Housing and feeding practices of buffaloes in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh
Ramesh Kumar Mishra, RPS Baghel, Rahul Sharma and Shivangi Sharma
A survey study was conducted to see the housing and feeding practices of buffaloes in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh. The survey data obtained revealed that buffaloes in Katni district were mostly reared in a single row (93.40%) kachcha house (62.60) with fairly ventilated (51.60%) house. The surveyed farmers of the district were not following any scientific practices of feeding and they do not have any knowledge of feeding standard and nutrient recommendations of any agency. The milk yield (88.0%) of the buffaloes was the main basis of feeding concentrate to them. The buffaloes generally thriving on the grazing land and only limited numbers of medium and large farmers were providing concentrate to them. Wheat straw and paddy straw were the main dry roughage used for feeding of animals. Most of the respondents were occasionly providing common salt and rarely mineral mixture to their animals. Concentrate was mostly given to medium and high yielders, while poor yielders, pregnants, heifers and calves were if fed concentrate, it was in very less quantities.