© The Author(s). 2023 Open Access This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License. RESEARCH ARTICLE to constitute a total of 320 respondents for present study. While selecting respondents due care was taken to ensure that they were evenly distributed and truly owning Gir in the area. The selected Gir cattle owners were interviewed with the help of pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaires desired information regarding feeding aspects was collected. The data obtained were tabulated and analysed by standard I NTRODUCTION D ue to the wide network of the cooperative dairy system on Anand pattern, Gujarat has achieved a leading position in milk production and marketing in India and is known as the “Milk bowl of India”. The total livestock population in Gujarat is 26.89 million including 9.63 million cattle and 10.54 million buffaloes. The total milk production of Gujarat is 14.4 million tonnes with per capita availability of milk 595 g/day (Anonymous, 2020). Gir is an excellent dairy cattle breed of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat for its heat tolerance, production ability and resistance to various tropical diseases. Feeding is one of the most important aspects in animal husbandry. By adopting improved feeding practices, the farmers can reduce the cost of feed without losing milk production and with better utilization of nutrients. Delayed sexual maturity, poor growth and lower productivity can be caused due to underfeeding in dairy animals (Sabapara et al., 2010, Dodiya et al., 2023). Very meager information on Gir cattle management is available in its breeding tract. Thus, the aim of the present investigation was to ascertain the feeding management practices followed by Gir cattle owners in Junagadh district of Gujarat. M ATERIALS AND M ETHODS A field survey was conducted in Junagadh district of Gujarat (India) during January to April, 2022. Out of nine talukas in the Junagadh district, four talukas were randomly selected. From each selected taluka, eight villages were selected at random. Ten Gir cattle owners from each village were randomly selected using a multi-stage random sampling technique 1 Department of Livestock Production Management, College of Veterinary Science and A.H., Kamdhenu University, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, India 2 Department of Livestock Farm Complex, College of Veterinary Science and A.H., Kamdhenu University, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, India, 3 Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science and A.H., Kamdhenu University, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, India 4 Department of Animal Genetics & Breeding, College of Veterinary Science and A.H., Kamdhenu University, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, India Corresponding Author: Sahil M. Kasondra, Department of Livestock Production Management, College of Veterinary Science and A.H., Kamdhenu University, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, India, e-mail: sahilkasundra45@gmail.com How to cite this article: Kasondra, S. M., Sabapara, G. P., Dodiya, V. A., Savsani, H. H., Odedra, M. D., & Ahlawat, A. R. (2023). Feeding Management Practices of Gir Cattle followed in Gujarat, India. Ind J Vet Sci and Biotech. 19(2), 40-46. Source of support: Nil Conflict of interest: None Submitted: 18/11/2022 Accepted: 12/12/2022 Published: 10/03/2023 Feeding Management Practices of Gir Cattle followed in Gujarat, India Sahil M. Kasondra 1 *, Ghanshyam P. Sabapara 2 , Vivek A. Dodiya 1 , Harish H. Savsani 3 , Mulraj D. Odedra 1 , Anshu R. Ahlawat 4 A BSTRACT The present study was undertaken to collect information on feeding management practices of Gir cattle at Junagadh district and data were ascertained from randomly selected 320 Gir cattle owners through personal interview with the help of pre-tested structured schedule from four randomly selected talukas of Junagadh district, Gujarat. Majority of Gir cattle owners (86.88%) followed stall feeding system and most of them (93.44%) cultivated green fodder crops for feeding of Gir cattle. Majority (81.56%) of the respondents fed green and dry fodder as such. Groundnut gotar was the major ingredient (71.87%) used as dry fodder, 84.06 % respondents provided compound cattle feed as concentrate to their milking animals. Only 8.12 % of the Gir cattle owners followed scientific feeding of concentrates. Majority of the respondents fed concentrates to their young calves (80.94%) and heifers (87.5%) after soaking (62.81%) in water. 17.5 % of the respondents supplemented mineral mixture to their Gir cattle. Key words: Feeding, Gir cattle, Management, Practices, Rural areas. Ind J Vet Sci and Biotech (2023): 10.48165/ijvsbt.19.2.08