Nutritional status of growing calves in district Kupwara of Kashmir valley.

A field study was conducted in nine villages, three each from Kupwara, Handwara and Karnah tehsils of Kupwara district to find out the nutritional (DM, DCP, TDN) value of feeds and fodders, existing feeding practices and nutritional status of dairy growing calves. For this purpose fifteen farm families from each of nine villages were randomly selected for the study. Data was collected from the selected farmers through a common questionnaire. The average body weight (kg) of calves was 40.91±2.07, 37.76±1.08 and 37.87±1.23kg in Kupwara, Handwara and Karnah tehsils respectively. The daily intake of concentrate (kg) for calves was 0.95±0.15, 0.78±0.08 and 0.27±0.04 in Kupwara, Handwara and Karnah tehsils respectively. The daily intake of roughage for calves were 1.83±0.16, 1.81±0.11and 1.37±0.14 in Kupwara, Handwara and Karnah tehsil respectively. The ration of the surveyed calves was excess in DM by 30.6, 30.0 and 29.4 per cent for the respective tehsils. The daily intake of DCP for calves was deficit by 29.5, 29.6 and 78.4 per cent for the respective tehsils. The daily intake of TDN of calves was 2.70, 14.7 and 11.7 per cent excess than that of their nutrient requirements for the respective tehsils All the farmers were found to add the basal diet with common salt and none of the farmers supplement mineral mixture with the ration of the calves.