The determination of the feeding practices of calf, lamb and goat kids in animal holdings in Bozkurt district of denizli province

This hereby study has been conducted in order to outline the animal assets of the calf, lamb and goat breeding business in Bozkurt District of Denizli Province, to show their structural status, to show the social – economic state of the breeders and to indicate their level of knowledge regarding the animal husbandry and in order to bring up suggestions for solutions towards increasing the current level of animal production. The main material of the study is comprised of the enterprises, located in Bozkurt District and its neighborhood. A total of 56 enterprises, including 30 calf, 15 lamb and 11 goat kids, which conduct animal production activities, were visited. The data of the study was compiled from the original data, obtained from the surveys that were conducted through face-to-face meetings. It was determined that 93,33% of the calf producing businesses and the entirety of the lamb and goat business do not use milk substitutes as feed. %86,67 of the calf husbandries as well as the entirety of the lamb and goat husbandries indicated that they wean the animals depending on their age. 56,67 of the calf business feed the roughage to the calf within the first week. It was also found out that %73,33 of the calf husbandries and %93 of the lamb husbandries provide starter feed during the breastfeeding period. %47 of the breeders pointed out that since they consider the traditional feeding methods that they use as correct and true, they do not require new information and knowledge and therefore, they do not employ or use technical experts with vocational knowledge. The businesses predominantly prefer feeding twice a day. As for providing supplements in addition to the feed, 93,33% of the calf business, 86,67% of the lamb businesses and 90,91 of the goat business do not provide supplements. Due to the fact that most of the breeders in our study are primary school graduates, it gets harder to provide comprehensive and technical knowledge in an explanatory manner as training. It was concluded that training and education are inevitable in order to breed correct, profitable and healthy animals. Keywords: Calf, Lamb, Goat kids, Animal Husbandry, Farm