IN Northern Areas, livestock is produced under nomadic pastoralist systems. Farmers keep sheep and cattle of local/undescriptive breed and goats of jarakheil breed. In Gilgit tehsil, on an average, each household keeps eight cattle heads; one bull, five cows and two calves. Milch cows yield about 3.10 kg milk per day with a lactation period of 11 and a half-month.

Area farmers openly graze their cattle in meadows and feed grass, Shaftal and thinned maize stalks to cattle during summer and dry fodders (maize and wheat straw and dried Alfalfa) during winter season. However, some farmers also supplement cattle feed with dry breads, cotton seed cakes and choker (grinded wheat).

Farmers face moderate fodder shortage during July-August and feed mulberry leaves, thinned maize plants and weeds hoed from maize cropped for dry fodder. Farmers face severe fodder shortage during winter, one third of them have to purchase dry fodder at rate of Rs170 per 40 kgs.

Traditionally, livestock are fed through un-chopped fodder and straw and stall-feeding is not practiced, which not only result in loss of fodder but also in its contamination.

In view of very small land holdings, livestock grazing is a tradition of the area. Farmers not only graze their livestock in valleys but also shift them since the start of May or later to distant alpine meadows. During summer, almost one-third (31 per cent) of the total cattle population of survey area is shifted to meadows. The farmers do not shift their entire family; only one or two of the family members migrate with livestock. They take with them foodstuff and other necessities sufficient for a period of five to six months. They graze their livestock, manage and treat them too. They collect the milk and convert it into ghee. Some of the farmers send their livestock along other fellow farmers to upper alpine meadows and they pay half of the ghee to them as grazing charges. Most of the area farmers openly graze their cattle for three/four months.

In September, when the temperature gets cooler, then farmers start bringing their livestock to the lower meadows and villages. Livestock are freely grazed in villages till December. That’s why, farmers cultivate wheat and Shaftal very late, from January to March. Livestock are fed wheat straw, maize straw and lucerne (Ishpit) in rooms generally made of stones and mud from January till April.

The farmers who rear both small and large ruminants usually mix their milk to make yogurt, butter, buttermilk and ghee. Milk marketing is an unknown phenomenon in the study area and farmers do not sell milk or its by-products.

However government fixed milk prices in Gilgit tehsil are Rs20 per kg In the beginning of winter (October, November), cattle sale starts due to a local tradition called Nasaloo: animals are slaughtered and meet is dried for consumption during winter. In the survey area cattle sale was reported by 29 percent of the cattle owners last year with average sale price of Rs8800 per animal head.

Most of the cattle herds (92 per cent) suffered from various diseases and 41 per cent of the cattle population suffered from various ailments last year. Insufficient veterinary services hinder the proper and timely treatment of livestock. Farmers usually get the available medicines from local shops and treat the animals according to their experience. When some epidemic disease spread out in meadows, it causes loss of hundreds of animals. The farmers can do nothing due to unavailability of proper veterinary facilities in the remote meadows.

Survey results revealed improper feeding, unhygienic housing conditions, very low vaccination profile and untimely treatment of the diseased livestock as the main causes of high mortality rate in livestock. The livestock dispensaries were non-accessible to all the livestock farmers due to distant location.

However, allopathic treatment of diseased cattle was common in the survey area, being practiced by 62 per cent of the cattle owners. Herbal (desi) method of treatment was practiced by 16 per cent of the respondents and the remaining 22 percent did not treat their diseased cattle.

As far as prevention of endemic diseases is concerned, last year only two per cent of the total cattle population was vaccinated. Cattle mortality rate (8.18 per cent) was very high due to improper feeding, unhygienic housing conditions and untimely treatment of the diseased cattle.

Goat rearing was reported by 87 percent of the respondents. Goat ownership per household ranged from one to one hundred and ninety and on an average, each household kept 22 goats: two he-goats, sixteen she-goats (one milch, one dry and thirteen pregnant) and four calves. Eighty-eight percent farmers reported rearing of local (Jarakheil) breed of goats. While ten per cent of the farmers raise crossbreed and two per cent betel breed. Average milk production per milch goat was 1.01 kgs per day, with a lactation period six months and ten days. Thirty percent of the sample farmers reported goat sale with average sale price of Rs2200 per goat.

The area farmers shear their goats once in a year and made ropes (36 per cent) and rugs (30 per cent) domestically. Annual hair production per goat herd was 11.72 kilogram with a sale price of Rs.40/kg. Sale price of ropes and rugs made from goat hair were Rs100 and Rs1200 respectively.

One half of the farmers surveyed graze their goats locally in valleys but the remaining half also shift their goat herds to distant pastures. During last summer, a majority of farmers (80 per cent) shifted their entire herds and the remaining (20 per cent) some of goats to pastures. Some cases of goat lost two per cent of the shifted) were also reported during herds’ stay in pastures.

Most of the sample farmers (70 per cent) graze goats for three to four months. With free grazing in valleys and meadows, farmers also feed mulberry leaves and Shaftal to goats. They feed them dry tree leaves and dry fodders (dry Alfalfa, maize and wheat straw) during winter. Some farmers also supplement goat’s feed with maize grains and dry breads.

About 40 per cent of the total population of goats in the area suffered from various diseaes last year.

Some of the sample farmers (22 per cent) also raised sheep. Sheep ownership per household ranged from one to 62. On an average, each household kept 14 sheep including two rams, ten sheep and two calves. All the respondents reported rearing desi breed of sheep with average milk production of 0.78 kg/day and a lactation of five months and a week. During last year, eighteen per cent of the respondents reported animal sale with a price of Rs935 per sheep.

The sheep keepers sheer their sheep once in a year. They clean the wool and use it in quilts and also convert into yarn and make ropes, caps and Patu/shaals domestically or sell raw wool to local Patu/Shaal makers. Annual average wool production per sheep herd was 9.57 kgs and wool price was Rs90 per kilogram. The sale prices of rope, cap and shaal were Rs100, Rs225 and Rs1200 respectively.

Although, all farmers openly graze their sheep in valley during summer, most of them (64 per cent also shift them to alpine pastures. A majority of the farmers (70 per cent) shift all and remaining (30 per cent) some of their sheep to pastures. Farmers feed Shaftal and fresh leaves to sheep during summer and dry leaves, maize and wheat straw during winter. In addition, some of them also feed maize grains and dry breads to sheep.

About sixty per cent of the sheep fell ill in the study area last year. Most of the sheep raising farmers allopathically treated their sick sheep and others (36 per cent) did not treat diseased sheep. In the survey area vaccination against the epidemic sheep diseases was not administered and the mortality rate was 3.13 percent.

Besides rearing milch animals, 18 percent of the farmers also kept donkeys for transportation of luggage to the summer pastures and dry fodder/ fuel wood back to their homes. The breed of the donkeys was desi with the average animal price of Rs5000. Farmers openly graze donkeys for about eight and half months and feed wheat straw, maize straw, dry Lucerne, maize grains during winter grass and Shaftal during summer. Forty percent of the farmers reported ailment of donkeys from diseases like constipation, colic and strangles.

Hen rearing was reported by almost all (92 per cent) of the areas farmers with an average flock size of 20. The sale prices of non-laying hen and cock were round about Rs150 and that of egg-laying hen Rs200. Ninety percent of the hen population in area suffered from various diseases. The hen mortality rate was very high (58 per cent), the reason behind this was very low vaccination profile (9 per cent) of the hen flocks.

Most of the surveyed farmers (72 per cent) had education of primary up to martic and higher level and were well aware of the livestock production constraints. They seek vaccination of livestock against epidemic diseases (56 per cent), improved function of local dispensaries (48 per cent), assured medicine availability (48 per cent), artificial insemination (22 per cent) and introduction of improved breeds of livestock in the area (18 per cent).