A STUDY ON BUFFALO MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN KHAMMAM DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

A study was carried out to find out various buffalo management practices adopted by the farmers in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh. More than half of the farmers under survey (58%) were able to provide insemination or natural service to their animals in heat at the right time, while 42% of farmers were unable to inseminate their animals in time due to various reasons. Only 16.66% farmers utilized the facility of artificial insemination, while 37.51% farmers opted for natural service. About 85.85% farmers fed green and dry roughage in combination and provided clean drinking water to their animals, but none of the farmer practiced silage making or other special treatments like chaffing, soaking or urea treating paddy straw. Most of the farmers collected fodder from the fields. Only 3% farmers fed additional concentrates to pregnant animals; the rest did not do this. As a part of summer management, 51% farmers allowed their buffaloes to wallow in the village tanks during the hotter parts of the day and 49.16% farmers washed their animals by splashing water manually. Washing of the animals and of their udders before milking were practiced by 15.68 and 98.40% farmers, respectively. Non-descript buffaloes were predominant in this region and the majority of the farmers were poor in certain aspects of scientific feeding, breeding, housing, milking and health care practices and needed to be educated. Artificial insemination should be made available to all the farmers, which in turn would result in the upgrading of local buffaloes and improving their performance.