For calf colostrum is a miraculous food. It boosts the calf immunity. Earlier it is fed more will be its benefit so it should be fed as soon possible. It is best if fed within half an hour of birth and should not delayed more than four hours of birth. It is generally fed 10 percent of body weight per day with the gap of 8 to 10 hours in two doses. If the weight of calf is 40 kg, then it should be fed 2 kg in morning and 2 kg in the evening. In recent research it was found that if colostrum are fed 15 percent of body weight to the buffalo calf it is much advantageous, calf gains weight at fast rate. But if it is fed at this rate the frequency of feeding should increase to 7-8 times a day.
Usually in the 5th – 6th and 11th – 12th month of year there is deficiency of green fodder. So it is important to prepare hay and silage so that animals could be fed enough even during the lean periods.
Yes, it is beneficial to keep the male, but not for breeding unless it is of superior quality because artificial insemination is the best alternative for breeding the animals. The main motive of keeping the male should be for efficient heat detection of animals. Researchers have found that keeping male in herd not helpful in efficient detection of animal in heat but also animal come in heat earlier as compare to the animals where male is not kept. For this purpose vasectomies/ teaser bull can also be used.
Yes, it is true that laying hen require special kind of feed for efficient laying. In your case, cause of not laying is not feed but age of bird. Yours birds have not yet reached the laying age. Hens start laying at 20-22 weeks, i.e. at the age of approximately 4.5 to 5 months.
If you have 200 sq. ft area, then the number of birds you can keep depends upon the type of hens you want to rear. Space requirement is 1 sq. ft, per broiler and layer bid respectively. So in this area you can keep 200 broiler and 100 layer birds.
Generally the broiler birds are kept for 6 weeks, in this duration they reach the weight between 1800-2200 grams. If they are kept in suitable environment, taken good care and fed well balanced diet they consume about 4 kg feed to reach 2 kg body weight.
Yes, you can start the work with adult or pregnant animals but it will be better if you start with piglets. This will decrease your initial cost as pregnant animal is sold at very high rates. Further it is easier to rear piglets for beginner than the pregnant animal.
You should always prefer the farm with good background, it is better to get the piglets from government pig centers like Nabha, Khoeowal (Hoshiarpur), Sadda (Gurdaspur), Malwal (Ferozpur), Chajju Majra (Kharar) and Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana.
This unpleasant odor is due to male buck which is kept in the flock. Male has the corneal gland (a sebaceous gland) just behind the horn root. The pheromones secreted form this corneal gland is responsible for this smell. So it is better to keep the male away from the females or these glands should be destroyed during disbudding. This practice will solve the problem of unpleasant odor.
Beetal or Amritsari breed is of Punjab origin and is well adapted to this area, so this is ideal breed for successful goat farming. This is dual purpose breed so can be used for both milk and meat purpose. It is easily available from Amritsar, Ferozpur and Gurdaspur districts of Punjab. Other than this goats can be bought from Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana. It is advised that one should start goat farming with at least 30 to 50 animals.
