Assessment of Husbandry practices, Production and Reproductive Performance of Indigenous Cattle in Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Abstract

The study was conducted in Soro and Misha districts of Hadiya zone Southern Ethiopia, to describe the husbandry practices, to assess production and reproductive performance of indigenous cattle breeds. Data collections were carried out by using observation, semistructured questionnaire, and focused group discussion and also from secondary data sources. A total of 240 households (120 from each district) were selected by using systematic sampling method for questionnaire interview. The collected data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20), and the values were compared at the significance level P<0.05. The study reported that the main purpose of keeping indigenous cattle in both districts were milk production, saving as live bank, draught power, income generation, for meat, manure and ceremonies. The selection criteria used by farmers for selecting male and female cattle were by using mainly associated with production and reproduction parameters. The main feed resources of cattle in dry season were crop residues, communal grazing, maize strover, Enset, Atela and wheat bran. Natural uncontrolled mating system was the main breeding system in the study areas. The average daily milk yield and length of calving interval showed significant variation (p<0.05) between the two studied locations. The major cattle production constraints in the study area were feed shortage, shrinkage of grazing land, lack of capital, shortage of improved breeds, and low productivity of indigenous cattle, lack of improved forages and disease and parasites. The reported major prevalent cattle disease identified were bovine pasteurollosis, foot and mouth disease, diarrhea, sudden death and blackleg. The current study result indicated that cattle production and reproductive performance in the current environmental condition are comparable with other indigenous breed. Therefore, it could be concluded that, management improvement and designing appropriate breed improvement programmes such as participation of the community are critical to improve the breed..