Veterinary · Pre-clinical and foundation · also MSVE LPM-111, Animal Husbandry, Zootechnics
Breeds, housing, feeding, breeding and record keeping for cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats: the husbandry a field veterinarian advises on every day.
In the exams: Nepal NLEV Animal Husbandry 15 items (its largest block); PRC Zootechnics 12%; ICAR AICE-JRF core group 05; ICAR AIEEA-PG 14 (LPM); RPSC Part A (breeds and home tracts of Rajasthan); TNPSC LPM 20
Livestock production management (LPM), called animal husbandry in South Asia and zootechnics in the Philippines, Latin America and much of Europe, is the applied science of keeping animals so that they stay healthy, reproduce regularly and produce milk, meat, fibre and draught power at a cost the farmer can bear. This manual covers its general principles and the four domestic ruminants that matter most to a field veterinarian: dairy and dual-purpose cattle, water buffalo, sheep and goats.
Most disease on a farm is a management failure first. Calf scours follow poor colostrum feeding, mastitis follows dirty milking, repeat breeding follows missed heats and underfeeding, and heat stress follows badly designed sheds. On the smallholdings that produce most of the milk in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and East Africa, the veterinarian is often the only trained adviser the farmer meets, so husbandry advice is part of the job.
The subject is examined everywhere under different names: Animal Husbandry is the largest block of Nepal's licensure examination, Zootechnics carries 12% of the Philippine licensure examination, LPM sits in the Animal Sciences group of India's ICAR postgraduate and PhD entrance tests, Indian state commissions ask breeds, home tracts and census figures, and the North American, British, Australasian and South African licensing examinations test husbandry and welfare within production-animal medicine. Where practice, law or standards differ, this manual names the country. Figures such as floor space, feeding norms and legal limits are commonly quoted standards; check the current national standard where you work.
Livestock statistics are counts and estimates of animal numbers, their structure (species, breed, sex, age) and their products. Governments use them to plan vaccination campaigns, breeding programmes and veterinary services. A census is a complete enumeration of every household and animal on a reference date; a sample survey counts a chosen sample and estimates the whole. In India the livestock census is a complete count done about every five years, while milk, egg, meat and wool production is estimated each year through the Integrated Sample Survey and published as Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD). Internationally, FAO compiles national figures in its FAOSTAT database; the United States runs a five-yearly Census of Agriculture and European Union states report through Eurostat.
India's first livestock census was held in 1919-20. The 20th Livestock Census, with results released in 2019, was the first recorded digitally on tablets and counted animals by breed. It found about 535.78 million livestock, about 4.6% more than the 2012 figure of about 512.06 million: cattle about 192.49 million, buffalo about 109.85 million, goats about 148.88 million, sheep about 74.26 million and pigs about 9.06 million, with poultry counted separately at about 851.81 million. Between the two censuses cattle rose by less than 1%, buffalo by about 1%, goats by about 10% and sheep by about 14%, while pigs fell. Exotic and crossbred cattle increased sharply and indigenous cattle declined, and female cattle rose while males fell, reflecting mechanisation and the shift of cattle from draught to dairy. The 21st census was launched in late 2024; quote its figures only once officially released, and always give the census number with its year. Percentage growth is (new minus old) divided by old, times 100: for sheep, (74.26 - 65.07) / 65.07 x 100 is about 14.1%.
Global figures change yearly, so learn the shape rather than the decimal. Cattle number on the order of 1.5 billion, with large populations in Brazil, India, the United States, China, Ethiopia and Argentina. Water buffalo number roughly 200 million, mostly in Asia, with India holding the largest share followed by Pakistan and China. Sheep and goats each exceed a billion head. India has been the world's largest milk producer since the late 1990s, and a large part of its milk, like Pakistan's, comes from buffalo, which is unusual in world terms.
These facts explain the emphasis of different examinations. South Asian papers ask about indigenous breeds, buffalo and smallholder dairying; North American, European and Australasian papers assume large specialised Holstein-Friesian or Jersey herds and extensive sheep flocks; Kenyan and Ethiopian syllabi mix highland zero-grazing smallholder dairying with pastoral herds. Official statistics depend on enumerator training and farmers' willingness to declare animals, sample-survey estimates carry sampling error, and definitions such as what counts as crossbred differ between countries. When you quote a figure, name the source and year.
Domestic cattle are of two interbreeding types: humpless taurine cattle (Bos taurus), developed in the Near East and Europe, and humped zebu cattle (Bos indicus), developed in South Asia. Zebu have a hump, large dewlap, loose skin, more sweat glands and better tolerance of heat and ticks, but usually mature later and yield less milk than specialised taurine dairy breeds. A breed's home tract is the area where it developed; India's National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Karnal, registers breeds, and the list grows as populations are described. Indian breeds are grouped by use into milch, draught and dual-purpose types.
The main milch breeds are Sahiwal (Montgomery, now Sahiwal, district of Punjab, Pakistan; reddish-dun, loose-skinned, among the best zebu dairy breeds), Red Sindhi (Karachi and Hyderabad districts, Sindh, Pakistan; deep red, small), Gir (Gir forests of Saurashtra, Gujarat; convex forehead, long pendulous leaf-like ears; the basis of Brazil's Gir and Girolando dairy cattle), Tharparkar (Thar desert of Sindh and western Rajasthan; white or grey, hardy) and Rathi (Bikaner region, Rajasthan). Dual-purpose breeds include Hariana (Rohtak, Hisar and Jind, Haryana), Ongole (Nellore-Guntur, Andhra Pradesh; large and white), Kankrej (Rann of Kutch, Gujarat and adjoining Rajasthan; silver- to iron-grey with lyre-shaped horns), Deoni (Marathwada, Maharashtra, and adjoining Karnataka) and Krishna Valley. Draught breeds include Amritmahal and Hallikar (Karnataka), Khillari (southern Maharashtra), Kangayam and Bargur (Tamil Nadu), Malvi (Malwa, Madhya Pradesh), Nagori (Nagaur, Rajasthan), Ponwar and Kherigarh (Uttar Pradesh) and Siri (Sikkim and Darjeeling hills). Vechur of Kerala is among the smallest cattle in the world and Punganur of Andhra Pradesh is a dwarf breed.
Holstein-Friesian (Netherlands and north Germany; black and white) is the largest common dairy breed and the highest milk yielder, with lower fat percentage. Jersey (the Channel Island of Jersey; small, fawn) gives the highest fat percentage of the common dairy breeds and tolerates heat better than Holstein-Friesian. Guernsey, from the neighbouring island, gives yellowish milk rich in carotene. Brown Swiss originated in Switzerland, Ayrshire in Ayr, Scotland, and Red Dane in Denmark. Beef breeds include Hereford and Shorthorn (England), Aberdeen Angus (Scotland; black, polled), Charolais and Limousin (France), Simmental (Switzerland) and Belgian Blue (Belgium; double muscling from a myostatin mutation). The American Brahman was developed in the United States from Indian zebu including Ongole, Gir and Kankrej; Santa Gertrudis was developed in Texas from Shorthorn and Brahman. N'Dama of West Africa is noted for trypanotolerance, and Boran (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia) and the long-horned Ankole are East African breeds.
Crossbreeds of exotic and zebu parents include Jamaica Hope (mainly Jersey with Sahiwal), the Australian Milking Zebu (Jersey with Sahiwal and Red Sindhi), Karan Swiss (Brown Swiss with Sahiwal) and Karan Fries (Holstein-Friesian with Tharparkar), both from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Frieswal (Holstein-Friesian with Sahiwal, from the Indian military farms with ICAR), Sunandini (Kerala) and Brazil's Girolando (Gir with Holstein).
The water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) has two types. River buffalo (2n = 50 chromosomes) are the dairy buffalo of South Asia, the Middle East, Egypt and southern Europe. Swamp buffalo (2n = 48) are draught and meat animals of South-East Asia and southern China, such as the Philippine carabao; crosses have 49 chromosomes.
Murrah (Rohtak, Hisar and Jind, Haryana) is jet black with short, tightly curled horns and is exported widely, including to the Philippines for crossing with carabao, and to Brazil and Bulgaria. Nili-Ravi (Sutlej and Ravi valleys: Firozpur in India and Sahiwal region in Pakistan) is black with white markings on the forehead, face, muzzle, legs and tail switch and often has wall eyes. Jaffarabadi (Gir forest region, Saurashtra) is the heaviest Indian buffalo, with heavy drooping horns that may partly cover the eyes. Surti (Kheda and Vadodara, Gujarat) has sickle-shaped horns and two white collars (chevrons) at the jaw and brisket. Mehsana (north Gujarat) is thought to derive from Murrah and Surti. Bhadawari (Agra-Etawah in Uttar Pradesh and Bhind-Morena in Madhya Pradesh) is copper-coloured with very high milk fat. Nagpuri (Maharashtra) has long, flat, sword-shaped horns, Pandharpuri (Maharashtra) very long horns, Toda belongs to the Nilgiri hills, Chilika to Odisha and Banni to Kutch. Elsewhere, the Mediterranean buffalo of Italy supplies mozzarella and the Egyptian buffalo is a major milk animal of the Nile valley.
Sheep (Ovis aries) are classified by main product: fine, medium, long or carpet wool, mutton, milk, pelts, or hair sheep that need no shearing. India's north temperate region (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand) has finer-wooled breeds such as Gaddi, Rampur Bushair and Kashmir Merino; the north-western arid region has carpet-wool breeds; the southern peninsula has mutton breeds with coarse, hairy or no fleece; and the east has small, prolific mutton sheep.
In Rajasthan, Chokla (Shekhawati: Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar) has the finest Indian carpet wool and is sometimes called the Indian Merino; Magra (Bikaner) has lustrous, very white carpet wool; Marwari (Jodhpur and western Rajasthan) is the most numerous and drought-hardy; Nali (Ganganagar, Churu, Jhunjhunu) has a dense long-staple fleece; and Jaisalmeri, Pugal, Malpura (Jaipur, Tonk) and Sonadi (Udaipur, Chittorgarh) complete the list. In the south, Nellore (Andhra Pradesh) is a tall hairy mutton sheep, Deccani (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana) a black coarse-wooled mutton breed, Mandya (Bannur) a compact Karnataka mutton sheep and Madras Red a Tamil Nadu hair sheep. Muzaffarnagri (western Uttar Pradesh) is a large mutton breed. Garole of the Sundarbans, West Bengal, is small and prolific and carries the FecB (Booroola) mutation in the BMPR1B gene, which raises ovulation rate; the Booroola Merino of Australia is thought to have received it from Bengal sheep. The Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar, developed Bharat Merino (exotic fine-wool rams on Chokla and Nali), Avikalin (Rambouillet x Malpura) and Avivastra (Rambouillet x Chokla).
The Merino originated in Spain and dominates Australian fine-wool production; the Rambouillet is a French development of it; Corriedale was developed in New Zealand from Merino and long-wool breeds. Lincoln, Leicester and Romney Marsh are English long-wool breeds; Suffolk (black face) and Southdown are English Down meat breeds used as terminal sires; Dorset Horn can breed out of the normal autumn season; Texel (Netherlands) is heavily muscled. Dairy sheep include East Friesian (Germany), Lacaune (France, the milk of Roquefort cheese) and the fat-tailed Awassi of the Middle East. The Karakul of Central Asia is kept for lamb pelts, Finnsheep and Romanov for prolificacy, and the Dorper of South Africa (Dorset Horn x Blackhead Persian) is a hair-meat breed.
Goats (Capra hircus) are kept for meat, milk, fibre and skin; in India they are mainly meat animals of small and landless farmers. Jamunapari, from the Chakarnagar area of Etawah district, Uttar Pradesh, is the tallest Indian goat, with a strongly Roman nose, very long pendulous ears and long hair on the hindquarters; it is a dual-purpose milk and meat breed. Beetal (Gurdaspur and Amritsar, Punjab, and adjacent Pakistan) is a large dairy-type goat. Barbari (Etah, Agra, Mathura and Pakistan) is small, prolific and suited to stall feeding. Black Bengal (West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Bangladesh) is small, very prolific, and prized for meat and for high-quality skin. Sirohi (Sirohi district) and Marwari are Rajasthan breeds, and Jakhrana (Alwar region) is a good milk goat. Osmanabadi and Sangamneri are from Maharashtra, Surti, Mehsana and Zalawadi from Gujarat, Malabari (Tellicherry) from Kerala, Ganjam from Odisha and Kanni Adu from Tamil Nadu. Changthangi of Ladakh and Chegu of the Himachal and Uttarakhand highlands produce pashmina.
Exotic dairy goats include Saanen (Switzerland; white, the highest-yielding, called the queen of dairy goats), Toggenburg (Switzerland), Alpine (French Alps), Anglo-Nubian (England, from British goats crossed with goats of Indian and African origin; Roman nose and long ears) and LaMancha (United States; very short ears). The Damascus (Shami) is a Middle Eastern dairy goat. The Boer of South Africa is the leading meat goat, the Angora of Turkey produces mohair, and cashmere comes from the undercoat of goats in Mongolia, China, Iran and Ladakh.
A shed protects animals from heat, cold, rain, wind and predators, keeps them clean, dry and comfortable, and makes feeding, milking and cleaning efficient. A good site is high, well-drained, has clean water, power and an all-weather road, and is away from homes. In hot climates the long axis is usually run east-west so that the sun falls on the short end walls and the roof shades the floor; in cold climates the shed is sited to shelter animals from prevailing wind. Floors should be hard, non-slippery and impervious, such as grooved concrete, sloping slightly to a drain, with manure going to a pit or biogas plant downhill and downwind.
The two broad systems are the conventional (tie-stall or stanchion) barn, where each animal is tied at its own standing place, and loose housing, where animals move freely in a partly roofed, partly open enclosure and are tied only for milking or treatment. Loose housing is cheaper, allows exercise, makes heat detection easier and is easy to expand; it is commonly recommended in India for small and medium herds in the plains. Conventional barns give individual feeding and close observation but cost more; they suit cold climates.
In a double-row barn, animals stand face-out (tail to tail, common dung alley) or face-in (head to head, common feed alley). Face-out makes cleaning and milking easier, lets the stockman see the hindquarters and udder for heat and disease, and reduces spread of respiratory infection because animals do not breathe into each other's faces. Face-in makes feeding easier and lets sunlight fall on the gutters along the outer walls. Indian texts commonly advise a single row for small herds and a double row above about 16 animals. Large dairies in North America and Europe use freestall (cubicle) barns, loose housing in which each cow chooses a bedded stall; tie-stalls survive on small farms in Alpine Europe and Canada; and cows in New Zealand and Ireland graze most of the year with little housing.
Floor-space standards vary by country, animal size and system, so use the one that applies to you. Indian textbooks and the ICAR Handbook of Animal Husbandry commonly quote, per animal in loose housing: adult cow about 3.5 square metres covered and 7.0 square metres open; adult buffalo about 4.0 covered and 8.0 open; breeding bull about 12 covered and 120 open; cow near calving about 12 covered; young calves about 1.0 covered and 2.0 open; older calves about 2.0 covered and 4.0 open. A manger length of roughly 60-75 cm per adult is a common guide. For sheep and goats, about 1 square metre of covered space per adult is a commonly quoted Indian figure, more for rams and bucks, with about twice that as open space.
To plan, multiply the number in each class by its figure and add. With the figures above, 20 cows, 10 buffaloes, one bull and 8 young calves need 20 x 3.5 + 10 x 4.0 + 12 + 8 x 1.0 = 130 square metres covered and 20 x 7 + 10 x 8 + 120 + 8 x 2 = 356 square metres open. Then add passages, a feed store, a calving pen, an isolation pen and a milk room. In hot climates, roofs are high (about 3 metres at the eaves or more), light-coloured or insulated and overhanging, with open sides and ridge ventilation.
Each animal has a thermoneutral zone in which it holds body temperature with little extra energy. Above it, the animal pants, seeks shade, eats less, gives less milk and shows weaker, shorter heats, and conception rate falls; high-yielding Holstein-Friesian cows are especially vulnerable. Buffalo, with dark skin and few sweat glands, need shade and a wallow or sprinklers in summer. The temperature-humidity index (THI) combines temperature and humidity to warn of heat stress; several formulae and thresholds are in use, and thresholds for high yielders have been lowered over time, so follow your advisory service.
Heat abatement starts with shade, then ventilation, then evaporative cooling (sprinklers or foggers with fans), plenty of cool water, feeding in cooler hours and a more energy-dense ration with adequate fibre. Cold stress mainly affects newborn calves, lambs and kids and newly shorn sheep; bedding, draught-free housing and extra energy protect them. Welfare law in many countries, including the European Union and United Kingdom, sets minimum standards such as calf pen size and group housing.
Breeding management decides which animals become parents, when they are mated and by what method, so that the herd improves genetically and each female breeds on time. Selection in dairy animals is based on milk yield, fat and protein, fertility, udder and feet conformation, longevity and health traits. Bulls are ranked by progeny testing, comparing daughters' records with contemporaries', or by genomic selection, in which DNA markers predict breeding value early in life and shorten the generation interval. Females are selected on their own and their dams' records, and poor producers, poor breeders and chronically diseased animals are culled.
Inbreeding (mating relatives) increases homozygosity and exposes harmful recessive genes. Crossbreeding between breeds exploits hybrid vigour (heterosis) and combines complementary traits. Grading up mates a non-descript population generation after generation to bulls of an improved breed until the offspring approach that breed. Pure breeding with selection is used to conserve and improve indigenous breeds.
India's cattle breeding policy broadly grades up non-descript cattle with improved indigenous breeds, crossbreeds low producers with Holstein-Friesian or Jersey where feed and management allow, and keeps exotic inheritance at about 50%, somewhat higher in favourable areas, because higher levels in the tropics tend to cost heat tolerance, disease resistance and fertility. Buffalo are graded up with Murrah and other recognised breeds. The Rashtriya Gokul Mission, begun in 2014, supports indigenous bovine breeds, and sex-sorted semen is promoted to produce more female calves. Brazil built dairying on Gir-Holstein crosses, Kenyan smallholders use crossbred Friesian, Ayrshire and Jersey cows, and the Philippines crosses carabao with river buffalo. Temperate Holstein herds increasingly crossbreed with breeds such as Jersey or Swedish Red to improve fertility and health.
In natural service, the number of females per male depends on age, libido and system; a mature bull in the field is commonly given roughly 25-50 cows, a mature ram 30-50 ewes and a buck 25-40 does, fewer for young males. A flock of 120 ewes at one ram to 40 ewes needs 3 rams, plus a spare. Every breeding male should pass a breeding soundness examination before the season.
Artificial insemination (AI) spreads superior genetics widely, controls venereal diseases such as trichomoniasis and campylobacteriosis, and avoids keeping a dangerous bull. Success depends on heat detection, timing, semen handling and the inseminator's skill; frozen semen is stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius. The traditional morning-evening rule says that a cow first seen in heat in the morning is inseminated that evening, and one seen in the evening the next morning. Synchronisation and fixed-time AI are widely used in large herds.
Heifers should be bred on weight rather than age: a common guide is roughly 55-65% of mature body weight, which well-reared Holstein heifers reach at about 13-15 months, calving at about 22-24 months. Poorly fed zebu heifers and buffalo reach it much later, and first calving at three to four years is common on smallholdings. Ewe lambs and doelings are commonly bred at about 60-70% of adult weight.
Reproduction management keeps females cycling, detects heat, gets them pregnant on time after parturition and confirms pregnancy. The oestrous cycle averages about 21 days in cattle, buffalo and goats and about 17 days in sheep. Oestrus lasts about 18 hours on average in cattle (roughly 12-24, often shorter in zebu and high yielders), about a day in buffalo, one to one and a half days in sheep and about one and a half days in goats. Gestation is about 280-285 days in cattle (slightly longer in zebu), about 310 days in river buffalo (longer in swamp buffalo) and about 150 days in sheep and goats. In temperate latitudes sheep and goats are short-day seasonal breeders; near the equator they breed most of the year. River buffalo in India breed mainly from late monsoon to winter, and summer anoestrus is common.
Standing to be mounted is the most reliable sign of heat in cattle; others are mounting other cows, restlessness, bellowing, reduced yield, a swollen vulva and clear, stringy mucus. Buffalo show heat weakly and often at night, with much silent heat, so detection needs frequent observation, a teaser bull and attention to mucus and frequent urination. Does wag their tails and bleat; ewes show little sign and are detected with a raddled teaser ram.
The uterus involutes in about four to six weeks in cows, longer in buffalo. The voluntary waiting period, when the farmer deliberately does not breed, is commonly about 45-60 days in cows. The service period (days open) runs from calving to conception. Calving interval equals gestation plus service period: a 280-day gestation and 105-day service period give 385 days, about 12.7 months. The classical target for dairy cows is about 12-13 months, which needs conception within about 85-115 days of calving; for river buffalo about 13-14 months is practical, and a 13.5-month interval (about 411 days) with a 310-day gestation needs conception within about 101 days. Long intervals mean fewer calves and more time in late lactation or dry.
An expected parturition date is the service date plus the gestation length. A cow served on 10 March with a 283-day gestation is due on 18 December; a doe mated on 15 January with a 150-day gestation is due on 14 June.
Conception rate is animals conceiving divided by animals inseminated: 60 of 100 is 60%. Services per conception is services divided by conceptions and, at a 60% conception rate, is about 1/0.6 = 1.67; below about 2 is generally acceptable in cows. Heat detection rate is the percentage of eligible cows seen in heat in a 21-day period. Pregnancy rate, widely used in North America, is the percentage of eligible cows becoming pregnant per 21-day period and equals heat detection rate times conception rate: 50% x 40% = 20%. A repeat breeder has normal cycles and no palpable abnormality but fails to conceive after three or more services. Anoestrus is common in underfed, high-yielding and summer-stressed animals and in buffalo.
Pregnancy is confirmed by rectal palpation in cattle and buffalo (from about 35-45 days by an experienced examiner), by transrectal ultrasound from about 28-30 days in cattle, by transabdominal ultrasound in sheep and goats from about 30-40 days, and by pregnancy-associated glycoprotein or progesterone assays. Early diagnosis lets open animals be rebred quickly.
Rumen microbes ferment fibre into volatile fatty acids and microbial protein, so ruminants turn plant material people cannot eat into milk and meat. Feeds are roughages (bulky, fibrous: green fodder, hay, straw, stover, silage) or concentrates (dense in energy or protein: grains, oilseed cakes, brans). Leguminous green fodders such as lucerne, berseem and cowpea are rich in protein and calcium; non-legumes include maize, sorghum, oats and grasses.
Rations are built on dry matter (DM) because water content varies: green fodder is about 15-25% DM, silage about 25-40%, and hay, straw and concentrate about 85-90%. Cattle and buffalo commonly eat about 2.5-3% of body weight as DM daily, high yielders more; sheep and goats commonly about 3-4% or more. A 450 kg cow at 3% eats 13.5 kg DM; with two-thirds from roughage that is 9 kg roughage DM and 4.5 kg concentrate DM, and if half the roughage DM is green fodder at 20% DM she needs 4.5 / 0.20 = 22.5 kg fresh green fodder.
Without a scale, weight can be estimated with a weigh band or Shaeffer's formula: weight (lb) = length x heart girth squared / 300, in inches. A cow 60 inches long with a 70-inch girth weighs about 60 x 4,900 / 300 = 980 lb, about 445 kg; such estimates are approximate.
Requirements are set by national standards such as ICAR's in India, the US National Academies' and European systems such as INRA and NorFor. Where rations cannot be formulated, Indian texts give a rule of thumb: a maintenance concentrate allowance of about 1-1.5 kg for a cow on average roughage (more for buffalo or poor roughage) plus about 1 kg concentrate per 2.5 kg of milk in cows and per 2 kg of milk in buffalo, whose milk is richer. A cow giving 10 kg milk with a 1.5 kg maintenance allowance gets 1.5 + 10 / 2.5 = 5.5 kg concentrate.
Smallholders in South Asia and East Africa cut and carry fodder and crop residues to stall-fed animals (zero grazing in Kenya). Large dairies in North America, Europe, the Middle East and China feed a total mixed ration (TMR) in which every mouthful has the same balance. New Zealand and Ireland run seasonal pasture-based systems with calving timed to grass growth. Sheep and goats mostly graze or browse with supplements at critical times.
Straws are poor in protein and digestibility. They can be improved by urea treatment (commonly about 4 kg urea per 100 kg straw, dissolved in water, sprayed and sealed for about three weeks, longer in cold weather), by urea-molasses-mineral blocks or by feeding with legumes. Excess urea, urea without fermentable energy, or urea for calves with an undeveloped rumen risks ammonia toxicity. Area-specific mineral mixtures correct local deficiencies.
Hay is green fodder dried to about 15% moisture or less. Silage is chopped green fodder, commonly maize or sorghum, packed airtight at about 30-35% DM so that lactic acid bacteria lower the pH and preserve it; good silage smells pleasantly acidic, and butyric or mouldy silage signals poor fermentation.
Flushing gives extra energy to ewes, does and sometimes heifers for two to three weeks before and during mating to raise ovulation rate. Steaming up gives extra concentrate in the last six to eight weeks of pregnancy. Challenge (lead) feeding raises concentrate gradually in early lactation to let the cow reach peak yield. Dry cows need controlled energy so they do not fatten, and close-up cows a ration that prevents milk fever, for example by controlling calcium and the dietary cation-anion difference.
Body condition score (BCS) assesses fat cover by hand; dairy cows are scored 1-5 in North America and much of Asia and 1-10 in New Zealand, so name the scale. On the 1-5 scale, calving at about 3.0-3.5 and losing no more than about one unit in early lactation reduces metabolic and fertility problems. Water is needed in the greatest amount of any nutrient, and restricting it cuts intake and yield at once.
Dairy efficiency is kg milk per kg DM: 24 kg milk from 16 kg DM is 1.5, and higher is better. Feed conversion ratio in growing animals is kg feed per kg gain: a lamb eating 105 kg DM while growing from 15 to 30 kg has a ratio of 7.0, and lower is better. Students often confuse the two.
Neonatal mortality is one of the largest losses on smallholdings, especially in buffalo calves. At birth, mucus is cleared from the nose and mouth, breathing is stimulated if needed, and the dam licks the newborn. The navel is dipped in an antiseptic such as tincture of iodine to reduce navel ill and joint ill.
The ruminant placenta does not transfer antibodies, so the newborn depends on colostrum for passive immunity. The gut absorbs whole antibodies for only a short time, and absorption falls steadily over the first day, so colostrum should be fed as soon as possible, ideally within the first hour or two. A common guide is about 10% of body weight as good colostrum within the first several hours: about 4 litres for a 40 kg calf, often as a first feed of 2-4 litres depending on calf size. Quality can be checked with a colostrometer or Brix refractometer. Failure of passive transfer is judged from serum immunoglobulin G or serum total protein in the first week; calves that fail have more scours and pneumonia. Lambs and kids also need colostrum within hours, and weak twins and triplets may need bottle or stomach-tube feeding.
Calves are reared with the dam, suckling for part of each milking, which is traditional with zebu cows and buffalo that will not let down without the calf, or artificially on whole milk or milk replacer. A traditional Indian allowance is whole milk at about one-tenth of body weight daily in the early weeks; higher allowances are now used in many countries. Calf starter and clean water from the first week, and hay a little later, drive rumen development; weaning at about 8-12 weeks on adequate starter intake is safer than weaning by age. Calves need clean, dry, draught-free pens; EU and UK rules limit individual housing. Disbudding, removal of supernumerary teats and castration are done early, and many countries require anaesthesia and analgesia and restrict method and age by law. Buffalo calves acquire Toxocara vitulorum through the dam's milk, so early deworming is advised in endemic areas.
A heifer is a young female that has not calved. Growth targets are proportions of mature weight: puberty at about 40-45%, breeding at about 55-65% and calving at about 80-85%. Over-fattening before puberty can impair udder development. Late first calving in indigenous cattle and buffalo, mainly from poor nutrition, shortens productive life and raises rearing cost, and better heifer feeding is often one of the quickest ways to raise a smallholding's output.
Lambing and kidding take place in a clean, sheltered pen, with watch for dystocia and mismothering; weak young are warmed and given colostrum and the navel is dipped. Creep feed, concentrate in an area only the young can enter, can be offered from about two to three weeks. Weaning is commonly at about three months in meat flocks, earlier in intensive systems. Lamb and kid losses concentrate in the first few days of life, from starvation, hypothermia, mismothering and predation, so the greatest return comes from supervision at birth and in the first week.
Castration of surplus males, tail docking of wool sheep to reduce soiling and flystrike, and disbudding of dairy kids are regulated differently in each country; some European countries restrict routine docking, and mulesing of Merino lambs in Australia is contested and increasingly done with pain relief or replaced by breeding for bare breech. Lambs and kids are vaccinated against clostridial diseases such as enterotoxaemia and tetanus under national schedules, and deworming guided by faecal egg counts slows anthelmintic resistance.
Pregnant animals need quiet, gentle handling, non-slip floors and good feeding in late pregnancy, when most fetal growth occurs. Cows and buffalo are moved to a clean calving pen a few days before the due date (Indian texts commonly allow about 12 square metres covered per animal). The dry period lets the udder regress and regenerate and the animal rebuild reserves; about 60 days (range roughly 45-60) is the classical recommendation for dairy cows, shorter periods tending to reduce the next lactation. Dry-cow intramammary antibiotic and/or internal teat sealant cure and prevent infections; several countries, notably the Netherlands and the Nordic countries, have moved from blanket to selective dry-cow therapy to reduce antimicrobial use. The transition period, about three weeks before to three weeks after calving, concentrates milk fever, retained placenta, ketosis, displaced abomasum and metritis; prevention rests on body condition, dry-cow feeding, intake after calving and a clean, calm calving area.
Approaching parturition is signalled by udder filling, a swollen soft vulva, clear mucus as the cervical seal liquefies, relaxation of the pelvic ligaments so that the tailhead appears raised, and restlessness. Staff should watch without disturbing and call a veterinarian early if labour does not progress. A cow should pass the placenta within about 12 hours; otherwise it is retained. Watch high-yielding older cows for milk fever, and buffalo for vaginal prolapse before and after calving. Ewes and does carrying multiples need careful feeding in late pregnancy to avoid pregnancy toxaemia.
Yield rises after calving to a peak, usually about four to eight weeks after calving in dairy cows, then declines. Persistency describes how well yield holds after the peak. Intake peaks later than yield, so early-lactation cows are in negative energy balance and mobilise fat, which is why nutrition in the first 100 days affects both yield and fertility.
The standard lactation in cattle is 305 days, which with a 60-day dry period fits a 365-day calving interval. Where milk is not weighed daily, total yield is estimated from test-day records. In the test interval (Fleischmann) method each interval between tests is credited with the average of its two test-day yields times the days in the interval; the period from calving to the first test is credited with the first test-day yield, and from the last test to the end of lactation with the last. Average daily yield is lactation yield divided by lactation length. Wet average is the average daily yield of animals in milk; herd average divides total milk by all cows, in milk and dry. A herd of 50 cows with 40 in milk producing 400 kg a day has a wet average of 10 kg and a herd average of 8 kg.
Lactating animals should be milked at regular, evenly spaced times, fed by yield and stage, given free water and watched for mastitis, lameness and metabolic disease. Intensive dairy cows often exceed 305 days in milk, whereas indigenous zebu cows and many buffalo have shorter lactations; buffalo milk has markedly higher fat and total solids than cow milk.
Clean milk comes from healthy animals, is collected in clean dry vessels, is free from dirt, hair, flies and off-flavours, has a low bacterial count and normal composition, and carries no drug, pesticide or other residues. It keeps longer, earns more and is safer; raw milk can carry zoonotic pathogens such as Brucella, Mycobacterium bovis, Listeria, Salmonella and pathogenic Escherichia coli.
Milk is almost sterile inside a healthy udder; contamination is added at each step. Sources are the udder (mastitis organisms, and bacteria in the teat canal, so the first squirts are the most contaminated), the animal's coat and teats, the milker's hands, clothing and health, utensils and equipment (the largest source when poorly cleaned, because milk residues feed bacteria), the environment (dust, flies, dung, feeding dusty hay before milking) and washing water. Warm milk left uncooled lets bacteria multiply rapidly. Clean milk production is therefore a chain: a break at any link, from a mastitic quarter to an unwashed can or a delayed cooler, spoils the whole collection.
Milk healthy animals in a clean place, not immediately after feeding dusty hay. The milker should be healthy, with short nails, washed hands and clean clothes. Fore-strip the first squirts from each teat into a strip cup to remove the most contaminated milk and detect clots of clinical mastitis. Clean the teats, preferably with a pre-milking disinfectant (pre-dip), and dry each with an individual towel. Start milking within about a minute of beginning preparation, because oxytocin-driven let-down lasts only a few minutes.
Hand milking is done by the full-hand (fisting) method, closing the fingers in sequence from the top of the teat; knuckling, with the thumb bent against the teat, damages it; stripping between thumb and forefinger is kept for small teats or the last milk. Milk quickly and completely, healthy animals first and mastitic ones last, and keep milk from treated animals separate until the withdrawal period has passed. Post-milking teat dipping is among the most effective measures against contagious mastitis, and offering feed after milking keeps animals standing while the teat canal closes.
Machine milking uses vacuum to open the teat canal and a pulsator that alternately opens and collapses the liner so that teat circulation is maintained. Vacuum level and pulsation rate and ratio follow the equipment standard (ISO 6690 and related standards govern testing) and must be checked regularly; liners are replaced on schedule, and equipment is rinsed, washed with hot detergent and sanitised after each milking.
Rapid cooling is the most important step after milking. European Union rules require milk collected daily to be cooled immediately to 8 degrees Celsius or below, and to 6 degrees Celsius or below if not collected daily. The US Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance requires cooling to 10 degrees Celsius or less within four hours of the start of the first milking and to 7 degrees Celsius or less within two hours after milking ends. Indian cooperatives use village bulk milk coolers to chill milk to about 4 degrees Celsius.
Somatic cell count (SCC), white cells and shed epithelial cells per millilitre, rises with udder infection. Bulk-tank limits differ: 400,000 cells/mL in the European Union (rolling geometric average) and Canada, and 750,000 cells/mL for Grade A cow milk in the United States. The California Mastitis Test screens quarters on the farm: its reagent reacts with cell DNA to form a gel. Platform tests include organoleptic checks, clot-on-boiling and alcohol tests, lactometer reading, fat testing and the methylene blue reduction test, in which faster decolourisation means more bacterial activity. Composition standards are set nationally; in India the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India sets them, varying by state and milk class, with higher fat and solids-not-fat required for buffalo milk. Drug residue limits are set by Codex Alimentarius and national regulators.
Identification links an animal to its owner, records, breeding, treatments and movements, and underpins recording, insurance, disease control and food traceability. Permanent methods are tattooing (ink in the inner ear, readable in unpigmented skin), hot-iron branding (painful, damages the hide, restricted in some countries), freeze branding (a supercooled iron kills pigment cells so hair regrows white; less painful) and ear notching (used mainly in pigs, sometimes in sheep and goats). Plastic and metal ear tags are the most widely used method for cattle, sheep and goats. Electronic methods are radio-frequency identification (RFID) ear tags, rumen boluses and injectable microchips. Temporary methods are paint or crayon marks, neck chains and tail tags. Muzzle prints are unique to each bovine and are studied for image-based identification.
In the European Union every bovine carries two approved ear tags with the same unique number and is registered in a national database with a passport, and sheep and goats have been electronically identified since 2010. Australia's National Livestock Identification System uses RFID devices for cattle and is extending electronic tags to sheep and goats. In India, cattle and buffalo under the national programme carry a 12-digit unique identification ear tag, widely called Pashu Aadhaar, linked to vaccination, AI and ownership records.
Ruminants have no upper incisors or canines; a hard dental pad takes their place. The lower canine is incisiform and is counted in practical ageing as the fourth (corner) incisor. The deciduous formula of cattle, sheep and goats is 2 x (incisors 0/3, canines 0/1, premolars 3/3) = 20; the permanent formula is 2 x (incisors 0/3, canines 0/1, premolars 3/3, molars 3/3) = 32. Temporary incisors are smaller, whiter and have a distinct neck.
Permanent incisors erupt pair by pair from the centre outwards. In cattle the central pair erupts at about 1.5-2 years, the second at about 2.5 years, the third at about 3-3.5 years and the corners at about 3.5-4 years (full mouth). Zebu, late-maturing and poorly fed cattle erupt later, and buffalo later still, reaching full mouth at around five years. After full mouth, age is judged from wear, which depends on feed and soil. In sheep and goats the central pair erupts at about 1-1.5 years, the second at about 1.5-2, the third at about 2.5-3 and the corners at about 3-4 years; old ewes that lose teeth are broken-mouthed and are culled because they graze poorly.
Horn rings in cows form roughly one per calving, and a traditional rule adds about two years to the ring count; it is unreliable in bulls and irregular breeders. Terms: calf, heifer (female not yet calved), cow, bull, bullock or steer (castrated male), freemartin (sterile female twin of a male); lamb, ewe, ram or tup, wether (castrate), hogget (from weaning to first shearing); kid, doe, buck, wether. Parturition is calving, lambing and kidding.
A farm without records cannot tell which animals to cull, whether fertility is slipping or whether it makes a profit. Standard dairy records are a livestock register (identity, birth, parents, entry and exit), breeding register (heats, services, semen, pregnancy diagnosis), calving register, daily milk yield register, feed register, health and treatment register (diagnosis, drug, dose, withdrawal period, vaccination, deworming), deaths and disposals, and financial records (cash book, sales and purchases, inventory). A history-cum-pedigree sheet summarises each animal. Flocks keep equivalent lambing, weaning-weight, shearing and sale records. National milk recording organisations, the US Dairy Herd Improvement programmes and national animal information systems computerise these data, and the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR, not India's ICAR) sets international guidelines.
Key indicators are lactation and 305-day yield, peak yield and persistency, days in milk, percentage of cows in milk, age at first calving, calving interval, service and dry periods, conception rate, services per conception, heat detection and pregnancy rates, calf mortality, culling rate and reasons, and feed cost per litre. The percentage of cows in milk is approximately lactation length divided by calving interval: a 365-day interval with a 60-day dry period gives 305/365, about 84%; a 450-day interval with a 305-day lactation gives about 68%. Indian texts commonly regard fewer than about 70-75% of cows in milk as a sign of poor management.
Herd strength depends on calving rate, sex ratio, young-stock mortality, age at first calving and adult culling. Project one year at a time. From 50 cows with a 75% calving rate, a 1:1 sex ratio and 8% female calf mortality, about 50 x 0.75 x 0.5 x 0.92, roughly 17, female yearlings result; with 20% of cows culled or dead and no heifers yet calving, the adult herd falls to 40. A 100-cow herd replacing 25% a year needs 25 heifers entering; if 10% of heifers are lost before calving, about 25 / 0.9, or 28, heifer calves must be reared. A high involuntary culling rate signals disease, not selection.
Fixed costs (depreciation, interest on capital, insurance, permanent labour) do not change with output in the short term; variable costs (feed, veterinary care, AI, power, casual labour) do. Feed is usually the largest cost of milk production, commonly around 60-70% in Indian studies. Straight-line depreciation is (cost minus salvage) divided by life: a 500,000 shed worth 50,000 after 20 years depreciates 22,500 a year. Cost per litre is total cost over total milk: 180,000 variable plus 40,000 fixed over 11,000 litres is 20 per litre. Break-even quantity is fixed cost divided by (price minus variable cost per unit): 120,000 / (40 - 25) = 8,000 litres. A benefit-cost ratio (returns over costs) above 1 means the enterprise pays; bank-financed projects are also appraised by net present value and internal rate of return. Income comes from milk, surplus young stock, cull animals, manure or biogas, wool and skins; insurance, cooperative marketing such as India's Anand-pattern cooperatives under Operation Flood, and credit reduce smallholder risk.
A management calendar lists month by month the breeding, parturition, vaccination, deworming, shearing, fodder and marketing tasks of a farm. It must fit the local climate, disease seasons and national vaccination programme, so no single calendar applies everywhere.
In the Indian subcontinent, haemorrhagic septicaemia and black quarter vaccination is timed before the monsoon; foot-and-mouth disease vaccination is repeated about every six months under the national programme, which also vaccinates female calves against brucellosis at about four to eight months of age; deworming is often planned before and after the monsoon; buffalo breeding peaks from late monsoon to winter; sheep in the arid north-west are commonly shorn in spring and autumn; and monsoon fodder surpluses are conserved for the lean summer. In temperate Europe and North America, ewes are mated in autumn to lamb in spring and cattle are often housed in winter. In New Zealand and Ireland, dairying is built around compact spring calving matched to grass growth. In East Africa, calendars follow the long and short rains. Every calendar should also schedule breeding soundness examination of males, condition scoring before mating and parturition, hoof trimming and an annual review of records.
Learn the breeds with their home tracts, the reproductive parameters of each species, the dentition table and the floor-space figures until you can recall them without hesitation, because they are asked in every Indian, Nepali and Philippine paper. Then practise the calculations: calving date, calving interval, percentage of cows in milk, 305-day yield by the test interval method, concentrate allowance, straight-line depreciation and break-even. On farm visits during your course, age animals by teeth, score body condition, watch a milking and fill in a breeding register, so that the textbook terms become things you have seen.
After five years in the field, husbandry advice is a daily part of your work. You will diagnose repeat breeding in a village and find that the cows are underfed and heats are missed; you will trace a calf-scour outbreak to late colostrum feeding; you will reduce a dairy's somatic cell count by fixing the milking routine and teat dipping. Learn to read a farm's records in ten minutes: calving interval, services per conception, percentage of cows in milk and calf mortality tell you where to look. Advise on shed siting and heat abatement before a farmer builds, and cost your recommendations so that the farmer can afford them.
With 25 years of experience you design and run programmes rather than advise single farms: district breeding plans, heifer-rearing schemes, milk-quality incentives for cooperatives, and management calendars matched to disease seasons and vaccination campaigns. You judge whether a proposed dairy project's assumptions on calving interval, yield and feed cost are realistic before a bank finances it, and you settle disputes over breed identity, age and insurance claims. You also train younger veterinarians and paravets in recording, identification and clean milk production, which only work if everyone does them the same way.
At the research level the questions are about systems and evidence. You might quantify the genotype-by-environment interaction that decides the right level of exotic inheritance in a region, model herd dynamics to show how age at first calving and calving interval drive lifetime productivity, test heat-abatement methods under local THI conditions, or evaluate selective dry-cow therapy for antimicrobial stewardship in smallholder herds. You must design trials with adequate power, use national recording data critically, and translate findings into policy on breeding, feeding standards and milk quality, while recognising where the evidence from temperate intensive systems does not transfer to tropical smallholdings.
This manual does not yet give a complete list of NBAGR-registered breeds (the list grows every year), and gives only representative breeds per state. Final 21st Livestock Census figures were not yet available to this manual and are not quoted. Floor-space, feeding and milking-machine settings are given as commonly quoted figures, not as the text of any national standard (for example BIS or ISO); check the current standard before designing a shed or setting equipment. Detailed nutrient-requirement tables, ration formulation, detailed milking-machine function tests, camel, yak and mithun management (a separate subject), and drug doses are outside this manual. Buffalo dentition ages and horn-ring rules are approximate and vary between sources.
Original practice questions written to the syllabus and pattern of the exams named in each question's examTags. They are not past papers and do not reproduce any board's questions.
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