PRESENT SCENARIO OF LIVESTOCK BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE NORTHERN PART OF BANGLADESH

Background: Bangladesh has a rich heritage of livestock rearing. The management and breeding practices differ across the country. Objectives: To study the present scenario of breeding and management practices of livestock at northern Teesta river basin based Lalmonirhat district in Bangladesh. Methodology: Total 100 farmers were selected using random sampling technique from 5 upazilas of Lalmonirhat district during July to December, 2022. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0 statistical package. Results: Results showed that most of the farmers (65%) at the northern part of Bangladesh were middle-aged, 41% of them completed secondary education, and their occupation was mainly agriculture (55%). About 37.78% of respondents supplied roadside grass as roughage to their livestock. Maximum number of respondents (60.24%) supplied hand mixed feed as a source of concentrate whereas 39.76% of respondents used commercial feed. 96% of farmers practiced artificial insemination to inseminate their cows and heifers while in goat nearly all respondent farmers (98.41%) practiced natural mating. Among the breeding companies, 41.41% farmers preferred semen from the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), followed by Advanced Chemical Industries (ACI) (30.30%), Government (Department of Livestock Services (DLS) (22.22%), and others (6.07%). About 41.76% respondents used 50% Sahiwal - 50% local genotype bull to breed the cows whereas 23.08% respondents used 100% Sahiwal, 18.68% used 75% Holstein Friesian-25% local, 5.49% used 100% Holstein Friesian, 3.30% used 50% Holstein Friesian-50% Local and only 3.30% used 87.5% Holstein Friesian-12.5% Local genotype bull semen, respectively. On the other hand, most of the farmers (98.41%) chosen Black Bengal breeding buck during breeding and remaining used crossbred (Black Bengal Goat- Jamunapari) to breed their does. The actual price of bull semen from Govt. (DLS) was 30 Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) on average for all the breeds whereas, the price ranged 110-200 BDT depending on cattle breeds and bull/bucks Identification (ID) in different private enterprises. Farmers had to pay on an average 181.18 BDT for DLS originated semen in addition to that BRAC Artificial Insemination (AI) workers took an average of 425.61 BDT from farmers to inseminate their cows. The average milk yield/d was 1.82±0.14, 3.35±0.40, and 2.74±0.27 liters for local, HF crossbred and Sahiwal crossbred respectively in that region. The prevalence of repeat breeding incidences was 13.74%, 14.21%, and 15.17%, for Local, Sahiwal crossbred, and Holstein Friesian crossbred genotypes respectively. The highest incidence of disease was found as Lumpy Skin Disease (14.67%) followed by Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) (11.98%) and other parasitic and metabolic diseases. In the study area, it was found that maximum number of the respondents (95%) faced excessive feed price problem along with some other problems. Implications: Government intervention is necessary to improve the situation of livestock production in the country. Conclusion: This study showed the overall scenario of livestock production, breeding, and management in the northern part of Bangladesh which could be helpful for the govt., Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and policymakers to take realistic steps for the improvement of livestock production in the northern part of Bangladesh.