Factors related to small scale cattle fattening in rural areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to investigate the systems of management in small scale cattle fattening programs. The data were collected through an interview schedule from 215 respondents of 24 districts in 52 upazilla who were involved in small scale cattle fattening. In this study out of 215 respondents 70.4% were farmers, 11.7% businessman, 9.18% physicians, 2.04% doctors had own land and 8.8% respondents had no own land. About 40.9% respondents selected cattle on the basis of age and 14, 25.6 and 16.7% respondents selected on the basis of breed, age and sex, respectively. Most of the respondents (79.1%) fattened cattle for 3-6 months and rest fattened for a prolonged period. About 90.2% respondents used own capital for cattle fattening and 2.3, 4.2 and 3.3% respondents took bank loan, NGO loan and lending for cattle fattening, respectively. About 31.6% respondents provided existing traditional cattle shed. About 79.5% did not have any training on cattle fattening whereas about 20.5% respondents had taken short training on cattle fattening. About 63.7% respondents used cattle fattening tablets, 27% respondents used urea molasses straw (UMS) and 51% followed conventional feeding. About 72.6% vaccinate the cattle by themselves and about 76.3% took help from veterinary surgeon for treatment of their cattle. About 45% reported shortages of animal feed, 50% reported lack of credit and 95% reported high cost of feed as the major problems of small scale cattle fattening. The results of this study will be useful for farmers and researchers to identify the overall problems and their remedies on feeding, management and marketing related to small scale cattle fattening practices in Bangladesh. Key words: Cattle fattening; Factors; Beef production; Bangladesh DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjas.v39i1-2.9684 Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2010, 39(1&2): 116-124