Study was conducted with the objective of assessing the in situ feeding regimen of dairy cattle managed by marginal livestock farmers of R S Pura block of Jammu District. Three well inhabited villages of R S Pura block were selected. In each village, 10 dairy farmers (herd size 2-5 dairy cattle) were randomly selected as respondents for survey and for feed sample collection. Results indicated that cattle farmers are primarily agriculturist of middle age with formal education up to primary level and with land holdings of marginal or small size. Dairy cattle of respondents were mainly 2-5 years in age. Almost two-third of the surveyed animals were non-pregnant multiparous animals. More than half of the surveyed animals were medium milk producers, whereas 27.78% producing more than 10 lts per day. The feeding during post kharif period was green berseem fodder and paddy straw based, supplemented with wheat bran, cotton seed cake and/or commercially available compounded feed. Feeding regimen in post-rabi season is mainly based on maize fodder with paddy straw. Wheat bran, mustard oil cake and compounded feed are the major supplements. No farmer was providing mineral mixture to the livestock; however, all of them

were supplementing diet with salt. It may be concluded that except berseem, there is dearth of leguminous fodder in dairy cattle

diet of surveyed region and therefore conservation of berseem as hay needs to be encouraged to ensure year round availability

and mineral supplementation needs to be increased especially in diets of high milk yielders.