Welfare Status of Dairy Animals under Field Condition in Muzaffarnagar District of Uttar Pradesh (India).

This study aimed to evaluate the welfare status of dairy animals under field condition of India. The study was conducted in two blocks of Muzzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Two villages from each blocks were purposefully selected for the study. Twenty farmers were selected from each village with a total of eighty farmers and categorized based on their landholding size as marginal (<1 hectare), small (1-2 hectare) and medium (2-10 hectare) and total of 20 welfare indicators were identified and grouped into three components viz., housing and other facilities -A, feeds and feeding practices - B and animal health, performance and behavior- C with a weightage of 30, 30 and 40, respectively. The total score obtained was used to categorize the welfare status of the farms as good (60-80), average (40-60) and poor (<40). In one-way ANOVA, the mean welfare score was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in medium farmers than marginal and small farmers and proportions of farmers under good, average and poor welfare ranking was 12.50, 83.75 and 3.75%, respectively. Whereas, only 12.50% farmers achieved an acceptable welfare level across farmers categories. From this study it can be concluded that dairy animal welfare at most of the dairy farmers under field condition was average and only a few farmers had acceptable level of welfare.