Socio-economic Profile and Adoption of Recommended Milking Practices among Small Dairy Farmers of Meenangadi Gram Panchayat of Wayanad District of Kerala

The study was conducted in Meenangadi panchayat of Wayanad, Kerala. Agriculture was primary occupation for majority of the respondents (44 percent). 38 percentage of the respondents were utilising the facilities provided by the animal husbandry department of the state. According to the perception of 72 percent of the respondents, the most important constraint in dairy farming was the non-availability of fodder followed by responses that indicated the next deterrent to be the high cost of cattle feed (60 percent). A total of fourteen clean milking practices were analysed and adoption of milking practices were calculated by using adoption index. Majority of the respondents were found to be medium adopters.