This survey study was conducted in Tangail, Jamalpur, Bogra, Sirajganj, Pabna and Thakurgaon districts for household farming, and in Bhola, Noakhali, Lakshmipur and Patuakhali districts for to undertake an assessment on the management factors in household and identifying the potentiality and constraints in milk production questionnaire was used for data collection by direct interviewing of buffalo farmers. From this study, it was revealed that 82% of the farmers have 1 to 3 buffalo per household and 73% of the farmers have 51 to 200 buffalo per bathan. Buffaloes were raised in homestead and approximately 5 grazes per day in household farming. Small quantity of concentrate feeds were offered to buffalo by the rich farmers during dry season. On the other hand, in buffalo on grazing at public land. In household, the average daily milk production was 3 to 8 liters and total milk yield was 799 liters in a lactation length of 270 days. In production was 1 to 2 liters and total milk yield was 435 liters in a lactation length of 215 days. The average age of first calving, service per conception, gestation period and calving interval were 39 months, 1.9 numbers, 310 days and 490 days, respectively in hou first calving, service per conception, gestation period and calving interval were 40 months, 2.1 numbers, 315 days and 530 days, respectively in the buffalo nutrition in the bathan

The aim of the study was designed to investigate the socio-economic status of buffalo farmers, productive and reproductive performances and management practices of buffaloes at different villages of Department of Animal Nutrition, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh Subornochar upozila of Noakhali district in Bangladesh. For this investigation total one hundred buffalo farmers were selected from ten villages. Ten farmers who have at least five buffaloes were randomly selected from each village. The investigation revealed that majority of the buffalo farmers age was ranged from 41 to 50 years followed by 51 to 55 years and less than 40 years. Hundred percent farmers were educated but no farmers were found who completed graduation. More than half of the farmers have primary educated followed by SSC or above and rest of them could sign only. In the study area, sixty eight percent of the buffalo farmers were engaged with agriculture along with buffalo rearing and rests of them were engaged with other business. More than half of the respondents were holding land above ten acres, followed by seven to ten acres and rest of them below three acres. Sixty five percent of the farmers took bank loan and rest of them used own capital and/or NGO's loan for rearing buffaloes. There were no farmers found who got training on buffalo rearing. More than two third of the respondents practiced buffalo rearing as their family profession and rest of them were influenced by the neighboring farmers. The buffalo breed of this area was mostly indigenous types. The highest numbers of buffaloes found were heifer followed by milking buffalo and buffalo bull calves. About half of the farmers kept their buffaloes at least two years followed by three and one years and rest of them was more than three years.The average milk production of indigenous buffalo was 2.7 liter/day. Birth weight, weaning weight, weaning and slaughter age of indigenous buffalo in the selected areas were 27.5 kg, 56.5 kg and 14 and 55 months, respectively. The average age at first heat that was puberty of buffaloes was 3.4 years. The gestation period, number of service per conception, post partum hear period and inter calving period was 10 months, 3.1times, 4.5 and 15.8 months, respectively. Most of the farmers maintain their buffaloes mainly in extensive system and bathan (80%). Majority of the farmers (70%) expressed availability of the feeds and fodder as the major problem for buffalo rearing. Out of locally available feeds and fodders rice straw, pasture grasses and Uri grass were the main source of feeds for buffaloes in selected areas. Uri grasses was very soft, very high in CP content and were commonly available in the bank of river or see shore. Buffalo farmers were not practicing to supply concentrate feeds to their buffaloes. Four major diseases of buffaloes were found where the incidence of foot and mouth diseases was high (63%). Farmers of the selected area were totally unaware about vaccination and de-worming and they did n...

ABSTRACT

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The aim of the study was designed to investigate the socio-economic status of buffalo farmers, productive and reproductive performances and management practices of buffaloes at different villages of Lalpur Upozila of Natore district in Bangladesh. For this investigation total one hundred twenty buffalo farmers were selected from twelve villages. Ten farmers who have at least five buffaloes were randomly selected from each village. The investigation revealed that majority of the buffalo farmers was below 30 years of age. Fifty five percent farmers were educated and remarkable number of farmer (40%) were reared only livestock. More than 80 % of the farmer holding 2 to 5 acres of land, and maximum farmers belonged to medium income categories. Sixty eight percent of the farmers took bank loan and/ or NGO loan for rearing buffaloes. Most of the farmers practiced buffalo rearing as their family profession. The buffalo of this area was mostly crossbred types. The highest numbers of buffaloes found were heifer. More than 80% of the farmer kept their female buffaloes above five years. In this study area the average milk production of buffalo was 3.32L/d. Birth weight of crossbred buffalo calves was 30.5 kg, weaning and slaughter age of buffaloes in selected areas were 16 and 57 months respectively. The average age at first heat was 3.47 years. The gestation period, number of service per conception, post partum hear period and inter calving period was 10 months, 3.42 times, 5.31 and 13.5 months, respectively. Most of the farmers maintain their buffaloes mainly in extensive system, and availability of the feeds and fodder was the major problem for buffalo rearing. Most of the farmers were fully depend on river bed (char) grasses and grazing their buffaloes 5-7 hours. Out of locally available feeds and fodders rice straw, river bed grasses and sugarcane top were the main source of feeds for buffaloes. The CP content of baghata grass was found higher compared to other unconventional grasses. Incidence of diseases, foot and mouth diseases was high and farmers did not follow any vaccination and de-warming programme. The annual cost of production per buffalo was Tk. 8741.50 while a gross return per buffalo was Tk. 25028.50. The annual educational capacity increased of the buffalo farmers was 63% but other parameters were also increased through buffalo rearing. Considering all this parameters related to livelihood, it was clearly found that the socio-economic status of the buffalo farmers was improved through buffalo rearing.Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2015. 44 (3):157-165

This study aimed to understand the degradation pattern of organic substances through different amount of red worms during vermicomposting of cattle manure. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted with three treatments e.g., T1 (vermicomposting of 25 kg cowdung using 50 g of red worms), T2 (vermicomposting of 25 kg cowdung using 100 g of red worms) and T3 (vermicomposting of 25 kg cowdung using 150 g of red worms) with 3 replications. Parameters studied were dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), ash, organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), crude fiber (CF), carbon nitrogen ratio (C/N) and pH at different days of intervals. Results showed that the amount of red worms has a significant influence on the quality of the final vermicompost. The highest DM content was observed in T3 and the lowest DM content was observed in T1 after 45 days of composting. There were significant (p<0.001) higher reduction rate of OM, OC and CF were found in T3 compared to T1 and T2 and the differences were also significant (p<0.001) among days intervals over 45 days of experimental period. TN content gradually increases with the increase of time. There was significant (P<0.05) difference in TN alteration among treatments along with time intervals. There was significant differences (P<0.001) in C/N among treatments and a gradual increment of C/N was found with the advancement of the vermicomposting. There were a little changes in pH of all the treatments but those treatments were not followed a trend during the total experimental period. Finally, it may be concluded that organic matter degradation rate is faster in T3 compared to T1 and T2. These might be indicated that amount of red worms are an important factors of OM decomposition or digestion during vermicomposting period. Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2020. 49 (1): 45-54

The experiment was aimed to investigate and compare the growth, milk production and reproductive performances of Black Bengal goat under semi-intensive production (IP) and scavenging production (SP) system. Six Black Bengal does were assigned into 2 treatment (IP and SP) having 3 in each group. The IP group was allowed to graze six hours daily and supplemented with concentrate (soybean meal and wheat bran) and roughage (sorghum and common grass) and the SP group was maintained by the rural landless farmer traditionally as scavenging system. The average birth weight of kids were 1.30 and 0.96 kg for IP and SP systems, respectively and varied significantly (P<0.01). The birth weight of male kids were significantly (P<0.01) higher than that of the female kids. Pre-weaning gain was also significantly (P<0.01) higher in IP than sp system. In both the systems, male kids always showed higher gain than that of females. The kids were weaned at an average age of 92 and 81 days for IP and SP systems, respectively. The kids of the IP and SP systems attained at an average weaning weight of 5.43 and 4.17 kg, respectively which differs significantly (P<0.01). Weaning weight was found to be significantly higher in IP than SP systems. Average initial live weight, live weight at kidding and final live weight at post partum heat of does of IP and SP systems were 22. 10, 22.61 and 21.03 and 21.90, 22.35 and 19.73 kg, respectively, where there was no significant difference except the final live weight (P<0.05). The average daily milk yield, total lactation yield and lactation length for IP and SP systems were 214 ml, 20.47 l and 95.33 days and 162 ml, 13.75 l and 84.66 days, respectively and varied significantly (P<0.01). Average litter size of the IP and SP systems was 2.00 and 2.33, respectively. Average post partum heat period and kid mortality were significantly (P<0.01) lower in IP than SP system. Gross return was found higher in IP than that of SP systems. Thus, it can be recommended from the present study that the growth rate, weaning age, weaning weight, milk production, post partum heat period and kid mortality of Black Bengal goat could be improved through proper feeding and better husbandry system which was reflected from gross return.

The nutritive value and the effect of tannins on the utilization of foliage from three commonly used legumes, Acacia nilotica, Albizia procera, and Sesbania acculeata, were determined. Three mature rumen-fistulated bullocks were used to study in sacco degradability and twelve adult sheep were randomly allocated on the basis of live weight to 4 groups of 3 in each to study the in vivo digestibility of the foliages. In all foliages, the contents of crude protein (17 to 24% of DM) were high. Fibre was especially high in Albizia (NDF 58.8% of DM vs. 21% in Sesbania and 15.4% in Acacia). Contents of both hydrolysable (4.4 to 0.05%) and condensed tannins (1.2 to 0.04%) varied from medium to low in the foliages. Acacia contained the highest level of total phenolics (20.1%), protein precipitable phenolics (13.2%) and had the highest capacity to precipitate protein (14.7%). Drying in shade reduced the tannin content in Acacia and Albizia by 48.6 and 69.3% respectively. The foliages ranked similarly for each of the different methods used to estimate tannin content and activity. Acacia and Sesbania foliage was highly degradable (85-87% potential degradability of DM in sacco), compared to Albizia (52%), indicating a minimal effect of tannins in Acacia and Sesbania. Yet, in vitro, the tannins in the Acacia inhibited microbial activity more than those in Albizia and Sesbania. Following the addition of polyethylene glycol to neutralise the tannins, gas production and microbial growth increased by 59% and 0.09 mg RNA equiv./dg microbial yield respectively in the Acacia, compared to 16-17% and 0.06 mg RNA equiv./dg microbial yield in the other foliages. There was a trend for low in vivo apparent digestibility of N in the Acacia (43.2%) and Albizia (44.2%) compared to the Sesbania (54.5%) supplemented groups. This was likely to be due to presence of tannins. Consistent with this was the low N retention (0.22 and 0.19 g N/g NI) in sheep supplemented with Acacia and Albizia compared to that for the Sesbania (0.32). Similarly, a trend for poor microbial N yield was observed in sheep fed these foliages. Across the foliages tested, an increase in tannin content was associated with a reduction in ruminal fermentation, N digestibility and N retention. For overall nutritive value, Sesbania proved to be the superior forage of the three tested.