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Ludhiana | GADVASU holds monthly seminar for dairy farmers
The seminar was held at Farmer Information Centre of GADVASU, Ludhiana, and 45 farmers associated with Progressive Livestock Farmers Association (PLFA) participated in the seminar for dairy farmers to tackle different diseases in livestock owing to imbalance in nutrients
Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) organised a monthly seminar for dairy farmers to tackle different diseases in livestock owing to imbalance in nutrients.
The seminar was held at Farmer Information Centre of the university and 45 farmers associated with Progressive Livestock Farmers Association (PLFA) participated in the seminar.
Stating that diseases or toxicities arise mostly due to ignorance, head of department of veterinary medicine Dr Ashwani Kumar stressed upon the importance of knowing calcium pathways in animal body and its varying requirements at different stages of lactation.
Kumar advised the farmers to avoid use of liquid calcium in dairy animals at any stage. “Milk fever in dairy animals can be easily prevented by including ammonium chloride in the diet, a few days before impending delivery. Injecting vitamin D a week before delivery can also prevent this condition,” he said.
The farmers were also apprised of signs of deficiency of phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, iodine and copper in dairy animals.
Professor Dr Parminder Singh interacted with the farmers on mineral requirements for individual animals, their resources and inclusion level in the compounded feed. He shared information for keeping input costs at a minimum level. “The small farmers can effectively use the mineral mixture available in the university. The large farmers can manufacture it at their own farm,” he said.
He advised the participating farmers to bring samples of feed, drinking water, silage and mineral mixture to the university to evaluate the quality of these commodities that are being offered to their dairy animals. This way, they can easily judge the reasons for the underperformance of their farms.
The university officials said monthly seminars are being organised by the directorate of extension education. The next seminar that will be held on June 9. The livestock farmers can contact university experts for any queries at 62832-97919.
