This study aimed to identify current challenges in farm management and cattle breeding practices on cattle farms located in the Selim district of Kars province. For this purpose, a face-to-face survey was conducted with 350 cattle farm owners randomly selected from among 3925 farms in the district. Study results showed that the milking was performed by mobile milking machines in 52.3% of the cattle farms in the district. Furthermore, the majority of the farmers (60.2%) cleaned the milking machines after each milking., while 29.6% of the enterprises were determined to perform machine cleaning once a day. It was found that pre-milking udder cleaning is not performed in 15.0% of the enterprises, while 85.0% of the respondents stated that they perform udder cleaning before milking. Moreover, the vast majority of enterprises in the district (98.3%) stored the milk in plastic containers. It was also found that calvings in enterprises were mostly in winter (70.6%), followed by spring (14.6%) and autumn (13.7%), and the rate of enterprises keeping records of animals was 18.9%. This study found that 45.7% of enterprises dried off their cows three months before calving, 39.1% dried off them two months before calving. The most common diseases in dairy farms in the district are toe and nail problems (33.3%), dystocia (25.9%), mastitis (14.6%), diarrhea (4.6%) and coughing (0.6%). According to the research findings, in order to ensure hygienic milk production in the district, it is necessary to increase the number of communal cooling tanks in villages, promote the use of machine milking, conduct more frequent checks of dairy cows for mastitis, and have local units of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry play a more active role in addressing the deficiencies observed in farm management practices.
Animal Health Cattle enterprises Farm management Selim District Udder cleaning
This study aimed to identify current challenges in farm management and cattle breeding practices on cattle farms located in the Selim district of Kars province. For this purpose, a face-to-face survey was conducted with 350 cattle farm owners randomly selected from among 3925 farms in the district. Study results showed that the milking was performed by mobile milking machines in 52.3% of the cattle farms in the district. Furthermore, the majority of the farmers (60.2%) cleaned the milking machines after each milking., while 29.6% of the enterprises were determined to perform machine cleaning once a day. It was found that pre-milking udder cleaning is not performed in 15.0% of the enterprises, while 85.0% of the respondents stated that they perform udder cleaning before milking. Moreover, the vast majority of enterprises in the district (98.3%) stored the milk in plastic containers. It was also found that calvings in enterprises were mostly in winter (70.6%), followed by spring (14.6%) and autumn (13.7%), and the rate of enterprises keeping records of animals was 18.9%. This study found that 45.7% of enterprises dried off their cows three months before calving, 39.1% dried off them two months before calving. The most common diseases in dairy farms in the district are toe and nail problems (33.3%), dystocia (25.9%), mastitis (14.6%), diarrhea (4.6%) and coughing (0.6%). According to the research findings, in order to ensure hygienic milk production in the district, it is necessary to increase the number of communal cooling tanks in villages, promote the use of machine milking, conduct more frequent checks of dairy cows for mastitis, and have local units of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry play a more active role in addressing the deficiencies observed in farm management practices.
Animal Health Cattle enterprises Farm management Selim District Udder cleaning
| Birincil Dil | İngilizce |
|---|---|
| Konular | Büyükbaş Hayvan Yetiştirme ve Islahı |
| Bölüm | Araştırma Makalesi |
| Yazarlar | |
| Gönderilme Tarihi | 18 Ağustos 2025 |
| Kabul Tarihi | 2 Ekim 2025 |
| Yayımlanma Tarihi | 25 Aralık 2025 |
| Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2025 Cilt: 14 Sayı: 2 |