Organizing Milk Competition in Dairy Animals: Experience of a Milk Competition at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Animal shows have been extremely important segments of breed development efforts throughout history. The University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan, has been organizing farmerʹs shows for the last two years and intends to continue it as a regular event for augmenting the teaching and extension activities of various disciplines of agriculture. Milk competitions are very important components of such shows as these attract thousands of people and help students and teachers interact with the farmers and other stakeholders.Milk competitions are held among dairy animals, mainly in cattle and buffaloes, throughout the country. Different organizations and farmer groups regularly organize milk competitions. Methodology of holding milk competitions is different in different locations. The purpose of these competitions is to recognize the best animals of a breed and to arouse the sense of keeping high producing animals among the masses. These competitions also provide an opportunity to appraise the maximum genetic potential of the animals in terms of their milk production. This also provides an opportunity for the livestock farmers to interact and share their experience with each other in the field of livestock production. However, guidelines for conducting such events vary under different socio-cultural conditions and are rarely described in papers. This paper describes different technical and managemental aspects of organizing buffalo milk competitions at the University of Agriculture of Faisalabad, Pakistan, from March 27-31, 2009