Dairy Cattle Husbandry Practices and Coping Strategies Against Feed Scarcity in Buno Bedele Zone, South Western Ethiopia

Amanuel Bekuma,Yohanis Addisu

doi:10.11648/j.sr.20210902.11

Abstract

The study was aimed with to study dairy cattle husbandry practices and coping strategies against feed scarcity in selected districts of Buno Bedele zone, south western Ethiopia. Both purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select kebeles and household respondents. For this study, a total of 384 households were used for an interview. Of the total land size occupied by the respondents, higher proportions (5.07±2.739) were used for communal grazing land followed by land for cereal production (2.86±1.495); land for coffee (1.02±0.965) and land for forest land (0.85±0.585). As the current result indicated majority (42.9%) of the households were used communal natural pasture as the main feed source, especially during the wet seasons; and road and river side and aftermath grazing (15.6%) were also used as feed resource in the study areas. As compared with tethering during wet grazing (27.8%), free grazing (72.12%) remains the major and dominant feeding system practiced in the study areas. In the study area grain leftover (27.6%) were the major supplementary feeds followed by and mill by products (20.3%) and house wastes, <i>atela</i> and common salt (19.01%). River (72.13%), pip water (22.1%) and deep water (5.73%) were the major drinking water in the study areas. Of the total respondents, majority (72.65%) of them housed their dairy cows in open kraal followed by adjoin house (22.92%). As the current study indicated <i>Trypanosomiasis</i>, Mastitis, Foot and mouth disease (FMD) were the commonly occurred diseases of dairy cattle reported by 23.44%, 19.8% and 17.7%, respectively. Changing feed recourse based on availability and cost (26.3%), rent land and grows fodder (23.7%) and reducing herd size (21.4%) were the available copying strategy against feed scarcity, respectively in the study areas.

Highlights

Ethiopia is one of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa with the largest livestock population, and is ranked 5th on the world
Science Research 2021; 9(2): 21-26 agricultural practices, proximity to the urban center and market-oriented, dairy cattle production systems were characterized into mixed-crop dairy production (78.5%), urban and peri-urban dairy production system (13%) and other (8.5%)
Majority of the respondents were practicing mixed-crop dairy production due to the fact that livestock and crops are maintained as complementary enterprises

Summary

Introduction

Ethiopia is one of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa with the largest livestock population, and is ranked 5th on the world. The total cattle population of the country is estimated to be 61.59 million CSA [1], of which 6,690,662 were dairy cows. The country holds large potential for dairy development due to its large livestock population; the favorable climate for improved crossbred cows, the relatively disease-free environment, better market opportunity and proximity to international markets. As an engine of growth, it provides increased income, employment, food and foreign exchange earnings as well as better nutrition. As income increases with economic development, the share of animal products in total food budget increases faster than that of cereals. This occurs because of the relatively high-income elasticity of demand for animal products Dayanandan [2]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion