of cattle farming are as follows:
- Indigenous or local breeds: They are selected because of their high resistance to disease, e.g. Red sindhi and Sahiwal.
- Exotic or foreign breeds: They are selected because of their long lactation period, e.g. Jersy and Brown swiss.
These two breeds can be cross-bred to get both the desirable qualities in animals.
FARM MANAGEMENT FOR CATTLE FARMING
Various measures for farm management or cattl farming are as follows:
- Proper cleaning and shelter facilities are required for cattle farming.
- Regular brushing of animals should be sheltered in well-ventilated roofed sheds in order to protect them from rain, heat and cold.
- The cattle farmingshed floor must be dry and facilitating cleaning, that is why floor must have slopes. FOOD REQUIREMENTS OF CATTLE
Food is required for dairy cattle farming for following two purposes:
FOR MAINTENANCE : Food supports the animal to live a healthy life.
FOR PRODUCING MILK: The type of food helps to secrete milk during lactation period.
Animal feed includes
Roughage : This is largely fibrous and contain low nutrients e.g. green fodder, silage, hay and legumes.
Concentrate: These are low in fiber. They contain relatively high levels of proteins and other nutrients, e.g. cereals like gram and bajra.
Some other feed additives containing micronutrients promote the health and milk output of dairy animals. It should be balanced and proportionate amount.
DISEASE IN CATTLE FARMING
Like other animals, cattle farming also suffer from a number of diseases. These pathogens cause death as well as reduction of milk production. The parasites are
- External parasites cattle farming: They live on the skin and cause skin diseases e.g. lice, mites.
- Internal parasites cattle farming: They include worms that affect stomach and intestine. Flukes which damage the liver.
Preventive measure in cattle farming: Vaccination is preferred.
POULTRY FARMING IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
It involves rearing of domestic fowl for the production of eggs and meat. Farmers use to develop improved quality off poultry breeds. They produce layers for eggs and broilers for meat. Farmers has done cross breeding between Indian (indigenous) breeds and foreign (exotic) breeds successfully and develop desirable traits of poultry birds. The qualities of improved progeny are:
- Good quality of chicks with huge numbers
- Dwarf broiler parent for commercial production
- New progeny having tolerance to high temperature
- Requirement of low maintenance
- Smaller Size chicks utilizing fibrous and cheaper diets.
Broilers and layers have different housing , nutritional and environmental requirement. The diet of broilers is rich in protein with adequate fat. In the poultry feed, they keep the level of vitamin A and K high.
PRACTICE FOR MAINTENANCE OF SHELTER FOR POULTRY BIRDS
- We must clean and provide proper sanitation of shelter.
- Maintenance of temperature and hygiene in the shelter .
- Proper ventilation .
- Prevention and control of disease and pests.
POULTRY DISEASE AND THEIR PREVENTION IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
Poultry fowl suffer from various diseases caused by virus, bacteria, fungi and parasites. They also suffer from nutritional deficiency disease.
PREVENTION OF DISEASE IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY/ CATTLE FARMING
- Providing nutritional diet to poultry birds
- Proper cleaning and sanitation of shelter
- Spraying of disinfectants at regular intervals in the shelter
FISH PRODUCTION IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY/ CATTLE FARMING
Fish is a cheap source of animal protein for humans. Production of fish includes both finned true fish as well as shellfish like prawns and mollusca.
Two ways of obtaining fish
CAPTURE FISHING: It is method of obtaining fish from natural resources. It is undertaken mostly in both inland and marine waters.
CULTURE FISHERY: It is the method of obtaining fish from fish farming or pisciculture. It is undertaken mostly inland and near seashores.
COMPOSITE FISH CULTURE OR POLYCULTURE IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
Monoculture is the fish production by cultivating a single species. It gives low yield and cost is high. In composite fish culture, a combination of 5 or 6 fish species is cultivated in a single pond having different food habit.
ADVANTAGES OF COMPOSITE FISH CULTURE
- We use both local and imported fish species.
- As different fishes are having different food habit, all fishes consume whole food supplied to the pond.
- We get high yield of fish production.
- There is no competition for food as Catla is surface feeder, mrigel and common carps are bottom feeders, Rohu feeds in middle zone of pond and Grass carp feeds on weeds in the pond.
There are some DISADVANTAGES also, these are
- Monsoon is the time of breeding of fish. Thus, one of the major problem of fish farming is the lack of availability of good quality seed.
- To overcome this problem, we use hormonal stimulation to the fishes for breeding. In this way we get pure quality of fish seeds in desired amount.
- BEE –KEEPING
Rearing, care and management of honey bee for the production of honey we term as Apiculture or Bee -keeping .
ADVANTAGES OF APICULTURE
- It requires very low investment.
- Apiculture provides various products like honey, wax, bee venom etc
- It acts as an additional source of income for farmers.
- Honey bee is used for eating and making other edible products.
- We use wax in cosmetic products.
- Bee venom is widely used in medicinal purposes.
By these we can understand that animal husbandry helps farmers for better income.
