FACTOR AFFECTING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF DAIRY CATTLE HEALTH CARE OF FARMERS IN CHIANG MAI PROVINCE

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to investigate the factors affecting knowledge and understanding of dairy cattle health care, the problems and the needs of the dairy farmers in Chiang Mai Province. The individuals analyzed were 322 dairy farmers in Chiang Mai Province or 38.5 percent of the total selected by the Simple Random Sampling method. The data were collected by interviewing according to a recommended questionaire. The findings indicated that the average number of herds of cattle was 5.7. Average milk yield was 20.38 litre per day and average gross income in 1988 was 52,455.02 Baht/farm while the average expenditure was 24,210.28 Baht. About vaccination and deworm programme, most of the cattle were vaccinated and dewormed according to recommended programme. Brucellosis, mastitis and tuberculosis were cheked annually. Testing of knowledge and understanding of dairy cattle health care, it was found that the dairy farmers got an average mark of the knowledge and understanding of dairy cattle health care of 14.1 from the corrected answer of 30 marks. The most important problem of the dairy famers was about the concentrate for the cattle and the need was to decrease the price of the concentrate.