Performance of Mahintha chinthan's dairy village cattle breeds compare to local cattle breeds in Batticaloa district

Dairy sector is the most important of all livestock sub sectors and it has great impact on the rural economy. The domestic milk production only constitutes about 26 percent of the country's requirement. A field survey was conducted to find out the performance of Mahintha Chinthana's dairy village cattle breeds compare to local cattle breeds in Batticaloa District Hundred and fifty dairy village farmers were selected from IS dairy villages in the Batticaloa district. Data were collected through a pre-tested structured questionnaire on socio economic condition, details of dairy cattle, management practices, problems faced by the dairy farmers and extension services. Fifty six percent of the dairy village farmers were small holders and 35% were medium size holders. Almost 42% of the respondents practiced fully intensive rearing system while 39% were adopting tethering system for improved cattle breeds; in case of local breeds those were 5% and 29% respectively. But 62% were adopting semi intensive system. Enough concentrates were given for improved breeds and local breeds were only 49% and 5% respectively. Average milk production was 1.29 1/animal/day from improved breeds and 4.25 1/animal/day from local breeds. Nearly 12% of the farmers have been newly adopted to pasture and fodder production. Constraints reported by the farmers were high cost for concentrate feeds, low price for milk, lack of grasses and grass land, and lack of credit facilities. The study concluded that the management systems were very poor for Mahintha Chinthana's improved breeds in some aspects such as rearing system and feeding practices. The Mahintha Chinthana's improved cattle breeds would perform better if the management aspects could be improved

Status of feed resources for cattle rearing in Batticaloa district representing urban, village and remote areas

A study was conducted to determine the availability of feed resources for cattle rearing, their distribution and utilization in urban, village and remote areas of Batticaloa district. Eravur, Vantharumoolai and Karadiyanaru were selected for urban, village and remote areas respectively. Fifty farmers were interviewed in each DS division. Stratified random sampling method was used to select the farmers and totally 150 farmers were interviewed. Majority of the farmers in urban area were small holders but majority of village and remote area farmers were medium holders. Most of the farmers in whole study area were practicing extensive or semi intensive rearing system. Most of the farmers reported that major constraints were high cost for concentrate feeds and lack of grasses and grazing land. Paddy straw, rice bran, fodders, grasses kitchen wastes and crop residues were the major available feeds in whole study area. Paddy straw was used by more than 70% of the farmers in each study area. Suitable conditions for feed production and high availability of feeds in the region were the acceptable merits to the cattle rearing. Lack of pasture and fodder production, increasing cost for concentrate feeds, lack of knowledge about preparation of conserved feed materials (urea treated straw, urea molasses multi-nutrient block and silage), less adoption of improved management practices and non-utilization of non-leguminous tree leaves were the major limitations prevailing in the study area