Dairy farming in India is one of the most important means of providing livelihood and nutritional security to vast rural population. Though Gujarat is one of the leading states in dairy sector it has inherent constraints of low yielding non-descript cattle population along with scarcity of balanced resources of feed and fodder. No previous attempts had been made to study the attitude of dairy farmers towards rearing of Crossbred cows and relationship analysis between attitude and dairy farmer’s characteristics. So taking these considerations, the present study was conducted on the topic ‘Multivariate Analysis of Attitude of Dairy Farmers towards Rearing Crossbred Cows in Banaskantha District of Gujarat’. Total 120 dairy farmers were selected as respondents by using multistage random sampling from 12 villages, those who were having at least one Crossbred cow. Data were collected by personal interview method using a well structured interview schedule and collected data were analysed using appropriate statistical tools. The personal, socio-economic, communicational and socio-psychological profile of dairy farmers revealed that most of the respondents belonged to age group of 36 to 50 years and educated up to primary school level, had medium family size and low social participation. Majority were in a no training received group, followed by medium level of training received by farmers, have high experience in dairying and medium level of institutional infrastructure accessibility.
Most of farmers were having semi medium land holding, large herd size, high total annual income and majority of respondents were engaged in dairy farming occupation. Total milk production and sale were found at high level. Majority of the respondents were having high mass media exposure and medium extension contact. Most of the respondents were having high economic motivation and medium risk orientation. Majority of the respondents had neutral attitude towards rearing Crossbred cows, followed by favourable and unfavourable attitude. The variables namely education, social participation, training received, institutional infrastructure accessibility, occupation, herd size, milk sale, total annual income, extension contact and economic motivation had shown positive and highly significant relationship with the attitude of dairy farmers. While age showed the negative and significant relationship with attitude of dairy farmers towards rearing Crossbred cows. Repeat breeding problems in Crossbred cows due to faulty A.I. techniques and non availability of expert services to treat repeat breeders were the most important constraint experienced by dairy farmers. The study highlighted the need of organizing more number of training related with Crossbred cows rearing practices and active participation by dairy farmers which would bring a significant change in the attitude of dairy farmers towards Crossbred cows.

Key words: Repeat Breeding; Crossbreeding; A.I.Technique; Attitude; Dairy Farmers.