This study was conducted to evaluate health care and management practices for calves less than or equal to 12 months of age in smallholder production system. Data was collected using household survey technique in Lodhran district, Punjab, Pakistan. 14 villages were selected using stratified proportionate random sampling method and 10 calf keeping households from each village were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Calves were not allowed to free range therefore all farmers practiced stall feeding. Housing facilities were of poor quality in half of farms (50.7 percent). Farmers were not using modern technologies of milk replacer, urea treated wheat straw and urea molasses blocks. All farmers offered colostrum however timings of offering differed. 75.7 percent farmers performed navel cord cutting and disinfection. All farmers offered treatment but majority (87.1 percent) practiced self-medication first. Vaccination rate was good at 94.3 percent. Almost all farmers performed drenching and dipping on their calves but there were vast differences in when and on what conditions they will be performed. Calf mortality rate for the last 12 months was 18.78 percent. Weaning age was high from modern calf rearing perspective. These findings suggest that there have been marked improvements in some parameters but farmers are still following traditional methods and practices of calf rearing due to severe lack of training related to calf rearing. There is a need for improvement in various aspects related to calf rearing including feed, housing, weaning and training.

Lactation curve and persistency of the lactation are the important parameters to study the sustainability of the lactation. The present study is based on daily milk production records for 298 lactations (maximum four lactations per animal) from 130 buffaloes belonging to 15 sires. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) programme was used to prepare the lactation curve. Two most widely applied functions to study the lactation curve in Indian buffaloes i.e. gamma and inverse polynomial functions, were fitted to the daily milk yield records of the animals under study. Persistency was studied by carrying out simple analysis through Microsoft Excel 2000 on the weekly milk yield records of the animals. Gamma function was found to be more effective with higher R sup(2) value for all the four lactations to prepare the lactation curve as compared to inverse polynomial function. The value of persistency was found to be ranging from 97.94 percent to 98.56 percent for the fourth lactation to the first lactation, respectively. So it was concluded that gamma function can be effectively used to establish lactation curve and predict milk yield of animals on any day of lactation and Surti buffaloes as fairly persistent in milk production throughout the lactations.