A Socio-economic Study on Household level Cross-bred Dairy Farming Practices at Selected Areas in Barisal District

Abstract

The study was designed to analyses the socio-economic characteristics of semi commercial cross-bred dairy cow owner and economic profitability of rearing dairy cow in selected areas under Agailjhara Upazila of Barisal District of Bangladesh. For achieving the objectives, samples of 73 dairy owners were selected randomly and primary data were collected from the selected farmsto determine the costs, returns and profitability of Cross-bred dairy farming practices. Costs and returns analysis as well as functional analysis were performed in the study. The study showed that, about 18.03% of Cross-bred cattle farm owners werelandless, 39.35% were small and marginal farmers, 27.87% were medium and 14.75% were large farmers according to their landholding sizes. The average rearing cost of Cross-bred cattle per cow per year as found on the basis of cash cost, non-cash cost and full cost basis at Tk. 65,525.00, respectively. The study also found that, average daily milk yield, lactation yield and lactation length of Cross-bred cattle were found 6.25 liters, 1425 liters and 228 days, respectively. The average gross return per year per cow of Cross-bred cattle was found at Tk. 97710.00. The average gross margin, net returns and BCR per cow per lactation period was found at 51960.00; 32085.00 and 1.49:1. The study also revealed that, the rural farmers prefer Cross-bred cattle farming than other local breeds due to high conception rate, each year calving, disease resistance, high milk fat percent, low calf mortality, calf mortality, high demand of beef, looking very nice cost and cost effective farming etc