Vol. 10, Special Issue 8 (2021)

Author(s):
Mukesh Kumar, Sushil Prasad, Ravindra Kumar, NandaniKumari, Soumen Naskar, Pankaj Kumar and Pawan Kumar Verma

Abstract:
Goat farming is a traditional occupation and an integral part of rural India’s symbiotic system of agriculture and livestock production. For Jharkhand, it is a legacy breed due to superior quality meat and skin. Black Bengal goat farming plays an important role in improving the present investigations were carried out on Black Bengal goats maintained at AICRP BAU. Three agro-climatic zones, namely central and Northeastern plateau (IV), Ranchi and Deoghar, were selected. Similarly, from the Western plateau (V), East-Singhbum, and from South Eastern plateau (VI), Lohardhaga were respectively selected for the study. A cluster of four villages each from the four Districts above were taken, namely Chamguru, Palajori, Barabanki, and Tiko. Twenty farmers were each taken from each of the clusters, making a total of eighty farmers. The study was conducted on 80 farmers, 1600 Doe, 2459 kidding and their 4256 kids (male 2223 kids and female 2027 kids) during a period of six years maintained under All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) from 2014 to 2020 on Goat Improvement were observed. The average age at first estrus (days) for different agro-climatic zones and villages were observed to be 237.28±1.28, 238.9±1.25, 240.2±1.2, and 240.18±1.1days for the villages Chamguru, Palajori, Tiko, and Barabanki, respectively. Pooled overall age at first estrus was observed to be 239.14±0.06for all the districts taken together. Age at first estrus (days) was observed to be highest for the village Tiko (240.2±1.2) followed by Barabanki (240.18±1.1), Palajori (238.9±1.25), Chamguru (237.28±1.28), and the effect of the village was significant (P<0.05).