Study on reproductive performance of cattle at dairy farms in arid region of Rajasthan

This present study was carried out with the objectives to determine socioeconomic status and assess welfare status of dairy farms, to determine productive and reproductive performance and correlation between performance and welfare status of dairy farms and to find out the correlation between socio-economic status and welfare status of dairy farms. The study was conducted in four randomly selected districts of Rajasthan's arid region. Each district had two tehsils, further divided into rural and urban dairy farming areas. From each tehsil, 10 dairy farms were selected from both rural and urban regions, totaling 20 farms per tehsil. Overall, 160 dairy farms were studied across eight tehsils in four districts Using a tested interview schedule data were collected and analyzed on production and reproduction performance of cattle, The data were subjected to analyse by t-test, chi-square test and Pearson correlation using the statistical package SPSS software version (25.0). Whereas cattle welfare was assessed using Dairy Cattle Welfare Scale (DCWS). Age at first calving (months) was 43.6 and 54.4 in urban and rural dairy farms respectively with an overall average of 44.0. It was significantly (p<0.05) lower for urban dairy farms. Average service period (months) was 4.53 and 4.9 in urban and rural dairy farms respectively with an overall average of 4.71. It was significantly (p<0.05) lower for urban dairy farms. Average calving interval (months) was 15.5 and 16.17 in urban and rural dairy farms respectively with an overall average of 15.84. It was significantly (p<0.05) lower for urban dairy farms. In rural dairy farms age of first calving was highly significantly correlated with animal health. Urban dairy farms typically achieve higher productive and reproductive performance in cattle due to the predominant use of crossbred cattle. In contrast, rural dairy farms primarily rely on indigenous cattle breeds, which tend to have lower productive and reproductive efficiency.