Registers to be maintained in a dairy farm




Importance of record keeping
• The complicated job of management of a dairy herd requires sound planning for synchronization of all the inputs and all the factors that are chain linked to each other.
• It requires day to day planning, coordination, execution and evaluation, keeping in mind, the ultimate objective.
• This is possible only when the manager has all the facts pertaining to the stock before him. Such facts can be obtained from production and reproduction records.

On-herd uses of records
• Each animal in the herd is identified with respect to their production performance.
• Close management and appropriate feeding levels can be provided on the basis of production level.
• Efficiency of culling and selection has been increased which in turn will increase the profit rate.
• Relative influence of feeding, management and breeding can be assessed on production performance.
• Livestock marketing can be promoted on the basis of performance records.

Off-herd uses of records
• Comparison of herd performance between and within breeds is possible.
• Superior stock can be identified for extensive use in breeding programmes.
• Herd and breed registration programmes can be implemented more effectively.
• Realistic research, development planning and plan implementation are possible.
• It should help the dairy manager / farmer to produce more quantity of milk at lower cost.
• It should provide required data to the administrators (for planning), research organizations (for processing and analyzing the enterprise scientifically), breeders (for formulating selection and breeding programmes) and extension personnel (for getting feedback information from the farmers).