QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF MINERAL MIXTURE SUPPLEMENTS FOR DAIRY ANIMALS IN SONEPAT DISTRICT (HARYANA)

Balanced nutrition is very essential for keeping animal body in good condition and to maintain their optimum production. Similarly trace minerals also play critical roles in the proper functioning of body enzymes, hormones and cells. Asfeed and fodder fed to the dairy animals do not provide all the minerals in the required quantity, supplementation with adequate amount of good quality mineral mixture in their ration is always needed to fulfil their daily need, even level of minerals in feed and fodder varies from region to region, thus mineral availability to the animal also varies. It is necessary to provide region specific mineral mixture accordingly. Requirement for minerals is influenced by several factors including age, stage of pregnancy and stage of lactation. Mineral deficiency may lead to infertility in cattle which accounts for major economic losses in dairy farming.In India feed and mineral manufacturing is largely an unregulated industry, no standard specification guidelines are followed to scientifically prepare good quality mineral mixtures which may provide the optimal nutrition to dairy animals. Keeping in view of this fact, the present study is envisaged to evaluate the concentration of macro and micro mineral quantitatively on various branded products being fed to the livestock in different regions of Sonepat district of Haryana.