08 Livestock Management

8.
LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT
In India Agriculture means for the sustenance of the family and the
local community together with the services of blacksmith,
carpenter, washerman , tailor, cobbler, and livestock etc.
Man’s agricultural life is incomplete without the role of domestic

animals like cows and buffaloes, bullocks, sheep and goat, poultry,
ducks and other birds, asses, horses¸ camels, etc., swine, rabbits
and the like to fulfill his everyday needs like:
• Milk and milk products
• Protein-full foods from animals
• Very good manure to grow his crops
• Draught power for his agricultural activities
• Many utilitarian products like, blankets (kumbals-made of sheep
wool) and several other items made from the skins of dead
animals.
In the rural agriculture, the most commonly employed farm power

apart from manual labour, invariably comes from Cattle which
distinctly stand out from other farm animals. Efficient use of these
animals in turn depends on their feeding, maintenance of their
health and fitness and training them to adopt to different kinds of
work has a definite say in successful agriculture.
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Similar explanation hold good for milch animals and the animals
that would provide us various other protein-full foods, which calls
for appropriate management of these livestock to get the best out
of them in different utilitarian directions. Ergo, it calls for a very
good management efficiency on the part of the farmers in order to
achieve the desired goal.
In this perspective, the Indian farmers over time, out of his fruitful
journey along with his animals to establish a meaningful
relationship with them in their efficient management, has come out
with various indigenous findings which are really amazing and
makes even a sophisticated modern technician raise his eyebrows
on getting to know his unparallel efficiency in managing his
livestock. Listed hereunder are very few of them to which many
more can be added by Farmer-Scientists in the field:
It is strongly believed in Ancient Indian Agriculture that without

“Gomuthram” (Cow urine), agriculture has no meaning at all. It
is not a blind faith, but Indian farmer’s well-knit experience that the
depleted soil due to continuous cropping for his livelihood gets
replenished by addition of cattle urine and dung in the proper
manner.
2
1. Feeding green bamboo leaves for release of placenta
In course of giving birth to a calf, sometimes, a cow does not
release placenta immediately. It causes many complications.
Feeding 4-5 Kg of green leaves of bamboo in its raw form to the
cow, it is found that placenta comes out just after half an hour of
bamboo feeding.
Chapter 8
Pic 01
2. Control of intestinal worms in calves

Dried ginger 50 gm and tender leaves of guava (Psodium guajava)
500gm, are to be macerated together and made into balls and
administered to 5 or 6 calves at a time. This will be very effective
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for yellow colour diarrhea in the young calves caused due to
intestinal worms. This can be repeated depending upon the severity
of disease.
3. Tick/ Mites control in Cows:

One kg of Albizia leaves (Albizia amara) and half-kilo neem leaves
(Azadirachta indica) leaves are to be grinded well. It should be
mixed with 2 kg of tank silt or soil from ant hills and made into a
slurry after pouring with adequate quantity of water. This slurry has
to be smeared all over the body of the animal. Then the animal can
4
be allowed to stand in sunlight for few hours, followed by bathing
the animal. This practice has to be repeated once after a week. This
will increase the lustre of skin, and driving away the sucking pets
from its body.
5
4. Refusal to feed / Fever / Giddiness / Cough In Cattle:
Take an earthen part and fill with Charcoal fuel upto its quarter
portion. To this add a few barks of matured neem tree, seed husks
of neem (10 gm), and tender leaves at 25 gm each of Pongamia,
Cardiospermum and Leucas aspera. To facilitate fumigation apply a
pinch of Sambrani (Incense powder). The animal is made to inhale
these fumes till sweating is noticed in its nostril region. During this
treatment the animal has to be fed with 250 gm of coriander leaves
and 500 gm of rhizomes of radish twice a day.
6
5. Preventive herbal healing against Foot and Mouth
disease:
a. Daily cleaning of foot and mouth portions of the animal with
hot water (boiled with a pinch of common salt and bark of
neem tree).
b. Administer leaf juice extract of Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) for
oral intake. About ½ kg of tulsi leaves residue may be used
for smearing the foot and mouth portions of the cattle. This
quantity is sufficient for 4 animals. This should be done once
daily for a period of 3 days continuously.
7
6. Mastitis in cattle:
Handful of Henna leaves (Lawsonia inermis) and Albizia (Albizia
amare) are grinded well and boiled. To this add lemon juice from
one fruit; with a pinch of powdered camphor. Apply this over the
udder and teats for 3 days.
As a preventive measure, 100-200 ml of lime water are to be

administrated twice a week. Limewater can be prepared by putting
2 kg of lime stones (Calcium carbonate) in 5 liters of water. The
supernatent layer of water at 100 to 200 ml has to be (free from
sedimentation) mixed with drinking water and fed to the animal.
7. Infertility in Milch Animals:

a) Administer two succulent leaves of Aloe vera in empty
stomach orally for the first three days. Subsequently feed
with one kg of sprouted Bajra (Pennisetum americanum)
grains, which has to continued for six days. On the seventh
day the cow exhibits the symptoms of heat. Before taking
the animal for natural crossing, administer 200 ml of neem
oil orally.
8
b) The same result can be
expected by feeding the
animal with 5 kg of brinjal
with 1 kg of curry leaves.
8. Urinary blockage
When animals suffer from kidney stones, it causes acute pain and
inflammation of the urinary tract. This leads to blockage of the
urinary passage. By feeding fruits of bitter apple (Citrullus
colocynthis) along with regular feed for three days. This has to be
administered twice a day (morning and evening), which clears the
blockage.
9. Stomach Ache In Animals

If an animal suffers from stomach ache or gastric trouble or refuses
to feed, then administer with 50 to 100 g of Asafoetida plus 250g of
garlic and 100g of charcoal ground to a paste with water. This
treatment relieves the animal from constipation.
*****

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8.

Man’s agricultural life is incomplete without the role of domestic

In the rural agriculture, the most commonly employed farm power

It is strongly believed in Ancient Indian Agriculture that without

2. Control of intestinal worms in calves

3. Tick/ Mites control in Cows:

As a preventive measure, 100-200 ml of lime water are to be

7. Infertility in Milch Animals:

9. Stomach Ache In Animals

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