Abstract
The study was carried out to characterize Ethiopian smallholder farmers’ practice and indigenous knowledge on bull station service and adoption of different mating systems. A total of 62 respondents were selected from the smallholder dairy farming communities representing three districts in the Oromia region. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select sampling areas and respondents. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect qualitative and quantitative data using person to person interview. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical procedures of SPSS. According to the findings of the study, Ethiopian smallholder dairy farmers are using both bull service and artificial insemination for dairy cattle breeding. The bulls used for mating are either those bulls kept for communal use at bull stations or bulls belong to individual farmers. The sources of all those bulls were research centers (15.5%), NGOs (37.5%), cooperatives (7.8%), born and grown at farmers’ own farms (10%) and other sources (29.2%). About 79% of the interviewed respondents were participants of bull station service and above 63% of them started to participate in less than a decade ago. In bull station, one bull did serve 3 to 30 females per week. In addition to the bull service, considerable numbers of farmers were using artificial insemination. The study revealed that both natural mating and artificial insemination methods are acceptable as appropriate mating systems and have their own advantage and disadvantages. So, bull service can be further adopted as an option for improving dairy production and productivity at smallholder farmers’ level particularly in areas where there is limited access for an efficient AI service. The study provided valuable information that can support the importance of using bull station services and adopt different mating systems to improve dairy cattle production and productivity in smallholder dairy farming systems in Ethiopia.
Highlights
Ethiopia is one of the sub-Saharan African countries rich in cattle population with latest estimated figure of 60.39 million heads, of which 98.24% are indigenous cattle, 1.54% crosses and 0.22% exotic breeds [1]
The studied parameters were focusing on the socio-economic features of the households, source of bulls used for breeding purpose, herd size on breeding bulls, management of bulls on bull station, characterization of bull service delivery system, number and distribution of bull services, farmers’ perception on use of natural mating vs. artificial insemination and bull management related constraints in smallholder dairy farming systems of the selected districts
Our study showed that besides natural mating, artificial insemination is very well accepted by many farmers in Ethiopia
Summary
Ethiopia is one of the sub-Saharan African countries rich in cattle population with latest estimated figure of 60.39 million heads, of which 98.24% are indigenous cattle, 1.54% crosses and 0.22% exotic breeds [1]. As the indigenous cows are low milk producer, the country has been implementing crossbreeding programs to improve milk production and productivity of the animals. Exotic breeds such as Holstein Frisian and Jersey have been intensively used in the country for crossbreeding with local ones. The extension personnel get conventional semen of those exotic breeds either from local producing center like the National Artificial Insemination Center (NAIC) and/or from private suppliers like Addis Livestock Production and Productivity Improvement Service PLC (ALPPIS) which import conventional and sexed semen from the World Wide Sires Company in USA. The bulls used for natural mating are either those bulls kept for communal use at bull stations or individually owned farmers’ bulls kept at farmers’ own dairy farms
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