author(s)
Pramod Kumar Godara, NK Sharma and Devi Singh Rajput

abstract
Livestock has become an integral part of all interventions aimed at reducing rural poverty and enhancing food and nutrition security. The dairy livestock owners who raise cattle and buffaloes are yet ignorant with scientific management practices. If feeding, breeding, health care and other management practices fit in proper operation, it would be possible to reach the desired level of milk production. The findings of the study revealed that a total of 120 dairy livestock owners were selected in randomly selected 8 villages from Bikaner and Lunkaransar tehsils of Bikaner district of Rajasthan. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected through interview schedule, discussion, observation and available secondary sources. It was found that majority of the dairy livestock owners (59.17%) (69.16%) (75.83% and (65.00%) had medium level of adoption regarding breeding, feeding, management and health care practices, respectively. Majority of the dairy livestock owners (71.67%) had medium level of adoption regarding overall dairy management practices. The results revealed that adoption index in four major aspects viz. feeding, health care, breeding and management were found to be 36, 32.71, 31.55 & 31.25 and ranked 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th respectively. The overall adoption level of dairy management practices in thes study area was found to be only 31.99.