The present investigation was carried out to study dairy animal housing practices followed by dairy animal owners in the Anand district of middle Gujarat region. The data were collected from randomly selected 120 dairy animal owners interviewed personally with a well-prepared questionnaire. The study revealed that all the respondents provided housing shelter with the all-time placement of their animals in the house. Majority of respondents (74.17%) constructed animal sheds nearby their own house followed by 25.83% were at a distance from farmer's house. It was found that 64.17% of animal houses were oriented in east-west while 35.83% respondents had houses in a north-south orientation. The respondents provided pucca floor (63.33%) and galvanized iron sheets as a roofing material (49.17%) in their animal sheds, whereas 34.17% farmers had no provision of the wall in their animal sheds. The vast majority of respondents (85.00%) had the provision of good ventilation in their animal sheds and 72.50 % of the respondents had the provision of artificial light in their animal houses. Majority of dairy animal owners (72.50%) kept distance between manure pits and their animal sheds and 66.67 % respondents had provision and practice to protect animals from extreme weather. About 1/5th respondents used a curtain to reduce cold and very few owners (5.00%) provided bedding material to their animals. It was concluded that dairy animal owners of Anand district possess better knowledge regarding animal housing management and follow different practices of scientific animal husbandry.

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This study was conducted to ascertain the extent of adoption of improved dairy husbandry practices and its relationship with the profile of the dairy farmers in the Kheda district of Gujarat. The study was undertaken in four randomly selected talukas of the district, from which 100 dairy farmers were selected randomly. The study revealed that the overall extent of adoption of improved animal husbandry practices in the study area was found to be about 62.78%. The overall highest adoption rate was for reproductive and healthcare management (81.40 and 81.33%) followed by feeding and calf management (77.00 and 62.00%), while the adoption of scientific milking and general management (37.60 and 37.30%) was the lowest. Education, landholding, annual income, and herd size of the dairy farmers had a highly significant (p less than 0.01) positive relationship. In comparison, social participation and mass media of the dairy farmers had significant (p less than 0.05) positive relationship with adoption of improved animal husbandry practices. However, family size, experience, and attitude towards dairy farming had a significant negative correlation with the improved animal husbandry practices. The independent variables considered in the present study explained about 38.20% variation (r2 = 0.38) in adoption of the improved dairy husbandry practices.

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The present study was undertaken in Kheda and Panchmahal districts of middle Gujarat to know the existing milking management practices followed by the dairy farmers. The study was conducted in randomly selected four talukas each from Kheda and Panchmahal districts. From each taluka five villages and from each village five respondents were randomly selected. Thus, total 200 respondents were included in the study. Data revealed that all the respondents milked their animals twice a day and majority (79.50 %) of them were using knuckling method of hand milking. Further, more than two third of respondents were practicing wet hand milking. Bathing and/or grooming of animals before milking, washing of teats/udder prior to milking and washing of the hands before milking were practiced by 76.50, 81.00 and 74.50 % of the dairy farmers, respectively. Farmers of Panchmahal district neither followed post-milking teats’ dipping nor carried out mastitis detection tests. However, in Kheda district some dairy farmers practiced post-milking teats’ dipping (6.50 %) and mastitis detection tests (3.50 %).