
Animal welfare:Animal welfare is the application of sensible and sensitive animal husbandry practices to the dairy animals on a farm.Good dairy farming practices for nutrition are securing feed and water supplies from sustainable sources ensuring a supply of feed and water of suitable quantity and quality controlling the storage conditions of feed and ensuring the traceability of feedstuffs brought on to the farm. Access to water therefore has a great influence on milk production.

Dairy animals consume large amounts of water for milk production and pregnancy. When supplements are provided, they are either fed to the entire herd or to individual animals. and stall or pen feeding, which requires more labour inputs.
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The feeding methods used by small-scale dairy producers in developing countries are grazing, which requires fairly large areas tethering, which permits full use of roadside verges, areas around cropland, etc. When producers cannot rely on locally available feed resources, the feeding of dairy animals can become more expensive. This challenge is even greater in the tropics because of seasonal fluctuations in the availability of feed – caused by periods without rainfall – and the poor quality of feed. The feeding of livestock is a major challenge in many developing countries. The requirements for feed and nutrients of dairy animals depend on factors such as physiological state, milk production level, age, sex, body condition, body weight, weight gain, health condition, level of activity and exercise, climate and season.

Good dairy farming practices for milking hygiene are ensuring that milking routines do not injure the animals or introduce contaminants into the milk that milking is carried out under hygienic conditions and that milk is handled properly after milking. Irrespective of the milking method (hand or machine), it is crucial to avoid contamination of the milk during and after milking. On medium to large dairy farms, where improved dairy breeds are used, it is more common and convenient to milk animals with milking machines. With modernization, these milking customs are being lost. In many societies, milking is traditionally done by women, but women are prohibited from milking in some pastoral and mixed farming communities.

Where sufficient labour is available, hand-milking allows milk extraction with minimal capital investment, equipment maintenance, and cleaning.
