author(s)
Parwaiz Ahmad Dar, Azmat Alam Khan, Tasaduk Khaliq, Anees Ahmad Shah, MT Bandy and HM Khan

abstract
The study was conducted in Kashmir valley in two geographically isolated districts of Anantnag in south Kashmir and Baramulla in north Kashmir. In each district 200 buffalo rearing farmers were selected. The information was collected through personal visit on the basis of a pre-formulated and tested questionnaire. The results revealed that majorities (86.25%) of the farmers were milking their animals within the herd and bucket was used by majority (64.75%) of the respondents followed by dome shaped pail (28.50%) as milking pails. Maximum proportion (84.75%) of respondents used cold water for the cleaning of milking pail while as 68.50 percent of the respondents were not adopting pre milking hygene and not adopting by 31.50 percent and Maximum proportions (76.75%) of the farmers were milking by full hand milking followed by stripping (23.25%). Maximum 95.50 percent of the respondents were milking twice a day and 87.50 percent of farmers replied docile nature of their buffaloes during milking followed by aggressive (7.00%) and restlessness (5.50%), while as majority (62.50%) of farmers were not cleaning the udder of animals followed by cleaning of udder (37.50%). Only 12.75 percent farmers fed concentrate to their animals during milking while as 78.50 percent of the farmers were not washing their animals followed by once in a month (15.75%) and once in a week (5.75%). To let off first two streams of milk were not practiced by maximum proportion of farmers (96.00%), considerable proportions of respondents (53.00%) were allowing the third person during milking followed by third person not allowed during milking (47.00%).