Principles and Techniques of Veterinary and AH Extension

Difference in livestock production practices including animal rearing pattern

DIFFERENCES IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION PRACTICES

• Differences exist between rural, urban and tribal areas in the animal rearing patterns. These differences stemfrom the purpose for which the animals are being reared.
• The table below exhibits the differences in livestock production practices among rural, urban andtribal communities.
• These differences form the basis for the extension agent to develop suitable programmes which address differential needs of the societies 

  S.No	Particulars	Rural	Urban	Tribal
  1	Purpose	Economic as well as social / religious	Primarily economic	Way of life
  2	Number of animals / household	Less (2 to 3)	More (>5)	Less (<3)
  3	Quality of animals	Predominantly indigenous	Predominantly cross bred	Indigenous / non-descript
  4	Productivity of animals	Low to medium	Medium to high	Very low
  5	Dry and wet ratio	High	Low	High
  6	Animal sheds	Open yard	Mostly pucca	Open yard
  7	Feeding	Mostly grazing	Mostly stall feeding	Grazing
  8	Type of feeds	Dry, green fodder with little or no concentrate	Dry fodder with little or no green fodder, concentrate feeding common	Green grasses
  9	Management	Less scientific	To a greater extent scientific	Not scientific
  10	Adoption of technologies to improve productivity of animals	Low level	Early adoption	No adoption of scientific practices. Adopt traditional practices
  11	Cost of production / kg. of milk / meat	Low	High	Meagre
  12	Occupation	Traditional	Entrepreneurial	Traditional
  13	Profit / unit of milk / meat sold	Marginal or nil	High	Marginal or nil
  14	Sentimental attachment with animals	Very much present	Not to that extent as in rural areas	Very much present
  15	Person involved in the maintenance of animals	All members of the family / part time	Specific person as full time job	All members of the family
  16	Marketing	Own use / vendor / co-operative	Private	Own use. At times do not milk the animas