67 Present addresses: 1 Senior Scientist (Animal Nutrition) (pknaikicar@gmail.com); 2 Manager, Goa Dairy (rbdhuri @rediffmail.com); 3,5 Senior Scientist (bkswainicargoa @rediffmail.com, eknchakurkar@yahoo.com); 4 Scientist (drmkarunakaran@gmail.com); 6 Director (narendraprataps @yahoo.co.in). The traditional feeding practices are mostly based on well established scientific rationality, and refinement of existing traditional feeding practices of locally available feeds and fodder is expected to support sustainable dairy farming in the country. In Goa, although dairy farming is an integral part of the livelihood of the people, it is facing major challenges due to shortage of feeds and fodder (Naik et al. 2012). Therefore, the present study was envisaged to highlight the feeding practices of the dairy animals and to analyze the various constraints of the dairy farming so that necessary scientific interventions can be made to improve the productive and reproductive performance of the animals. MATERIALS AND METHODS Farmers (66) were selected randomly from different talukas of Goa, who were rearing around dairy animals (1170). A comprehensive questionnaire was prepared and information was collected through personal visit to the dairy farmers during August 2010 to February 2011. The socio- economic status of the farmers was assessed by number of milch animals possessed and land holding size. Based on Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 83 (3): 299–303, March 2013/Article Analysis of existing dairy farming in Goa P K NAIK 1 , R B DHURI 2 , B K SWAIN 3 , M KARUNAKARAN 4 , E B CHAKURKAR 5 and N P SINGH 6 ICAR Research Complex for Goa, Old Goa, Goa 403 402 India Received: 5 May 2012; Accepted: 10 September 2012 ABSTRACT A study was envisaged to highlight the existing dairy farming practices and to analyze the constraints of the dairy farming in Goa. A total of 66 farmers were selected randomly from different talukas of Goa, which covered around 1,170 dairy animals. Only 8% farmers had dairying as the primary occupation and majority (74%) of the farmers had agriculture or horticulture as the primary occupation. Based on the number of milch animals 51.5, 27.3, 16.7 and 4.5, per cent farmers were marginal, small, medium and large, respectively. The wet average and herd average were 7.62 kg/ day and 5.79 kg/day. Among the ingredients of the home-made concentrate feeds, ground maize and cotton seed cake were most preferred. Majority of the dairy farmers were using naturally grown karad grasses only during rainy season. Among the un-conventional feeds, spent brewers’ grains were mostly used. It can be concluded that there is need of awareness programmes on scientific feeding practices and interventions are needed in the traditional feeding practices of the dairy animals to make the dairy farming a more profitable venture. Key words: Animals, Dairy, Farmers, Feed, Livestock, Nutritive, Practices the number of milch animals, viz. less than 5, 5 to 10, 10 to 20 and 20 or above, the farmers were divided as marginal, small, medium and large dairy farmers, respectively (Mudgal et al. 2003). However, the farmers were also grouped as marginal, small, medium and large farmers based on the land holding size, viz. 0.01–1.00 ha, 1.01–2.00 ha, 2.01–4.00 ha and more than 4.00 ha, respectively (Vidyarthi et al. 2009). The wet average of the dairy herd was calculated as total milk production divided by the total number of milking animals; while the herd average of the dairy herd was calculated as total milk production divided by the total number of milking plus dry animals. During the visits, feed samples were collected and analyzed for proximate principles (AOAC 2000). The data were analyzed statistically to draw the inferences (Snedecor and Cochran 1994). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Status of dairy farmers: The occupational pattern of the dairy farmers revealed that only 8% farmers had dairying as the primary occupation (Table 1). Majority of the farmers Table 1. Primary occupation of dairy farmers of Goa Occupational pattern Percentage Agriculture and/or horticulture + dairying 74 Business or service + dairying 18 Dairying 08